<p>Daughter applied to a college that had a February 1 deadline for applicants wanting to receive scholarship consideration. Applications received after February 1 but before April 1 would still be considered for Fall admission but ineligible for scholarships. Accordingly, D sent her application the first week of January to be sure she would meet the scholarship deadline. This school does not have rolling admissions and states they will release acceptance letters on February 15. </p>
<p>Well, yesterday in the mail came a mass mailing postcard from the college saying: "Good news! You no longer have to worry about the February deadline for scholarship consideration. We have now extended the deadline to April 1!" </p>
<p>Husband and I are wondering why a school would change the deadline date like that. </p>
<p>They are free to change their policy. I remember the year D1 applied to Duke, it was soon after the lacrosse scandal, they decided to push back the deadline for a week or two. I think it was because they didn’t get same number of applicants that year. This school your daughter is applying to may not feel they have received good enough pool and want to extend the deadline in order to get more applicants.</p>
<p>I think it kind of sucks for your daughter if she had rushed through her application because of the deadline and now other people have more time. If that’s the case, why doesn’t she contact the adcom to see if she could re-do her essays.</p>
<p>My d applied to two colleges that had Jan. 15th deadlines. One was in a northern state= no deadline changes.<br>
One was in a southern state that was one of the states that received a snow/ice storm the week before Jan. 15th. That snow caused havoc with admissions. First the automatic computer system that tells students whether their application is complete or not (she had mailed hers before Christmas and the school portion was mailed in November so the whole package should definitely been complete) started having a message that she needs to call the admissions office. While I am trying to desperately reach them before Jan. 15th deadline, there school was closed and then when it re-opened, they extended deadlines for one week. Oh and they also replaced all the faulty computer messages with true ones based on whether the package was complete (hers was) or not.</p>
<p>oldfort, I think you’re right…We are in Florida, no weather problems here.</p>
<p>I think the school, a selective LAC, may be finding that the typical highly-qualified applicants are opting to pursue a more money-generating major or at least a school that offers more room for dual majors. I know that during rough economic times more college students turn to fields that pull in higher income–biomedical, accounting, pharmacy–as opposed to philosophy, botany, art history, etc. </p>
<p>So either the applicant pool isn’t reflecting the usual range of applicants, or the school is inundated with top-notch applicants and believes they can hold out and try to go for the best of the best. </p>
<p>As a note of interest, my daughter knows some highly qualified students (IB graduates, great SATs, smart as a whip) and yet for some reason they are gravitating towards more mainstream, big schools with lots of cool perks (suite style housing, flatscreen TVs in every floor lounge, year-round heated swimming pools and jacuzzis, Starbucks and gourmet restaurants in the main dining hall) whereas a few years ago these same kids were of the barefoot, yoga and vegetarian,anti-cable/anti-TV (and proud of it) mindset.</p>
<p>The draw toward the big school with perks is often tied to large, non competitive merit awards for the most qualified students. The housing, pools, etc., are a carrot to set the school apart. Many are aggressively pursuing OOS students. As you noted, the economy is changing the way people are making decisions. With the availability of good honors colleges this is becoming a viable option for many students. </p>
<p>I’ll admit, my own student has such a school as a ‘safety’ on his list. He is very lucky to have very, very good in-state match/reach schools that will be affordable as well. If this were not the case and he was depending on merit at a match school for affordability he may be far more reliant on the safety.</p>
<p>Having said this, I agree that an extension of that length is frustrating when your student met the original date. As we all know, the universities make the rules and can change them at any time.</p>
<p>It may not affect your daughter at all. It doesn’t say that they’re going to hold back announcing scholarships until 1 April. The school may have a pretty good sense of what “qualifies” a student for a certain level of scholarship, and be able to reasonably award them even before knowing all the applications that will come in by April 1. They may also be trying to attract some kids who didn’t get adequate offers during EDII, or who hear bad news in March.</p>
<p>My son had one school last year that extended the scholarship deadline. He worked his butt off during the holidays getting the portfolio submission together and sent it off only to receive an e-mail that the deadline had been extended. I reminded him he was “finished” so it really didn’t matter.</p>
<p>More likely if the college is sending exceptance letters on Feb. 15, they want to have some breathing room to determine the scholarships from among the accepted students and maybe garner some solid interest from students who may not have really been contemplating that college (until they receive their acceptance letters). If this is her first choice college and she gets accepted she can touch base once again with her admissions person between the acceptance and the scholarship due date.</p>
<p>When I was applying to schools there were a few that really, really wanted me (they sent me emails nearly every day). I had no interest in going to these schools so I never sent in an application or anything, but they kept sending me things and extending the deadlines (multiple times, the final ones were often in like April or May or something ridiculous) maybe in hopes that I might just apply on a whim, or apply if I didn’t get into the schools I wanted. Lots of times they promised me huge scholarships and extending the deadlines on those, offering me “easy” applications with no essays, things like that. I was rather annoyed to get these constant emails from schools I had no interest in going to.</p>
<p>^Red Sox, this may seem to be “annoying”, just like crying fans can seem annoying, but please. Who doesn’t feel the love? You were not the only one getting these solicitations. Your delete buttons is working, right? </p>
<p>Sure, they made everything so easy: the application only needed your signature, your test scores, and your money. But, the reality is they want your stats to boost their rankings, and the extra money they get for application fees is pure gravy.</p>