If i turn in a college app today, does it get viewed before someone who submits it tomorrow, even though the results are all given out the same day?
Generally, no.
So are you saying someone who turns their app in on the deadline could get theirs read before mine? How is this process even done?
It’s not rolling admissions. Why would you even want yours read so early? They’d forget about it by the time decision time comes around.
Adcoms start reviewing applications when reading season opens in their office, unless they are on a rolling admissions schedule.
Because of other materials such as recs, school report, transcript, and test scores, the order that applicants initially submit their application in may not be the same as when the applications are complete. Even then, that is not the order they review applications in generally.
It depends. First, usually it won’t be read until all required components are in. So transcripts, recommendations, etc. Second, if they have an EA or ED round, and you apply in the RD round, they aren’t going to look at yours likely until those decisions go out. I’d say you can’t have a sure way to beat that other kid from your school, if that is what you are looking to do. Nor would it matter anyway.
A couple years ago (may still be the case though), UMich did not even down the application from CommonApp until a few weeks before the deadline. Send in application early may help you to track your application before deadline in case anything got lost of delayed (e.g. transcript or score) that you still have time to correct it. Otherwise, it does not have obvious advantage unless it is rolling. On the other hand, late application submitted right around deadline may have disadvantage. A couple years ago, UMich could not finish reviewing some EA application before the announcement deadline and delayed (not deferred) some of the late application reviews until after the holidays. That hurt the chance for merit scholarship as only EA admitted students are eligible.
My biggest concern in all this is that someone whose app is reviewed earlier will have a greater chance of getting in due to the admissions people having no idea in what kind of applicants they are getting yet someone whose app is reviewed later would then be compared to those people earlier, so that would potentially affect them.
In general, you may have a slightly better chance applying early to a school with rolling admissions if you are happy with your test scores & GPA. There is no bump whatsoever for schools with a set date for sending all acceptances.
But I do think there is an adcom fatigue factor. Having reviewed applications in other contexts, my experience is that reviewers tend to get more jaded as time goes by. What seemed impressive (especially to those who are new to the process) in the first few weeks, has become less distrinctive by the end of the process. So getting your app completed a few days earlier than someone else isn’t going to make a difference - but a few weeks later it may be a bit harder to sound unique and impressive, especially if there are many others like you applying from the same schools, in the same part of the country, with similar qualifications.
@anonemuss If it is not rolling, they will wait till finish reviewing all applications before announcing the admission result. They will like give each applicant a priority score first. For the concern you think the adcom may have, that is why they have EA/ED. There is no need to further divide the EA into EEA. Indeed, how can they know if the later application submitted before deadline will be better or worse and decide to admit the earlier applicants or not?
Aren’t most admissions decisions made by committee? So even if there is some element of fatigue, no decision is made until one or two other team members have looked over the application too? So some will see it early in the process, and some later. It sounds like it’s all a wash in the end in terms of which applications are reviewed first.
For an EA (not rolling) school, the Adcoms will not start reviewing applications until after the EA deadline. This give everyone the same fair shot and you will not know where you will be the sequence of apps being reviewed.
Ok, so I get that apps won’t be reviewed until the deadline has passed, but why are they sorted in a random order? Why should I get punished because someone else waited until the last day to complete their apps while I got everything in a month in advance?
Sorry, I did not mean to imply that they are sorted in a random order. The thing is, no one knows how they are sorted and you have no control over what a given school does. I heard that some Admission Committees sort by high school, but Colleges do not advertise how they sort applications. Don’t worry about what you cannot control. Submit the best app that you can and I’m sure you’ll do ok. Good Luck.
“Why should I get punished because someone else waited until the last day to complete their apps while I got everything in a month in advance?”
Because this is one of those cases where being done first wasn’t the objective (just like when you do a test at school). The schools aren’t evaluating people on who got their app in the fastest. They are evaluating them on who had the best ones - which means turning it in on the last day before it was due is just fine.
Where did you get the impression that colleges don’t start reviewing before the EA deadline? I don’t know why they would wait to start reviews once all the materials are in on an app. They may not make final decisions until after the deadline, but I bet some first reads go on before it.
@intparent Ok, so let me get this straight. I am applying to a school ED with a November 1st deadline. If i get all my materials in by October, they will start looking through my application by then? Looking through other threads, it seems that admissions people are all out travelling this time of year, so I assumed that they wouldn’t have time to read ahead on apps that were already completed until the deadline had passed.
They may start some. They know that an onslaught is coming, so there is benefit to starting. But they won’t look until the app is complete, and high schools rarely get their materials in early. You can’t gain an edge by gaming this somehow – the time for improving your chances was in the classroom, in testing, and in ECs. This is s waste of time to worry about.