<p>I'm a high school senior applying to college, and I know I will be applying to a school early decision. </p>
<p>The problem is, early decision results won't come out until early December/mid-December, and if I'm not accepted ED, I would need to apply regular decision. My school requires a 15-day processing period to send transcripts and such, but I would be really cutting it close with the RD deadline, and there's also Winter Break in between. </p>
<p>Did you apply RD while your ED applications were still pending? I just don't want to send out my RD applications, and then have to withdraw them because I was accepted ED. </p>
<p>The transcripts and such from your school – need not go in on the RD deadline. The colleges fully understand that. At the RD deadline, YOU need to get in what you’re responsible for. The school docs trickle in afterwards. You’re OK in this scenario.</p>
<p>You WAIT to submit your RD apps until after you find out your ED decision. There’s enough time to get all your RD apps in if ED doesn’t get you admitted.</p>
<p>Most people I know have sent in their RD apps before they hear back from their ED school because it’s better to send things in on the early side. Admissions committees start reviewing apps as soon as they start coming in, and they could already have found many talented students by the time you apply. It’s better to have to withdraw those apps if you are accepted than to apply on the later side.</p>
<p>If you decide to wait until after you receive your ED decision, be ready to send out your apps as soon as you hear back.</p>
<p>Don’t slack on getting your essays written and getting ready to hit submit on those RD apps. We had a poster last year who did that, and although he was admitted to his ED school, his FA package was insufficient. The poor kid really had to scramble on his applications right in the last few days (he didn’t find out the FA numbers until January). If any of your schools have free applications, go ahead and send those. If the cost of the apps/test scores doesn’t matter much to you, then go ahead and follow sungoose’s advice. And if you have any rolling admission schools on your list, I say go ahead with those even if they cost something. It can be great to have an admission early in the process (really takes some pressure off), and it gets harder to get in as you get later in the admissions cycle for those schools.</p>