It’s the second semester of the school year. For most students, this means nothing. But seniors have officially entered the season of restlessly waiting for college decisions to come out in the next few months. The stakes are higher if they’ve already been through any deferrals or rejections from Early Actions and Decisions. The college they get into and decide to commit to will determine the next four years of their lives. However, seniors that are binded to their Early Decision statement or are already committed to one school are excused from the worry. How did they go about accepting such a gamble? How is committing early different from waiting for regular decisions? 

     Senior Mika Peleg will be attending Lehigh University next year through her ED acceptance. In making her decision, Mika says she didn’t pick many colleges to put on her list in the first place. She says, “I relied on the ED to have a higher acceptance rate,” which is a strategy many students use to get accepted into tougher schools they don’t mind being committed to. Mika is content with her decision, but she admits another scenario that is on her mind: “Also, with ED, it’s so much harder to get a scholarship, like merit aid. So in a perfect world, I would’ve done regular decision to Lehigh and hopefully gotten merit aid.” 

     Senior Leo Rael is committed to Yale University through his EA acceptance. Every school is unique with their admission requirements, especially Yale. Leo explains what his conditions were: “It’s called REA, or restrictive early action, which means you’re only allowed to apply to that school early and everything else RD, but it’s not binding. So I could apply to other places if I wanted to.” Even though it wasn’t binding, Leo felt like the school was perfect for him and decided to commit. He thinks “there was nothing else that could beat it.” He points out the pros and cons of being finished with applications so early. “I feel more relieved and I have less work. I felt like I had an easier time because I didn’t have the stress of filling out regular applications and [how] it feels to not have to wait a while until April to get college decisions back.” However, he adds, “I am kind of curious as to what other schools might’ve let me in, but also I just don’t even care.” Both Leo and poet Thomas Gray say “it’s kind of like an ignorance is bliss thing.”