Is there a reason to apply sooner rather than later?

[Sunshine State Sue]

When regular decision is Jan 1 or Jan 15, is there a reason to finish the application process earlier?  At this time, I don't see applying early decision anywhere.  Possibly, we may apply early action.  But not all schools have early action.  Thus, my question.  I need to know just how much I need to prod ds... :glare:

[regentrude]

Depends on the school. Some schools (I vaguely recall those being mainly public unis?) handle admissions on a rolling basis as they come in and will give out merit aid on a rolling basis as well... so applying late may mean getting in but no aid being left

[Lori D.]

My understanding is that other than possibly slightly increasing changes of being accepted to attend a selective school / big name school / ivy, there are more potential disadvantages to early acceptance than advantages -- the biggest disadvantage being financial. The school now knows you want them and only them, so they are not going to possibly try and entice you with extra merit aid $$.

 

A related tip: by making sure you are competitive -- send your FAFSA to at least 3 other schools, especially ones that are big rivals of your school of choice -- you may have more bargaining weight to request more merit aid: "Hey, (school of choice), look! Rival school's financial aid package is better than yours! What can you do to match or exceed that?"

 

Here's a short College Board article on early action, early applying, and the pros and cons.

[In The Great White North]

 

 

My understanding is that other than possibly slightly increasing changes of being accepted to attend a selective school / big name school / ivy, there are more potential disadvantages to early acceptance than advantages -- the biggest disadvantage being financial. The school now knows you want them and only them, so they are not going to possibly try and entice you with extra merit aid $$.

 

I was under the impression that this only happened with Early Decision.  Does just completing the application early have the same effect?

 

 

[hsbeth]

Some merit aid appears to be prioritized. Our dd has also found that a few schools do a more stats based admissions process earlier in the cycle. She's received several emails regarding applying before a certain date and being able to forgo essays, lists of extra currics, etc.

[dirty ethel rackham]

My understanding is that other than possibly slightly increasing changes of being accepted to attend a selective school / big name school / ivy, there are more potential disadvantages to early acceptance than advantages -- the biggest disadvantage being financial. The school now knows you want them and only them, so they are not going to possibly try and entice you with extra merit aid $$.

 

A related tip: by making sure you are competitive -- send your FAFSA to at least 3 other schools, especially ones that are big rivals of your school of choice -- you may have more bargaining weight to request more merit aid: "Hey, (school of choice), look! Rival school's financial aid package is better than yours! What can you do to match or exceed that?"

 

Here's a short College Board article on early action, early applying, and the pros and cons.

 

I think this article is misleading.  It compares Early Decision with a new-ish concept called "single choice Early Action" which closely resembles Early Decision without being binding.  In both ED and single-choice EA, you apply to only one school, telling them that you really, really, really want to go there.  I can see this impacting merit aid.  However, only a few schools offer "single choice Early Action" (which should have a different name because it can be confusing.) 

 

However, neither of these is Early Action as it exists at most colleges.  With Early Action, you are free to apply to lots of schools,  so none of these schools assumes to be the only school on the list.  My oldest son applied EA to 4 schools.  He received TOP merit money at all of these schools.  He knows of someone who had better scores and credentials, but applied later.  He received less merit money because there was less to hand out.  I see no downsides to Early Action.  Every admissions counselor we talked to told me the same. 

 

One other thing, students are more likely to be accepted during Early Action than not.  However, if they do not get accepted EA, they are often added to the regular decision pile. 

 

 

 

[creekland]

I'm a fan of early action too, and it does appear to go with more merit aid than regular decision.  Except for community colleges, the recommendation around here is to try to have all apps in by Dec 1st (earlier if any merit aid date is earlier or if the school is rolling admissions w/rolling aid).

 

I've never been a fan of early decision unless one is absolutely certain they want to attend just that school and if they are sure they can pay for it via being full pay or the school is well known for providing enough aid for them.  One can break early decision if the school ends up being unaffordable, but by the time you know that you are applying to others schools pretty late.

 

Plus, many students just plain like to have a choice in the spring.  ED kids tend to feel left out when others are talking about options.  I remind them they had their choice making time when deciding where to apply ED... This, of course, can be less of an issue for homeschoolers than brick and mortar schoolers.

[8filltheheart]

I agree with Ellen.   I just read the article and found it misleading as well.   Simply bc you are applying early also does not mean you have to go the "easy" route with the simpler application which might put you at a disadvantage.

 

Several schools explicitly state that if you don't apply by date X you will not be considered for scholarships.  I don't remember which ones or how many b/c ds made the decision to go ahead and complete everything early, but there were schools that say the same for honors college.

 

GA Tech's scholarship deadline is Oct. 15.

