January 2027 Regular Decision and ED II Deadlines for Selective Colleges

By Dr. Lee, international college admissions advisor · Updated November 6, 2026

Almost every highly selective college has a Regular Decision deadline in the first five days of January, and several Early Decision II deadlines fall on the same days. For students waiting on a mid-December early decision, that leaves about two and a half weeks, including the holidays. Here are the published dates for fall 2027 entry and a plan for meeting them without spending New Year's Eve on a supplement.

The calendar

From each school's official admissions site.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} A few official pages do not state the year they apply to; confirm the date for the 2026-27 cycle before you rely on it. The University of California deadline (November 30) has already passed.

Details that change the real deadline

• Time zone. Princeton and Dartmouth specify 11:59 p.m. in the applicant's local time; most Common App deadlines work the same way, but check each school.^[2][8]
• Counselor materials. Harvard gives counselors an additional week after the deadline to submit their parts. Your own sections are still due on January 1.^[1]
• Earlier sub-deadlines. Stanford applicants submitting an arts portfolio must apply by December 5, not January 5.^[4]
• Aid forms. ED II aid deadlines can come later than the application: Johns Hopkins on January 15 and WashU on January 11.^[9] Regular Decision aid deadlines are usually in February; look up each one.
• Weekends and holidays. January 1 is a Friday and January 2 a Saturday. Schools are closed, so counselor questions must be settled by mid-December.

Why the last week is crowded

Common App handled about 10.8 million applications from roughly 1.53 million first-year applicants in 2025-26, an average of about seven per student.^[12] A large share of Regular Decision applications are due in the same five days, so treat the published deadline as the last moment, not the target. Plan to submit each application two to three days early.

How many applications is enough?

Common App applicants averaged 6.80 applications in 2024–25, up from 6.64 the year before.^[13] Applicants to highly selective schools usually apply to more, but more is not automatically better. A useful starting shape is two likely schools, four targets and two reaches, plus your early school; our balanced-list guide explains it.

The real constraint is writing time. Before you add a school in December, count its supplements and ask whether you can write them as well as the ones you have already finished.

Fees and fee waivers

Application fees at selective colleges are typically in the $75–$90 range; Cornell's, for example, is $80.^[11] A ten-school list adds up quickly. Common App offers fee waivers for eligible students, which your counselor can confirm, and many colleges accept their own waiver requests. For financial aid forms, the CSS Profile waives its fees automatically for U.S. students with family income up to $100,000. Settle waivers before the holidays, when counselors are still in school.

For international applicants

Deadlines are usually 11:59 p.m. in your local time, but confirm this for each school rather than assuming. If you are applying from Asia, a U.S. January 1 deadline falls on your New Year's Day as well, often during family travel. Aim to submit before the end of December, and allow extra time for translated documents and school reports.

A winter-break plan

This schedule assumes your early decision arrives around December 15:

• Before December 15: have every supplement in at least first draft. Count the essays: a list of ten schools can easily mean twenty-five or more short pieces of writing.
• December 15–20: react to your early result. Decide on ED II. Remove schools you no longer need, or add likely schools if you were denied.
• December 20–27: final drafts for the January 1 and 2 schools. Submit them by December 28.
• December 28–January 2: final drafts for the January 4 and 5 schools. Submit by January 2.
• January 3–15: check every portal, file remaining aid forms, and finish any later applications.

If you were admitted early and are certain, skip the plan and withdraw what you no longer need. Our admitted-early guide explains what to keep.

School-by-school notes

A few schools on the calendar have requirements that take longer than students expect:^[9]

• Harvard: five required short answers of up to 150 words each, on top of the Common App essay. Treat each as a separate piece of writing.
• Georgetown: requires an alumni interview where one is available, and you apply to one of its six undergraduate schools. Reply quickly when an interviewer contacts you.
• Brown: its Open Curriculum makes the "why Brown" answers unusually important; show what you would do with that freedom.
• Cornell: you apply to one of its colleges, and the essays and review follow that choice.
• Rice: optional interviews must be requested by January 6 for ED II applicants.
• Carnegie Mellon: testing rules differ by college; the School of Computer Science requires the SAT or ACT.
• Testing generally: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Penn, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown require scores for fall 2027 entry; Princeton, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and WashU are optional this cycle. See our testing guide.

Last-day problems and how to handle them

• Payment fails: try another card, then email the admissions office with a screenshot and the time.
• A recommender is late: submit your own sections on time. Missing recommendations usually do not block submission, and counselors often have extra time.
• You cannot submit because of a site outage: keep screenshots with timestamps and contact the school. Colleges have extended deadlines for widespread technical problems before, but announce it themselves; do not assume.

January deadline checklist

• [ ] Write each deadline and time zone in your calendar.
• [ ] First drafts of every supplement before December 15.
• [ ] Submit January 1–2 applications by December 28.
• [ ] Submit January 4–5 applications by January 2.
• [ ] File ED II and Regular Decision aid forms on each school's schedule.