<p>Let's say a student is going to be a senior in September. He is applying to a school which has rolling admissions and he intends to apply very early in the school year , believing this is an admissions advantage. He has a standardized test score which is right about on the cusp of what the school is looking for. He intends to take the test again in October.
My question is, is it still beneficial to send in the application early on even without the second score? If he were to be denied based on the first score, could the denial be reversed after the school received the second score? (assuming of course that the second score was well within the range of what the school was looking for.) Or is it better to wait to apply until every last test score he will be sending the school is available? </p>
<p>Denial would rarely be reversed. Submit the application when he is happy with the standardized test score. That October test score will still be available early enough to let him apply early in the cycle. Remember that the vast majority of kids don’t get their act together until much later in the cycle.</p>
<p>Thanks, momof3sons. I was thinking of encouraging him to get some applications out in September, the thought being that he’ll have more free time to work on them in August than he will when the school year gets into full swing. For most of the schools he’s interested in , the score he has now will be fine. But for the “iffy” ones, I’m trying to calculate the benefit of being one of the first applications in, versus the risk of potentially not presenting your best test score.,</p>
<p>There is nothing stopping him from completing the applications in August and putting them on a shelf until the new scores come in in November.</p>
<p>Dreadpirit, this is true, and probably what he will do. I 'd heard there was a higher likelihood of admittance for a rolling admission application if it is sent in early, but maybe this is just hearsay. Maybe the admissions department just encourages kids to send them early so that they are not flooded with applications at the eleventh hour!</p>
<p>With rolling admissions, the chances are better, the earlier in the season. PSU outright says that their admissions policy is around three numbers almost completely: Grades, test score, date application received. So one is taking a risk going later with the hopes that the test scores are higher when an earlier date at schools with PSU’s policies could make the difference between getting accepted and not. </p>
<p>“I 'd heard there was a higher likelihood of admittance for a rolling admission application if it is sent in early”
That is true IF test scores, GPA are STRONG and above the mean of accepted students. </p>
<p>Things to consider are how long has it been since the test the first time?
Did he study for it the first time?
Is he going to studying for the test this time? </p>
<p>The answer to those question may help because if he took it recently and studied already or took it recently and isn’t going to study then his score may not go up that much anyway. However if will be a year since he took it or he didn’t study before and he is going to study now then it should go up. </p>
<p>I’d say to send in an application to a true academic safety as early as you’d like - if it’s a safe school, his current test scores should be more than adequate, and he won’t have to worry about running up extra fees for future test reports. Wait for the next set of results before sending to match and reach schools on rolling admissions. </p>
<p>There is a higher likelihood of admission for early applicants because 1) eventually they start running out of spots and 2) eventually they finish running out of spots. </p>
<p>Once the school gets close to the numbers they are looking to admit they can (and do) turn more selective.</p>
<p>Once the school runs out of spots all they have left is the waitlist.</p>
<p>Once an application is put into the “deny” pile, new information isn’t going to get an Adcom to re-read the file. So there is no reason to risk a rejection (if the application is on the cusp) if sending it later means a stronger case for admission.</p>
<p>Quite a few of the rolling ones many times don’t deny right away but defer until a later date. I know the one my d did had apply by dates to hear by this date, and they could postpone the decision and you could submit more information. She was lower than their average test score but within the band of average and got accepted. </p>
<p>Agree with woogzmama.
Submit safety apps, hold match and reach apps.</p>
<p>I think that Rolling admissions are beneficial to the early applicants, provided you have good scores (above the 50% mark), LORs and ECs. EAs usually have a definite deadline (Nov1) so there is more time to prepare and everyone is in the same evaluation pool…</p>
<p>My kid is likely taking the SAT a second time in October and it looks as if scores will be out before November 1st based on the test to score period for previous dates.</p>
<p>One perk of early submission is that some automatic $$$ are first come first serve</p>