Appendix A:

College Admission Decision Plans

Decision Plan	Application Due Date	Binding?	Restrictions	Examples
Early Decision I	Generally November 1–15	Yes. Student must attend college if accepted (and offered a financial aid package that is considered adequate by the family)	May apply to only one early decision school	Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, and many of the Little Ivy liberal arts colleges
Early Decision II	Generally January 1–15	Yes	May apply to only one early decision school	Many of the top liberal arts colleges and some of the top-ranked national universities
Single-Choice Early Action	Generally November 1–15	Nonbinding	Limitations on where else you can apply. Generally cannot apply to other private US universities under their Early Action programs	Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford
Early Action	Generally November 1–15	Nonbinding. Student is notified of decision early	No limitation on applying to other schools (unless applying early to colleges with restrictions)	Selective state and some private universities
Regular Decision	Generally January 1	Nonbinding	None	Nearly every college (besides those with rolling decision)
Rolling Decision	Typically late summer until seats are filled	Nonbinding	Can apply and receive decision on a rolling basis	Many of the large state universities