If you haven’t yet, searching for your dream university’s application deadline will likely lead immediately to some unfamiliar terms, such as “early action” and “regular decision.”

While the terms at first can be quite confusing, let’s make things really simple to clearly grasp what each round means. Though some might categorize differently, in general there are two major rounds of first-year undergraduate admission: the Early Round and the Regular Round.

Earlier this month, Colorado College announced that it was withdrawing from the U.S. News & World Report college and university rankings.

In a nutshell, deciding which schools to apply to based on the U.S. News ranking is like deciding which companies to invest your entire life’s savings into based on some marketing magazine’s annual article on “the best companies to work for.”