<p>Hi, Something came up as my son and I were finishing up the Common App for EA schools with a 11/1 filing date. Some of his schools allow you to pay the application fee ahead of time, before the entire Common App is submitted. Others require you to pay the application fee at the same time as you submit. There is a "warning" that appears that it may take up to two days to process a credit card payment and that applications are not considered "filed" until the payment clears. To me that would mean better safe than sorry and get those EA/ED applications in earlier rather than waiting til the last minute.</p>
<p>We didn’t find it to be a problem last year, and my DS managed to file every single application (common as well as school ones) on the very last day possible. He had every application accepted with no problems. He filed several early at the deadline(for scholarships, etc) and others on regular school deadlines. Yes, he was the ultimate procrastinator! Good luck with the process!</p>
<p>My payments showed up right away even though it said that it could take 2 days. Also, if there was ever a question, you have a printed receipt that has a time/date stamp on it to show you paid before the deadline.</p>
<p>A bigger stumble when filing at the last minute is the computers can get overloaded.</p>
<p>There can be other issues that come up too. Two years ago, my son was trying to submit, but his GC only wanted to file her rec. by paper, not online. That meant his record was incomplete and my son could not get the computer to accept. Awful! We had a plane to catch we finally got everything straightened out while the airport limo sat in our driveway.</p>
<p>I’m glad it worked out for everyone who responded. I just didn’t want someone else to be the unhappy story where there was a problem that could have been avoided. Good luck to everyone.</p>