When is the regular decision date typically?

I'm planning out my college application timeline and need to know when most regular decision deadlines are. Is there a common date that schools use, or does it vary a lot?

While some variation exists, the majority of colleges set their Regular Decision deadlines on January 1st or January 15th. This is commonplace for many highly selective colleges. Some other institutions have later dates, such as February 1st or even rolling admissions where you can apply throughout the year.

Keep in mind that these are the deadlines for submitting your application. Each individual part of your application — your Common App or Coalition App personal statement, supplemental essays, transcript, test scores, recommendations — need to be completed and sent off by this day.

In terms of strategy, it's a good idea to aim to have your application completed a week or two before the deadline, as servers tend to get overwhelmed on the last day due to high traffic. In addition, this buffer gives you some extra time for last-minute adjustments or corrections to your application.

As you create your application timeline, ensure that you don't confound Early Decision/Early Action deadlines (which are often in the November of your senior year) with Regular Decision deadlines.

Always check the specific dates for each school on their official websites as they can sometimes be unique. The application timeline can be different based on each individual college's process.