[Nan in Mass]

There seems to be a trade-off.  On the one hand, applying early means you are a bit more likely to be accepted and the money won't already all have been distributed.  On the other, fall community college grades won't be in yet and the college may feel they can offer less money because they are more sure you really want to come.  Mine opted to apply early anyway, since the most important thing was to maximize their chances of being accepted.  Youngest commented recently that looking at his fellow freshman, he is amazed he was accepted.  He thinks telling admissions how much he wanted to come definately helped.  He had a clear favourite, though, and was applying for merit scholarships and financial aid.  I agonized over when to apply in order to maximize both the scholarships and the chances of being accepted.

 

Nan

[Sunshine State Sue]

My understanding is that other than possibly slightly increasing changes of being accepted to attend a selective school / big name school / ivy, there are more potential disadvantages to early acceptance than advantages -- the biggest disadvantage being financial. The school now knows you want them and only them, so they are not going to possibly try and entice you with extra merit aid $$.

Early Decision is when you select only one school to apply to and it is a binding agreement to attend if you are accepted.  My understanding is that the agreement can be broken if the school is unaffordable.  We are definitely not doing Early Decision.

[Candid]

On the practical side: getting stuff done earlier means if there is some sort of screw up you have more time to catch it and deal with it. 

[AngieW in Texas]

Merit awards and financial aid get handed out on a first-come, first-served basis. They don't start considering people for them until they are admitted. Many schools already have a lot of their funds spoken for by the 1st of January.  I recommend getting everything in by the 1st of December and earlier than that if you can.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Dd and I muddled through college applications for the first time last year.  I really had little idea what I was doing; she wanted to apply Early Admission because she felt it would be less stressful to at least have something (hopefully) on the table.

 

She was admitted early to two of the four colleges to which she applied.  One school was public with no offers of scholarship, the other was private, which immediately provide merit aid.  She was deferred at the third after the adcom called me and recommended dd take an additional class to make her competitive (this was a huge school with which we'd had no prior personal contact--amazing!); and she was deferred at the fourth school. 

 

All four colleges accepted a higher percentage of early applicants than they did regular applicants. (Probably because the kids who apply early are more sure where they want to go and are probably more motivated and qualified.)  One school accepted applications into its Honors College ONLY from early admission applicants. The acceptance into this Honors program was the deciding factor for the school, and it's where she ended up attending.

 

I was a bit concerned about the timing of acceptances, which were just before and after Christmas. But it turned out well, and dd had plenty of time to plan ahead for this school year.

 

Knowing what I know now, and how the difference in applying early literally changed the whole school game for my dd, I would encourage ANYone to apply early.  I have every intention of my younger child applying early when his turn comes in a few years.

[Sunshine State Sue]

Thanks folks!  You have given me enough information to persuade ds that sooner is better than later.  He would procrastinate until the last minute...

[Nan in Mass]

Just remembered another factor - spots in the engineering school at our state uni fill up.  Youngest didn't apply early action to all of his schools, but he didn't wait until the last minute, either.  He spent Christmas doing the non-first-choice apps.  That was awful and definately impacted his spring semester, because he came down with influenza, which I attribute to the combination of cc finals and applications.  Nobody else in the family got sick, which is unusual for us.  Usually we all are sick or nobody is.  Anyway, if you opt to spend Christmas working on applications, beware, at least if your kiddo is a high strung beastie...

[Wildcat]

Dd is going to apply to her first choice school (which is actually a safety, as well) at midnight on the first possible day..... they assign dorms based on one's application date. Dd wants to hedge her bets against being assigned to the 'retro' dorms.  :lol:

 

 

[creekland]

 This is not always true. I definitely remember a few of the schools ds applied for saying they do not make any choices regarding merit/financial aid until the application deadline. A couple others did remind him that it was on a first come basis.

:iagree:  Rolling admission schools often give out merit aid on a rolling basis, but other schools tend to wait until their deadlines and they have their "whole pool." Their "whole pool" can end sooner than RD. Look for scholarship app deadlines.

 

I can't think of any that do financial aid (at least officially) until after the New Year because you can't do Fafsa until then.  Some schools want CSS sooner (those that aren't need-blind with admissions) and have their own deadlines, but I haven't heard of students hearing about their package until after the new year.

[memphispeg]

I had two different types of kids applying, one applied ED b/c she did not want to wait until April....she has v. little patience about things like that.  She did submit her apps to the large state schools as soon as they could be accepted.  These schools constantly reminded their apps that money was given out 1st come 1st serve.  

      My second child did as many EAs as possible and decisions slowly rolled in but, she still had to wait until April to make her decision.  She liked the waiting and having a choice.  

 

[memphispeg]

:iagree:  Rolling admission schools often give out merit aid on a rolling basis, but other schools tend to wait until their deadlines and they have their "whole pool." Their "whole pool" can end sooner than RD. Look for scholarship app deadlines.

