Shellee Howard breaks down the timing of college applications: rolling admissions, early decision, early action, and regular deadlines. Submitting early can help, but application quality matters more than speed. She also covers interviews, test score updates, and awards.
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Hello and thank you for joining Shellee Howard at College Ready, where we help students get into college and graduate debt-free. Today I have the opportunity of sharing something very important. When should you submit the application for college? You know, early action is here. Harvard is just a week away and so many other great opportunities for you to show colleges how amazing you are. So the question is, does it matter when you submit? And I wanted to share with you that yes, it does matter. And let me explain what I mean. So when you think about, should I, uh, apply early decision, early accept, regular decision, rolling decision, that in itself is kind of crazy. But now I'm getting phone calls. Well, my application's ready. Should I submit today or should I wait closer to the deadline? Or, you know, should I even submit early if I'm not quite ready? In the perfect world, you are ready from the moment the application opens, you click the button, you are done. But there is a downside to that, so stay with me and you will find out. So when thinking about when is the best time to apply, let's break it down a little bit. Let's simplify it because that's what takes the stress out of going to college. So there's something called rolling admissions, and these are schools that are typically a little less selective or less well-known, and they start offering college applications on a rolling basis. So I have some students who submitted in August and they've already been accepted. That was their first choice school. They're off and running and they're done. They're enjoying the rest of their senior year. Well, if you don't have a rolling admissions, uh, type of school, there is a different strategy, but let's not stop there. So rolling admissions means that if the application, um, is open for enrollment for this upcoming year, it is best to submit as early on because it's going to get full and more competitive as time goes on. So think about it this way: if you apply early, it shows them that you're excited, it shows them that you're ready, and they are happy to extend an offer. Not all schools have rolling admission. So now let's talk about what are the advantages and disadvantages of early decision, early action. Like, when should you submit those applications? Think about it this way: if you submit those applications early— so in other words, if the deadline is, say, November 1st— would it be better to submit for early decision or early action as soon as the application opens? Well, there's some advantages and disadvantages. First, it will take some pressure off, and I think for a lot of students that may be why they're ready. But remember, it's better to have quality than quickness in this event. So if you don't have everything ready do not submit. It is better to provide great quality applications and send them in before the deadline. But in all reality, it could be that even if you turn it in early, the admissions officers are not going to get to it until that timing. Let me explain a little bit. So if a, uh, school offers early acceptance and they get a flood of all the early acceptance deadlines. They have to go through all of those before they can get into the regular decisions. So if you're submitting your application early, it's probably going to have to sit and wait until all of the early applications are done. So is there an advantage? Well, again, it comes down to do you want to take the stress away? Um, what about disadvantage? Well, if something changes, say a class changes, you have to then notify them. Say if you received another award or a test score, you have to notify them. And guess what? The more times you change your application after it's been submitted probably is not a good idea. It's absolutely a better idea to have a really solid, perfect application and send it in before the deadline. So think about it this way. There are advantages— peace of mind, getting it done. What about this? You also, if you submit early, have an opportunity to do an alumni interview. You know, Harvard is interviewing right now for students who have already submitted. So could you potentially have missed out on that opportunity? Yeah, but if you were not good enough to get an interview, would that have been bad as well? So every student and every application needs to have its own strategy and its own plan. So even though it would be nice to submit one and be done, this is not a one-and-done process. You want to have an academic strategy, financial strategy, a social strategy, So if you really are feeling overwhelmed, if you're a freshman, a sophomore, a junior, and you're like, this sounds crazy, please reach out to us, set up a strategy session, let us help simplify the process for you. Because when you do know all of the pros and the cons, you can make a very nice, educated decision without over— the overwhelm or exhaustion. So thank you so much for tuning in today. We will be having a webinar this evening at 7 PM Pacific Standard Time, and it's going to be on passions and passion projects, and we cannot wait to share what our students have been doing and invite you to come along. Thank you so much and have a wonderful day.
