Applying early- why is it so important?

[Twentytwelve2]

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All over this forum, people make a point that if your "overall" application is not good, you should apply early to make sure your chances are high. I never understood this because why would a school be in a hurry to accept early applicants when their deadline is in March of 2012? Or if they do not do rolling-basis and their deadline is Nov 1st or Dec1 for UoP (they extended the deadline).

Enlighten me! (I am a late applicant I suppose)

Oh, and one last thing, according to UoP, applying early only helps you secure an interview seat. However, that does not increase your chance of actually getting into the school.

 

[xtsukiyox]

Are you asking about UoP in particular, or pharmacy schools in general? I'm not sure how having a better chance at securing an interview seat would not increase your chance of being accepted - you can't get in if you don't interview, right?

For schools with rolling admissions, they give out interview seats "first come first serve." So in order to receive an interview, you may only be subject to a cutoff, or you may only be competing with others who have submitted their app earlier in the process. Contrast this with schools that review all the applications at once after the deadline has passed - they'll interview the absolute best out of the entire field that applied.

Also, with rolling admissions, they're giving the seats out as they go - so if you interview on the first date, you're interviewing for all seats (say 150). If you're interviewing months down the road, you may only be interviewing for 10 seats. Even if all, say, 20 people in your interview group are stellar, the maximum they can accept is 10, whereas you might have all been good enough to get in if they had more seats. It seems that while adcoms are certainly looking for something specific from all applicants, they may become more discerning as fewer spots are left, for this reason.