<p>I have two takes on this. </p>
<p>First, is it just me, or is the month of March a little strange? It has to be the longest month in the calendar. I think someone has stuck some extra hours in each day. My son was complaining about this last week. Despite his too busy schedule, he feels as if the days are dragging. April 1 is a distant target. </p>
<p>I guess for those students who already know what they’re doing, the days are flying by. But for those who really don’t know where they’re going (and in some cases, aren’t even sure where they want to go!), things are progressing slowly. Please count my son in the latter group.</p>
<p>Then there’s the other end of the stick. I used to think there was a very clear demarcation between March and April, at least in terms of most so-called top tier schools. You didn’t know much of anything on March 29, until the magic day of April 1 arrived (and sometimes you had to wait longer for the mailman to bring it). Then the announcements descended like an avalanche. More and more, it seems that top schools are making their preferences known in March or even late February. Likely letters, ED II, early admits, blue ribbon applications, notifications of merit grants and interviews—all these have cut into the RD pool significantly and taken away the meaning of April 1. You have kids on some of the forums bemoaning the fact they didn’t get a likely letter, and wondering if it means they’re out of contention. It seems that there is more of this going on every year.</p>
<p>We talk a lot about ED/EA admissions and how this cuts down on the numbers admitted RD. But, if you add in the late February and March admits, it cuts down on RD numbers even more drastically. It’s almost as if we’re developing a system of rolling admits at the top ranked schools from December 15 onward, even though they don’t call it that and the rules haven’t technically changed.</p>
<p>Anyone have any ideas on this, or am I off base and just not aware of what’s been standard for the last ten years?</p>
<p>P.S. Just say that Byerly put up a note on the Williams forum that “early write” numbers had exploded at Williams with 200 likely letters sent out of the remaining 300 seats. If this keeps up, maybe we should abolish RD?</p>