<p>My mom has been bugging me about submitting my application early - before the November 1 deadline. Is it true people who send their applications early have a greater advantage than those who wait until a day or two before the deadline? Thank you in advance!</p>
<p>The adcoms might be fresher and therefore more optimisic at the beginning of the cycle, before they’ve read 300 apps a day. However, there is constant shifting of apps from the admit to reject pile as new favorites are identified, so it’s impossible to tell if an early impression might endure.</p>
<p>There is no advantage to submitting much earlier before the deadline for ED, so I don’t know where fauve is coming from. Adcoms start evaluating apps after all the ED applications have been submitted. ED is not rolling.</p>
<p>As long as you get it in before the deadline, all the applications are reviewed together. There’s no clear cut advantage, and really, its probably better you submit it late. If you submit it too early, you might realize that there’s something you forgot to include, or you can add some finishing touches to your essay.</p>
<p>Colleges do not claim that submitting earlier necessarily gives you an advantage but some, such as Yale, encourage you to submit earlier and says it starts reviewing files as soon as they are complete even if that is before the EA app deadline. One of the most significant advantages of submitting earlier is that it assures you won’t blow the app deadline date. Many have reported doing so before, example: they wait until last day to do app, get to the end of app and then: (a) find some form that has to be signed by the student or someone else (a counselor) and has to be postmarked by the app deadline date and they are screwed because it is 11:30 at night and there is no way you can ever get the thing done, or (b) discover the school requires all rec letters, test scores, and transcripts to be postmarked by the app deadline and the student forgot to order one of those or, for a few colleges, discover that they wanted everything in their hands by the app deadline not just sent, (c) the power goes out in he neighborhood and the computer won’t work as a result.</p>
<p>One advantage may be you could get an interview earlier. This was a few years ago, when D1 applied ED to Columbia, applicants’ information were loaded into their system as they became available, where their alums could go online to select who they want to interview. She didn’t get her interview until the week of Thanksgiving. </p>
<p>If you are going to submit your application late, I would do online submission rather than paper submission. The reason is it’s faster for your information to be loaded to school’s database. D1 added Duke to her list last minute. She submitted her RD application online over the holiday break. In 2 days she was notified electronically her interviewer’s name. If she had submitted her application via hard copy, it would have sat in their mail room for few weeks. Not everyone gets an opportunity to interview (it depends on how many alums they have in each region), that’s why most schools say inteviews don’t count that much because it’s not available to everyone…</p>