“Deadlines are inherently arbitrary; there’s no reason to elevate their arbitrariness to some sort of ethical principle, such that deviating from them should bring shame and censure.”
I agree with the arbitrariness of deadlines but that’s a bad message to be sending students, especially for a school like Chicago that has three deadlines for EA/ED. They probably didn’t like the early class at least wrt overall yield and extended the deadline, which is their prerogative. But this doesn’t seem like a one-off to an applicant or two.
And while Chicago might consider their deadlines arbitrary, most people don’t, especially college professors who will dock you half a grade or a grade if you’re late. And we don’t really want to talk about the ramifications of being late when you’re out of college and have to meet a client or customer deadline. So again, not a good habit to think deadlines are random.
It’s a terrible habit for kids to think they don’t have to meet deadlines. Of course they do. But it’s not so terrible if the person for whose benefit the deadline exists – the client, or the professor in your analogy – to decide to modify it. People in this thread were suggesting it was somehow immoral for a client to extend a deadline once it has been set. It isn’t.
“What happens to these procrastinators when they go to college and their deadlines don’t get extended any more?”
This sort of argument remind me of what happened when my brother in law was talking to his kids 7 Th grade teacher asking for her to extend the due date for his kids project because their electricity had gone out the weekend before it was due and the teacher had refused the kids request. ( if you are wondering how important a 7 Th grade project is understand that for Chicago selective enrollment schools 7 Th grade is make or break and top grades means the diffference of $100,000 vs an equivalent private HS).
The teachers response was along the lines of “ deadlines are deadlines in the real world. You are an attorney and you just can’t get an extension because you electricity went out, right?”. He pulled out his phone and showed her the Motion for extension of time he filed because, yep, his electricity had gone out. And said “ would you like to see the order granting it? The real world doesn’t work the way you think it does.”
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In any event these admissions extensions are often for the benefit of the university to up their numbers.
Admissions is a tough business, and it is getting more difficult all the time. The number of traditional applications is a shrinking pool, everyone wants big financial aid, students apply to many schools & any schools realize a given applicant may very well turn down an offer of admission. It’s an art, not a science, trying to fill a class. Schools are going to do what they think they need to do to make sure they can fill a class with the best students possible.
I don’t think this is a case of students who missed the deadline getting another chance. I think it is a hope by the colleges that someone who may not have considered applying to Oberlin or Chicago do so, or to pick up some of the EA or ED students who got bad news in late Dec or Jan to widen their circle of schools.
Schools may have considered the state of the world when those Jan 15-31 apps were due - federal government was shut down, the northern states were in the polar vortex. Those might have been excuses, but if the number of apps were down, why not open up the window again?
What’s new? Colleges play all sort of manipulative games to lower acceptance rate and improve yield rate. Chicago is an absolute masterpiece of this art. No surprises here.
Colleges should have deadline on December 15 or January 20 or January 31 but not on January 1 or January 5.
It’s a hassle to ask kids to deal with application materials while school admins and teachers are on vacation.
Kids and families also need to have holidays.
I prefer application period between February and May. There is no point to ask kids to submit transcript before January then resubmit mid-year transcript in January/February. Let the kids finish the first semester then worry about college application later.
Agree with @twoinanddone. Many MANY advantages to getting the applications in early, EARLY. The school sends the mid year reports at the request of the student. Thats no big deal, IMO.
My serial procrastinator non-type A kid with non-helicopter parents still managed to get her apps in ahead of deadline seeing as she had months to do them in. As for admin being closed over school break, it’s easy enough to order transcripts etc in advance even if you do only end up submitting the actual application on the last day.
That would in no way stop the artificial stress, it would just move it.
Each family has to make their own decision on what’s important to them.
fwiw: The University of California has had a November 30 app deadline for decades. Spending Thanksgiving weekend knocking out the apps is a right of passage for a CA senior. (Since they are online, the apps can even be completed from Grandma’s house.)
I understand the schools are driving the process and can do whatever they want with regard to deadlines. But I don’t agree with it. Kids bust their butts (along with HS GC’s) to make sure everything is in by a 12/1 deadline and the school changes the date to Jan 15? It’s bush league. There is no doubt that they had plenty of qualified applicants to choose from. It has nothing to do with the students and everything to do with appearances. Again, bush league.
Well, the UC app is very simple. No teacher recs, no mid-year reports,… Students only need to send test scores to one school and the scores will propagated to all schools. Only 2 essays and the counselors know when they should send grade reports.
The only requirement on Jan 1 is the kids’ apps. Teacher recs and grade reports can come in after Jan 1. In fact, most of them probably do come in after school resumes from holiday break.
(I have no vested interest for a Jan 1 date, but moving it is shifting the goal post. And moving it back a couple of weeks, puts it right into semester finals for a lot of high schools. Personally, if I was Admin czar, I’d make the deadline mid-Dec, so kids can have their holidays!)
Moving it forward a couple of weeks to mid-January actually puts in bang in the middle of semester finals for other schools, too, like my daughter’s. This context actually makes the end of winter break deadline seem like the least interfering from an exam perspective.
No. I am saying the UC app is lot less demanding than the private college apps. If all private college apps are as simple as the UC app then CA students have a lot of room to breathe. Also most CA students must try to finish the UC app first. If not they will have no fallback. Therefore they need more time for private colleges later. Almost all HS students must ask for teacher recs before the summer of the 11th grade. Students also need to tell teachers which specific colleges they want the recs to be sent to at the beginning of the 12th grade. It’s a hassle for both teachers and students to add or change colleges a little bit later. Private HS students may not have this problem but it’s a problem for a lot of public HS students. Public HS teachers and counselors don’t have much time for those things.
Also, the reasons I think colleges should start the application cycle in February are:
Students have more opportunity to ask 12th grade teachers to write recs after they know their performance in 12th grade classes. Colleges prefer to receive recs from 11th grade or 12th grade teachers but they don't give students much chance to ask 12th grade teachers.
Students are more mature, have more time to find out about the colleges they plan to apply to. Visiting colleges in the fall of 12th grade is more realistic than visiting in 11th grade. A 12th grade student is taller and more mature than an 11th grade student.
Students have more chance to include their accomplishments and awards in their resumes. Most EC awards and recognitions happen in March-April time frame.
Reduce work in sending mid-year reports.
I don’t like the way the UC campuses select students. They only consider 10th and 11th grade GPA. That grossly ignores the kids with upward trend progress, late boomers,… and tolerates senioritis.
I would absolutely hate to start the entire cycle in February. Many people already have offers from early or rolling cycles, so a late start just prolongs uncertainty for many.
I’m also not sure what you mean by students telling teachers what colleges to send to. At my D’s school that’s all handled via the GC office, the teacher just submits one rec and the office handles the rest of it, same for transcripts. Just tell the office which schools to send stuff to. And there would be more, not less, work in sending mid year reports if the cycle started in Feb as every school would need them, vs the fair number of students who’ve already accepted an offer by now and so only need the mid year sent to one school (if it even requires them). ECs and awards should have been being steadily collected over the course of high school - an application should not be swinging over what happens in one quarter in senior year. Etc.
Not sure what your beef with UC is, but in most cases it’s more CSU than UC that will be the ”fallback” as you put it for CA students. Mine didn’t apply to a single instate school, but I’ll admit that’s rare.
Anyway, as another poster suggested, human nature being what it is, those who battled to get their applications in on a December or early Jan deadline will be the same ones who battle to get it in at any deadline.