<p>If D is applying to a school ED, and will recieve decision in early December. Is it ok to wait for that decision to submit other apps (assuming she doesnt get in)? </p>
<p>Can she use winter break to write her other apps and submit during the end of December, or does that look bad?</p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>Depends on college and your high school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Majority of colleges have an early January applicaton deadline and for those you could wait to send applications. HOWEVER, waiting until last part of December can be a disaster if you do not do a lot of other things beforehand. Here is what I am talking about: most likely your high school will be closed when you are doing the applications. But you need to send not just an application but also official test scores , an official transcript, for many recommendation letters, and for a number there will be a form that needs to be filled out by the school counselor.The official test scores you can send through College Board but all those other things need for the high school to be open and applicable personnel on hand, such as a counselor. During the holiday time you won’t be able to find any of those people. Note those things can be sent before the application (they get matched with the app when it arrives) but don’t enter the last two weeks of December without already having those things taken care of. </p></li>
<li><p>Despite Jan app deadlines, a number of colleges require apps earlier, sometimes as early as October, if you want to qualify for scholarships. Thus, you must check on that issue with each college.</p></li>
<li><p>There are a number of colleges that have application deadlines earlier than January 1. For example, the deadline for the UCs is Nov 30. Thus, she must check on the app deadline date for the colleges to which she intends to apply.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The wise course of action is to have everything prepared in case of a rejection or deferral. Then send them out. Otherwise, you’ll have saved a good amt of application fees! Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Admissions wise, it really doesn’t matter if you send your application minutes before the deadline as opposed to weeks earlier.</p>
<p>Another reason for having all your applications prepared with your ED app is that if financial aid is concern (and you should keep that in mind before applying early decision) you may not receive the financial aid package until possibly more than a week or 2 after receiving your acceptance and if the package is not good enough and you need a review, that will take even longer also because financial aid offices are usually closed over the winter break so you wouldn’t receive an update until probably the beginning or middle of January- after the regular decision deadline for most colleges.</p>
<p>thanks. Just to make sure I have it… taking financial aid, and scholarships out of the picture… D arranges with the college guidance counselor to send transcripts and recommendations to her list of schools ahead of time. But she holds off sending scores and applications/fees until she knows for sure that she will apply.</p>
<p>Check with your guidance counselor about the rules. In my daughter’s school they would not send anything until she had hit the apply button for the school. They also had a deadline 3 weeks earlier than the actual application deadline for the counselors to do their stuff. (so those January 1 deadline schools had to be done before December break to meet the guidance office deadline.</p>
<p>well that’s definitely a good call too. thanks!</p>