RD > ED
I didn't do early decision for financial reasons.
Would I get bound to a school even when I couldn't pay for it?
And I was having doubts anyway. Was XYZ school even really for me? Was I calling it my dream school because it was popular to have one?
To the future seniors struggling with college applications, if there is one thing I am so grateful I didn't do during my senior year, it's apply early to a school I wasn't even sure was my dream.
I'll admit, your winter break becomes your own personalized hell hole when you have so many supplements and little paragraphs to write for each and every one of your schools that you begin to wonder if it's really worth going through all this trouble. And as a senior now in April approaching the month and a half mark till graduation, I would say it very much is. So much so in fact.
If you are accepted early, the only pro side is that you know earlier. I mean there are probably more, but I wouldn't know because I didn't do it.
But I will tell you what I loved so much about being part of a regular decision crowd.
1) You get to celebrate or eat ice cream while sobbing into a blanket with most of your friends. Around March/April you get to celebrate or cry uncontrollably with your friends by your side as they understand exactly what you're going through because chances are, they just got accepted/rejected too.
2) If you were really meant to go to your dream school, you would probably get in through RD just as much as you would have through ED. I believe that you will go to the school that you belong, but I'll save that for another blog post.
3) You get to weigh all your options. Whether it's academically, ranking-wise, quality, financially, etc, you'll know everything before you make your decision and you'll get to ask some other people for advice as well because you have about a month until you have to determine the next 4 years of your life.
4) It could surprise you. If you apply ED, you never know what other school you would have gotten in to. And that doesn't mean that you should apply to every school under the sun to figure out/gauge how "great" of a student you are. That means that you may find your dream school where you least expected, where you might not have even thought you would get in.
5) Waiting really isn't too hard. It may feel like it around February when you are waiting for March and April to approach before you pass out on the floor, writhing in sheer agony (maybe there's some over-exaggeration there), but it really isn't that bad in retrospect. And what's a little waiting for possibly some of the greatest news of your life?
Those are just a couple of reasons, but they are the ones that I remember most. I am so glad I never applied to XYZ school in November because otherwise, I would not have had the moments of joy and camaraderie that I have now. It may have been for financial reasons then, but now I see it as a blessing in disguise.
But the choice is yours. Whatever you pick, just make sure that you are doing what your future self would thank you for. :-)