Can't "Berry" the Wait? Be Thankful for Early Action Notification Dates!

As Thanksgiving approaches, you’re probably thankful that you no longer have to worry about your Early Action and Early Decision college admissions deadlines. But there may be one lingering thought as you’re slathering lingonberry sauce on your turkey: when will you know if you got accepted?

Great question (and great choice of festive, berry-based sauce)!

Deadlines for Early Action (a non-binding college application that you can submit to as many schools as you’d like) and Early Decision (a binding college application that you can only submit to one school) have passed -- typically on November 1st -- and now the notification dates are approaching. In fact, most EA/ED schools should be sending you a notification on whether you are ACCEPTED, REJECTED, or DEFERRED by mid-December.

Later I’ll get into what you should do based on each of those three outcomes, but for now, here's a list of the major universities and their Early Action/Early Decision notification dates:

Note: ED II, or Early Decision II, is a later Early Decision deadline. The only difference between ED I and ED II (in most cases) is that the deadline and notification dates are later.

• Amherst College

• December 15

• Barnard College

• Mid-December

• Baylor University

• ED: December 15

• EA: January 15

• Boston College

• By December 20

• Boston University

• ED I: December 15

• ED II: February 15

• Brown University

• Mid-December

• Caltech

• Mid-December

• Carnegie Mellon University

• By December 15

• Columbia University

• Mid-December

• Cornell University

• Mid-December

• Dartmouth College

• Mid-December

• Duke University

• December 15

• Emory University

• ED I: By December 15

• ED II: By February 15

• George Washington University

• ED I: By Late December

• ED II: By Late February

• Georgetown University

• December 15

• Harvard University

• Mid-December

• Harvey Mudd College

• ED I: Decisions mailed December 15

• ED II: Decisions mailed February 15

• Johns Hopkins University

• By December 15

• MIT

• Mid-December

• New York University

• ED I: December 15

• ED II: February 15

• Northwestern University

• Mid-December

• Notre Dame University

• Mid-December

• Pomona College

• ED I: By December 15

• ED II: By February 15

• Princeton University

• Mid-December

• Rice University

• Mid-December

• Southern Methodist University

• EA: Mid-December

• ED I: Mid-December

• ED II: Late February

• Stanford University

• By December 15

• Tufts University

• ED I: Mid-December

• ED II: Mid-February

• University of Chicago

• EA: Mid-December

• ED I: Mid-December

• ED II: Mid-February

• University of Michigan

• By December 24

• University of Pennsylvania

• Mid-December

• University of Virginia

• By January 31

• Vanderbilt University

• ED I: Mid-December

• ED II: Mid-February

• Washington University in St. Louis

• ED I: By December 15

• ED II: By February 15

• Wellesley College

• ED I: Mid-December

• ED II: Late February

• Yale University

• Mid-December

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