 

I can't think of any that do financial aid (at least officially) until after the New Year because you can't do Fafsa until then.  Some schools want CSS sooner (those that aren't need-blind with admissions) and have their own deadlines, but I haven't heard of students hearing about their package until after the new year.

We did a CSS and FAFSA for the year before for my dd's ED school.  Then we submitted a new one after she had been admitted.  Her aid went up nicely.  

[Sunshine State Sue]

We did a CSS and FAFSA for the year before for my dd's ED school.  Then we submitted a new one after she had been admitted.  Her aid went up nicely.  

This confuses me.  Can you elaborate?  You did the CSS and FAFSA the year before your dd applied?  Why?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On the practical side: getting stuff done earlier means if there is some sort of screw up you have more time to catch it and deal with it.

This is similar to something I heard from service academy admissions. A student applying in the fall has time to clarify an issue or send in more test scores. Or admissions can hold the application until first semester grades come in. A student applying in February has much less time to work through any issues.

(And for service academies, students also need to be mindful of nomination deadlines which typically fall in Sept or Oct.)

[creekland]

This confuses me.  Can you elaborate?  You did the CSS and FAFSA the year before your dd applied?  Why?

Some schools are not need-blind with admissions, but tend to offer nice aid.  They like to get a feel for how much $$ a prospective student needs so they can calculate how many they can admit and not end up having to spend more than they (the school) can afford.  It's not the year before they apply.  The form(s) get filled out the same fall as the application.  However, to actually get the aid, the forms need to be filled out (again) in the spring like everyone else. The final aid package (in the spring) is the one you get.  This is what I've seen happen from a few kids at school.  If it was different for this PP, please explain.

 

Other schools are also not need blind with admissions, but don't pretend to offer nice aid to all, so don't care.  Then others are need-blind and will accept without knowing need.  Some of these offer nice aid to all (they have large endowments and can afford it) and others do not.

 

ETA:

 

Here's the page from one school (Case Western) that requires the CSS early for some applicants so you can see one "in action":

 

CSS is required early for some to give applicants an estimated idea, then FAFSA is due after the new year to make things official.  If anything changes, the award can change.

 

http://financialaid.case.edu/undergraduate/apply.aspx

 

 

[Sunshine State Sue]

Thanks for the explanation, creekland.  I appreciate it.

[flyingiguana]

Biggest advantage of applying early?  It'll be OVER with.

 

And if the school does rolling decisions, the student will likely know that they have one safety firmly in hand.  This can really improve the mood of your household and your student will get so much more done this fall.

 

A lot of schools we've had contact with seem to offer a first minimal aid package based on GPA and test scores when the student is first admitted.  Then there are further awards given in the spring -- usually based on the student showing up to interviews, more tests, or whatever.  If you apply REALLY late, you miss those awards, but some of the "standard" awards still may be available even in, say, July just before the semester starts.  I wouldn't COUNT on these so late, but it does seem that some schools just automatically award these, so they may always be available (at SOME schools). 

 

My second just got one of these standard awards for her flippant, "gee I might as well apply to see if my ACT score is up to snuff", applications -- submitted in June.  They admitted her for this Sept with a nice award -- with only a couple months lead time.  She decided to defer anyway until next year, but it's really nice knowing she's got a place to go now.  We can focus this year on things she wants to do rather than worrying about getting in somewhere.  (Because this is probably where she'll go, even if she does apply other places.  And if she defers they'll probably invite her to apply for the further, more prestigious awards.)

 

There are a lot of nice schools out there that aren't too difficult to get into that give nice aid to any kid who has reasonably good test scores.  ("Nice" being somewhere like half the tuition.)  They may look like lower tier schools based on average ACT/SAT scores, but look into what the students and graduates are doing.  I'm less and less impressed with ranking schools by their test scores and the difficulty of getting into them.  I'm basing this on the graduates I see coming out of these schools and what they're doing.

 

Sorry.  Another shameless plug for education over prestige.

[J-rap]

My daughter just finished applying to five colleges because she leaves in a week to spend the year abroad and wanted to get all the college applications DONE before leaving. It will be a huge weight off of her to not be worrying about all of that during the year. That's our main reason for applying early.

[Crimson Wife]

A related tip: by making sure you are competitive -- send your FAFSA to at least 3 other schools, especially ones that are big rivals of your school of choice -- you may have more bargaining weight to request more merit aid: "Hey, (school of choice), look! Rival school's financial aid package is better than yours! What can you do to match or exceed that?"

I was under the impression that there was collusion among the top schools to standardize aid packages in order to get around this tactic. The Justice Department investigated them under anti-trust laws and got the schools to agree to stop discussing individual students, but that doesn't mean there isn't still collusion on a more general level (e.g. students from families making $X/year will get $Y in financial aid).

[Vida Winter]

I vote for get it done early (not early decision) and have the stress of it over with. Your child may still have much work ahead with scholarship apps and essays (round two with the stress).

