In the past few weeks, there has been a surge of stress in the senior class due to the November 1 college deadline. With the deadline just passed, students can reflect on the opinions, hopes, and relief of getting applications in.

Students applied to colleges and universities in one of three scenarios: early action, early decision, or restrictive early action. Early action is a non-binding application that allows you to apply to a school earlier than the regular decision deadline and as a result, thus finding out sooner about the decision the school gives you. Some schools also only offer merit scholarships to those that apply early. Early decision is the second option for applying early and this is a binding submission where if you are admitted, you are required to go to the school. Most students do this if the school they are applying to is definitely the one they want to go to. This is also an appealing option when the school students apply to is very competitive to get into because schools usually value submission of early decision more than a non-binding type. The last form of an early application is restrictive early action which is another non-binding application that allows you to apply early action to other schools, but you can’t apply early decision elsewhere. This is very uncommon among schools but it is usually seen among the more competitive universities that don’t offer an early decision.

Patrick Mullin, a senior at BSM, decided to apply early to five schools with four being early action and one as restrictive early action. Mullin was on top of his applications for the first college deadline, as he submitted to all five schools almost a week before the deadline was up. Mullin said that he liked applying early because he was able to finish applying to schools, so he’s able to hear back from these schools in December or early January. Mullin felt that the most nerve-racking part about the applications was actually pushing the button because he felt like something might be wrong, even though he had gone over the application multiple times. He is very relieved to have gotten these applications turned in now rather than later. “I’m glad I got it done now so that I can have it behind me and focus on applying for scholarships,” Mullin said.

Ava Montpetit, another BSM senior, also decided to apply early to colleges. Montpetit applied early action to three schools and early decision to one. Montpetit decided to apply early decision to Boston College because she had the opportunity to visit the campus this summer and felt she would really belong there. Montpetit felt like BSM did a great job of preparing her to submit applications because counselors helped complete her Common App as early as last year and were open to reviewing her work as well. “I felt prepared because my counselor helped me look through everything,” Montpetit said.