Types of Admission Deadlines

Welcome to From Carpool to College, a show for parents who are trying to get ahead or just keep their sanity while navigating the college planning landscape. Hey, guys, welcome to From Carpool to College. Tara, Hi, Tara. How many books did you bring in the studio today? Well, you know, we love a bargain, right, So when it's free and it's on Facebook marketplace and someone says, can anybody use these college admissions books, success stories, essay writing, I grabbed them all just to see what was there. And show up at some guy's house. Yes, during the day, okay, in the driveway only okay, okay. Was there an exchange? Yes, all right, and what's his deal? He walked out, and he made sure that that once I was done with them, that I would pass them on, I guess, not realizing that they kind of, you know, expire after a few years. Yeah, so it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. I thumbed through them, highlighted a few things, and you know, got a few laughs to say the least. Okay, we're not going to say the names of the book, no, no, no, because we don't want to get sued. I feel like I say this all the time, like I don't want to get sued, but it's true. It's true because we don't want to slander any crappy material that could come back to bite us. That's right. So, so what was swimming in your head when you started thumbing through all these books. Well, I'm always drawn to the anecdotes, the little scenarios. This happened to this kid, this happened to that kid. Just you know what were some of the stories that either you know, caused a kid to break down, start crying or you know, jump for joy with their acceptance letter in their hand. Right, So, just like we believe for our podcast too, we always try to share a story or two that works because that's I feel sometimes where it really kind of hits home and that's where the learning is right. So in our episode today, as we were prepping for it, I said, let me see what I can find in regards to the types of admissions. Oh, types of like rolling admissions, early action, all of those. So it's going to be a vocabulary vocabulary game today. Correct, And there's a lot of abbreviations and different you know formats for each of them. It does slightly vary according to the year that you look up this information, and also the schools themselves they put their own little spin on it, slightly right. There's different ways that they vary it as well. But for parents who are just in the beginning stages or who are in the process of the college admissions process, there's a lot out there and it can be overwhelming in terms of the terminology. Right, So the regular decision, early action, early decision, early decision too, rolling admission. The list goes on, right, so let's focus on Oh, we should probably set the timer. Let's set the timer. Oh yeah, because our parents have attention spans and car rides lengths just like us. Twenty minutes, twenty minutes, twenty minutes is great. Okay, listen to the creeks. I set it for twenty three okay, just in case that works. Okay, So parents, listeners, we are going to go through the different types of admissions. It's a little bit of a vocabulary lesson, but the takeaway is when your kid submits the application when, as in what month, what date really can influence his or her chances of acceptance, and every school, depending on their admissions practices, will be different, but basically they fall into some categories. So we'll go over them and maybe which book is this on your lap? Right now? What is this one called? Are we glad to say it? Oh? No, yeah, I'm not saying yeah. See. This is why Tara and I are such a good team, because I'm like, oh, well, I just forgot about losing my house. But there are scenarios in the book that are titled I r L in real life. Oh that's what kids say when they talk to predators right online, like IRL, I'm thirteen, yeah, but online I'm eighteen. Oh my god. Okay, So college admissions type. I made a cheat sheet so I don't miss anything. And what I'll do is we'll go over Tara and I will go over each of the different admission types and define them. Nothing too detailed, but parents need to understand when your kid is applying. This is more targeted to our families who have maybe sophomores and especially juniors because the summer before senior year. The applications pop open in August August first, sometimes sooner, sometimes July, and sometimes you could even apply as a junior in high school. I go right, So schools are all different depends on what's going on, what the purpose is. But typically the typical school applications, the common app pops live August first, which means that's when you could start submitting the application in its completion to each college. So let's get let's start with the one that everyone knows, right decision, so regular decision, and of course there's acronyms for everything in abbreviations RD Regular decision. That's your standard application timeline. And when a student submits, usually it's between January first, January fifteenth, sometimes February first. The submission is zapped over to admissions, decisions are made behind the curtain, and all the decisions will be released in the spring, so spring could be first week in April, last week in March, mid March. The deadline for informing a college that you are going to be attending, and that's just saying yes to the dress and also depositing is May