Increase in college applications for Early Action deadline as pandemic wanes

ALAMEDA – College counselors are noticing an increase in interest among high school seniors applying to college for the Early Action deadline as the process returns to a more familiar routine from before the pandemic and more universities add the option for freshman admission.

“I feel like for me finding that balance has been allotting time to college applications on the weekend, and then of course during the week, trying to get that homework done,” said Kasey Kazliner, 17, a senior at a high school in the East Bay who plans to apply Early Action to two schools this November. “I have nothing to lose by doing it and it’s no harm, no foul.”

Kazliner wants to become a sports broadcaster and already has a YouTube channel where he talks about Bay Area teams. He is also a member of his high school’s band and hopes to keep playing saxophone in college so he can cheer on the school’s sport teams as a musician. Those activities add to the rigorous course load he’s taking to keep himself competitive among all the applicants looking to go to some of the same colleges.

“There’s thousands if not millions of students applying and everyone comes from a different walk of life,” he told KPIX 5 last month before the first application deadline. “For me, I’m not really worrying about other people, I’m just kind of wanna focus on myself and make myself the best applicant I can be.”

Many four-year schools in California offer an Early Action option for admission. Applications are usually due on Nov. 1 or later that month with the chance to receive an offer of admission in January. It moves up the entire timeline for applying to college, where most schools don’t require the application to be submitted until January and then announce offers of admission later in the spring.

“I feel like with the deadline approaching, it’s definitely been stressful but I feel like for me, honestly, personally, I work well under pressure,” Kazliner said.

While he’s applying to about 15 schools all together and does not have one clear favorite, he does know that having an offer of admission earlier in the new year would give him and his family more time to prepare for the move and starting college next fall. It’s why he started working on his application over the summer.

“Students are not just applying early because they want to, they’re applying early because they have to, otherwise they’re going to miss out on an important opportunity like a scholarship,” said Colleen Boucher-Robinson, a Collegewise counselor who helps students like Kazliner get through the admission process.
“Early Action is a great option if it’s not tied to some of these other requirements.”

She says not only are more students looking to Early Action, they’re applying to additional schools as the entire college admission process has become more competitive in recent years. One of the advantages of Early Action she says is that not only do families get more time to plan, it reduces the time when there is a weight on students waiting to find out where they got in from different colleges.

“You had to be working on this over the summer and possibly in the spring of your junior year and I think moving up the timeline in that way creates a lot of pressure,” Boucher-Robinson told KPIX 5 last month. “I think it absolutely advantages students who have greater resources, great access to support from people like me, from a school counselor, parents who have been through this process before.”

Boucher-Robinson does worry about those students who have so much on their plate entering senior year not only in school but at home or with a job. She knows making the regular deadline for college is already a challenge so Early Action may create more of a division among those able to consider it and those without the resources to access it.

But for students like Kazliner, it could be the payoff he’s hoping for after working on his applications for months. Regardless of where he decides to go for college next fall, he feels excited about following his love for sports and beginning a career built around that passion.

“This is one my chance to prove to colleges who I am as a person,” Kazliner said.