<p>So, I am finishing up grad school applications over the holiday weekend, and I stumbed across something interesting on a school's website. They essentually say that their deadline for applicatons in Jan 15, but they will gather the admission comittee by
Dec 1st, review apps starting on Dec 15th, and hand out first round offers by Jan 15. No mention of interview weekends or anything. So are they saying that if your materials are not in place by Dec 1, you are screwed out of a potential spot. I have a friend taking the GRE on Dec 1st for programs w/ deadlines on Jan 1. All of his apps are finished but he needs to have scores sent off. Is he cutting it too close, and do most programs set cutoffs and toss out applications before the Christmas break? This seems a tad unfair, because a deadline is essentually that day that all materials need to be submitted for full consideration, not the day we hand out offers for admisson, or interview dates.</p>
<p>You should check with each program for details. Usually the website will tell you what exactly the deadline means. I have run across the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>the day when materials need to be submitted for full consideration for a first-round offer</li>
<li>the day when the file needs to be complete for full consideration (the graduate school recommended submitting the application at least one week before the departmental application deadline, because it took them a few days to assemble each file and forward it to the department after the application gets submitted online)</li>
<li>the last day that an application may be submitted for consideration, though they’ll start making offers earlier</li>
</ul>
<p>It seems more likely that the website has last year’s information on one page and an update in another. There are lots of early admit deadlines around, but they generally do not shortcut the admissions process for those applicants.</p>
<p>deadline means a phone-line which is dead!!!:D</p>