A quick guide to the admissions terms used in this tool. Tap a topic to open it.
Rules change every year. Dates and restrictions below are typical, not guaranteed. Always check each school's own admissions page before applying.
Early plans side by side
| Plan | Binding? | Typical deadline | Typical decision | Can combine with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EAEarly Action | No | Nov. 1 or Nov. 15 | Mid-December to January | Other EA plans, plus one ED (unless a school says otherwise) |
| ED1Early Decision I | Yes | Around Nov. 1 | Mid-December | EA at schools that allow it. No other ED. |
| ED2Early Decision II | Yes | Jan. 1 to Jan. 15 | Around February | EA or regular applications elsewhere. No other ED. |
| REA / SCEARestrictive or Single-Choice Early Action | No | Around Nov. 1 | Mid-December | Usually no other private-college early plan (ED, EA, REA). Common exceptions: public universities and some non-binding or scholarship programs. Varies by school. |
| RDRegular Decision | No | Jan. 1 to Jan. 15 | March to early April | Anything |
EA: Early Action
Apply early (usually Nov. 1 or 15) and hear early (often by mid-December). It is not binding: if admitted, you still have until May 1 to decide. You can usually apply EA to many schools, plus one ED school.
- MIT: Early Action, due Nov. 1, decisions mid-December. Admissions page ↗
ED1: Early Decision I
Apply around Nov. 1. It is binding: if admitted, you withdraw your other applications and enroll. You may have only one ED application at a time, and the student, a parent and the school counselor all sign an agreement. The main accepted way out is a financial aid offer that makes the school unaffordable. Some schools call it simply “Early Decision.”
- Duke: Early Decision (binding), due Nov. 2. Admissions page ↗
ED2: Early Decision II
The same binding promise as ED1, but later: apply around Jan. 1 to 15 and hear by about February. It suits students whose top choice changed, or who were denied in ED1 elsewhere. You still can't hold two ED applications at once.
REA and SCEA: Restrictive / Single-Choice Early Action
Apply early and hear early, and it is not binding. In exchange, you agree not to apply early (ED, EA or REA) to other private colleges. Most schools allow exceptions, often for public universities and some non-binding or scholarship programs, but the exact wording varies by school. “Single-Choice” and “Restrictive” mean the same kind of plan; the name depends on the school.
- Harvard: Restrictive Early Action, due Nov. 1. Admissions page ↗
- Stanford: Restrictive Early Action, due Nov. 1. Admissions page ↗
- Notre Dame: Restrictive Early Action. Admissions page ↗
- Princeton: Single-Choice Early Action (restrictive), due Nov. 1. Admissions page ↗
- Yale: Single-Choice Early Action, also called Restrictive Early Action; due Nov. 1, decisions mid-December. Admissions page ↗
EA with its own restriction
Some schools call their plan plain Early Action but still add a rule. Read the fine print.
- Georgetown: Early Action, due Nov. 1. It is non-binding, but Georgetown EA applicants may not apply to any binding Early Decision program; other non-binding EA plans are fine. Admissions page ↗
Deferred
A deferral is not a no. The school has not decided yet and will review you again with the regular applicants, usually deciding in March or April. Send any update the school asks for. If you were deferred from ED, ask the school whether you would still be bound if admitted later; policies differ.
Waitlisted
Deferred applies to early applicants: the school moves you to the regular round for another look. Waitlisted comes after regular decisions: you were not admitted yet, but the school may offer you a spot if seats open up. That usually happens from May into the summer, after admitted students pay their May 1 deposits.
- Accept a spot at another college and pay its deposit by May 1. Don't count on the waitlist.
- Opt in to the waitlist if you are still interested. Many schools require you to say yes before they consider you.
- If the school allows it, send a short letter of continued interest with any real updates, such as new grades or awards.
- Chances vary a lot by school and by year. Where a school's Common Data Set reports how many students were offered a waitlist spot, stayed on it and were admitted, that school's page in this tool shows those numbers under “Waitlist admit rate.”
Test-optional, required and test-free
- Test-optional: you decide whether to send SAT or ACT scores. If you leave them out, the college reviews the rest of your application without penalty. If you send them, they count, so they are usually worth sending when they are at or above the school's typical range.
- Required: every applicant must send an SAT or ACT score.
- Test-free (sometimes called test-blind): the college does not look at scores in admission, even if you send them.
- Required for some programs: scores are required for certain programs at the school and optional for others.
- Policies change from year to year. Each school's page in this tool shows its current policy with a link to the school's own testing page.
SAT & ACT superscoring
Superscoring means the college combines your best section scores from different test dates. For example, your best SAT Math from March and your best Reading and Writing from June. Highest single sitting means the college uses your best single test date as a whole and does not mix sections across dates.
- A few colleges ask for all of your scores, not just your best. Each school’s page covers this under How to send scores.
- A college's rules can be different for the SAT and the ACT. For example, it may superscore the SAT but use your best single ACT sitting.
- Each school's page in this tool shows its SAT and ACT policy with a link to the school's own page. Policies change, so check before you send scores.
Examples above were checked on each school's official admissions page on November 3, 2026, for students applying in fall 2026.