Son finished his final app due today @ 1142pm local time. It was a three day marathon. Only one left to go due in a few days and his essays are mostly written. He engaged the entire family in edit after edit. I’m glad it’s over. We now know what seniors do on their Christmas vacation.
As for colleges using submission time as a proxy for interest, I’m not sure what else they expect from RD applications. They know that most every kid applying RD has been rejected from their ED/SCEA school. Most of them only found out a week or two ago, and many had final exams, plus holiday obligations.
My son is still thinking. He has one essay to go for the app due tomorrow.
He got deferred on his EA. He has two acceptances. So I am not worried. But I can’t relax until he is done. I need to prepare when he asks for my opinion about the school.
My son has one left to go due 1/4. Neither of my kids applied ED because first kid’s first choice did not have an ED option and second kid was not certain enough to commit to any school in particular at this stage. So they can not use the rejected-from-ED excuse for their slowness. They both procrastinated a bit but got things in at least 24 hours before they were due (hopefully true for this last application).
Fwiw, regarding the last minute submissions, my S submitted the last 3 of his 11 apps at 11:15 last night,shortly before the 11:59 deadline, all 3 are his reach schools and ultra-competitive. One of the schools has an excellent admissions website with numerous advice blogs from the admissions counselors. Several of the blogs addressed the last minute procrastination, fully understanding and expecting many of the apps to be submitted just before deadlines. It was stated in several of the blogs that there is no difference in how they view an app submitted months before the deadline or an app submitted seconds before the deadline, they are interested strictly in the strength and content of the app itself. I’m not sure that all schools approach it the same way, but we felt slightly reassured!
Given that the apps have been available since 8/1, and anybody applying EA/ED should be well aware that there’s no guarantee of admission, I don’t think the narrow window between EA/ED answers and RD due dates is really the issue. It certainly wasn’t the case in our house, where there was no EA result that changed the nature and scope of the RD applicatoins. They’re teenagers. They haven’t internalized how easily catastrophe (server failure, illness, family crisis) can derail everything at the last minute. They think they’re thinking about it. (And they are, somewhat.) They’re waiting for the magic inspiration. Etc. etc. etc. But it looks as if most of them find a way to pull it off, thankfully.
I’m really grateful that my kid did do some EA applications, because it frontloaded the personal essay effort and gave him a firm grasp of the process early on. Still down to the wire though.
Out of the 12 schools D applied to RD, the only one that seemed to care about receiving the application earlier than the deadline was Duke which sent an email saying that if they received the application before 12/20, the applicant would receive priority status for alumni interviews. For the most competitive schools (HYPS, etc.), they are pretty explicit that demonstrated interest is not a factor in admission (this is different one notch down where demonstrated interest does matter – hence a family who told us that they visited Wash U. three times!) so it is hard to imagine that they are going to take the date the application was submitted into account as long as it was submitted before the deadline.
Years ago, one of my son’s had a college which used some island in the Pacific near the International Date Line as its time zone for when things were due. It gave us East Coasters quite a few extra hours!
IMO, if any school looks at the time of submission as an indication of interest in any way, shape or fashion I think they are being exceedingly foolish and potentially hypocritical. Many of these schools are still sending out promotional mail and email in December asking (nearly begging I would say in some cases) for these students to still apply. So then they would turn around and penalize the student for the application being in at the last minute, or even make note of it for any purpose other than if their marketing might be working? And marketing isn’t the only way students often learn of schools late in the cycle. CC is another, of course. But there are many other ways and it happens all the time.
And those are just a few of literally (and I do mean literally) 1,000 reasons that are perfectly valid I either have experienced, seen, or can envision as to why an application might go to the last day. If I know this, I would think any admissions person worth their salt has to know it as well. Unless you want to tell me that out of millions of students there are no deaths in the families ever, no medical emergencies, no family dramas where the student is looking at very uncertain circumstances and so is holding off, …need I go on?
Certainly I agree that absent these circumstances or anything similar that might cause issues, it is foolish to risk the potential issues that were pointed out such as power failures, computer failures, credit card issues, etc. But for a student to be otherwise penalized, by a school, for MEETING a deadline strikes me as reprehensible on the part of the school and is not something I have ever heard. Yes, I am sure they make note of how many apps come in last minute, and I am sure they sigh and wish they could have been spreading out the reviews of those applications before then, although with EA/ED they were probably so busy already who knows how much of an issue that really is. But as I said, there are so many reasons besides procrastination that an application might be sent in close to the deadline, including that the student was extremely interested and so wanted the essays to be perfect. As adults we know this is not the smartest thing but it is extremely common among teenagers who often think they will come up with something better if they just muse on it some more. But again, I have to believe that admissions people that have been dealing with this kind of thing for years know this to be true.
Well am just passing along a metric that was reported by the head of admissions of a school that is talked about in cc. Just passing along info, not passing judgment.
As many know, admissions folks are careful with their language. When schools utilize, as part of their process, some data management tools, we aren’t privvy to what variables may or may not be in that metric. The key word is “may”, not “are”.
Of course there are many reasons that cause any applicant to cut it close to the wire. And we haven’t heard that any sites crashed last night, which is good. Best of luck to all applicants in the admissions process.
Oh @palm715, we’ve all been there honey. This process does not always bring out the best in us.
My kid had no ED school and still got her apps in at the very last minute. And she got into every school except her reachiest reach and had very good results with merit $$. So while her procrastination made us all crazy, it didn’t harm her results.
DS actually finished his 2 yesterday (so, yes I paid to send test scores).
One more tomorrow & he is done. Odds are he’ll finish it. He hasn’t earned the label ‘king of procrastination’ for no reason.
I did just wander into the other room and say, “Hey, some schools’ deadlines aren’t until January 15 or later, and look! Four colleges sent you mail that just arrived today! Sure you don’t want to apply to one or two more?”
Oh, if looks could kill… He’s happy with his list, I’m happy with his list (especially because he’s happy) - and I think we’re both glad this step is over.
D had three EA/rolling done before Christmas. Hit send on five more on 12/26 (one was due 1/1) and has four more to finish off (all due 1/15.) She’s trying to sort out which ones will take a supplement (play wright). She submitted one for the 1/1/16 submission and might as well send it to others. I keep thinking one or two might fall off, but we’ll see.
