<p>If I am applying to elite schools and I send in all required application materials around the end of November, would I have a better chance of acceptance than if I sent near the end of December? I have looked for an answer but am unsure on whether colleges read applications as they come in and spots fill up or if the deadline is simply the deadline. Is there any advantage to applying earlier?</p>
<p>Generally no. One reason is they generally gather all the applications for a region together, and sometimes even lump all from the same high school together to make it more efficient for the first reader. I’m sure this varies by school, and anyone with firsthand knowledge is more than welcome to correct me, but the path your application takes in the RD round probably has little to do with when you send it in, though earlier can’t hurt.</p>
<p>That’s good to hear so I won’t be in too much of a hurry, thanks for the reply!</p>
<p>For large universities (especially flagships), it can help since they go in “rounds”.
Generally, the earlier you send it, the better from admission officers’ point of view, but does it make a difference? Hard to tell.</p>
<p>That’s good advice for large universities, or even schools that get a ton of applications - I’m sure they do them in batches.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, if you can avoid the last minute rush, that’s got to be a good thing. Although you don’t have complete control over when your application is processed, you do want to avoid being one of the last ones they look at, if you can. What can happen in the later rounds is they start running out of certain needs. It’s unpredictable, but say if a school has 500 slots, they gave out 200 in the ED round, and they’ve given out enough acceptances to fill what they anticipate will be 275 of the remaining slots. And they discover they’re short of male humanities majors. That’s great if you’re a male humanities major, but if you’re not, they’re not going to go cut someone else to let you in when they go over your application. You just may be a victim of tightening standards at the very end.</p>
<p>So, I somewhat modify my earlier advice. Although sending it it in the last minute rush may not hurt, there’s a chance that being last could hurt. There’s also no guarantee that sending it in early will help, as it could get shuffled to the end anyway. Best advice is to send it in when it’s ready, and try not to last minute rush anything. Sending it in at the last minute will never get any tiny possible early processing bump that may exist or may not exist, and I know of no downside to sending it in early that anyone could possible predict.</p>
<p>I know D is holding completed apps waiting to see what ED1 brings, but I anticipate that most of her apps will go in before Xmas and not on Dec. 31 if we get a bad ED1 decision. That may still constitute the last minute rush, but given the fact we want to avoid pointless application fees, it’s worth doing it that way.</p>