The University of Chicago is one of several selective schools that continue to offer applicants the option of applying under an Early Action deadline. Other schools with non-binding Early Action programs are Yale, Stanford, and MIT.
Under Chicago’s non-binding Early Action program, students who apply by November 1 receive an admissions decision by mid-December and a preliminary financial aid assessment in early January.
Non-binding EA programs benefit high school students with a strong interest in attending a particular school. They give students the opportunity to complete the college application process early in their senior year and that results in less stress on them in the latter half of the year.
A lot of applicants and their families sometimes forget that the amount of work involved in applying to college is like picking up an additional class – or even two! – in your last year of high school. Knowing that you have been accepted to the school of your choice by mid-December eliminates a lot of the stress inherent in any student’s senior year.
Of course there’s a downside to early admissions and it certainly forces you to be more organized earlier in the cycle. But the payoff, the relief of knowing where you are going to school, usually more than balances that early pressure. Most applicants agree that is is much better to have the pressure of completing college applications towards the end of the summer than around the holidays!
Since schools have attempted to end their ED and EA programs before (Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia famously announced they would end their ED or EA programs in 2007 just to resurrect them within a few short years), we believe this is one admissions trend that is unlikely to change in the intermediate future.
As noted above, several schools offer non-binding Early Action programs. However, the majority of schools with early admissions use a binding Early Decision program under which applicants promise in advance to attend the school if they are admitted. Applicants should make sure that they understand the kind the program they would be applying under before submitting their applications.