<p>As far as I know/understand, there exist the first and second rounds of accepting applicants in the admission process. However, I have the impression that some applicants are offered admission really early. So, I am curious about whether there exists some process, before even the first admission round, in which schools accept the strongest applicants who have extremely outstanding backgrounds, have experience of conducting research with the department they are appling to etc. Do schools have such a process?</p>
<p>What do you mean by really early? Like January? Or November? :)</p>
<p>It’s certainly possible that a school might do something like you suggest. In my experience, the people who were given early interview offers or acceptances were those who got their applications in earlier, though.</p>
<p>Well, in my field, many schools whose application deadlines are mid December say they start sending admission decisions in mid to late February. (Those schools usually do not have interviews.) And it seems some applicants are notified of admission decisions in late January or early February.</p>
<p>I understand it depends on the school, but I assume most of the schools I mentioned above begin reviewing applications after the deadlines. So, I am not sure how submitting applications well in advance of their deadlines is related to receiving early decisions. And I would certainly like to know it!</p>
<p>Oh, the schools to which I applied last year started reviewing applications that were complete first, and people who had all of their materials in well in advance of the deadline generally had complete applications earlier. (I actually also got an interview invitation last year in advance of the program’s deadline, which I assume means they were reviewing applications as they were complete, even prior to the official submission deadline.)</p>
<p>The schools I have looked at often say something like “the admission committee will begin reviewing applications in January (which is after the published deadline).” So I thought usually the committee starts the reviewing process after the deadline. Maybe the general process depends on the field? </p>
<p>That said, I believe it is possible that shools review applications and sometimes make decisions before the deadline. I just have no idea how often that happens and results in those before-the-first-round offers in my field, comp. sci.</p>
<p>Yes, it happens. I was accepted to 1 school almost a month before a school’s application deadline. I applied at the same time with all my apps but this school’s deadline was I think Feb. while most of the others were in Dec.</p>