<p>Some schools, if you dig around enough, have some kinda bizarre deadline practices.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Duke requires you send in your app nearly a month before the deadline to be eligible for an interview</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton's deadline is Jan. 1, but they ENCOURAGE students to get it in by Dec. 15...whatever that means</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard's deadline is Jan. 1, but they also go out of their way to point out that they begin reading apps Dec. 1</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These last two practices in particular seem a bit bizarre. Would missing Dec. 15 for Princeton or submitting Harvard in late December make a difference? If it does, it doesn't really seem fair...it's like disguising rolling admissions.</p>