<p>When most of their offices are closed from around the 24th to the 4th? It seems completely irrational. U Chicago recently extended its deadline to January 5th anyways, and Dartmouth sent me an email saying I could submit on January 6th. </p>
<p>Now, those schools realize the error of their ways, but I don't know if they do that every year as this is my first time participating in college admissions. And if they do do this every year why not just set the deadline at the the 5th anyways? </p>
<p>The last week before the admissions deadline is probably extremely stressful for a lot of kids, especially with teenage procrastination. I imagine people have a lot of questions during this period. It doesn't make sense that the admissions office should be closed.</p>
<p>So why does it have to be the first? Why not the 5th, or the 15th? I realize a lot of schools have deadlines on those days, but the majority seem to have it on the first. </p>
<p>Yeah I agree too. I’m a lot less stressed out about the colleges with Jan 15 deadlines, as it gives me about a week and a half after break is over to make sure everything is good to go at school and it gives me time to ask any questions if issues arise. I got the same email from Dartmouth, and a lot of colleges said ‘‘not to worry’’ if applicants had problems between now and January 4th/5th, as they could be resolved when their offices opened again. Would make much more sense to extend the deadlines those few days.</p>
<p>Why do so many students wait until the very last minute to apply? Deadlines are not due dates; applications could have been sent in a long time ago.</p>
<p>Judging by your name, I am assuming that you are a mother and thus out of touch with the teenage mentality. We are the best, the very best, procrastinators in the world. And we tend to hit panic buttons very late. The smartest thing to do would be to our applications around the time admissions offices close, but that is a very ideal world for a majority of people. Along with the stress of midterm finals, a lot of us just don’t get around to going for it hardcore until two weeks before the deadline.</p>
<p>I am not speaking for myself, I am quite organized but only through an enormous effort, but rather for the general public. It just doesn’t make sense that schools have a deadline when the admissions office is closed. All types of things could happen. It’s for a full week before and a few days after the admissions deadline. </p>
<p>And if you are going to set it on the 1st, why change it to the 5th later on? It just doesn’t make any sense. </p>
<p>If memory serves me, Dartmouth had a later deadline last app cycle. Maybe 1/6? My dd applied and I remember their deadline being a few days after everyone else’s. Yale’s was 12/31. Go figure! It doesn’t make sense to have a deadline when no one is in the office, but many things in life don’t make much sense.,</p>
<p>@tomofboston Why would schools discriminate among students based on whether or not they submitted the day before or two weeks before the deadline? And yes, we are horrible, procrastinating little creatures. Most of us at least. </p>
<p>My daughter was applying last year at this time. One deadline was Jan 15, but the rest were Jan 1. The whole house was in a panic. But I know that if all the deadlines were Jan 15, ZERO work on the applications would have been done during the break, and the week before Jan 15 would have been worse than the hell that we did experience. YMMV</p>
<p>“We are the best, the very best, procrastinators in the world”</p>
<p>Colleges are sellers of a product (i.e education) and applying to colleges is a seller’s market. As such, they can set whatever rules they want, arbitrary or not. Also note that admission rules are published well before a deadline. So if an applicant (aka buyer) doesn’t want to abide by the seller’s rules, especially the higher up on the tier totem pole you go, guess what, you’re ___ out of luck. Try a community college as they can be much more “procrastinator” forgiving as to deadlines.</p>
<p>The premise of the entire question was why colleges choose to do so, when no clear rationality exists behind the decision. You just completely decided to ignore that. The question was not IF they have the jurisdiction to do so. They can set their deadlines whenever the hell they want, that much is obvious. </p>
<p>But thank you for your wonderful contribution to the conversation. </p>
<p>Maybe the schools should change the date to December 23 to allow everyone a peaceful holiday season. As far as the January 1st, they could pick any dates and the outcome would be the same. People waiting to the last minute. </p>
<p>It makes perfect sense to use an easy to remember deadline. Fwiw, do not be surprised that some mail is not opened until mid of end January. A big school posted once a copy of the FedEx boxes piling up at the end of January. </p>
<p>I agree with you @Esat936, but at the same time, I know that even if I had the extra week or so, I would still do everything last minute lol :D</p>
<p>@marshmallowpop But that’s not really a point. What if an applicant has a genuine doubt about something and he/she can’t contact the admissions office?</p>
<p>To give eager young minds like yourself more than a cursory look and respond by late Feb/march ish,the deadline gives them the time they’ve decided they need, not what procrastinators are willing to offer. If that doesn’t work for you, contact they schools you’re interested, find out, and get back to us. Thanks.</p>
<p>@Esat936 Like I said, I agree with you. Putting the deadline during winter break simply isn’t practical, and in a lot of cases, it can hurt applicants. I was just joking about my own personal tendency towards laziness haha.</p>