first, So really, if we work backwards from May first, that's a good I think a good frame of reference for parents. So May first is decision day. And oh that's another episode, yes, because high school's on May first. I hate it. I hate it. When my oldest had we decided to go to our community college, County College of Mars and CCM for the first year to get the gen ads out of the way. So you know, his buddies are aware and like Syracuse, Rutgers, Penn State, and my boy was like CCM fighting Titans Man, and he was like proud of it, and we're proud of it too because he's graduating early. Yeah, but there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of pressure, and everything goes up on social media and you know, lots of comparisons happening. Yes, for sure. So regular decision you are looking at January first, the fifteenth, and who's that kind of best for that's best for the kid who they have time to improve their grades. Usually it's a backup. Usually these are your backup schools. Your first choice schools are typically never regular decision because seats are already filled through the earlier earlier application options, test scores. Maybe you want to get your test scores up, but you could even apply and say that you're sending test scores later, so even that there's some wiggle room and also you will get the advantages also to like look at comparing financial aid packages. So for example, if a student applies Regular Decision to a school that they have no they really don't even want to go to. But maybe the school that they really want to go to, their first choice, is only offering them a certain amount of money. You can use the acceptance of a school that you apply to regular Decision. It's like, hey, this school is going to pay me. You know, this school is going to take off thirty grand off the top. Could you match this? So it does help with the financial aid shell game, which is another episode and it's another episode. Yeah, And it's non binding. So if you apply to a school doesn't mean that you have to sell your soul. So there's no fee for right for like, there's no fear. There's always a fee. There's a fee for breathing, right, but there's no like a penalty. Penalty. Yeah, there's no penalty. There's no there's no Yeah, there's there's absolutely no harm in applying Regular Decision if that's for you. I don't recommend putting all your eggs in the regular decision basket ever. Ever, in some cases, I've worked with clients who lied to their parents and said that they were working on applications, and then the applications just never got submitted, and these little late birds were calling me over Christmas break, can you work with my kids? Sure is junior, No, they're a senior. Okay, it's like Ghostbusters. You know, it's like deploy, deploy the services and get them help. But that's that's the regular decision. Now there's you. You should be applying early. Students, should be applying early, early action and early decision. And rolling are my typical early birds. Let's do rolling because that's fun. I like to compare rolling admissions to going to concerts. Remember this terrorist Jersey girls remember going to the Garden State Arts Center for concerts back in the day. I mean, we can go now to but it was so much more accessible and less expensive when we were growing up. But if you go, and if you went and got launch on seats, rolling admissions reminds me of getting lawn seats at a concert where you can just like first come, first serve type of thing. So you have your cooler, you have your chair, you have your friends, and you go. You get you line up early, you get in a spot. Yep. Yes, So rolling admissions opens up the gates for admissions early. Like July August and the applications. Here's the cool thing. So applications are reviewed as they are received, and there's no holding back. They'll send they'll continually send out their admissions decisions. So if you apply rolling admissions in July, there's a good chance by the first day of school you've already been accepted and your senior year is smooth as silk because you have nothing else. You're done. You're good. Love rolling admissions. Okay, so my question about rolling admissions is, is this format offered to students from universities and colleges that are maybe less I don't want to say less desirable, but less competitive. Let's put it like that. Yes and no, because the rolling admissions I've seen there are some that are less competitive. However, I see like bigger state schools. A lot of state schools will do rolling admission, or they'll call it priority. It's like they're open for admissions. They'll read and make decisions, or they'll read and put you on hold. So there's there are other tiers of it, but it's not necessarily not competitive. It does. We talked about it earlier that some schools are kind of doing a way with rolling admissions because kids are using it as like a second choice situation and it wastes the seats for kids you really want to go to that school. But there's like listen, there's like there's a book to I'm pointing to Towers book. There is a book on like every single like going over. There's a book on regular decision. There's a book on early action. There's there's so much material, so we I'm going to try not to get too granular. So now we're in these earlies, right, So it's rolling admissions, and then when the seats are all filled, you're done. There's no way to know. So if you see