Accepted early decision? What to do next

First, read the financial aid offer

Before you pay anything, open the aid offer and work out what your family will actually pay for the first year: the full cost minus grants and scholarships. Loans and work-study aren't discounts.

If you applied for aid and the offer hasn't arrived, you don't have to withdraw elsewhere yet. Common App's early decision agreement says a student seeking aid "need not withdraw other applications until the student has received notification about financial aid from the admitting early decision institution."

If the number is close but not quite workable, call or email the aid office now and ask for a review. Do this before the deposit date: Tufts, for one, says "Appeals must be submitted before your deposit deadline" and "Once you pay your deposit, we cannot consider you for any additional institutional aid." Vanderbilt says its deposit "may be waived based on the student's financial need."

When the enrollment deposit is due

Each college sets its own early decision deposit date. These are the dates on each college's own page, read on 9 November 2026. Some pages print a date without a year, so check it against your acceptance letter or applicant portal, which sets the date that counts.

"None on file" means our deadline review has no ED II round for that college. Columbia, Penn, Duke, Brown, Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Barnard, Amherst, UVA, Middlebury, NYU, UChicago and Vassar haven't posted an early decision deposit date on a page we could read. Use the date in your letter. Dartmouth is the rare college with no deposit: "Dartmouth does not require you to submit a deposit to secure your place in the entering class," but it still sets a reply date.

Withdraw every other application

This is the promise you, a parent and your counselor signed. Common App's early decision agreement: "If the student is accepted under an early decision plan, the student must promptly withdraw the applications submitted to other colleges and universities and make no additional applications to any other university in any country."

That covers regular decision, early action and other colleges' rolling admission. It includes colleges outside Common App and outside the US. The agreement also says the college "may share my name and my early commitment with other institutions," so a second acceptance elsewhere can be cancelled.

How to do it:

1. For each college, find its withdrawal option in the applicant portal, or email the admissions office: "I was admitted early decision to [College] and am withdrawing my application. [Full name], [date of birth], [Common App ID]."
2. Cancel anything scheduled: interviews, auditions, portfolio uploads.
3. Tell your counselor you've done it. Your counselor also signed the agreement.

If the aid offer doesn't work

The only accepted reason to get out of an early decision commitment is money: the aid offer doesn't make the college affordable. Colleges handle it through a conversation with the aid office first.

• Columbia: "Only students who, after consultation with Financial Aid and Educational Financing, cite financial reasons for not attending will be released from the Early Decision agreement."
• Duke: students who "cannot afford to attend Duke" may be released "after discussions among the family, the Financial Support Office, and the Admissions Office."
• Boston College: "Students may only be released from their Early Decision commitment if, after a conversation with our financial aid office, financial factors preclude enrollment."

Release is final. Columbia says a student who declines its early decision offer "will not be able to reinstate the original offer of admission." Ask for a review of the offer first, with your family's numbers and any change since you applied. If the review doesn't close the gap, ask for a written release, then reopen your regular decision applications.

A different preference, a better offer elsewhere or a change of heart isn't a reason the agreement accepts. If you're still filing aid forms for another college, see our CSS Profile deadlines.

Send your midyear and final grades

Your admission depends on finishing senior year as strong as you started it. Dartmouth asks admitted ED students for "mid-year and final grades," and its post-acceptance review reserves the right to rescind an offer when "the applicant's final academic record has lowered significantly." Tufts asks you to keep the courses "in progress or planned for the remainder of your final year."

• Ask your counselor to send the midyear report when first-semester grades post. See when the midyear report is due.
• Don't drop a senior class without telling the college first.
• Your school sends the final transcript in June or July. Dartmouth requires a Final Secondary School Report and final transcript in June.

Housing and the rest of the to-do list

Housing usually opens after you pay the deposit. At Miami, you apply through the on-campus housing portal after your deposit, with a $100 application fee. Johns Hopkins sends housing instructions to admitted students in May. Watch your new student email for the date at your college.

• Set up your college email and student account.
• Look for orientation, placement test and health form dates in spring.
• File the FAFSA if your college asks for it: see FAFSA deadlines for 2027-28.

Didn't get in early? See what to do after a deferral. Curious how much early decision helped? See early decision acceptance rates, and use the planner if you're helping a friend with a list.