The LOT Blog

Your One-Stop Guide to All Terms Relating to College Applications

As a high school junior, it can be daunting to grapple with the fact that you’re already applying to college. It only seems more daunting when colleges throw around terms as if they already expect you to know how to apply. Here at LOT, we understand the struggle on a personal level. The writer writing this article (hey that’s me!) didn’t know what some terms meant until after he finished all of his college applications. Without further ado, here’s some of the most common terms you’ll here!

Early Decision / Early Action / Regular Decision

These three are some of the most common terms thrown around, and for good reason. Early Decision (often shortened as ED), Early Action (EA), and Regular Decision (RD) essentially refer to at what time in the application season that you apply to a college.


ED and EA are, as their names suggests, earlier than RD. Typically these applications are submitted around early to mid-November.


For ED, results usually come out around mid-December, and is binding, meaning if you were accepted through ED, you have to attend that school. NEVER apply to more than one school ED because if you get accepted to both, they will both find out and you won’t be allowed to go to either.


For EA, results can come out anywhere from mid-December to mid January, but you’re not obligated to attend that school and you can still also apply for RD.

RD applications can be due anywhere from the first week of January to early February (but it’s usually sometime in January) and results come out at the end of March to early April.

Some of the pros of applying early include the following:


Some of the pros of applying regular include the following:


Whichever option you choose, make a schedule and start as early as possible. I cannot stress how important this is. You will save yourself a lot of pain and suffering if you just start writing essays the summer before your senior year.

Rolling Admissions / EA I / EA II

These terms kind of all go together. Every school has a different application cycle: some might do ED → EA → RD, others might do EA → RD, and some might do ED → RD (these are just some possibilities).


However, some schools have what are called “rolling admissions”, which means that there isn’t exactly a specified time where applications are due (obviously, except for the very end of the application cycle), and instead they look at applications as they are submitted.

Additionally, schools may have an EA I and EA II, which are essentially the same thing as a normal EA, except they happen at two different points in time and if you aren’t deferred (the next point talks about deferrals), you can apply again.

Accepted / Rejected / Deferred

You know what an acceptance is (you can go to that school! yay!). A rejection has some ambiguity to it that you might not expect so read closely: if you applied EA and receive a rejection, then you can’t apply to that school again in the next cycle, they won’t ever review your application again, and you have no chance of going to that school. Yikes. If you applied EA and receive a “deferral”, then it means that the school didn’t accept you, but also didn’t reject you, so you’re free to apply again in the next round of admissions.


Single-Choice

Essentially, if you apply to a school through ED, it is “single-choice”, since you cannot apply to anywhere else. I’ve only ever seen this for once school, but it is possible that some schools will call its EA “single-choice”, which makes no sense since you aren’t obligated to go to a school through EA. Ultimately, you can still apply to multiple EA even if that school calls its EA “single-choice”.