a rolling admission deadline of March first, you're slacker kid. It's going to be like, ooh, it's not due till March first. But really it's like no, Bro, they stop reading and it's filled. So if you show up at the concert at eleven thirty and the concert's over at twelve, you're not even getting on the Law and Bro. So early Bro does get the worm with that, and they also will be releasing the financial aid. Typically they'll they'll release like merit money with those admissions decisions too. So the early bird always gets the warm when it comes to getting merit money, and merit money is the money you get for being a good student, for being just the awesome kid you are with the good grades. So let's rolling. We have the two earlies, early action and early decision. Early action is non binding. Early decision is binding, So early action those deadlines are between like November one November fifteenth ish, it's non binding. There is a slight advantage for those highly achieving students ready to roll, and they'll have that peace of mind with no pressure to enroll. When they get accepted. Typically the decision will come out like the last week in December. So again you're talking about getting all your stuff, all your ducks in a row, getting those applications in and your acceptance and typically your financial aid information, your package as they say, will be in the acceptance letter. It's a beautiful thing. Apply early and get that decision, no commitment to enroll. That is early action. Every single client that Tara and I work with typically are going early action. If you are going and grinding through your applications, which you should be in the summer, then there's no reason why you shouldn't be hidden the rolling and Early Action. Sorry to interrupt, but we're going to take a quick break right now. Feeling the pressure of school leadership, Ready to make a real impact, then listen to Control Shift Lead, the podcast designed exclusively for all school leaders. This partnership between AWB Education and Inspired Edification will bring you three powerful takeaways in every episode. Something you can control in your work, something that will shift your thinking or practice, And something concrete to help you lead your school a district. Get practical strategies and fresh perspectives to empower your leadership journey. New episodes drop on the first of every month. Search for Control Shift Lead on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe today. And we're back. Now. Early Decision is a little different. It's a lot different. Actually, Early Decision will actually strongly boost your chances of getting into a school, because what you're telling a school is you are my number one. Do kids still say bay bae? That think not so much anymore? Yeah, like any kid who just heard that, Like if my kids heard that, they would throw something at like mom, shut up here, we'll explain what it means. What does it mean? You know, before all anyone, before anyone else, that's it. Yeah, before anyone else, right, I'll say it. I don't care. Early Early Decision is your Bay School before anyone else. It is your number one and it is a binding contract, which means parents have to sign a contract, student has to sign a contract, and the school counselor has to sign a contract. And that is with full understanding that if you are accepted, you will attend. Is this where there. Was a situation that happened locally where students sign the contract? Oh? Yes, we talked about that. Yes, Okay, someone that I am familiar with. Okay, so they signed the contract, but then they did not want to go, and then. It ruined the relationship. Oh there's a couple of stories. Okay, So I thought the one story you meant was with the girl who wanted to go. She wanted to go to American University, Okay, down in DC, and she applied Early Decision. Okay, sign the contract. Parents signed the contract, and school counselor signed the contract. When she got in, she got in, she got no financial aid, none, total sticker shock. And there is a mechanism allegedly to get out of that contract if you prove that you can't pay the tuition. But the expectation is no matter what the financial aid number comes through, if you go early decision, you pay full price. So they ended up having to do a second mortgage on their house, which is horrible. I hope by now she's graduated. I hope she has a good job. That's really like, yeah, I think she was a polysy major too, which is like, ah, you're probably wanting to go to law school. There's another mortgage. Poor parents are going to be in a living in a box outside the wah wah. So, but what you were talking about was a situation where a local high school was a kid applied early decision with the contract to a school I'm not going to say the school because this was like this is a totally true story, and decided not to go broke the contract. Then the fancy school didn't visit that high school for a couple of years and did not accept anyone from the next admission cycles. Nobody was admitted. Yeah it's bad juju, it's just bad bad blood. You're you know, your word is your bond, right, Like, if you're saying you do it, you do it, and early decision will absolutely give you a leg up in admissions. And I was talking to my husband about this. He's like, Ooh, it sounds like a shadowy way of just getting candidates who pay full price. I'm like, yeah, I guess maybe it kind of is. I also saw a lot of