<p>on the common app, it says "We encourage applicants to submit their portion of the application by December 15."
Are applicants who submit their apps after 12/15 penalized?</p>
<p>No............</p>
<p>They are not penalized. My counselor told me so. I submitted my application sometime before New Year and I was accepted.</p>
<p>Yeah, same. I talked to a college admissions specialist (free of charge, before I get jumped on for being rich), who said they encouraged it due to the potential for site crashes and slow holiday mail, rather than any effective deadline.</p>
<p>lol it's probably because they don't have EA or ED so they are bored while all the other colleges are are having fun reading some good essays and accepting/rejecting kids and don't feel like waiting till January 1st to get some apps to go over.</p>