A friend just told me that he is sending his Common Application to his ED school on September 1st. Is this even allowed? What advantage does this have?
Yes. None (besides it’s off his plate). But the rub is this – they won’t even look at it until the school sends its docs in to accompany the file. That could be November for all he knows.
Thanks for the response @T26E4. So do high schools send all their materials at once? Or could I tell my GC to send mine early?
I’m sure that is going to be dependent on the HS or even the individual GC.
You could ask but what is the point? And he might want a valid reason (i.e. an actual deadline). Or he might just do it without being asked because he wants it off his plate. Who knows!
On a similar note, what do you know about interviewing early? Some of my classmates have already finished 3-5 interviews (in person and over Skype ones). Does this have any advantage?
I doubt that interviewing early gives you any admissions boost. However, you will want to sign up early so you get a day and time that is convenient for you and to make sure you don’t get shut out. I suppose one advantage in signing up for an earlier date would be having time to change it if something were to prevent you from making it.
Also long as you do things by the deadline you’ll be fine. Personally, I like to do things early just to have them off my plate and have time to handle any unforeseen problems, but I don’t think there are any admissions boost in doing things early.
Even if the GC send his/her part in, all your teachers recs would also need to be in. All your SATACT scores (if required) would need to be in. If there’s anything missing, the application will not be read.
As @T26E4 mentioned, the primary benefit to the student is getting it of his/her plate.
Without knowing the school, I would say no. For most colleges, the interview would have to be really bad to torpedo your application, and a really good one would probably not move the needle much.
Great thanks everyone for the responses
Also some colleges have “rolling admissions” so they look at it when you send it. Others wait until the deadline and look at them all at the same time.