With October here, temperatures are dying down and the college application process is just heating up! Many high school seniors are contemplating making an Early Decision (ED) application to their first choice college, a binding admission process through which the student guarantees a college that, if accepted, they will attend and withdraw all outstanding applications to other schools.
ED has its benefits. An early acceptance to a first choice college can minimize the stress that senior year brings and reduce the time and money spent applying to multiple schools. In addition, colleges hoping to increase their yield may accept a larger percentage of ED applicants, who offer guaranteed enrollment, than Regular Decision (RD) applicants, who may turn the offer down to attend a different school.