Or at least help a little bit? I am planning to do early admission for UF.
It will vary by school. Check the “Common Data Set” for each college you plan to apply to. It’s easiest to find through google. There will be stats showing how many apply early and the percentage of those accepted early v. regular. Generally it’s not good to apply Early Decision is you need to weigh all your financial aid offers. Early Action is fine because it’s non binding.
It doesn’t really help in getting in but places you favorably for merit scholarships and provides the certainty of knowing early you got in… or that you DIDN’T and should redraft your list with more matches/safeties!
UF doesn’t have early admission.
@ZucchiniSoup Yes they do. I’ll post the link underneath. They call it the “priority deadline.” So yes, @aznpanda should DEFINITELY apply by the priority deadline. I’ve looked at a few state schools (Purdue, UMD College Park, all the UC’s, UMBC, Penn State, and a few more), and they can accept up to 90% (or more) of the class at the priority deadline, making it almost impossible to get in if you apply later. If UF is the same, any merit aid would also only go to students accepted at the priority deadline. Actually, according to the second link, this is definitely the case.
@hungryteenager The only deadline is November 1st, so they can call it priority if they want to, but when I hear priority I think of more than one deadline, which isn’t the case here.
UC’s do not have priority deadline, only one deadline Nov 30.
Sometimes it helps but it really depends on the school. Check the Common Data Set and see if it matters to them in admissions.
EA is not “priority deadline” per se.
EA doesn’t really help you get in and everybody finds out at the same time.
With rolling admissions, you can apply at any point between Aug1 and Priority Deadline Date, and hear back quickly (except for Penn State, which only answers early if you’re sure/yes or sure/no, for the rest you find out around Jan 30.) It’s just an indication that if you apply after that, your odds become much tougher.
@MYOS1634, " EA doesn’t really help you get in and everybody finds out at the same time."
You may be commenting about a specific college but my son’s #1 school admits 41% of the EA applicants and 36% of the regular applicants. His grades and tests are ready to go in the fall. We’ll take the extra odds. The EA applicants find out decisions in late January and the RD applicants find out by April 1.
Again the stats of regular v. early admission is shown on the Common Data Sets of each college. It’s a uniform set of statistics and worth checking.
I think EA is great if you don’t need to pump up the GPA or take the fall SAT. Two less months of worry and angst. Priceless.
Okay. UF specifically is a lot different from most colleges we’ve checked. Their ONLY deadline is Nov 1 and you are notified by Feb 8 just as ZuchinniSoup said.
UF’s priority deadline is always Nov 1st. If you apply after that date, your application will be considered on a space-available basis. If you’re serious about UF, you really must apply before the deadline.
Priority admission decision notification (For applicants meeting the November 1 deadline) is the 2nd Friday in February. Last year that was Feb 13th, in 2016 it will be Feb 12th.
For those that missed the priority deadline, notifications will be sent out in March and/or April.
Yes. Depending on the school.
Again, see my link in Reply #9. It is ONLY a significant benefit if the student is already either on a par with other students who typically apply to that particular college OR is slightly ABOVE the typical applicant pool. The problem with this question is that it is almost always asked with regard to reach or super-reach schools. In the latter case, it is a bad idea to apply Early and will harm the student’s chances, threatening an Early outright rejection.
There’s no such thing as a uniform piece of advice for “a” college. If it’s a reach college and you’re not one of their reachier candidates, they’re happy to forego your guaranteed tuition and yield for stronger candidates in the later round.
UF has no early admissions