<p>Serious question. I really want to know. I have seen countless threads here since yesterday of students absolutely panicked and asking questions. </p>
<p>Why are there so many super smart and amazing students that have waited so long to finish their Common Application? Why push the deadlines up to the last possible minute? </p>
<p>It's been open since August 1st. That's almost a full five months. Many of you have taken the optimum number of SAT's. Test prep. You have just about killed yourself to get EC's done in a demanding schedule. Why leave some of this to chance? It's already so much harder to get into college and now you are almost sabotaging yourselves. </p>
<p>I can understand taking time to carefully get it all done, but why so many last minute panicked questions of "when is it due? or "can it be late", or "what if my recs aren't there", or "I didn't realize they needed X number of recs", or "is it too late to send my SAT's?"</p>
<p>I guess I am wondering if the students here are actually doing any research about the requirements ahead of time. Are they getting their essays edited from a real human person - and I don't mean from random strangers who you ask to read it on CC. </p>
<p>Is it the thrill of the adrenaline rush as you wonder if your server is lightening fast, like your cable provider suggests? Changing your mind at the last minute? </p>
<p>What kind of work are you turning in, when you wait so long to submit? Is it error free? Are you just rushing to get it all done? </p>
<p>Why would so many wait until practically too late to complete these forms? Aarrrgh!</p>
<p>For the seniors, it's too late. Maybe some juniors will figure it out, for next year. Hopefully. </p>
<p>Well, technically not the last minute, but I didn’t realize that I needed a second transcript to apply to an honors program at Northwestern, so was scrambling to get it done on the 26th. It was a mix of not reading the separate application instructions and assuming I knew what to do.</p>
<p>I had my common app essays done in September though :v</p>
<p>I am a senior and I was thinking the same thing. Colleges can tell if you do an essay last minute. I got my apps turned in before Dec 24th because I wouldn’t be stressed.</p>
<p>Maybe some people have different priorities or stressed with getting good grades for the 1st semester of senior year.</p>
<p>“Is it the thrill of the adrenaline rush as you wonder if your server is lightening fast, like your cable provider suggests? Changing your mind at the last minute?”</p>
<p>Why does anyone wait until the last minute to do anything? If you are not a procrastinator, procrastination seems idiotic. Even if you are a procrastinator, it may seem idiotic. But that doesn’t help if you have the sickness. I’m happy my child doesn’t suffer as I do. She’s now got two good offers in hand, as well as acceptances at three back-ups (state Us).</p>
<p>As a procrastinator, I get a sense of elitism from people who aren’t. I understand that what my habits can be seen as problematic, but I’ve adapted to it. I’m actually more detail-oriented because of it, knowing that if there’s any screw up, I don’t have much of a chance to fix things, whether for homework, projects, or college apps.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s luck, or maybe one day I’ll find out I’m not a real procrastinator, but being lectured on it never changes things.</p>
<p>Some people add more schools to their list at the last minute. </p>
<p>Some people wait for results from EA/ED and thus have limited time to do X number of applications, Y number of essays, and Z number of supplements. </p>
<p>Some people (not necessarily those on CC, but others in general) don’t put college at the top of their priority list.</p>
<p>Have you ever seen a senior who missed the deadline because a server crashed? </p>
<p>I have. It’s not pretty. She was ineligible to apply to the UC’s for that term because her computer wasn’t fast enough and she waited until the last possible minute. She was out of luck for those schools - and they were some of her top choices. It was heartbreaking (and no, it wasn’t a family member of mine.)</p>
<p>Lecturing sometimes has it’s place. Like in college, for example. You pay lots of money for adult experts in their field to teach you. This is no different. </p>
<p>At this point, it’s not going to help any seniors. But maybe it will come as a wake up call to the juniors.</p>
<p>I am a procrastinator at heart. I do get it. It’s not elitism. It’s genuine worry for you and your friends. Sometimes waiting is because you are freaked out and that makes sense to me, too. </p>
<p>It makes me sick to my stomach when I think that some of you here on CC will wait so long that some options are just not options, anymore. Most of you will wing it, but some may lose a possible spot because of it. That’s what drives me to ask, why wait? </p>
