As colleges begin announcing Early Decision (ED) and Early Action (EA) results, you may be seeking guidance for things like dealing with deferrals, evaluating whether your financial aid packages meet your needs, or how to withdraw other applications if you intend to enroll at a school that accepted you. Fortunately, College Confidential is here with a toolkit that can guide you on all of these topics and more. Check out these resources to ensure that you have everything you need to make the right college decision.

Take Note of the Early Action, Early Decision Release Dates and Deadlines

Wondering when your college will notify you about your Early Action and Early Decision results? Look no further! We've got the list of dates here so you can know when it's time to check your portals to determine whether you received good news!

Accepted Early Action? Find out When You Should Make Enrollment Deposit

Students who are accepted into the non-binding EA round may want to immediately pay enrollment deposits, but The Dean advises that you may want to review your financial aid package first. Read more here.

Determine How to Withdraw from Early Decision Commitment Due to Aid Issues

Most students know that the only way to get out of a binding Early Decision commitment is if the financial aid package falls short. Here's what to do if you find yourself in that situation.

Regroup If You're Facing Early Denials

If you get bad news during the first round of applications, don't lose hope — many students come back even stronger in the Regular Decision (RD) round. Check this advice from The Dean on how to restrategize, along with more tips on how to create a new college list that reflects your early interests but that is also more balanced. In addition, The Dean answers a question about whether you can apply RD to the same school that denied you during the Early Decision or Early Action round, and we've also got tips about creating a "B-List" of colleges. Finally, check out The Dean's thoughts on why a "near-perfect" student may have been denied.

Discover How to Face Deferrals

One area that creates questions for many students involves deferrals. During this process, the student isn't accepted, but isn't denied — instead, the college shifts them to the RD round to be considered with the next group of students. Although deferrals can be stressful to face, you do have some resources when navigating this area. In this article, counselors offer advice to deferred students, and here you'll find out what to do if you're thinking of "reminding" colleges that you don't need financial aid in hopes of getting onto an "accepted" list. Plus you should definitely keep applying to colleges while you await your final decision, and you can enlist your counselor to help get you off waitlists, this article notes.