He claims that applying in September, for example, is more advantageous than applying closer to the application due date.
My assumption was always that applications were (generally) reviewed by high school in batches. So there is no way to predict when your “high school batch” will be reviewed. A September 1 application from high school X would be reviewed on the same day as a December 31 application from high school X and that day could be January 1 or it could be March 4 or anything in between.
What do people think? I am particularly interested in what AOs have to say. Could there be any truth to this? I am skeptical.
Ed, whoever he is, is making the incorrect assumption that AOs are sitting by their computer in September awaiting something to so, so they’re welcoming applications to read. He’s also assuming that applications are read FIFO.
In general, applications are sorted by school and read together after the deadline. Just like Ed,AOs are in the field before the deadlines, talking to students at fairs and HS.
And RD applications won’t generally be read until EA/ED wraps up
There may be universities that are exceptions, but they are called exceptions for a reason.
For rolling schools, yes, earlier is better.
Now if the student has a well-crafted and complete application that has been thoroughly proofread, there is a psychological advantage to submitting it to get off their plate. But that’s unrelated to admissions advantages.
Yet some schools with deadlines send out admits earlier than those, for example the UMN EA thread from last year reported some students getting admitted decisions in September, well before the 1 Nov EA deadline.
I would not assume it was some advantage conferred by applying early so much as that these would have been clear admits among any pool, though.
This varies by school. On my kids’ lists for example, the ones that are not rolling, but do seem to process early EA apps in a rolling manner, are UMN and Oregon State. I am sure there are some others that do this… but the other schools on my kids’ lists, and most EA schools that I read about on CC, seem to batch them up and release all the decisions on or close to the decision date.
I think everything varies by school, so understanding how the schools you’re applying to do things (where past threads on cc are very helpful) helps. Blanket statement might work for most schools, but if you’re applying to one of the others it can be useful to know if they do things a little differently.
Btw I might be mistaken but I don’t recall seeing anything about rejections before the EA deadline on the UMN list (so in that sense it doesn’t seem to be exactly the same thing as rolling decisions). Wild speculation but maybe they have something that flags the applications that look particularly good on paper for earlier evaluation.
Years back, I would have sworn that they do them all at once - so no advantage to getting in earlier. Now, it seems to vary from school-to-school. Helped a moderately competitive applicant last year and had everything in by October. Surprisingly, 5/10 acceptances came before TG. Some were rolling and some were EA.
It was a pleasant surprise.
Although I can’t agree with the post, I am afraid the additional applications may have shifted certain schools to get things going earlier.
I would not be surprised to see an advantage at colleges that look at demonstrated interest. It seems an early application before a deadline could be seen as demonstrating interest. I don’t know if this is true, but given there are so many potential criteria that colleges use to see demonstrated interest (the admissions dean at Conn College has noted that there are 50+ datapoints, but they won’t tell you what they are), it wouldn’t surprise me.
A good point. If an app comes to a college at 11:50 PM on December 31……a college might be justified in assuming that they are the student’s “last choice.”
Could be but then how big would their classes be ?
Few schools overall have a 50% yield. Far more are told no more than they are told yes. Since CC was mentioned - they admitted 2937. 216 came early so 2721 rd admits. 235 enrolled. Fine school - if my math is right less than a 10% yield from non ED.
Logically I concede your thought. On the other hand, how many come in the last 48 hrs b4 a deadline. Likely a sizable chunk. So a school who discounted those would be losing potential enrollees
I’m all for early apps - get ‘em done if they’re a best effort.
But if you’re thinking odds are better by applying early at schools with a fixed deadline, you’ll never know. But one wouldn’t think so. I’d suspect those admitted early are some sort of by schools that, even if they say are holistic, are using a statistically driven formula and they admit those who clear the bar.
As it is, schools not in the very top echelon already struggle and it’s going to get worse.
So personally, I believe if you achieve the deadline you’ll get full consideration.
It is essential to apply in the early round (“EA”, “priority”) at public universities that have it, because they take almost all their applicants in that round. It may mean “app in” or “app, test scores, everything required, in and processed”.
Typically that’s Nov1, sometimes Dec1.
In addition that may well be the deadline for Honors college and scholarships, or there may be an Oct15 deadline.
Before that date, some public universities go on a first come first served basis; some pre-sort and some clearly qualified/clearly unqualified students may hear early while the 90% that require careful review have to wait.
For private universities, the level of selectivity matters, too - if 70-80% applicants are admitted, applying well before the EA deadline could well result in an early acceptance. At sub-25% acceptance rates, universities are likely to have a date where everyone hears at the same time.
Figuring out the “stealth rolling” circumstances (which could be about admissions or merit) is really where almost all the “fun” is.
Sometimes they basically tell you, which is nice. Sometimes there are reliable reports of pre-deadline offers, which is also pretty definitive. Absent that, eh, hard to know.
I will note I have heard more than once that AOs can sometimes see when you STARTED an application to their college. If you start it well in advance but hit submit right before the deadline, supposedly that’s not an issue. But if you don’t actually start it until very close to the deadline, they supposedly might see that as a possible red flag in terms of actual interest. I don’t really know how to verify that, but it sounds plausible enough to keep in mind.
