As thousands of students begin to wrap up their junior year and look towards the future as they become seniors on the cusp of a brand new chapter, attending the colleges and universities of their dreams, there are many things on their minds. Testing, college visits, which courses to choose; throughout the sea of looming deadlines, choices, checkpoints, and milestones there is one that looms above all, Decision Day.
Across the landscape of admissions, students and families should be aware of the five rounds of enrollment, their timelines & requirements, and the times of the year when students should receive their decisions.
- Rolling Decision:
- While most universities operate on a more traditional admissions process of strict deadlines and decision release days, many institutions also give their applicants far more leeway and time in the application process via the use of rolling decision admissions processes. When applying to a college or university via a rolling decision application, students are often able to apply throughout the year and receive their admission decisions relatively quicker than the other available rounds of enrollment. Each university will have their own periods when they review applications and each individual application will be reviewed in the order that it is received, allowing students to gain their decisions on a rolling basis. While most students think that rolling admissions is a practice reflective of institutions that are less competitive, schools such as NYU, Indiana University, and Rutgers all offer rolling admissions, albeit after their regular decision deadlines have passed and with admissions offered on a space available basis. Admission decisions are often received in a matter of weeks after successfully submission of an application but can vary depending on the institution. Overall, rolling decision processes allow students to receive decisions much quicker than more traditional modes of admission on average.
- Early Action:
- Over the past few decades the world of admissions has seen more and more institutions leverage the early action round. Early action operates in a very similar fashion to Early Decision, but with one key difference. While Early Decision often forces students to choose one college or university to apply to with the guarantee of them matriculating to the institution should they be accepted, Early Action often allows students to apply to as many institutions as they want without having to agree to matriculate to any one school should they be accepted. Additionally, many early action rounds offer the same or similar increased rates of admission that you can find via an Early Decision round. When it comes to when students should expect to receive decisions from their early action applications, many universities release decisions on the same timeline as their early decision round – often early to mid December before students go on winter break. Some larger public universities like a University of Michigan or University of Wisconsin Madison, will push their early action decision release to late January or even early February depending on how much time is needed to review the large number of applications received.
- Early Decision Round I:
- Often known as the preeminent round of applications and one of the most stressful times of the year for seniors, the Early Decision Round I is an admissions round where students work tirelessly through October to make sure their applications are ready for the often used November 1st application deadline. Early Decision Round I is an admissions round where students and families get to choose 1 college or university to apply to in hopes that when decisions are released, they will connect with a university where they agree to matriculate and forego all other possibilities of enrollment. EDI, as its commonly referred to, asks students to submit applications by November 1st in order to give admission offices time to review all applications and send out all decisions by early to mid December. While very few institutions will provide applicants a specific decision date because of fears of having to make last minute changes to decisions, it is an unspoken rule in the world of admissions that December 15th is the absolute latest that many students can expect to receive decisions from the Early Decision Round I application process
- Early Decision Round 2:
- A newer addition to the mainstay of admission rounds, Early Decision Round II has become a very popular alternative pathway for families and students to leverage towards their college dreams. Similar to EDI, the EDII admissions round is binding and requires students to attend their chosen institution if offered acceptance. Applications are often received between a January to early February deadline with most decisions being received around Mid February.
- Regular Decision:
- The biggest and most popular admission round is still the tried & true Regular Decision. Hundreds of thousands of students work hard throughout the fall on their applications to submit during the early weeks of January in hopes of gaining admission to many of their top colleges and universities. Regular Decision is one of the nonbinding application rounds and with an early January deadline, many students begin to receive their decisions in early to mid March.
Whether you and your student apply via an early, rolling, or regular decision, admissions round the process to submission will require hard work, decisions on where to apply must be thoughtful, and the waiting period for decisions will be taxing. In order to keep stress at bay amongst students and families, please allow me to provide a few quick tips to weather the storm as you wait for decisions.
- Keep an eye on your application portal.
- While the successful submission of an application is a big step in the admissions process, it is far from the last thing that you have to worry about. Whether it’s the successful reception of all admission materials, offers for interviews, or, most importantly receiving your admissions decision, your best friend in the process is your application portal. Students and families should make every effort to keep an eye on updates provided through the admissions portal to make sure that any news received is timely.
- Designate a day to talk about college.
- As you wait for decisions to roll in, the stress will more often than not be palpable as students and families try their best to maintain a sense of normalcy on the day to day. While the temptation to constantly talk about the “what ifs” of decisions will be hard to resist, if you want a relatively happy home during the waiting process it’s important to minimize discussion around decisions that are largely out of your control once you hit submit. Therefore, the best advice I can give to families is to designate a day to talk about anything & everything in college as you wait for decisions to arrive. This will allow you to stray on track with updates as they arrive, forecast periods when decisions are expected, talk through emotions around the process, and keep peace in your home during the other days of the week that should be focused on business as usual.
- Lean on the expertise and guidance of your counselor early & often.
- When I say this I truly do mean it, lean on your counselor! Here at Galin we pride ourselves on the knowledge, years of experience, and wealth of expertise that our college counseling team holds. We have spent decades as a team visiting high schools, recruiting students, and admitting a diverse cohort of students from any & every major that you could dream of. That said, we are an amazing resource to leverage for not only admissions strategy but also for the emotional support needed as you wait for decisions & keep your fingers crossed for good news. We do this work because we love to support students during a stressful process that has loads of happiness on the other side once decisions start to roll in. Talk to us, vent to us, and keep us updated as you play the waiting game, I promise we’ll make your lives easier!
