Established in 1826, Case Western Reserve University is a prominent private university that is located in Cleveland, OH.
It is widely acknowledged as an excellent institution for higher education, especially with regard to its robust research offerings.
In fact, Case Western is ranked #22 in the United States among private universities in terms of the largest federal research funding.
According to the 2022 edition of US News and World Report’s annual list of the best national universities, Case Western is the #44 best college in the country. Looking only at Ohio, on the other hand, Case Western is second-to-none, with the school ranking first in the state.
With a student-to-faculty ratio approaching the single digits at 11:1, there is no doubt that attending this school will allow students the opportunity to develop close academic relationships with peers and instructors in an intimate classroom environment.
The school offers extensive experiential learning opportunities, with 99% of students participating in some form of hands-on learning prior to graduating.
Further testament to Case Western’s excellent research opportunities is the fact that an 86% majority of their students get involved with research, often beginning in their first year of study at the school.
If you are interested in applying to Case Western University, you may wonder whether or not you should apply to the school early.
Early action and early decision are both admission options, and these programs have key differences.
For one, the early decision plan is binding, meaning that students who choose this option are committed to enrolling at Case Western, should they be accepted to the school.
Early action, on the other hand, is not binding, giving students more time to make a final college decision.
Here, we have gathered all of the most important things to know about early admission at Case Western University, including application deadlines, acceptance rates, and more.
Case Western Early Action & Early Decision Acceptance Rate
The acceptance rate for early decision applicants at Case Western Reserve University is 36%.
The school does not release specific data regarding the acceptance rates for students who apply through the early action plan.
Statistics suggest, however, that early decision applicants are 10-12% more likely to be accepted than applicants who opt for the regular decision route.
Early action applicants are an estimated 4-6% more likely than regular applicants to gain admission.
From these figures, we can deduce that Case Western’s early action acceptance rate is most likely between 28 and 32%.
For the sake of further comparison, according to US News and World Report, Case Western has an average acceptance rate of about 30%.
This figure represents not just those students who applied to the school through the regular decision plan, but also early action and early decision applicants.
One can take away from all of these numbers: no matter which way a student chooses to apply, their odds of being accepted to Case Western are somewhere around one in three.
With Case Western being the moderately selective university it is, students interested in attending this school must earn strong grades throughout high school.
An impressive 70% majority of Case Western students placed within the top ten percent of their graduating class in high school; nearly all — 95% — of them graduated within the top 25% of their class.
In short, even if you opt for early action or early decision, admission to Case Western is quite competitive.
Case Western EA & ED Decision Date
Students who apply to Case Western Reserve University through the early action program can expect to receive notification of their admission decision on or around December 21 each year.
The notification date for early decision I applicants is around December 10 every year.
Last, applicants who opted for the early decision II application timeline can expect to hear whether or not they have been offered admission to Case Western within two weeks of the date of submitting the application.
According to the school, the application review process begins around January 9 each year for the early decision II group.
As we discussed in the above section, the deadline for these students to submit their applications is January 15 annually.
From these two pieces of information, one can deduce that all early decision II applicants should be notified of their admission decision by no later than January 29 each year.
For the sake of comparison, each year, regular decision applicants at Case Western can expect to receive notification regarding whether they have been accepted or not by about March 18.
This means that early action applicants get to find out if they have been admitted to Case Western three months earlier than regular decision applicants.
Early decision I applicants are also around three months or so ahead in this regard, and the early decision II students hear back somewhere around two months before the regular group does.
For many students, being able to know whether or not you will be accepted so much earlier than regular decision applicants is one of the most appealing aspects of applying through an early application plan.
Case Western EA & ED Deadline
The early action application deadline for Case Western Reserve University is November 1 of each year.
The application deadline for early decision I students is also on November 1 every year.
The early decision II deadline, on the other hand, is several weeks later, around the middle of January each year.
Although the early action and early decision I application options do share a deadline, it is important to remember the key difference between the two plans: early action is binding, while early decision is not.
Thus, only those who are confident that Case Western is their top choice of school should choose early action.
For early action and early decision I applicants, there are two weeks between the application deadline and the deadline for submitting financial aid documents, which is on November 15.
On the other hand, early decision II applicants must be prepared to submit their completed financial aid documents to the school the same day the application is due, around January 15.
For the sake of comparison, the regular decision application deadline at Case Western is January 15 each year — the same date as the early decision II application deadline.
Regular decision applicants, however, are not required to turn in their financial aid documents until February 1 annually.
This means that early decision II applicants and regular decision applicants actually have the same amount of time to complete the application itself, although early applicants get to hear back from the school’s admissions department sooner than regular applicants.
Additionally, regular decision applicants benefit from an extra two weeks to finish working on financial aid forms, compared to early decision II students.
Looking at these dates, it can be said that compared to the other two fall admission options, the early action I plan is a very, very early path to admission.
How to Apply to Case Western University for Early Action or Early Decision
The first step to applying to Case Western Reserve University for early action or early decision is to carefully fill out the application online through either the Common Application or the Coalition With Scoir.
In addition to miscellaneous information regarding the student’s academic and personal background, the application includes a personal essay.
Students interested in pursuing a music major, an Arts Achievement Scholarship for music or art, or both are also required to submit an arts supplement, which is quite similar to a portfolio.
In addition to the completed application and essay, students must submit other required supplemental materials before the deadline.
Some of the necessary additional materials include official transcripts from all high schools or secondary institutions attended, as well as any program-specific requirements such as auditions.
There are several optional application supplementals that students may choose to include for consideration.
These may include high SAT or ACT scores, or strong letters of recommendation from previous teachers, for example.
Case Western also offers a limited number of prospective students the opportunity to take part in an interview with the admissions department officials.
Students must compile and submit all of their application materials well before the deadline for their desired admission route.
To review, the deadline for both early action and early decision I application submission is November 1 each year. The application deadline for early decision II applicants falls on January 15 annually.
Because early action at Case Western is not binding, students who are accepted through this application plan are free to spend the time between receiving notification of their acceptance and the enrollment deadline carefully deliberating about whether or not they should choose Case Western.
Early decision applicants, on the other hand, do not have this same freedom because early decision is a binding agreement.
As a result, upon being accepted to Case Western, early decision applicants must withdraw all applications they may have submitted at other schools.
