Kelly when is the earliest a student can apply for college admission here at BU they typically
begin at the beginning of their senior year of high school Boston University subscribes
to the Common Application tell us how that works uh so the Common Application is an application
that is shared by over a five hundred colleges and universities across the United States
so it is a common application that students complete once and then is submitted to five
six seven colleges that they may be applying to the Common Application launches so come
becomes live on August 1st is it recommended that a student seek early admission probably
should clarify some concepts if you don't mind so there are many early programs at colleges
we have early decision at Boston University we also have early admission early admission
is for a junior in high school who has exhausted all their curricular requirements and feels
ready to jump into college a year early it is a very rare uh student who takes advantage
of that opportunity but it does exist I think what you're probably asking about are these
early action and early decision programs designed for seniors in high school who have decided
where they'd like to go to college most and therefore indicate their preference or their
interest by applying earlier than the deadline of January 1 so we have early decision the
deadline was November 1st it has come and gone uh we have students whose applications
are being reviewed right now and they will be notified by December fifteenth do students
ever breech that agreement unfortunately students do but often there are legitimate reasons
uh before a student applies for early decision at least at my institution the student has
to sign an agreement that indicates that they undertsand that this is binding and that they
shouldn't be applying anywhere else their parents must also sign this agreement 'cause
we wanna make sure everyone and their family understands what they are doing what the implication
of being admitted means and then we actually ask the students guidance counselor to also
sign the agreement so all parties that are involved in this college search process sign
the statement and so therefore the likely hood of a student uh saying I can't honor
this commitment is much smaller what percentage of students would you say seek an early admission
so we enroll a freshman clas of about thirty six hundred students wow uh it is uh a large
class but of course we're a private teaching and research university uh we enroll about
eighteen to nineteen percent of our class early decision so that's just over seven hundred
students that say BU this is where I wanna be they're competitive for admission they
get great news in December they can celebrate their holidays but they still have to finish
their senior year and finish well what can a student do to make themselves a more sought
after applicant uh this whole notion that somehow students somehow have to package themselves
is something that frankly is very distasteful to me uh huh and I think you know this is
a very important decision but it's the student's decision and he or she needs t go through
some process of self assessment really think about who they are what their goals are what
they hope to achieve what their aspirations are and really think long and hard about the
kind of environment in which they'll thrive the answers to those questions should help
guide them to the kind of college or university that will be a good fit and that notion of
fit is so important far more important than rankings we want students who enter here as
freshmen to do well to thrive and then to graduate in four years later that is the ultimate
goal for all of us for students for families uh for the university for our faculty so we
do care about how students are doing in the classroom I mean in fact it's the best indicator
for success in college but we're also looking for students who will contribute in some way
enrich the university community because this is a community and students are not in the
classroom twenty four seven it feels like it sometimes but they are not and we want
them to be involved in student government we want them to be on our mock mediation team
we want them to do community service we want them to participate in Stage Troupe so we
are looking for students who are inquisitive hard working have been successful academically
but we're also looking for students who have some real strong passions This excerpt is
brought to you by the Massachusetts School of Law