# College App / Essay Due Tomorrow!!!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-app-essay-due-tomorrow/134765>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 31, 2002, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-app-essay-due-tomorrow/134765 "2002-10-31T22:13:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2002, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-app-essay-due-tomorrow/134765/21 "2002-11-01T20:29:37Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by KarlGrenze \*  
> \*\*Sending applications at the last minute really doesn’t hurt your chances to enter undergrad school. It may hurt you if you are applying for a professional/graduate school, since they may start admission decisions earlier (as the applications arrive). \*\*

While this sounds reasonable, and it may be quite true in general, Harvard has the earliest deadline of any grad school I know; certainly it had the earliest deadline by far of any school I applied to. I have good reason to suspect that your chances of being accepted are fairly constant up to the deadline (down to the minute), at which point they drop to zero. I imagine that Harvard GSAS puts the deadline early so that they can have the luxury of this policy.

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**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2002, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-app-essay-due-tomorrow/134765/22 "2002-11-01T21:25:11Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lucwarm \*  
> \*\*  
> In my day (I applied to college in the late 80s), the conventional wisdom was that one should avoid applying “early action” unless one is a very strong candidate. The trouble is that when you apply early action, you’re competing against some of the best students in the country. If you’re deferred, then your application will be reconsidered, but the admissions officers will remember it as one they turned down, putting you at a disadvantage.
> 
> Further, it was considered a bad idea to submit the “common application.” You want schools to think that they are important to you, since they are so concerned about their “yield.”
> 
> I have no idea if any of the above is still true.  
> \*\*

As someone who just completed this process last year (college freshman, whoo!), it’s not.

They encouraged us to apply early (decision or action, but few schools offer action), and there was really no stigma with the common app. I did early decision and used the common application, and I got into Barnard. 🙂 It really does tell the school it’s your first choice, and since it’s so hard to get in, it increases your chances. And you are going up against the best candidates, but let’s face it, you’re going up against good candidates anyway. Hell, if you’re applying to Harvard early, you are most likely a good candidate…

Best of luck, and good hunting.

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