Applying early

[lawhim2]

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Does applying early on in the admissions cycle have any advantages when applying to schools that do not accept on a rolling basis? Or does it really only help if they have rolling admissions.

 

[Whistle Pig]

I've no idea, beyond early admit dates used by a few, how that would help.

 

[FutureOT2013]

Does applying early on in the admissions cycle have any advantages when applying to schools that do not accept on a rolling basis? Or does it really only help if they have rolling admissions.

Excluding the rolling admissions, if a school has an early admission deadline you will have the first shot at admission over a similarly qualified candidate who applies after it. The OT program already has a good idea of what kind of a student profile they will accept, especially impacted programs, so if you are way above on all of the qualifications you will be offered early. If you are borderline then they might hold your application and put it with the regular cycle.

If you are talking about applying early in the regular cycle, but after the early admission deadline then I don't think there is an advantage because they don't look at the applications until the deadline has passed anyways. In general though, the earlier the better, as long as your application is squared away. Do not send it in for the sake of being early if the product is unrefined.

 

[STHERE]

What about rolling admissions and you are in the process of completing a prereq. Do you apply early anyway? Also if a school requires GRE or MAT and you only have the minimum std. test score. Do you wait to retake it before apply?

 

[FutureOT2013]

What about rolling admissions and you are in the process of completing a prereq. Do you apply early anyway? Also if a school requires GRE or MAT and you only have the minimum std. test score. Do you wait to retake it before apply?

I think having the most things on your checklist complete should take precedence over an early application, you don't want them to look at a bunch of IP's or a GRE score you definitely think you can improve on. The less IP's for them to look at the better. As far as the GRE thing, I planned ahead and was going to take it in September and if I wasn't happy with that score I would take it again in November, but nothing later than that. I wanted my applications submitted no later than mid January (a self imposed deadline). I ended up waiting too long and Samuel Merritt ended up filling their class before I even turned in an application. It was okay because SJSU and USC had already accepted me, but if they hadn't I would be waiting another meaningless year.

 

[lizzo76]

Initially I would have thought yes, but now I am not so sure, and it must depend on the school. It wasn't at first clear to me if my top choice school had rolling admissions or not - I was looking to see if there was some date before which applications for this next year would NOT be accepted, and I couldn't find anything, making me think it might have something along the lines of rolling admissions. So, I called and asked. The woman in the admissions office told me that I could submit an application this summer if I wanted to, but I probably wouldn't hear anything (even an acknowledgement) until at least January. Basically it sounded like they would start looking at all the applications at the same time.

What was less clear was if they would look at them in the order in which each application was completed. I have often heard that it's best to apply early because if you apply later on all the spots may have been filled (the admissions decisions may not have been sent out, but as far as the school is concerned the spots have been filled.) I don't know how true this is, and I'm sure it really depends on the school.... do they go along through the pile, making firm decisions as they go, or do they wait until every application has been looked at before making a firm decision? That probably depends on the size of the program and how many applications they receive.

I'd call the school to find out how they do things. If they don't even look at applications until after the deadline, and then don't make decisions in the order in which the applications were received, then applying early probably doesn't give a leg up. Still, if you can apply early, it's nice to have one fewer thing to worry about. I plan to apply late August/early September.