I always encourage students to start their college applications early, but only because the pressure of an impending deadline never seems to improve a final product. It’s not because the spaces are supposedly filling up as we speak.

Patrick O’Connor reminds applicants of this in his recent column:

“The application guidelines of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (Article I B 12) specify that member colleges have to give equal consideration to all applications received before October 15. This means ‘special’ programs can’t fill up, or colleges can’t use higher standards to judge an October 1st application than they did an August 1st application. Submitting your application by October 15th (complete with official test scores, if required) is a must for rolling admission colleges and special programs other than Early Decision—but if you haven’t started, you aren’t behind.”

The reason to start now is to work without pressure.