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On NCSU's website they suggest getting the app in early (September-ish I believe). The idea is that if you get in touch with the school to make sure that everything was received, if something wasn't received (maybe it got lost in the mail, maybe you happened to overlook something, etc etc)...you actually have time to take care of it. If you submit everything last minute and something hasn't been received by the school...well, you're gonna have to apply again next time.
I think that's the only benefit of submitting early. Even then, though, I wouldn't consider submitting earlier than September. But that's just me.
I feel like schools were super nice to me about things that ended up being a miscommunication. There was an instance with Tufts where I technically should have sent them transcripts from when I was abroad but because the courses transferred and appeared on my home school's transcript, I never sent them. They were just like eh, we didn't realize it last year so don't worry about it for this year (in reference to my 2nd year applying). They were also okay with a LOR possibly arriving late since it was coming from the UK by mail because I put the wrong person down for the electronic LOR. Then this year, I payed for my Wisconsin supplemental but apparently somehow didn't actually submit it. They still let me submit it after the deadline. Still got rejected but that wasn't mentioned in my review, so I don't think it played a part. Or it could have. Who knows. Haha.
Obviously I don't recommend missing deadlines and am utterly surprised I didn't get majorly screwed by any of those instances, but I think sometimes admissions can be understanding depending on the school. Some other schools are pretty ridiculously strict about things.