The deadline for Early Action applications to be submitted to Dickinson was Dec. 1, and the Office of Admissions has seen an increase over Early Action applications received last year.

According to Director of Admissions Communications Angela Barone ’90, the school received 2,944 Early Action applications this year, compared to 2,764 last year, marking a 6.51 percent increase. However, Barone comments, “a larger Early Action pool doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll see a larger regular decision pool, but it could go either way.”

Admissions will have to wait until after the Regular Decision deadline, on Feb. 1, to know for sure if applications for the class of 2020 will have increased overall from last year, Barone said, because a lot of activity happens just before application deadlines.

“If we were talking two days before the Regular Decision deadline, we could be looking at something very, very different than we would see on Feb. 2,” said Barone.

Early Action applications are defined differently at different colleges and universities, Barone said. She explained that for Dickinson, “Early Action is a non-binding, early-round to allow early notification to students.” This differs from Early Decision, which is binding if an applicant is accepted. There is no target number of applicants that will be accepted from the Early Action pool, Barone said, adding, “The goal is not to hit ‘x’ number.”

Students who apply Early Action usually have “a strong interest” in Dickinson, according to Barone, but since it is non-binding, Dickinson does not necessarily have to be their first choice school.

Admissions staff began reviewing Early Action applications even before the Dec. 1 deadline, stated Barone. They started in November and will continue working with the Early Action pool through January. Students who applied Early Action should find out whether or not they were accepted by the end of the first week in February. Barone said the students would still have until May 1 to decide, which gives them an advantage over students who apply Regular Decision and do not hear from admissions until late March.