Is it first come first serve?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

q1we3

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
May 11, 2011
Messages
467
Reaction score
4
Do schools look at applications as they come in and give out interviews? do they give equal chance to applicants who will be applying later on maybe in October or November? When do schools start handing out their first batch of interviews?

Thanks for replying !
 
Most schools do rolling admissions. Berkeley is the only one I know of, off the top of my head, that doesn't. The schools that do rolling admissions will look at the applications as they come in and will start sending out interview invitations to competitive applicants. They are usually group interview days, but the sizes depend on the school and how late into the year it is. My personal experiences were:

SCCO interview: Early October, 16 people. They had two sets of interviews on that one day. 16 in the morning and 16 in the afternoon.
UCHO: Late October, ~20 people
SUNY: Early November, 4 people

I don't know for all schools, but I know SCCO's first set of interviews was early October. However, last year, OptomCAS opened a little later (July 15) so the interviews may start earlier this year.
 
Do schools look at applications as they come in and give out interviews? do they give equal chance to applicants who will be applying later on maybe in October or November? When do schools start handing out their first batch of interviews?

Thanks for replying !

From what I understand, admissions committees at most schools don't meet until September, so your application may not be reviewed for several weeks after you submit. But remember that they will only review complete applications, which includes your transcripts, LORs, etc., and it takes some time to process those.
 
From what I understand, admissions committees at most schools don't meet until September, so your application may not be reviewed for several weeks after you submit. But remember that they will only review complete applications, which includes your transcripts, LORs, etc., and it takes some time to process those.

Each school handles things differently, but they usually are reviewed sooner than several weeks. Several schools will also offer interviews based solely on the secondary application BEFORE receiving the primary application from OptomCAS. Also, all but one of my interview offers was made in late July/early August (I submitted 7/22). So yeah, they meet sooner than September. Granted, they won't accept you without a complete file, but you can get interviews without them having everything.
 
Each school handles things differently, but they usually are reviewed sooner than several weeks. Several schools will also offer interviews based solely on the secondary application BEFORE receiving the primary application from OptomCAS. Also, all but one of my interview offers was made in late July/early August (I submitted 7/22). So yeah, they meet sooner than September. Granted, they won't accept you without a complete file, but you can get interviews without them having everything.

Wow, I would be thrilled if I got interview offers by August. This makes me want to submit my application YESTERDAY. Thanks so much for the info!
 
Top