To keep students from backing out, some colleges mandate that applicants' high school counselors cannot send transcripts to other institutions. In many ways, early decision is a win-win for both students and colleges. Students can relax and enjoy their senior year of high school without waiting to see if they've been accepted. Colleges know early in the year who is enrolled. But as competition to get into college has increased, students and colleges have started to look for angles, observes Fryer, so that now early decision comes in all flavors.
Some colleges have early decision versions one and two.
Others have stepped deadlines or rolling deadlines. Some are totally restrictive, others have degrees of binding. Even within one university there might be variations. Don't think you have to be a member of the Early Decision Club Competition also creates the situation in which students feel the heat to be accepted at top-notch institutions. Parents are anxious for that bit of inside information that will get their child admitted, while colleges jockey to attract the best applicants.