Advantages of rolling admissions and applying early??

[xoforever]

What are the advantages? I'm just going into my second year of undergrad now and will apply to Optometry schools next summer, and because I was advised by alot of people to apply very early, I will send in my application during the "rolling admissions" cycle for NECO next summer.
What is this all about? And how much of an advantage does applying early give you? All feedback will be appreciated

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[blysssful]

Rolling admissions means that once the admissions cycle begins, the school will begin to review applications, interview applicants, and accept applicants in the order they receive the applications.

This might not always be a hard and fast rule (sometimes if the school doesn't know whether to invite you for an interview, you won't receive a response right away).

What this means is that the class will start filling up right away, and the class size is generally predetermined.

Asking about the benefit of rolling admissions is kind of a moot point-- you have no say in whether the school does rolling admissions (most do, UCBSO is the only school I know of that does not do rolling admissions). The benefit of applying early is HUGE. If you apply early, you're applying for a spot in a class with (on average) 85 open spots. But, let's say you apply late and many spots in the classes are already promised to other applicants; your application is facing competition for a very small number of open seats. Sometimes at the end of the application cycle, 10 applicants will be duking it out for 1 spot.

The alternative to rolling admissions is where there is an application deadline and ALL the applications are reviewed at one time, and applicants are invited for interviews around the same period of time.


Point being: APPLY EARLY.

 

[xoforever]

Rolling admissions means that once the admissions cycle begins, the school will begin to review applications, interview applicants, and accept applicants in the order they receive the applications.

This might not always be a hard and fast rule (sometimes if the school doesn't know whether to invite you for an interview, you won't receive a response right away).

What this means is that the class will start filling up right away, and the class size is generally predetermined.

Asking about the benefit of rolling admissions is kind of a moot point-- you have no say in whether the school does rolling admissions (most do, UCBSO is the only school I know of that does not do rolling admissions). The benefit of applying early is HUGE. If you apply early, you're applying for a spot in a class with (on average) 85 open spots. But, let's say you apply late and many spots in the classes are already promised to other applicants; your application is facing competition for a very small number of open seats. Sometimes at the end of the application cycle, 10 applicants will be duking it out for 1 spot.

The alternative to rolling admissions is where there is an application deadline and ALL the applications are reviewed at one time, and applicants are invited for interviews around the same period of time.


Point being: APPLY EARLY.

Thank you both. Well, I've heard NECO is really late in getting back to it's applicants even if they apply early.. they usually make 2 piles- one with GPA's over 3.0 and the other with GPAs less than 3.0.. this lower GPA pile gets reviewed after all of the "best applications" have been considered and accepted.. so even if you apply early, and have a lower GPA with NECO, in the end would you and another handful of 10 students with lower GPAs be fighting later in the application cycle-like april- for the same remaining 1 seat at NECO?

 

[blysssful]

Thank you both. Well, I've heard NECO is really late in getting back to it's applicants even if they apply early.. they usually make 2 piles- one with GPA's over 3.0 and the other with GPAs less than 3.0.. this lower GPA pile gets reviewed after all of the "best applications" have been considered and accepted.. so even if you apply early, and have a lower GPA with NECO, in the end would you and another handful of 10 students with lower GPAs be fighting later in the application cycle-like april- for the same remaining 1 seat at NECO?

Its possible for any of the schools that even if you apply early you could get put on the backburner... BUT, it's not just based on GPA, so you never really know (unless you know that your application is just awful). The point is that while it is possible you won't reap the benefits of applying early if your application isn't strong, you CERTAINLY will not get those benefits if you DON'T apply early.

A lot of times the schools will tell you that once you send fall grades, they will review your application again.

 

[captainnerd]

From the viewpoint of the applicant, it is smart to apply early. It gives an incentive to those who are self motivated and non-procrastinators. Applying early means your application is not confined by the pressure of the school to admit the smartest student. In other words, a school with 100 spots still open is willing to take a chance on a student who applied early and has a 3.0 GPA and 330 OAT score (just an example). But when only 2 spots are left, and they have a list of 30 students who have yet to be decided upon, then they will choose the smartest 2. In other words, selection pressure is different at different points of the process.

