<p>Can someone explain to me what they are and how they work?</p>
<p>Basically, you have a period of time when you can apply (for many universities, this starts August 1 or Sept. 1) and your app is considered as soon as all of the requirements are in. Admissions counselors make decisions as these apps are received. Thus, if you apply in, say September, you'll get your decisions in October. Thus, you'll get your acceptance/rejection even before the Early Decision deadlines at many schools.</p>
<p>What's nice about rolling decisions is that many students already have an acceptance before they start Regular Decision process. It takes most the pressure off at this stage, so you can enjoy your Senior Year knowing you have a college acceptance(s). My D had 3 rolling decision acceptances before she applied regular decision to the rest of her schools. She even ended up enrolling at one of her rolling decision schools.</p>
<p>Which schools usually send you a decision by october if you apply in september?</p>
<p>Sheesh, it's easy enough to do a search on this forum!</p>
<p>Thanks SFM, but I'm not sure I totally understand yet. What is the difference between RD and EA?</p>
<p>EA you apply in Nov. and get notified in Dec. RD you apply in jan and get notified in April</p>
<p>Does anything know how rolling works in conjunction with SCEA or ED? For example, submitting your state school app super early just to know you're in, and then applying ED somewhere?</p>
<p>"EA you apply in Nov. and get notified in Dec. RD you apply in jan and get notified in April"</p>
<p>I thought for regular admissions, the deadline is early Jan. and you get notifiied in April?</p>
<p>Whoops, I messed up. RD can also stand for "Regular Decision," which is regular admissions.<br>
Rolling you can apply any time, and recieve your decision in about a month. However, spots are given out on a first come first serve basis, so if you're late, no matter how good you are, you might not get in.</p>
<p>SpringfieldMom, I don't think the list mentioned in your link is complete because it only has schools with Rolling Admissions that don't have actual deadlines. Many other schools like Wisconsin-Madison or Indiana-Bloomington I believe have rolling admissions but also have normal deadlines.</p>
<p>(1) You're right, it's not my post, but it is a link to an thread started earlier this month (2) I think the list is from Princeton Review, and I also believe it's incomplete, but it does give the OP somewhere to start (3) It may behoove someone who has a question like this to do a search on the thread first--their question may have already been answered.</p>
<p>I must also stress it's in the Applicant's best interests to apply to a rolling admissions school EARLY. As Bentley points out in post #9, it's better to apply early than closer to the deadline. If you apply late to a RA school, you might end up with a waitlist, or even worse a rejection, instead of an acceptance. Isn't it much better to have an acceptance in hand your peers are still waiting for of theirs?</p>