Early Admission Policy Changes

Washington University in St. Louis has added an Early Decision II program for this year.

Just about every year, some schools choose to change their Early Decision or Early Action policies. This year — for the Class of 2023 — is no exception. Some schools have added Early Decision II programs, while others have removed Early Decision II programs. Still other schools have changed the rules of their Restrictive Early Action policies, while others have added Early Action programs to exist alongside their Early Decision programs. So which schools added and removed what, you ask? We know it’s been keeping you up late at night so wonder no more.

Class of 2023 Early Action and Early Decision Policy Changes

Babson College has added an Early Decision II option. Boston College has changed its Restrictive Early Action policy to be a regular Early Action policy, which will likely encourage more students to apply to the university in the hope of earning admission to its Class of 2023. College of William & Mary has added Early Decision II. Penn State University has added an Early Action I program. Pepperdine University has as well. Rochester Institute of Technology has added Early Decision II. Sarah Lawrence College has added Early Action I. And Washington University in St. Louis has added an Early Decision II program. While additional universities have made changes to their Early policies, this about sums up the changes at the selective or highly selective schools (like Wash U) for the graduating college Class of 2023.

The Early Advantage

If you’re wondering if there’s an advantage in applying through a school’s Early policy, you bet there is — and anybody who tells you differently, well, they just don’t get it. Just check out the statistics at the Ivy League schools as an example. Compare the Regular Decision admit rates at each of the eight Ivies to the Early admit rates at these same schools over the last several years. The numbers tell the story. Every last one of our students at Ivy Coach who works with us on their college applications and comes to us before November 1st of their senior year applies Early Decision / Early Action. They apply to reach schools but not impossible reaches (unless they don’t listen to us — we have one of these families every few years and it drives us bonkers).

Curious to know which school would be a reach but not an impossible reach for your child? Set up a free consultation and we’ll answer questions about our services. The first step of our service is a one-hour evaluation and as part of that evaluation, you’ll come away with our recommended Early strategy (and lots more). You want to take risk. But you don’t want to take too much risk. After all, your child only has one Early card (unless they apply to schools with non-restrictive Early policies). You want to use that Early card wisely.