The Admission Office has extended its deadline for early decision applications from Nov. 1 to Nov. 7 due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy, according to an announcement posted on the office's website on Monday. Applicants for the class of 2017 will have six additional days to submit their applications.
Widespread power outages and school closings across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic necessitated the extension, said Jim Miller '73, dean of admission, noting the storm's effect on applicants who plan to submit their materials online. "It was clear that a number of schools would be hit, and since our entire process is online, there was a potential for a number of things not to be here by the deadline," Miller said.
Miller said the extended deadline applies to all early decision applicants, not just those residing in areas affected by the hurricane. The Admission Office plans to evaluate requests for further extensions from applicants affected by the storm on a case-by-case basis, Miller said, but he expects most of these requests to be granted.
"It's our intention to be very flexible," Miller said. "Certainly this was a serious and significant situation for lots of people."
The Admission Office had received roughly 600 early decision applications by last Friday, comparable to the number that had been received a year ago at this point in the process, according to Miller. He added that the applications received so far account for only about a quarter of the anticipated total of early decision applications, as most are submitted in the final days before the deadline.
Other Ivy League universities have also announced extensions to their early admission programs this week. Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale have extended their deadlines to Nov. 5, while Penn has extended its deadline to Nov. 6. Princeton extended its early action deadline to Nov. 7. Harvard did not officially extend its early action deadline, which remains Nov. 1, but the school's admission office announced it would be "flexible" regarding materials that are submitted late, asking applicants or their recommenders to send a message explaining their late submissions.
Miller said the Admission Office did not make its decision to extend the deadline in consultation with its peer institutions. "I think everybody came to the same realization (on extending deadlines) about the same time," he said.
Hurricane Sandy impacted an area stretching from North Carolina to New England, leaving more than eight million people without power and closing thousands of schools, during a time when high school seniors have been putting the final touches on their early admission applications. Applicants and their college guidance counselors in areas affected by the storm expressed relief about the deadline extension.
"People writing recommendations might not be able to send them without power," said Washington, D.C. resident David Peck, who still needs to submit some parts of his application. "The extension definitely helps."
Ann Selvitelli, director of college counseling at Suffield Academy in Suffield, Conn., said many seniors at her school were concerned they would have to submit all their materials before Sandy caused debilitating power outages.
"I tried to assure my students that colleges would be flexible," Selvitelli said. She added that Ivy League universities' extension of early admission deadlines will alleviate stress by giving students time to edit their applications carefully. "It was very reassuring because I didn't want students rushing to submit their applications even if they weren't polished yet," she said.
Cole Gruber, an Allentown, Penn., resident who is planning to apply early to the University, said he would have been able to submit his application by the original deadline as he only lost power very briefly during the storm. But he said the extension allows him to spend more time crafting his responses to the supplemental essays.
Gruber added that the University's extension provides flexibility to his school counselors, who must submit a number of forms related to the Common Application. "My school has been closed for three days, so they wouldn't have been able to send any of my information," Gruber said.