From the viewpoint of schools, I don't think it makes much sense since it does not optimize their entering class. A school that waits for every application to arrive can sit back and choose the 100 most brightest students. This type of school is heavily reliant on its prestige and status to recognize that students are willing to withhold acceptances to other schools just to find out if they've been accepted to this highly prestigious school.

But I think it is a bit of an economic game whereby if one school decided to accept early students, they can begin to steal good students. In the end, I think a school would be best to perform a combination of both strategies which is what I believe most schools with rolling admissions even do. They wait until they have about 40 applications and they then make a decision on those first 40, accepting maybe 1/10. They repeat this process over and over again. The students not accepted in that batch get added to the next batch. In the end, each student is not decided upon on an individual basis but on a batch comparison basis, comparing one student against the other 40 in this current batch. Then repeat until you fill up the entire class.

Of course, I have no basis for this. I'm just hypothesizing based on my understanding of economic principles.

 

[blysssful]

From the viewpoint of schools, I don't think it makes much sense since it does not optimize their entering class. A school that waits for every application to arrive can sit back and choose the 100 most brightest students. This type of school is heavily reliant on its prestige and status to recognize that students are willing to withhold acceptances to other schools just to find out if they've been accepted to this highly prestigious school.

See, I disagree about this point. I think that it is beneficial for the schools to do rolling admissions because it gives an advantage to those who show initiative who may have been overlooked otherwise.

 

[xoforever]

thanks guys, point taken So this is a little off topic but... say if I have a 3.6 GPA at my Canadian undergrad, and from adding all the course grades together it is actually 3.58, would US Optometry schools consider my GPA to be a 3.6 or a 3.58? Does the US round GPAs up or down or are they as they are from calculating course averages?

 

[captainnerd]

See, I disagree about this point. I think that it is beneficial for the schools to do rolling admissions because it gives an advantage to those who show initiative who may have been overlooked otherwise.

From a purely economics standpoint, you want to maximize the qualities of your student (not just scores but initituativeiveiative). Many students who show initiative may not have other things going on like work or other things. Maybe they have time on their hands because they live at home and don't work and don't do extracurriculars. I'm not claiming that to be the case, but it is a theoretical possibility.

I think I may have made it appear as if I support one method and not the other. I think both have their strengths and weaknesses.

Imagine a thought experiment where every school had a deadline system. It isnt much different from what would happen in an oil cartel system. Eventually, one school, probably one of the lower schools would move to a rolling system because they would feel they can steal motivated students and these motivated students would still exhibit other good qualities like good scores.

Also, look at the election primaries system. Small states go first to give unknown candidates a chance to liven the debates. It also allows for the possibility of an unentrenched person to become POTUS. You had Huckabee and Romney do well in small states and Howard Dean did well against John Kerry. Obama did very well during those first few primaries and Clinton won the larger later states with Obama picking up some other large states as a result of those earlier wins.

I think in the end, the rolling admissions system incorporates many of the qualities of the deadline system. But the deadline system only works for the most prestigious school. It is possible for a deadline system to also incorporate rolling admissions qualities as well. Imagine if UC Berkeley gave a point system to when an application was submitted but did not disqualify anyone until the deadline. You'd still have a deadline system but one that rewarded initiative. Is it also possible that grades show more initiative than just applying early?

From the viewpoint of students, I think rolling is better. From the viewpoint of the school, I think it has a lot to do with the history of the school, the prestige of the school, and the current standing of the school. Imagine a school that opens in 2009 compared to one that opens in 1865. There's no way students will forgo one school to wait for the 2009 school's decision.

UC Berkeley will always have top billing since students are willing to wait for its decision.

Also, to the above poster, we use two digits after the decimal. I know you Canadians have big laughs making fun of us, but we Americans are perfectly capable of working with two digits after the decimal. : )