Which Colleges Have Early Decision? 112 Schools, Classified by What the Plan Restricts (2026–27)

"Does this school have Early Decision?" sounds like a question with an obvious answer. It is not. Schools use four different early plans, label them inconsistently, and change them between cycles. We read the official admissions page of 112 schools for the 2026–27 cycle and classified each by what the plan actually restricts, not what it is called. Here is the result.

Why the label is not enough

Students lose real options here every year. A senior applies Early Action to a restrictive-plan school in November without realizing it forecloses the Early Decision application they meant to send elsewhere. A family counts a California public as an early safety and discovers in December that there was never an early round to be safe in. The fix is not to memorize a list — it is to read the plan's restriction, once, for every school you are actually applying to.

The four plans

Early Decision is binding: admitted, you enroll and withdraw everywhere else. Restrictive Early Action is non-binding but forbids early applications to other private schools. Early Action is non-binding with no restriction. Some schools run no early round at all.

The label on the page is not reliable. Georgetown calls its plan Early Action but bars you from applying Early Decision anywhere else, which makes it restrictive in practice. Ashland calls its plan Early Decision but states it is nonbinding, which makes it Early Action. We classified by the restriction.

Schools with binding Early Decision (53)

Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Chicago, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Pomona, Penn, Wellesley, Harvey Mudd, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Hamilton, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Columbia, Rice, Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, Washington University in St. Louis, Richmond, Emory, Haverford, Virginia, USC, Mount Holyoke, Lafayette, Boston College, Tufts, Skidmore, Boston University, Lehigh, Northeastern, Rochester, Wake Forest, Villanova, George Washington, Santa Clara, Miami, Syracuse, American, Baylor, RIT, Vermont, Bard, Chapman, Flagler, Providence, San Francisco.

Two of these deserve a note. USC's page describes its binding round as new for this cycle. Michigan's page now describes a binding Early Decision round alongside its long-standing Early Action. If your list has either, the plan you remember from an older guide is out of date.

Twenty on this list also run a non-binding Early Action alongside ED: Chicago, Michigan, USC, Washington University, Virginia, Miami, Wake Forest, Villanova, Northeastern, Baylor, RIT, Vermont, Bard, Chapman, Santa Clara, Providence, Syracuse, Richmond, American, and San Francisco. At those schools the binding round is a choice, not the only early door — and the choice matters, because the two rounds at the same school can admit at very different rates.

Restrictive Early Action (7)

Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Caltech, Notre Dame, Georgetown. None of these runs Early Decision. If you apply early to one of them, you cannot apply Early Decision anywhere, and the rules on other early applications differ by a clause per school. Read the school's own page for the current cycle.

Non-restrictive Early Action only (21)

MIT, Texas at Austin, Georgia Tech, Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Maryland, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Michigan State, NC State, Binghamton, Indiana, Cincinnati, Mercer, Adelphi, Anna Maria, Ashland, Austin College, Azusa Pacific.

MIT belongs here and not in the restrictive group: its page says the plan is not single-choice and not binding. Virginia Tech belongs here and not in the ED group: its page lists Early Action and Regular Decision only.

No early round (31)

Every University of California campus we checked — Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Merced — plus the University of Washington, Texas A&M, Pittsburgh, Cal State Long Beach, Missouri, and a set of smaller colleges. One deadline, one decision.

How to check a school yourself

Three things on the admissions page settle it in under a minute. First, does the early plan say "binding" or "you agree to enroll"? That is Early Decision, whatever the heading. Second, does it say you may not apply early to other private colleges? That is restrictive. Third, is there a second binding deadline in January? That is Early Decision II, and it changes what a December deferral means. If the page shows one deadline and one decision date, there is no early round.

What this changes for your list

If you were counting a UC or Washington as an early safety, there is no early round to count. If you were planning to apply Early Decision to a school and Restrictive Early Action to Harvard or Stanford in the same fall, the rules do not allow it. And if your Early Decision candidate is one of the schools that also runs Early Action, the binding round is a choice, not the only door.

The classification above is a starting point. Plans change, and the school's own page for the cycle you are applying in is the only authority.

Where this comes from

Each school's plan was read from its official admissions page during September 2026 and classified by restriction, not by label. Schools whose pages we could not read are not listed rather than guessed. Every school page on PrepToDone carries its early-round classification with the cycle it was read for.

Name the school you're considering for Early Decision and see what it published about its early round and your estimate there — free, without an account. Which school on your list to spend the binding application on is $9.99 through Nov 15 (regular $49), once. Start with your school.