<p>I know the colleges usually say they'll let you know at mid-december for ED/EA and march or w/e for Regular Decision, but since they read applications over a long period of time, they'll have their decision made about some people before others. Do they still wait til mid december for those people or tell them right away?</p>
<p>Unless schools have rolling admissions, basically everyone finds out around the same time.</p>
<p>It takes less than a few minutes to vote an admission...sometimes less than 30 seconds (as proven by the numerous videos/info/etc linked to from here).
And for ED, I generally heard they start the actual admission thingy in December. For RD late march/april. (they need have at least most of the apps complete. Bear in mind it may take intl mail 3-4 weeks to reach the unis, and it's the postmark that matters)</p>
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It takes less than a few minutes to vote an admission...sometimes less than 30 seconds (as proven by the numerous videos/info/etc linked to from here).
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<p>So they don't even read the essays?</p>
<p>the people who read the essays, long lists of ECs, etc, are usually just that: readers. They summarize everything, along with personal suggestions (clear admit, maybe, etc). And then adcoms, facing hard numbers they have to meet (20% from Europe, 4000000$ total fin aid, 5 VIPs, etc) make the decision. (at least this is what I've learned after 2 consecutive years of applying)</p>