 

 

[Gwen in VA]

This year I'm going through college apps for the fourth (and final) time. I am surprised by how the timeline has changed over the past seven years.

 

when dd1 applied, I heard of VERY few folks who had apps in before Oct. 1, and having apps completed in the fall (other than EA and ED) seems to have been unusual.

 

Now I'm hearing of acceptances for THIS year already! I get the impression that the whole college app process has been moved up a few months!

 

(My dd will be taking her last SAT-2 in October, so none of her apps will be complete before late October.)

[creekland]

This year I'm going through college apps for the fourth (and final) time. I am surprised by how the timeline has changed over the past seven years.

 

when dd1 applied, I heard of VERY few folks who had apps in before Oct. 1, and having apps completed in the fall (other than EA and ED) seems to have been unusual.

 

Now I'm hearing of acceptances for THIS year already! I get the impression that the whole college app process has been moved up a few months!

 

(My dd will be taking her last SAT-2 in October, so none of her apps will be complete before late October.)

FWIW, the vast majority of students at school haven't started their apps yet (I'm not really sure any have to be honest, but some might have).  Our guidance office's "College Awareness Night" for seniors and their parents is tonight.  A college fair comes up in Oct.

 

I think it's only those in online groups like here and college confidential where students are so far ahead of the norm.  A handful of colleges encourage it.  My guess is that they want kids to apply there and be excited to get accepted so they feel they are "done" rather than stretching out apps, etc.  When middle son got his first UAlabama acceptance, it was tempting, but in the end, the school that he ended up going to (and liked the best) was one he applied to the end of Nov - right before their merit aid deadline Dec 1st. ;)

 

I'm not really concerned that we've opted to have youngest apply after our Oct visits and I'm definitely not concerned that we've waited until Oct to visit as I really want him to sit in on classes, etc. to compare.

[Candid]

I was under the impression that there was collusion among the top schools to standardize aid packages in order to get around this tactic. The Justice Department investigated them under anti-trust laws and got the schools to agree to stop discussing individual students, but that doesn't mean there isn't still collusion on a more general level (e.g. students from families making $X/year will get $Y in financial aid).

 

While this might be correct, I have also read plenty of instances where telling one school that you had this or that offer from another school got better aid. I have also read that just going in and explaining circumstances beyond forms will also get you better aid as well. Makes me wonder if everyone should ask for more money. 

[Crimson Wife]

I have also read that just going in and explaining circumstances beyond forms will also get you better aid as well. Makes me wonder if everyone should ask for more money.

Now that I believe. Just be prepared to provide a ton of backup documentation in support of why your family needs more aid. My husband got $10k/yr of his grad school loans replaced by grants just by appealing the initial decision but it took a lot of extra paperwork submission.

[TravelingChris]

My oldest did his applications too close to the deadlines.  I didn't like that.  But he was a boy and not interested in getting things done early.  We were CA legal residents then and he wasn't applying to any CA college or any other state school, so no need for early application for scholarship or anything.  Some might have had a Dec. 1 or sometime deadline but I know we ended up doing all at least a few days before the deadline, if he was doing them online, because we were stationed in Europe then and didn't want any problems we couldn't surmount easily with the long distance.

 

My next one did her first applications in Sept because they were so easy.  I think she had all of hers done by sometime in Nov even if the deadline was Jan 1 or Jan 15.  Now with my last one, who will be applying next year, she will be starting to apply in July, I think, to some state schools.  The earlier application is important to get into the engineering programs at some schools.  Also, early application means priority on housing.  She will likely have to have single dorm situation because of her extremely serious allergy and we don't know how they could ensure that a roommate or suitemate never ate an orange or lemon in the room, used certain perfumes, cleaning products, etc.  It is too bad about that since she is the kind of kid who would like a roommate or suitemate but as she has gotten even more allergic over the past year, we think that unless she knows someone who is going to the same college and is willing to live with the rules- and she says her homeschool friends are all very understanding and make sure they don't open citrus fruits near her- I can't see her getting one.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Spam reported.

[Mom22ns]

We don't have experience yet, so I hesitated to respond. However, when we visited a University that both my kids were interested in this summer (mid-July), the admissions counselor we met with had a stack of applications on her desk and she told us she would go through the first round in a couple of weeks. The University does rolling admissions and she told us the earlier we got the ap in the better for admissions and scholarships. She recommended shooting for no later than August.  :scared:

 

 

[BlsdMama]

DD's first app is in.  She's working on the personal essay of her first choice.  It will be submitted in the next week or so.  The rest will be submitted between now and December 1, ideally early November.

 

We know her first choice hands out merit aid from a bucket that once it's empty, it's empty.  They treat applications on a rolling basis of application date.  Financial offer is going to be a significant factor of where she goes to school.