College Application Deadlines

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you mean early action or just submitting the application early. If the former, then the benefit is that your DC will hear earlier. The downside is that if you have a good senior fall it won't be counted - that's only important if you need to show he continuation of an upward trajectory or there is some other blemish in the earlier years.

Another benefit of early action at some schools is that it gives you time to apply for additional programs. At Michigan, for example, you can't apply for the Honors program until you've been accepted, and honors admission is on a rolling basis so it's much better to be able to apply early in the cycle.

If the latter then it varies a little bit by school. For some there is no benefit. Others have earlier deadlines to be considered for merit aid (I recall Wake Forest being one of these). Others may consider applications on a rolling basis - this is most common at large state schools.

For students who have performed well while taking a rigorous course load 9-11 grades, a good fall of even straight A's barely makes a dent in your GPA at that point. Did the math and it ends up being something like a .005 bump. Our thinking is that colleges like to see that you are taking a rigorous course load senior year. Taking several AP classes, performing well and submitting fall semester grades may be a good tactic for demonstrating performance under rigor, but many students will have some record of this prior to the fall of their senior year.

This has nothing to do with the OP's question. HS in area send first semester grades to all schools the student applied ( or intended when they asked the HS to send their transcript in hte fall), so they will see those grades regardless of when the student applied.

OP, we were told by several universities that they generally look at applications as they come in and regard later applicants as not as interested in their school as earlier applicants. Most have a start date for looking at applications, so applications received up to that point would all be considered early.

It absolutely does help with this decision. If you have a child that needs to demonstrate performance under rigor, there is a benefit to waiting until Jan/Feb to apply and skipping early action. I think a lot of schools like to see the apps coming in as early as possible, but to get "interest" points taken away if your application arrives a day or two later than someone else's? Hmmm...does that sound right to you?

It isn't a few days, OP was indicating applying in Dec/Jan (close to dealine) instead of early Nov.

Okay - got it. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

HS in area send first semester grades to all schools the student applied ( or intended when they asked the HS to send their transcript in hte fall), so they will see those grades regardless of when the student applied

Yes, but some schools will have already admitted the student. I know first semester grades are sent by the HS anyway. When applying to out of state publics it is very advantageous to apply as early as possible. Much better chance at merit aid, and rolling admissions means it does get harder to be admitted the later the application comes in. Not this way for the Va public colleges. The Va publics and the public high schools, in FCPS anyway, seem to be more in sync and wait to evaluate first semester grades.

Depends on the public university. My DC applied to Michigan and Virginia and neither do rolling admissions. Both have EA though. Neither have much in the way of merit aid other than the big scholarships like Jefferson Scholars.

[Anonymous]

Hate to break it to you OP, but the Honors deadline for some of the big state schools has already passed - it was Oct. 15th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hate to break it to you OP, but the Honors deadline for some of the big state schools has already passed - it was Oct. 15th.

OP here. Looking at private schools, not large publics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hate to break it to you OP, but the Honors deadline for some of the big state schools has already passed - it was Oct. 15th.

OP here. Looking at private schools, not large publics.

oh good, glad to hear that. We just pushed out 3 applications by the 15th (argh!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hate to break it to you OP, but the Honors deadline for some of the big state schools has already passed - it was Oct. 15th.

OP here. Looking at private schools, not large publics.

In that case I don't think submitting your apps before the deadline will make a difference. Some private colleges measure expression of interest but date of application isn't one of them. Obviously no harm in getting them in and done though. My DC had all 12/31 deadlines and it was nice to be finished with them.

[Anonymous]

^ agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it make any sense to apply early to colleges with application deadlines in January and February? Or have they set the application deadlines in January/February in order to see the applicant's first-semester grades?

Does applying early have any impact (negative or positive) on financial aid, including merit aid?

very little

[Anonymous]

Applying early gives better chance of getting an interview. Some schools send out admissions officers to do interviews, not alumni wit little impact. IIRC, my DC met a URoch admissions person, the in-town interviews were booked up by mid september