Ten days and counting until the January 15 deadline for Regular Decision applications, part II of the application for deferred students, and any and all required materials! My suggestion is to try and take care of things a few days early, just in case of any unplanned problems. I have had students in the past who have waited until the last day, and suddenly computer problems, car crashes, or major personal issues have come up. Our office is flexible with materials that a student is not always in control of (teacher recommendations, transcripts, etc.), but not as much so with things of which you are in control. In addition, while we do not look at applications submitted on the deadline differently from any other applications, rushed essays, misspellings and sloppy errors show up in many of the deadline applications.
You want to put your best foot forward with your application, so make sure it is not rushed and submitted last minute. As well, when you submit things at least a week or more before a deadline, it makes it easier for my office to match things up before the big rush of materials hits (which means less nervousness by you as you look at your status check and see that things have matched up with your file). I expect that we will get 30+ bins of mail during the week surrounding the deadline, and it takes a while to get all of it into our system and matched up with applications. So be patient with us as we pull everything together, and we will all make it through the deadline safe and sound!
Go Dawgs!