<p>I understand coming up with new schools and such - but for the top school that you have been wanting to attend for 5 years, that is the kind of stuff that makes me genuinely nervous for these random high school kids at CC.</p>
<p>Aside from procrastination, some people have a lot of things going on in their lives. I know that it I were not on break, getting my applications done would have been nearly impossible. </p>
<p>I know that I did add more schools to my list a few weeks ago, which really extended this process out for me. The supplemental essays are what really took time.</p>
<p>I think sometimes the presence of the CA lulls applicants into thinking that it isn’t that hard to apply to many colleges. However, supplementals can vary from no extra essays to several that are unique and require quite a bit of time.</p>
<p>I am hoping that the seniors here tell their junior friends that they should pace themselves on those supplements. Start them in summer, before school begins. You don’t actually have to submit apps to all schools that you start supplements for, if you change your mind.</p>
<p>Samurai, you very much have a point. And it gets to the point where it’s the litmus test for being considered by a school-- did you want it enough for those 5 years to get it in on time? I finished apps for my top two about 5 hours before the deadline, close, but with some room for error. I was amazed by the amount of free time I had.</p>
<p>And yes, supplements are the real time consumers. But IMO they’re also the most fun and engaging.</p>
<p>As a senior who finished her apps due today, today at around 2pm, I think I can provide some answers as to why I, and perhaps some others, were still finishing today. I don’t think it’s because I’m a terrible time manager.</p>
<p>First: um, I’ve sort of been in school for the last 4 months? I have 4 AP classes? I know there are weekends, but often those are taken up by doing homework, going to/ preparing for speech and debate tournaments, etc. Nevertheless, I managed to finish my CommonApp and uchicago supplement in time to apply EA. Before winter break started, i also submitted my supplements to swarthmore, Pomona, and Wesleyan. However, my extremely intelligent school district decided our break wouldn’t start this year until the 23rd, and I had five more colleges to apply to by the 1st (since uchicago deferred me). Working at a rate of about 1 supplement a day, leaving a couple of days (like Christmas) as breaks and leaving two days to finish brown’s ridiculously long app, I finished right on time.</p>
<p>I really don’t think I made huge time management errors, because I’ve found at least in my case that time’s a funny thing. Maybe this is different for other people, but I’ve found that the longer I have to work on something, the longer it takes to complete, and the less time I have, the quicker it gets done, with no discernible loss of quality (and often a huge increase in quality). This principle obviously doesn’t apply after the amount of time shrinks past a certain point, so I’m not advocating waiting two hours before something’s due to start it, but in general I feel it’s true. I guess in theory I could have finished all of my apps in August before school started–believe me, the idea occurred to me and seemed brilliant during my junior year-- but in practice, I could never motivate myself to write great essays at an efficient pace months before they’re due. I don’t think that makes me a procrastinator, but rather a normal human being. To anyone out there who can finish things that far in advance, congratulations, that’s amazing, you have truly outstanding time management skillz. But please don’t look down on the rest of us mere mortals, our brains simply are not wired that way.</p>
<p>Honestly, with my extracurricular activities and AP classes, I just didn’t have time. Even weekends I was booked, with either homework or golf (most important EC). And sometimes, even if I did have a little bit of time, I would be to exhausted to do anything, let alone write an essay. The common app essays I have worked on for a few months, but the supplements were pretty last minute. For one of them I started it, finished it, and turned it in on the same day. LOL.</p>
<p>It’s human nature. Why do that thing when you have another 4 months to think & write about? Most people thought, at this early Aug 1, that if they took the time, they’ll turn out the best essays possible. but it is often not the case, because then they’ll wait until the last possible minute to start cranking them. Of course, it’s human psychology. The threatening level wasn’t that high at the beginning, and so other immediate goals overtook it.</p>
</p>