Q&A: Can I Apply in March; University Deadline is in July?

Dhrubo Asks:

Hi, how are you doing? I will be applying for fall ’09 for MC in CS. The universities I will apply at have deadline of june or july, so can you please tell me weather there shud be any problem if I send my packets at the end of feb or beginning of march (as I have a backlog whose result will be out in Feb 1st week,so can apply before)?

University Deadlines

Majority of U.S. colleges and universities have 2 deadlines. There’s the early deadline for considering students for financial aid and there’s the regular deadline.

If the regular deadline is in June, the early deadline should be some time in November to December of the previous year.

Also, each department might have different deadlines than what the graduate school has. So make sure you check both the department and graduate school deadlines, if they’re the same or not.

Applying early is always better in all cases. It saves you time and allows you to know the results much faster, if the schools have rolling admission.

Applying Early?

It’s always better to submit application documents as early as possible. This provides enough time for you to prepare and complete all the required documents.

This also gives ample time for the school to process your I-20 and prevent the hassle of last-minute processing.

And because the computer science department might require additional requirements than those required by the graduate school, some documents must be sent directly to the department and some to the graduate school.

But this varies from school to school. Make sure you read all the admission requirements and send all the documents on time. Sending incomplete documents will delay your admission process.

For example, if you miss one letter of recommendation and just send it 3 weeks later will delay or complicate the entire thing even if you sent the other docs earlier.

The graduate school must first get your LOR to properly file your application. Then it will forward your late docs to the concerned department.

They have to find your file first and insert the LOR. If they misplace one LOR, then the department will inform the graduate school for missing documents, and then inform you about it.

So, in order to avoid all the confusions and unnecessary delays, send all the documents together on time.