<p>I was reading a thread from a long long time ago and someone was saying when applying to places like Washington University in St. Louis, the earlier the better. He said that you MUST apply before December. Why is that?
I was really ill for my sophomore year so my counselor wouldn't let me take any AP classes my junior year because she was afraid I was too behind, so I haven't taken any AP's yet. I'm cramming in all the AP's I can next year to make up for lost time but because of that I was planning on applying to places like Wash U and Vanderbilt last possible minute so they could see my grades from my first semester AP classes.
thoughts?</p>
<p>anyone? I’m a little worried about this!</p>
<p>I thought that you can ONLY apply in the winter. o_O</p>
<p>yeah but most of the deadlines are really early January, so if I applied one of the last possible days they could see my AP grades from first semester.</p>
<p>When you apply somewhere RD, you will send in mid-year grades (separately), no matter when you send in your application.</p>
<p>The ‘must send’ before Dec for WUSTL could have either referred to ED or merit scholarships or they could have been flat wrong. Always go to the primary source, the college website, for deadline information.</p>
<p>Unless a school has rolling admissions, when you send your application (as long as it’s before the deadline) doesn’t matter. WUSTL does not have rolling admissions. However, it does have Early Decision and generally the acceptance rate is higher during the Early Decision round, though the numbers are often deceiving because there are also more competitive applicants during the ED round.</p>
<p>Okay that’s what I thought! I’ve been told for years that turning in your application first or last makes no difference but everyone seemed to agree with this guy in the post…
But does everyone agree that I should apply last minute in order to get my semester grades in?</p>
<p>will your semester grades be in by the application deadline? Also, some high schools don’t even provide the first semester grade with the first transcript but instead send it later with the midyear report…</p>
<p>No, I would suggest to apply last minute to get your semester score in. Apply relatively early, then send your semester grades as a part of the midyear report.</p>
<p>Also, WashU has sort of a pre-application form that you need to fill out before the actual application. I would get that part in as soon as possible.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For rolling admission colleges, early is better because they make decisions as apps are received and if you apply later, there may be programs already closed because they have admitted all they are going to for them.</p></li>
<li><p>For a large number of universities, including vast majorioty of public universities, your senior grades are going to mean nothing as to admission because they rely only on grades through junior year. Those colleges tend to make all their decisons by Feb or before and even if you send senior grades they are ignored for determining admission. Moreover, many of those public universities have a psuedo-early action sytem, sometimes called a priority date. Though their app deadline may be Jan 1, they will have an earlier date, often in Nov, for which students who apply by that date may learn their fate earlier than others and those early applicants have somewhat an advantage over later applicants because their decisons are made first.</p></li>
<li><p>Just as large a number of colleges do not make their regular decisons until well into March or April (high ranked privates are in that group). It really doesn’t matter for those whether you apply early in the process for regular admission or near deadline date, usually in Jan. And you don’t need to follow any strategy that holds off applying until you can provide first semester grades. Those require you to send mid-year grades after you apply and those are used in making the admission decision. In other words there is no harm in applying late toward the deadline but there is no strategical reason for doing so either. It is usually better to try to apply earlier to avoid screwing up – people who wait until last minute to do the application (which means until during the Christmas break) sometimes discover to their chagrin that there is something they must send by the app deadline that they forgot to request; for example, they may need a counselors recommendation or a form prepared by the counselor and sent by the Jan 2 deadline and when they call their high school on Decmber 28, they find out their counselor is on vacation somewhere in the outbacks of South America.</p></li>
<li><p>Colleges which have formal early action and early decision programs, which includes many of those who make regular decisons in March or April, will also not rely on mid-yeasr grades for those programs because decisions are sent out in December.</p></li>
<li><p>There are a number of colleges in all of the above groups which require you to apply earlier than the deadline to be considered for scholarships. In that case, it is obviously strongly advised that you apply by the earlier date set for such consideration.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>okay so colleges WILL for sure look at those midyear reports? because if colleges don’t look at my senior year I’m screwed.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>*No, I would NOT suggest. Sorry, typo.</p>