Sending in M.S. application well before the deadline?

SadHippo
Sun, 31 Aug 2014 14:51:43 +0000

How often do graduate schools give preference to students who send in their application very early (well before the deadline)? I have seen grad school pages that say “there will be prioritized evaluations for students applying before ____.” None of the schools I’m applying to say that they do that on their website and when I contacted multiple people (graduate director, graduate advisor, etc) I never got a response from any of the schools on that particular question (they answered many of my other questions though).

Every M.S. program I’m applying to for Fall 2015 has a June or July deadline except for one that has a December deadline. All of these schools have a very similar application procedure (all are in Texas and use the common app that works for each). Thus, when I have my stuff done for my school that has the December deadline, I’ll more or less have 90%+ of my application for the other schools done. This means that I have the option of having my applications for those schools with a June/July deadline completed in December or January. Would there be any reason to NOT send in my applications for those schools in Dec/Jan if I know for sure I’m applying to them? Would applying early make it look like my application was rushed or would it look like I am very interested which is why I got a head start?

One related/similar question is whether or not they admit some people before the deadline and I couldn’t even get a response for that when I contacted my schools :(

Thanks!