Decision Dates for College Admission

The universities in the US have two kinds of admission processes which are chosen by the university themselves. Either they can have a regular admission process with a set deadline or they will be able to have rolling admissions where students are chosen based on qualifications on a first-come, first-serve basis. Rolling admissions do not have set decision dates and students will be able to hear from their university as soon as their application has been reviewed.

On the other hand, universities that have regular admission will also mostly provide an option for early action or early decision. Each of these admission windows will have individual deadlines by which students will be required to submit their applications. The decision dates for each of these windows will also vary from one another. The early action/early decision notification dates will come first after which the regular admission process continues.

Decision Dates for Top Universities

The early decision and regular admission notification dates for a few universities are as follows-

Universities	Early Action 1	Early Decision 1	Regular Decision Date
Harvard University	December 16		March-end
Stanford University	December 15		April 1
Yale University	December 15		April 1
Cornell University	December 13	mid-December	early-April
Northwestern University		December 8	March-end
Princeton University	December 16		Early-April
Duke University		December 15	March-end
University of Chicago	December 17	mid-December	March-end
Rice University		December 9	March 24
New York University		December 15	April 1
Boston University		December 15	March-end
Tufts University		mid-December	April 1
University of Chicago	December 17		March-end
Carnegie Mellon University		December 15	April 1
Vanderbilt University		December 15	March 28
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	mid-December		March 14
Johns Hopkins University		December 11	April 1
Georgetown University	December 15		April 1
University of Rochester		mid-December	April 1
Syracuse University		January 1	March-end

Decision Dates for Early Decision Admission

Early decision deadlines are provided in the admission process as the priority admission window where students will have their applications reviewed first. The application acceptances provided for this cycle are binding and therefore only students who are sure of enrolling should apply for the same. Candidates who get admission through the Early Decision window will have to withdraw their applications from every other university they have applied to.

The decision dates for early decision deadlines are also known as ED 1 or Early Decision I which is the first decision notification provided by every university. This date generally falls in November or December. Some universities also have an Early Decision II which will allow students to have some more time to prepare their applications. This will have a closer deadline to the regular admission process and the admission notification is provided mostly in January or February.

Decision Dates for Early Action Admission

The early action admission is provided before the regular admission window and often alongside the early decision window. This is a non-binding form of the early decision admission process where students will be able to apply for the program early to receive the decision notification earlier. The decision notification for the early action admission will come a little after or during the same window as the early decision notification date and before the regular admission notification date. The general time window for the notification release is in November and December.

Some universities also have an Early Action II where students will be given another opportunity at applying after the first session is over. This is to ensure that students who have been rejected at other universities will get a shot at applying using the early action window without making them wait for the regular admission deadline. Since this is non-binding, students will find that applying using the early action window can be more beneficial than the regular admission window. The general time for the release of Early Action II notification is in December and January.

Decision Dates for Regular Admission

The decision dates for the regular admission process in colleges come after the early action and early decision application notification dates. The regular admission process allows students to apply to universities at the last moment especially if they have been rejected by other universities where they applied using the early action/decision windows. Candidates will also get an opportunity of submitting their applications later than usual. The general time for the release of regular admission notification is in spring. This can either be in late March or early April depending on the university.