Early Decision

Plan I

Application Deadline: November 15 
Decision Notification: by December 15

Plan II

Application Deadline: January 6
Decision Notification: by February 15

Regular Decision candidates may convert to EDII by filing an Early Decision Agreement no later than midnight on Thursday, January 30, 2025.

Note: Both Plan I and Plan II are binding admission programs. The only difference between the two plans are the timelines.

Early Decision Agreement

If accepted under one of our Early Decision plans, students must withdraw all other college applications and file no additional ones. An enrollment deposit is required within two weeks of acceptance. Please know that most students who are not admitted under Early Decision are denied admission so they are free to pursue other colleges. A small percentage of Early Decision candidates are offered January Admission or are deferred to Regular Decision so that they can be considered within the context of our larger applicant pool. In both cases these students are released from the binding nature of Early Decision.

In order to be considered for one of our Early Decision programs, you, your parents and your guidance counselor must submit the Early Decision agreement through the Common Application or upload it through the Coalition Application. If you already submitted a Regular Decision application and would like to change your status to Early Decision, please sign and submit the Early Decision Agreement Form.

Financial Aid

Early Decision candidates applying for financial aid and admitted to Hamilton under an Early Decision (ED) plan will receive a package that is comparable to a Regular Decision admit. Although the FAFSA application process is delayed until December this year, that should not deter potential ED1 applicants, as Hamilton will still provide your estimated financial aid award based on your submission of the CSS Profile. If financial aid is a factor for your family, before committing to ED, please review the resources and FAQs on our Financial Aid website.

Our net price calculator may give you a broad assessment of what your financial aid package could look like and might be helpful to your family in determining whether or not you can make this commitment. While ED at Hamilton is binding, we will release admitted students from this agreement if they determine Hamilton is not affordable for their families. In such cases, however, given that the financial aid package will not change at the point of Regular Decision, these students are withdrawn from Hamilton’s admitted pool and do not have the option to consider Hamilton in the spring.