When do early decision results come out? Fall 2027 dates

Dates with an exact day

Most colleges only say "mid-December." These give an exact day or a "by" date:

• December 1: Trinity University (TX) (ED I)
• December 6: Macalester (ED I)
• December 11: Johns Hopkins (ED I), Florida (ED), WashU (ED I, by this date), Ohio State (EA for Ohio residents and Stamps Eminence applicants), Stony Brook (some EA applicants)
• December 12: Davidson (ED I)
• December 14: Boston University (ED 1), Williams (ED, by this date)
• December 15: Harvey Mudd, Holy Cross and Carleton (ED); Trinity University (TX) (EA); Boston College, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Emory, Tulane and UVA (ED, by this date); Georgetown (restrictive EA, by this date)
• December 16: Yale (single-choice early action)
• December 17: Florida State (ED and EA)
• December 18: Minerva and Pitzer (by this date)
• December 19: Hamilton (ED I, by this date), Macalester (EA)
• December 20: Washington and Lee (ED I), Bates (ED I, by this date), UNC-Chapel Hill (EA for North Carolina residents, by this date)
• December 23: WashU (EA, by this date)
• December 24: Penn State (EA, by this date)

Each college's row in the full table below links to the page the date came from.

How release day works

Almost every college posts the decision in its applicant portal, not in an email. Columbia says it does not send decisions by email at all. Some send a heads-up. Penn tells applicants the exact date and time at least one week ahead. Bucknell emails the release date and time. Stanford emails you when the decision is in your portal.

Log in to each portal now and fix any password problems before release day.

You'll get one of three answers: admitted, deferred or denied. Caltech, Florida State and Princeton all spell out those three outcomes. If you're deferred, read what to do if you're deferred. There are real steps to take in the first week.

If you're admitted early decision

Early decision is binding. Once you're admitted with an aid offer your family can afford, you withdraw your other applications and enroll.

Look at the aid offer first. At many colleges it arrives with the decision. Barnard posts it in your portal with the acceptance letter, and Davidson releases aid with admission decisions. Northwestern sends aid details within a week of the decision if you filed the CSS Profile. Our CSS Profile deadlines page lists when each college wants the aid forms.

If the offer makes attendance impossible, you can say no. Smith quotes the national counseling rule: a student who isn't offered an award that makes attendance possible "may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment." Call the aid office before you decide, and ask what else they need from your family.

Watch the reply date. Macalester wants ED I replies by December 21. Vanderbilt wants the deposit by December 31. Johns Hopkins gives you until January 15, and Carnegie Mellon until February 1.

Before results come out

Keep your regular decision applications moving. Carleton says it plainly: "You can submit Regular Decision applications to other colleges while you wait to hear back about Early Decision." Regular deadlines at Duke, MIT, Northwestern and UChicago are January 4, 2027, about three weeks after their early results. Essays written in a panic over winter break read that way.

Get your regular list to the point where you could hit submit by December 15. If you're admitted, you've lost a few weekends. If you're deferred or denied, you're already done. The deadlines after January 1 list shows every regular deadline still ahead, and early decision II deadlines lists the second binding rounds.

Check each college's testing rule while you finish: which colleges require the SAT or ACT for fall 2027.

Shortlist's planner sorts your list by deadline and flags anything due within two weeks: build your list.

Every release date we found

Release dates are in each college's own words, so "mid-December" is the college's wording. An asterisk (*) means the college's deadline page shows the date without a year, so confirm the deadline on the site. "Not posted yet" means the college's current deadline page gives no release date for this round. We don't fill those in from last year's dates.

Download the table: ed-ea-release-dates.csv. It adds a note on each row.

Round names: ED is early decision (binding). EA is early action (not binding). REA and SCEA are restrictive and single-choice early action, which aren't binding but limit where else you can apply early. Rows dated Nov 5 come from our deadline review that week. Williams and UVA block automated page reads, so their rows come from saved copies of each college's own page (Internet Archive, October and July 2026); confirm those two on the college's site.