<p>My DS having just submitted his ED application with a whole three days to spare, I wondered whether there was a chart or a graph that showed dates before deadlines and application frequencies on those dates. </p>
<p>I once saw something similar for tax return filing, a gradual up-trend of filing with a serious spike in April culminating in an apex on April 15th. </p>
<p>Is there similar research for college apps? I'd imagine it looks similar to return filing, although with nagging parents hanging over the applicant's shoulders, I'd bet the big spike is at least a couple of days before deadline. </p>
<p>My son recently applied ED to a university, and we asked the admission counselor if it made a difference whether we submitted several weeks before the deadline, or on the last day of the deadline. She said that it did not matter as long as it was submitted by the deadline. She said they wait and do not look at any of the ED applications until all of them are in, then they look at them together as a group so they can compare them in order to decide which ones rise above the rest (so it is basically a competition among the group, and they need to see the whole group before they can decide).</p>
<p>Given that the common app seems to crash every year right just before midnight on deadline night, I think lots of kids submit in the last couple hours. Both my kids were guilty of this.</p>
<p>I think the two major camps are those who cannot get motivated until the last minute and turn in right at the deadline, and those with the philosophy of “I finish early, but reserve the right to be done on time,” who want time to revisit the application or have a mentor review it prior to hitting the final “send” button. Besides those camps, there may be a minority who finish early and want to be done, so they also submit early.</p>
<p>With taxes, most people get refunds so there is an incentive to file early- that does not even seem to work!</p>
<p>I don’t know how people live with the concept of “something really important is due on X date, so I’ll submit it on X date.” Something ALWAYS happens – someone gets sick, the electricity goes out, someone gets in a car accident, something else occurs that you need to deal with. It just seems like plain old common sense to me that if the due date is (say) November 15, you plan to have everything in advance and submit it a week ahead of that. </p>
<p>I just looked at this for my grad students. Last year, 40% of the applications were submitted either the day before the due date or on the due date (27.5% were submitted ON the due date). </p>
<p>I did follow the EA application at UMich last year by the application number. You should be able to find that thread. If I remember it right, half of the applications were sent within the last 2 weeks. You will find more information from that thread. I think it is the UMich EA 2014 thread.</p>