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Friends who are beginning to understand law school applications should be exposed to some terms, such as early decision (ED), early action (EA), routine decision (RD), rolling admission and ongoing review process. So what do these terms mean and what's the difference between them?

Note: Although this paper analyzes ED, EA, RD and other contents from the perspective of law school application, some terms also exist in other majors and degree applications, which can also provide reference.

Regular admission (RD) refers to the most common application rounds in the application season. Its application opening time and application deadline are usually the latest. As the most common application method, it usually has no special advantages and disadvantages.

Rolling admission does not refer to a certain round of application, but refers to the audit strategy adopted by the admissions officer when accepting applicants, which is also the audit strategy usually adopted by law schools. Colleges and universities that adopt the rolling admission review strategy will review the application materials as soon as they receive them. If an interview is required, the institution will contact the applicant for an interview as soon as possible during the review process.

This means that the earlier an institution applying for the rolling admission strategy submits its application, the better. Because applications must be reviewed at the beginning of the application season, the admissions officer is not sure about the level of students throughout the application season. At this time, a general standard is usually set. If it meets the standard, there is a great chance of being admitted. With the increase in the number of delivery staff, this standard is bound to be higher and higher, bringing more intense competition.

The audit strategy opposite to rolling admission is a continuous review process. Although the admissions officer will start reviewing the materials after receiving the application, the admission notice will not be issued immediately. When the admissions officer receives a sufficient number of application materials in this application season and has a certain evaluation of the applicant's ability, he will formulate corresponding admission standards and issue an admission notice.

If the overall strength or some characteristics of some applicants are in good agreement with the institutions, the possibility of receiving the admission notice soon will not be ruled out. Therefore, no matter what audit strategy colleges adopt, it is a relatively favorable decision to deliver as soon as possible.

From the name of early admission (ED), it is not difficult to guess that the deadline for applying for ED is much earlier than that for applying for RD. However, the advantage of submitting applications early is that applicants of the Education Department will receive the application results of institutions earlier. In other words, applicants of the Education Department may even know the results of their applications before other applicants submit them.

The admission result is usually admission, rejection or transfer to the waiting list for subsequent re-examination.

ED applicants usually need to sign binding agreements. The basic requirement of this kind of agreement is that the applicant will cancel the application for other institutions immediately after receiving the admission from ED institutions, that is, he will guarantee to attend ED institutions after admission. In addition, such agreements are sometimes accompanied by other types of requirements.

The binding clause attached to ed seems to be a restriction, but it can actually provide some advantages in the application.

"Sufficient places": As mentioned above, the earlier deadline for ed applications means that the number of people submitting applications as a whole is small, and institutions still have sufficient admission places. In contrast, at the end of the application season, colleges and universities expect fewer and fewer admission places, which will lead to more careful examination of applicants by admissions officers, which will also intensify the competition for applications.

"Explicit determination": The most obvious advantage of the existence of binding clauses is that the ED applicant has proved by his actions that this institution is indeed his first choice. This makes admissions officers more inclined to admit ed applicants when comparing ED applicants with non-ED applicants, or when the background of ED applicants is slightly different from the admission requirements. Because they know that after they send out the admission notice, you will definitely appear on their campus.

"Scholarship Support Project": Some institutions' ED applications will be supported by scholarships, which means that once they are accepted, they will definitely be supported by scholarships. For example, the Pritzker Law School of Northwestern University will provide 65,438+020,000 USD scholarships for ED applicants.

"Non-scholarship-funded projects": For those institutions whose ed projects clearly indicate that there will be no scholarships, eligible ED applicants are likely to have higher admission opportunities. Because the admissions officer knows that ed applicants don't need to provide scholarships, and ED applicants will enroll anyway. In this way, they can concentrate more scholarships to attract better applicants.

"Prepare your itinerary in advance": Once you receive ED's admission notice, you can start preparing your itinerary. Harvest admission is only the beginning of the long March to study abroad. Preparing for the trip earlier will not only make you prepare in no hurry, but also get more discounts by booking air tickets earlier, and you can also choose better houses by booking accommodation in advance.

Of course, ED has its own price.

"Binding Clause": Accepting the binding clause means that once the institution that delivered the ed issues the admission notice, the possibility of entering other institutions disappears. This may be your dream institution, or it may be an institution with a higher ranking than the ed institution. These possibilities will be lost, so it is very important to decide the ED organization.

"Lose the right to negotiate scholarships": No matter whether the ED institution offers a certain amount of scholarships or no scholarships at all, you will lose the ability to negotiate scholarships with the institutions. In other words, once you are admitted to ed College, you can't get scholarships, and you can't get the number of scholarships.

Every applicant's situation is different, so there is no uniform answer to this question. But you can consider the following questions and make a decision according to your own situation.

Is this college necessary for you?

How important is the scholarship to you?

Is there no scholarship acceptable?

What level do you have compared with the students who were admitted to this college before? Do you need ed to show your determination?

Early Action (EA) and ED are very similar in application time, that is, the deadline will be much earlier than RD, but the advantage is that you can get the reply of the application results of colleges and universities earlier. The admission result is usually admission, rejection or transfer to the supplementary list for subsequent re-examination.

EA may have different names in different institutions, such as "advance review" of Columbia University Law School or "advance notice" of University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Different from ED's binding requirements for applicants, even if they are finally admitted, applicants do not have to go to the institutions admitted by EA.

EA applicants have their own advantages in application.

"More places for admission": This is consistent with the advantages of ED. Completing the application ahead of time means that the number of people submitting applications as a whole is small, and the institutions still have sufficient admission places. In contrast, at the end of the application season, colleges and universities expect fewer and fewer admission places, which will lead to more careful examination of applicants by admissions officers, which will also intensify the competition for applications.

"Non-binding clause": Binding clause is a double-edged sword. Although you lose the benefits, you can get the application results earlier without worrying about losing the possibility of admission to other schools.

"The right to negotiate with institutions": Getting the admission of institutions earlier can make your negotiations with different institutions more powerful. For those institutions that have not been admitted, they can increase their confidence in admission. For the institutions that have been admitted, we can negotiate with the institutions for the existence or increase of scholarships.

If we have to say that EA has only one drawback, it is to urge ourselves to plan the application schedule as soon as possible and complete the application delivery at the first time when the application is open.

It should be noted that not all colleges and universities will provide the choice of ed or EA application. Even the institutions that provide ED or EA applications have different deadlines, which need to be planned in advance. In addition, for the application method of ED or EA, only more materials will be prepared, so for friends who want to apply for this method, they should prepare as soon as possible and strive for the first delivery!