Why is it that some colleges let certain applicants know of their acceptance to that college earlier than other applicants?
For examples, two of my friends have already been accepted into LMU, while I have not received any decision yet. Is this done for scholarship/fasfa reasons?
I have limited experience with this, but it may still shed some light on your question… I have heard that some colleges offer admission to those students who qualify for the Honors Program first or to those who have very high eligibility indexes. I have also heard that some colleges send acceptance notices to those who are out of state so that they are guaranteed a certain number of students who are paying the higher tuition rates. Again, only what I’ve heard. My personal experience is… my son applied to 4 Cal State Universities. We have heard only from one - Cal State Fullerton. He received his acceptance to Cal State Fullerton “with distinction” via email on Saturday, February 24th. We are still waiting to hear from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, and San Diego State. Yesterday, he received his acceptance to Whittier College (private) via USPS with a really generous merit scholarship. This seems to follow the trend that colleges send acceptances to very well-qualified students early. However, I have super limited experience, so I could be wrong about this.
It can also be for no discernible reason, such as the order processed.
It may be on a rolling admission, or they just cannot handle all the admission notice within a shorter period of time. Also, they may send out admission notice by region or by schools (e.g. engineering). Lastly, they tend to send out good news first as there are a lot of things to follow up.
It’s mostly logistics…x applicants + y admissions staff = z acceptances.
There could also a bit of psychology. The earlier an applicant finds out they are admitted, the more time they have to visit campus, meet other accepted students, and fall in love with the school.
Mostly honors stuff, so the really smart people can brag early (i.e. UC Berkeley regents). I got into all of the CSU’s @SBMamaBear said, probably because of high stats (not sure about SLO).
One other reason they do this is probbaly if they release all at once, the system might crash, so releasing in waves will be easier.
I just spoke to someone in the Admissions Office at Cal Poly Pomona and was told that decisions are being released in batches. This will continue through the end of April. I thought everyone would be notified by April 1st, but they insisted it would take more time.
@SBMamaBear Oh I see, that makes more sense. Thank you for the info!