The mere thought of college can be a stressful idea to grasp, and one of the challenging decisions of college is whether you’ll apply early decision, early action or regular decision; however, each type of application has its advantages and drawbacks.

Generally early action and early decision deadlines are November 1st or November 15th. When students take the initiative to get their applications in before these deadlines, they are more likely to be put into a smaller applicant pool, but those are usually still found to be as competitive as regular decision.

The advantage being most schools admit a higher percentage of EA and ED over regular decision. For example, The Huffington Post found the University of Pennsylvania admitted 24.9 percent of early applicants, versus 9.4 percent of regular decision. “Just getting it done early was so rewarding,” senior Lillian Galvin said. When students know they have a higher chance of admittance it usually pushes them to get their applications done by these deadlines.

BSM students that applied early action gave numerous reasons as to why they chose this form of application. “It seemed easier and most of the time when applying early action, you do not have to complete the common app. It does depend on the school, but my schools had their own applications,” senior Tia Sposito said.

63% of these students said they didn’t feel rushed getting the paperwork in before deadline. Some decided on early action application so they could hear back from schools faster, get the process over with, or get a strong motherly influence off of their back.

Some find early action and early decision similar, when in actuality there is a strong difference. If students are accepted using early decision, they are put under a binding agreement that makes them obligated to attend that school. This agreement proves to be beneficial because it allows schools to see a student’s commitment to his or her education.

The only way to deny an early decision school would be if the financial aid package isn’t feasible for a students family. That being said, Kathleen Brown, director of financial aid at Saint Mary’s College of Indiana agrees that a student in need of financial aid should apply early action or regular decision in order to compare financial aid packages.

Applying for college can be daunting, but students should know no matter what they decide it’s a decision they have to make. When students end up applying for schools, just know that there are advantages to each deadline.