recruited athletes who were encouraged to apply early decision if they were in a lower tier academically in the recruiting process. And it also is a signal to admissions that it's a sure thing this kid's coming through from you know, from coach with the secret little handshakes and passes. So that is early decision. The deadline is usually November first ish, and again very strong boost. There's a second bite of the early decision apple that's called ED two yes, and that if you don't get into your ED one school. Oh, by the way, when you get in your ED one school, you have to withdraw all your other applications. You do, you do? You have to pull them and say, hey, you know, I'm wearing a Marasst sweatshirt right now, Hey Marist, I got into such and such and I like to withdraw my application because again this is just the rules of civility. So you do have to withdraw those applications and let them know so they can give those seats to somebody else who really wants them. And also the financial aid piece. There's a lot behind the curtain going on in the admissions and we want to be respectful of that, right exactly? So are you showing me this on your phone because you want to talk about it? Yeah? So tell me Tis tappens something on her phone and I'm like, I can't go. I have my reading glasses on and it's too far for me to see. What does it say? All? Right? So this was a New York Times article that just came out. Okay, I don't have the exact date on it was the head of June fourteenth, Okay, headline? Am I allowed to say it? It's New York Times's right? Why did Syracuse offer two hundred thousand dollars deals to teens who had turned it down? And the and the thought behind it is by the time the usual May first college deposit deadline ruled around this year this one, Dad right, His daughter had already made up her mind that she would leave Georgia and become a Penn State Nitney Lyon, but Syracuseten University, which it also accepted her wasn't done with her yet, And what they did was, at first they didn't offer her any merit pay, but then they offered her ten thousand dollars per year discount. Wow. Then weeks went by, and then they dangled an additional twenty thousand dollars per year. Oh bidding war so off of the top of what was like ninety grand to go to Syracuse's days, I don't know eighty maybe all in, but I just thought. That was interesting. This is all over social media right now because this was done after the fact, right, so when students already committed to. Other schools with they'll lose deposit so you can commit to a school. This is all dirty. I feel we need bleach. Get the bleach. Yeah, after you put a deposit down to a school, you can go in a different direction. So it's colleges are getting down and dirty. Yeah. And they said like about oh, it's ninety two thousand a year, ninety two wow ye Dara, Oh my gosh. So it's just interesting that I don't know, well, where's the two hundred thousand dollars coming from? The headline says two hundred grand, right, So I think that they had offered because the whole idea was that they played chicken right, so they didn't offer anything. They did, and then once other once they were students were moving in different directions than they started to say wait, wait, wait, come back, We'll give you this, we'll give you that. On this it's like when we go to the Poconos for the time share sales, like but wait, like you're getting a flat screen TV and for days at split Rock. Yeah. So so it's just I don't know, it's just worth a read. But it's also I guess interesting to note that there are many changes that are happening within the last few years. Oh for sure with the universities and you know just what they're offering. But I thought that was a huge amount of money to just say, oh, wait, come back, we'll give you this, We'll give you that. I know that they. Are, you know, the tuition is really high, but still I know it's I know that's a lot of money, and I don't think it's two hudre thousand dollars to one person. No, no, no, right, So but that was a misleading headline. Gave it to the Times, So I'm like, what the what? But but to our point about when you apply. If you apply late, you won't have those options. Yeah, there'll be no magical bidding war for you if you are applying uh says submitting on January first. And if you apply with early decision then it so I feel like both of those are. Yeah, it's like what early decision? You have to really make that decision. This is the college I want, no matter how much the price tag. Yeah, price is independent. That's early decision one and two. There's also something called restrictive early action that we didn't talk about, where how they qualified students will apply to the top tier schools. These are like Ivy's Stanford and it can slightly boost your admissions chance. It's a November first, but you apply to only one school and no other EA or eed private apps they're private schools. So there's all these different variations of how to apply, But the bottom line is if you don't pay attention to when those applications are due, you there will be disadvantages. We talked about We talked offline about direct admit. We talked about different majors. If your kid is going to a school to attend, to declare a major where there's a limited amount of seats, then you better apply early. Nursing. I'm working with a client now for a physical therapy school. Better apply early. Seven year med schools, better