Public Universities With Early Decision (2026–27): Ten Schools, and Two That Close October 15

For a long time, public universities with early decision were rare enough to count on one hand. Binding rounds belonged to private colleges, and state flagships ran Early Action or rolling admission instead. That has changed. For students applying for fall 2027, ten public universities in our catalog run a binding Early Decision round, and two of them, the University of Florida and Florida State, close it on October 15, more than two weeks before most private deadlines.

The ten, and when they close

Dates are from each university's admissions page or its entry in the Common App's 2026–27 requirements grid, checked September 27, 2026. Confirm on the school's own site before you plan around one. For every first-round date at all 143 colleges in our catalog, public and private, see the full Early Decision deadline list.

Florida went first, and early

The University of Florida announced its Early Decision round in May, for students entering in fall 2027. The details on its Early Decision page are worth reading closely, because several of them differ from what students expect from a private-college round:

• The application is due October 15, but every required material is due by October 22.
• Decisions arrive by December 11.
• UF does not admit by major, so the commitment holds whatever program you end up in.
• The agreement is signed by you, a parent or guardian, and your counselor.
• Early Decision applicants stay eligible for all of UF's financial aid and scholarships, and Early Action and Regular Decision remain open for anyone who wants to keep options.

Florida State had already announced its own binding round in April, according to the Independent Florida Alligator, and set the same October 15 deadline.

For a Florida resident, the usual argument against Early Decision is weaker here than almost anywhere else. The risk of a binding round is that you can't compare prices. At UF, published in-state tuition and fees were $6,381 in 2024–25. The price you give up comparing is a low one.

What the three with published rounds show

Only three of the ten have reported a full Early Decision round in a Common Data Set, the standardized filing colleges publish every year.

At the University of Virginia, 1,376 of 4,969 early applicants were admitted in 2025–26, 27.7 percent, against 14.6 percent for everyone else. At William & Mary, 735 of 1,477 were admitted in 2025–26, 49.8 percent against 35.7 percent. At Vermont, the early round admitted 363 of 396 applicants, 91.7 percent, against 72.7 percent for the rest.

That is a ratio of about 1.9 at Virginia, 1.4 at William & Mary and 1.3 at Vermont: a real edge, but smaller than the gaps of three to five times that show up at some private colleges in our early decision overview. The other seven haven't published a round yet, either because it is new or because their filings don't break it out. Until they do, anyone quoting an early rate for them is estimating.

The number a public round can't show you: where you live

Public universities weigh residency, and they say so. In section C7 of their filings, Virginia rates state residency very important, Vermont rates it important, and Connecticut and Michigan list it as considered.

The early-round counts, though, are reported as a single number. Virginia's 27.7 percent includes Virginians and applicants from every other state, together. When a school calls residency very important, the filing gives you no way to see whether residents and nonresidents faced the same rate in its early round. If you live out of state, the published number describes a pool you are only part of.

What the promise costs depends on your address

An Early Decision agreement commits you to the price on your side of the residency line.

Published figures for 2024–25 from federal College Scorecard data. For a nonresident, the binding price is roughly two to four and a half times what a resident signs for. We looked at that gap across public universities more broadly in a separate piece; here it matters because Early Decision takes away the chance to compare it against other offers.

Three checks before you sign at a public university

1. Start with residency. If you are a resident, a public Early Decision round can be one of the cheaper binding commitments available. If you are not, run the school's net price calculator as a nonresident before anything else.
2. Look for a non-binding door at the same school. The University of Florida, Virginia, Michigan and Vermont also run Early Action. If the binding round's edge is modest and the price matters, the non-binding round may be the better trade. We compared that choice school by school here.
3. Count backward from the real date. At Florida, the application date is October 15 but the materials date is October 22. Coastal Carolina closes October 19. The Early Decision agreement needs your counselor's signature, and counselors are hard to reach on a Sunday, which is when November 1 falls this year.

The bottom line

Ten public universities now ask for the promise. For a resident, especially in Florida, the promise is cheap and the deadline is early. For a nonresident at Virginia or Michigan, it is a $59,000-to-$61,000 annual tuition commitment made without a second offer to compare it to, in a round whose published rate mixes you with in-state applicants.

Before you spend your one binding application, see what every school on your list has actually published: run the free list check. If your first round doesn't work out, here are the schools that still take Early Decision II.