Sending Applications Early is not important
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:22 pm
Everyone trumpets how important it is to have your applications sent out early but my cycle - and the cycles I've observed along the way - don't really seem to demonstrate this. I need to note that I'm a URM, which could make my experience non-representative and the schools and it's not precisely legitmate of me to make this claim based on the few schools I applied to in early November, which is why I'm expanding it to the populace.
The only schools that responded to me before the year ended were schools where I EA'd or ED'd with one exception - a third tier law school that contacted me a week or two after applying with scholly money and an acceptance. It seems like the only time applying early really seems to make a difference is when you already have the numbers to be accepted later anyway and even then it's not guaranteed (read: Cornell Waiting Room thread). I am not aware of any miracles occurring in the Georgetown or Cornell thread wherein an applicant who applied ED/EA got in with numbers that wouldn't have got them in at a later time. If that's the case, the only observable benefit of applying early to me is getting it out of the way.
The only schools that responded to me before the year ended were schools where I EA'd or ED'd with one exception - a third tier law school that contacted me a week or two after applying with scholly money and an acceptance. It seems like the only time applying early really seems to make a difference is when you already have the numbers to be accepted later anyway and even then it's not guaranteed (read: Cornell Waiting Room thread). I am not aware of any miracles occurring in the Georgetown or Cornell thread wherein an applicant who applied ED/EA got in with numbers that wouldn't have got them in at a later time. If that's the case, the only observable benefit of applying early to me is getting it out of the way.