<p>It never looks good to submit something on the last night before the deadline, so I was wondering when most people were going to send their EA or ED apps in by... Yale posted "Although the Single-Choice Early Action submission deadline is November 1, we encourage you to submit your materials to us sooner. The earlier your application is completed - including the Common Application and Yale-specific questions, the necessary school documents, and your fee or fee waiver request - the sooner we can begin to evaluate it. While this will not result in a competitive advantage for applicants, it will allow ample time for review of your application". I still need a lot of time to work on my app but how long is the longest I should wait til to submit?</p>
<p>You haven’t submitted yet? Oh Em Gee.</p>
<p>(I kid, I kid. If you submit before the deadline, you won’t look bad. Don’t worry.)</p>
<p>They will not downgrade an application that gets sent on Oct 31. They are just encouraging you not to wait until the last minute. Set yourself a deadline of a week or two ahead - to allow a nice buffer. </p>
<p>Colleges ask for early submissions for two main reasons: 1) so THEY can spread out their workload – start reading and deciding early 2) to avoid last minute glitches and rushed (and subpar) application materials.</p>
<p>The reality is that even if you submit tomorrow – but your school docs (school report, transcript or LoRs) aren’t submitted, a college may still deem your file incomplete and won’t start reading it. Let’s say your last LoR hits your file on Feb 10th. But your app was sent in on 8/27. Your file may not get read until late Feb.</p>
<p>It is fine to submit it right on deadline, however, it would be better if you can do that at least 2 weeks before that to avoid traffic. That happens all the time on CommonApp. Also, it will allow you to track the application in case of delay in score report or transcript. You would not have anything to track until you have submitted the application.</p>
<p>The Common App application occasionally has glitches. If it were me, I would target about a week before the application date to make sure any glitches can be handled without panicking. All you can do with recommendations and school records is make sure your GC and teachers have the info on what colleges and what dates the materials are due, honestly. </p>
<p>My D’s school actually requires a minimum of 2 weeks notification before deadline for any school report/GC recommendation and the school would only start the process after the student submitted the application. Everybody was complaining but it turned out to make the application process much smoother last year.</p>
<p>This is what happened last year with the Common App. <a href=“The 2014 Common App Is a Glitch-Ridden Nightmare for High-School Seniors”>http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/01/the-2014-common-app-is-a-glitch-ridden-nightmare-for-college-seniors.html</a> Don’t wait till the last minute.</p>
<p>^ Yeah. My D stopped complaining when she found out all the problems others experienced. ;)</p>