apply early, even the hard sciences, because you're talking about a fine number of lab stools, if you will. This is the former science teacher in me. So I'm picturing the classroom. You only have a certain amount of space and technology. So think about you know, these are the influences. Think about your kid, Think about where you know, think about that college list, Think where their standing is. Is it a reach, is it just right? Is it a safety? And that you know you're going to be applying to schools where the earlier the better. For sure. There's a joke with the admissions counselors like there's everything is early action. Everyone's applying early action. Bulk of their stuff is bulk of their applications are early action. Oh I just read in one of my professional journals that Northwestern Northwestern last cycle admitted half of their freshmen through early decision half. So half of the admitted freshmen class applied binding early decision. So if Northwestern is reporting that out and you can find this parents, this is not they don't make it easy to find, but I will tell you the Common data set. I'll say it again, common data set. If you google Common data Set and the name of a school. It's a compliance a compliance reporting system that all admissions they have to report out. So if you find the common data set, it'll tell you how many kids are admitted during which cycle, and you can really gauge what kind of advantage your kid will have when they choose to apply. So the reality is you're going to run buckshot over most of it. The react. Most students are going to be applying early action and regular and rolling most combo. Yeah different, for sure, you want to have a diversification of that too, But don't be fooled by the rolling. You know, just because it says March fifteenth, don't show up to the Duran Duran concert at eleven thirty because you're not going to see them saying did I just totally give out my age demographic? But so your takeaways, your early decision is going to have the highest advantage for admissions, but it does remove your flexibility. Your early action is really the way to go, no risk and some gain. Restrictive early action only apply if you're highly qualified, and it is your top tier choice. Rolling space runs out kids early bird gets the worm, and there's open admission also, where they're just like a community college often has open admission and they're you know, you can, you don't have to, you can. You could apply the day before school starts. I wouldn't recommend that, but you can do that too. Yes, so good. Did you have a vignette that you wanted to share? And this this she has the book on our lap still and I see all this ink? Was it? Craig the boy, Yeah, let's do it real fast. Okay, no time is out, but we're good. We're still twenty seven minutes. Yeah, we could do this, Okay, So he decided that, good old Craig decided that he was going to apply early decision to an Ivy League school, and he thought for sure he was getting in, ah, but then he got deferred. Weren't warn't so he got deferred, which means he was dumped. Sounds terrible, but his application was dumped in the regular admissions pile as if he was just you know. You kind of like they describe it as like a twilight zone because you just don't know what's happening with it at that point? Right? Right, he wasn't flat out denied, right, So you got potential kid, but you're not you know, but the chances weren't right exactly. So basically just going into it a little bit, he was thrown into the regular admissions pool where he would have little to no chance of getting accepted. So the overall takeaway from that is when you apply ed, right, you should always. Do snicker when you're read easy. I do, like the seventh grade boy in me, like, you always need to have that backup plan, right, you do, absolutely, and you need to diversify the schools you're applying to exact diversify how and when you apply for sure, And it's a lot. And this is why a lot of people, most people outsource college planning because it's not common knowledge. But stick with us, parents, We're going to try to walk you through everything. We appreciate you so much listening to us on our podcast. We are having so much fun on from Carpool to College. I'm Tracy Amadeo, Tara Hartz, and we'll hear you next time. Thanks, thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, We'd love for you to be a part of our growing community. Please share and follow our show. For those who want to support us further, join. Our Patreons here. Support helps us create high quality content and great episodes. Plus, our Patreon members get exclusive perks like bonus episodes, early access, and behind the scenes content that we think you're just going to love. And now for some legal stuff. The content of this podcast is for informational and educational entertainment purposes only, and it is provided as is, with no guarantee of accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or outcomes. I could keep going, but I will spare you, and I will post this entire legal disclaimer on our website www. Dot Academic MENTORINGLLC dot com under podcast. Tara and I are so glad you joined us today on from Carpool to College. See you next time. Something like that. Yeah, done's good? Okay, Chris, make that pretty? Please? Pretty please make it pretty please? Mm hmmmmmmmm. We were monking around with the audio, so sorry if your ear drums are gonna bleed.