{"id":23879,"date":"2019-04-01T13:49:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T18:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=23879"},"modified":"2019-04-08T09:49:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T14:49:07","slug":"how-to-imsa-applying-for-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2019\/04\/01\/how-to-imsa-applying-for-college\/","title":{"rendered":"How to IMSA: Applying for College"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Juniors, this one\u2019s for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You may have been walking around lately, hearing about college admissions and having a slew of acronyms thrown at you out of context. What\u2019s the difference between ED and EA? What do they stand for, anyway? As an IMSA student, you may be used to unfamiliar acronyms, but it can still be frustrating to hear them without understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maybe you\u2019re already an expert, and that\u2019s great, but for those of you who have no idea what the heck is going on with college and what to expect, have no fear. While I\u2019m right along this ride with you, I\u2019ve heard a lot of advice and explanations from people who have way more experience than me, and here is where I hope to compile it. So: when are you going to hit submit on those applications?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are two dates and four application types that you should be aware of. We\u2019ll go through them one by one. As we do, remember that these are far from set in stone, so you should always check (and re-check, and re-check) all the dates with your specific colleges.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Regular Decision (RD) <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is the standard type that\u2019s been around since the whole system began, and it\u2019s the one type that you can always expect from colleges that have set due dates. Applications for Regular Decision are generally due January 1st, though January 15th or other dates aren\u2019t unheard of. Some schools may be due January 2nd &#8211; January 5th. You\u2019ll hear back from colleges in March or April, and then you\u2019ll have until May 1st to decide.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Early Action (EA)<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is basically the same thing as RD, but applications are due &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; early, usually November 1st. The advantage of EA is that you\u2019ll hear back from the college early, sometimes even as early as December, but you don\u2019t have to commit until May 1st, so you\u2019ll have plenty of time to consider your choice.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Early Decision (ED)<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is not for the fainthearted. Just like EA, applications are usually due on November 1st with a college\u2019s decision returning to you as early as December. However, the trick with Early Decision is that you\u2019re committing when you apply. You can only apply to one school ED, and if you get in, you are obligated to attend. The advantage is that, at most schools, applying ED increases your chance of admission. Only consider Early Decision if you have an absolute first choice that blows all the others out of the water <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">your family can pay for it, no matter what your financial aid package turns out to be.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Early Decision II (EDII)<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is the same as ED but with a January 1st application deadline. You\u2019re still committing to the school when you apply, but you won\u2019t hear back until the RD kids do. EDII can be used when you\u2019ve only just decided that this is really the school for you, or perhaps when your family wins the lotto and can suddenly pay for anything they want. It\u2019s also for if you have a clearly-defined first <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">second choice, and you got rejected from your first choice during the ED\/EA round.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now that you know what the heck all those acronyms mean, a disclaimer: this isn\u2019t the system that all colleges work by. Another major admission design is rolling admissions, where a college considers and accepts or rejects students throughout the year, so you can apply whenever and often get your decision within a couple of months. In general, it\u2019s better to apply early. Often, financial aid or spots in competitive majors are more available earlier in the year. Besides, if you get accepted, you know you at least have a place to go if your luck takes a downhill turn during the rest of the application season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once you have your admissions, you have to commit by putting down a deposit with intent to enroll, ranging anywhere from $100 to $500. This is due by May 1st &#8212; college decision day, and the day you wear the gear of the college you\u2019ve committed to! You\u2019re done, congrats!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2026But maybe you aren\u2019t. What if you don\u2019t have any acceptances to consider, only rejections? Unfortunate as it is, this does sometimes happen. You do have a couple of options, though. You could take a gap year, which I\u2019ve heard can be a great way to really get to know yourself before you\u2019re inundated with schoolwork once more. You could also enroll in community college before transferring into a four-year university. Finally, look back at those rolling admissions colleges. There are plenty of them that are looking for students throughout May and June. If this does happen, make sure to talk to your parents and your CAC to consider all the options with an informed mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But don\u2019t worry. With some good planning and preparation, you\u2019ll be just fine through the college application season. Or, at least, I hope so, considering I\u2019m going to be going through it myself next year. I hope this article was helpful and I encourage you to do more research: there was so much I couldn\u2019t cover here that I wanted to, whether for space or not enough knowledge on my part. Good luck, everybody, and best wishes for college application season!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Juniors, this one\u2019s for you. You may have been walking around lately, hearing about college admissions and having a slew of acronyms thrown at you&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":23880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3003,1021],"tags":[1874,2811,3101],"coauthors":[2748],"class_list":["post-23879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-imsa","category-lifestyle","tag-cac","tag-college-applications","tag-college-process"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23879"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24007,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23879\/revisions\/24007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23879"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}