Early decision and early action deadlines occurred a little more than a month ago for most colleges, and seniors who were proactive in their application processes, working  through the summer and early fall, had the opportunity to submit their applications by those dates to quicken and confirm the arrival of their results.

Now approaching mid-December, many colleges have responded to their early decision and early action applicants and provided students with a status of admission. 

Senior Oliver Ossip will attend Tulane University, having applied early decision before Nov. 1 According to Tulane’s website, early decision is “designed for students whose first choice is Tulane University. ED is a binding decision, and students admitted through the ED timeline are committed to withdrawing all applications from other universities and enrolling at Tulane.”

For Ossip, this application style was perfect. “I knew it was where I wanted to go, and doing early decision would increase my chances of getting in. Tulane met all my criteria in being a warmer (climate) surrounded by a fun city that most importantly provided a good education.” 

Liz Wunder, another senior, will attend Indiana University next fall. She applied early action before Nov. 1. According to IU’s admissions webpage, applying early action ensures that students are “in a smaller pool of applicants and will find out sooner if you’ve been accepted. ‘Non-binding’ means that even if you’re accepted, you’re not required to choose to attend IU Bloomington.” As opposed to early decision applications, the early action route does not force a student to attend a particular school if accepted.

Wunder, however, has had her eyes on IU for a while now. “I have always wanted to go to IU to study science and got accepted into the school (during the first week of December). I’m so excited to start this new journey in my life, meet new people and learn new things.” 

Both Ossip and Wunder agreed that getting accepted and deciding on a school to attend has eased a lot of stress. Ossip notes that making a decision has “definitively lifted a lot of weight and anxiety” off his shoulders, while Wunder says that knowing where she’s going “is a big relief.”