What's the best choice: rolling or regular decision?

I can't decide whether I should apply rolling or regular decision to a few schools I'm interested in. I know rolling might be faster, but are there any downsides? Any advice or personal experiences would be great!

Sure, happy to help clarify this for you. In essence, the choice between rolling admission and regular decision depends on your preparedness and the specific strategy you have for your college applications.

Rolling admission is a process where you can submit your application any time within a large window, and the school will review it as it arrives. Schools with rolling admissions typically start notifying applicants about their decision within a few weeks of receiving the application. This can be a huge advantage if you have your application ready early. If you're confident in your current profile with strong grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, applying through rolling admission can potentially get you an acceptance letter earlier in the school year.

However, keep in mind that as places fill up, competition can become more intense. So, if you apply later in the rolling admissions period, you might face stiffer competition. In addition, if you think you can significantly strengthen your application with your senior year grades or new extracurricular achievements (if you anticipate those), then you might want to hold off and apply regular decision.

On the other hand, regular decision has a definite deadline and all decisions are released at approximately the same time. This doesn't give you the same advantage of getting a decision earlier, but it allows all applicants to be reviewed in the same pool, which could be beneficial if you're strengthening your application until the last minute.

In the end, the choice depends on when you feel your application will be the strongest. Good luck with your decision-making process!