Early Decision

Early decision is what high school seniors do if they:

Are absolutely sure they want to go to Oberlin,
Feel that applying early gives them their best shot of getting in, and
Are eager to get the whole college thing decided and out of the way as soon as possible.

There are two rounds of early decision at Oberlin.

Early Decision students get their housing applications before others are admitted, which means on the one hand, you're very likely to get the room-type/building that you ask for. On the other hand, the folks who are picking roommates are mostly matching you up against other ED folk, so that pool is smaller and you can end up with someone a little more random than you might have otherwise. First pick at housing is not a good reason to apply ED; make sure you really wouldn't rather go someplace else.