When To Apply For College Admission | Did You Miss The Deadline?!

It is a stressful time of the year for high school seniors as it relates to college, and specifically, when to apply for college admission.  Every year, we see many rumors start to fly about when the ideal time is to send in your application to the college of your choice. 

In this article, we’ll explain a few things regarding the timing of the college admission process so that you don’t miss any important deadlines.

When To Apply For College Admission

Most colleges have a “priority” deadline that you will need to adhere to in order to apply to their school in a timely fashion.  This is put in place so that these schools can get all of their applicants in line and start reviewing applications, then sending out acceptance, denial or wait-list status’ to their potential students. 

While the “priority” deadline isn’t the final deadline for applying to that school, you should make every effort to get your application in before it expires.

If you miss the priority filing deadline your application will not necessarily be denied, but you will be put on a time frame that may cause an inconvenience to you when choosing a college to attend.  Once the priority date has passed, those students who have applied later will be much more likely to be denied or waitlisted for college admission.  The reason for this is because that college or university has already begun accepting students who applied early and their freshman class quota may be close to being met.  This in turn allows for the college to become much more selective in which students they admit, and which ones get denied.

This is important to know as a senior student trying to figure out when to apply for college admission.  By applying prior to the priority filing date set by that respective school, you are giving yourself the absolute best opportunity to get into college.

When Is The Priority Application Deadline?

Priority deadlines are different from school to school.  Generally, there are three dates that the vast majority of schools will set as their priority dates…

• November 1st
• November 15th
• January 1st (of the same year you plan to attend in the fall)

Checking with your prospective college(s) is the best way to find out exactly when your college application needs to be submitted.  But, we’ve got a better way to go about things…

We always tell our students to remember one date: Halloween!  If you give yourself until Halloween to be finished and applied to all the colleges you are interested in, you will be under all the deadlines and not have to worry about looking up priority dates for all your prospective schools.  Plus, Halloween is very easy for students to remember versus a specific date.

Is Earlier Really Better?

When it comes to college admissions, there usually isn’t anything set in concrete.  And, the same holds true for the timing of when to apply for college admission.  However, if you’re applying to a college that has what’s referred to as “rolling admissions”, then earlier is better!

Rolling admission colleges basically take application on a “first come, first served” basis and have no concrete deadlines.  Once they receive an application, it will be reviewed by their admissions staff in the order that they are received.  If you apply early enough, you could get a very quick turn-around time and have your acceptance in hand within a couple weeks!

The bottom line in figuring out when to apply for college admission is NOT TO WAIT!  Do not drag your feet because there are accompanying materials that may be part of your application that you don’t realize yet…like essays, personal statements and teacher recommendations!  Give yourself some time to put everything together and get them off to the colleges in a timely fashion, and you’ll be happy you did!

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