<p>When a deadline says Jan 1 or Feb 1, are those the dates the school has to receive you application or the dates by when you must send them, regardless of whether the schools received them or not?</p>
<p>I think it means send/postmarked.</p>
<p>Can someone validate this?</p>
<p>Calico is right but making sure they get it by then won’t hurt, will it?</p>
<p>The schools I applied to had a postmark deadline. So long as it was postmarked by or on the day of the deadline date, it was still accepted by the school. So these dates DO NOT mean the school must have your application in hand. The only way to make sure, though, is to check with your schools policies.</p>
<p>Don’t cut it close! You can apply online, at 11:59 PM on the day of the deadline, and find that the server has crashed or your power is out or some other calamity. </p>
<p>Also, have your test scores and transcripts sent early!!! Schools get massive amounts of mail, starting in December (sometimes earlier) and they won’t even look at your application until everything has been received. It can take weeks to process all that mail, and the early bird is definitely going to get the worm in terms of admission, and merit money in this situation. Test scores can be lost, so ask for verification about things being received if they don’t automatically send it to you.</p>
<p>It depends, there are some that say they want to receive everything by the deadline date so you need to check each school to which you are applying. Most want application by then and everything else in their hands by a week to two later except many will even take Jan SAT scores. It is best to send everything you can before the deadline. Worst case scenario happens all too often: applicant waits until last minute and then on Dec 31 while doing an app realizes that he is supposed to get something from his school (a counselors rec, order the transcript, something else) and send by Jan 1 and his school is closed during the holidays and the needed counselor is somewhere in the Bahamas. Nevertheless, screwing up can be fixed at most because what most colleges do if something isn’t in by expected date is not ding you but instead send a warning letter or email telling you what is missing and that you need to get it in promptly.</p>
<p>Given that you’re about 8 months out, you’re seriously going to cut it so close to within a day of the deadline? Why don’t you plan on getting it done as early as possible?</p>
<p>LOL</p>