11:59 Dec. 31st or 11:59 Jan. 1st???

Deadlines are there for a reason. You either get your application in before the deadline which, in this case, could be 11:58 pm tonight or you miss the deadline and don’t get to apply to that school. There might be some schools who care whether the application was filed November 15 vs. January 1st but generally I don’t think that is how they are making their decisions (unless rolling admission). I remember a friend ranting about having to drive his kid into Manhattan to get to the U.S. Post Office at 33rd and 8th Avenue before midnight on the day that applications were due in the days before this was all done by computer. Kid got into Harvard and Princeton.