Congratulations! You’ve submitted all of your college applications. You’ve spent countless hours studying for the SAT, researching colleges, maintaining your GPA, and writing your personal statement. The hard part is over. Now the waiting begins.
There are a lot of important college admissions dates to keep track of, especially during the fall of your senior year, but when are regular decision notification dates? In this article, we will provide you with a comprehensive list of regular decision release dates.
You may also want to review our article on when college acceptance letters are sent out and what to do while you wait.
When will regular decisions be available? Regular decision notification dates occur several months after Early Action and Early Decision notification dates. This is because regular decision application deadlines occur several months later as well. That said, when exactly are regular decisions released?
Regular decision dates vary. Typically, though, regular decision notification dates occur from Mid-March to Early April. It is also worth noting that Ivy League colleges coordinate their release dates each year. Although this day changes year to year, Ivy League colleges always send out their decisions in unison.
Refer to the list of regular decision notification dates below. These dates will help you anticipate when you should hear back from colleges. Remember, colleges may postpone (or advance) their regular decision notification dates as spring approaches.
Name of College | Notification Date |
Agnes Scott College | April 15th |
Allegheny College | March 15th |
American University | Mid-March |
Amherst College | Late March |
Babson College | Mid-March |
Barnard College | March 31st |
Bates College | April 1st |
Boston College | April 1st |
Boston University | Late March |
Bowdoin College | April 1st |
Brandeis University | April 1st |
Brown University | March 31st |
Bryn Mawr College | Late March |
Bucknell University | April 1st |
California Institute of Technology | Mid-March |
Carleton College | April 1st |
Carnegie Mellon University | April 1st |
Case Western University | March 19th |
Claremont McKenna College | April 1st |
Colby College | April 1st |
Colgate University | Late March |
College of William & Mary | April 1st |
Colorado College | Mid-March |
Columbia University | Late March |
Cornell University | Late March |
Dartmouth College | Late March |
Davidson College | April 1st |
Denison University | April 1st |
Dickinson College | Late March |
Duke University | Late March |
Emory University | April 1st |
Fordham University | April 1st |
Franklin and Marshall College | April 1st |
Georgia Tech | Early March |
George Washington University | Late March |
Georgetown University | April 1st |
Grinnell College | Late March |
Hamilton College | Mid-March |
Hampton University | Rolling Admissions |
Harvard University | Late March |
Harvey Mudd College | Late March |
Haverford College | Late March |
Howard University | Early April |
Johns Hopkins University | Late March |
Kenyon College | Late March |
Lafayette College | Late March |
Lehigh University | Late March |
Macalester College | Late March |
Middlebury College | Late March |
MIT | Mid-March |
Morehouse College | Mid-March |
New York University | Late March |
North Carolina State | Late March |
Northeastern University | April 1st |
Northwestern University | Late March |
Pomona College | April 1st |
Princeton University | Late March |
Reed College | April 1st |
Rice University | April 1st |
Sarah Lawrence College | Late March |
Scripps College | April 1st |
Southern Methodist University | Mid-March |
Spelman College | April 1st |
Stanford University | Early April |
Swarthmore College | Late March |
Syracuse University | Late March |
Tufts University | April 1st |
Tulane University | April 1st |
Tuskegee University | Rolling Admissions |
University of California-Berkeley | Late March |
University of California-Los Angeles | April 1st |
University of Chicago | Mid-March |
University of Colorado at Boulder | April 1st |
University of Delaware | Rolling Admissions |
University of Kentucky | Mid-March |
University of Maryland | April 1st |
University of Massachusetts Amherst | Early March |
University of Miami | April 1st |
University of Michigan | Early April |
University of Minnesota | Late March |
University of North Carolina | Late March |
University of Notre Dame | Late March |
University of Pennsylvania | Late March |
University of Richmond | April 1st |
University of Rochester | Late March |
University of San Diego | April 1st |
University of San Francisco | Mid-March |
University of Southern California | April 1st |
University of Texas | March 1st |
University of Vermont | Early March |
University of Virginia | April 1st |
University of Wisconsin | Late March |
Vanderbilt University | April 1st |
Vassar College | April 5th |
Villanova University | April 1st |
Virginia Tech | Early March |
Wake Forest | April 1st |
Washington and Lee University | April 1st |
Washington University in St. Louis | April 1st |
Wellesley College | Late March |
Wesleyan University | Late March |
Wheaton College | Late March |
Whitman College | April 1st |
Willamette University | March 1st |
Williams College | April 1st |
Worcester Polytechnic Institute | April 1st |
Yale University | Late March |
Source: College Essay Advisors
Generally speaking, the latest you will hear back from a college is sometime during the first week of April. This is because May 1st is National College Decision Day. This means that unless you applied early, you must file your official college decision by May 1st.
Additionally, you will also want to let other colleges know that you will not be attending. Although not required, notifying other colleges helps them better manage their waitlist. In other words, whenever you officially decline an offer of admission, a college can offer your spot to another student.
There is a chance that you may not receive an acceptance or a rejection letter. Instead, you might receive a letter notifying you that you’ve been placed on a waitlist. This means that as admission slots open up, students placed on the waitlist will be admitted. The tricky thing about being placed on a waitlist is that you may not hear a final decision until August, right before school starts.
Being placed on a waitlist can feel confusing. Especially as you consider whether or not you want to remain on the waitlist. There are a lot of factors to consider, especially in regard to how being waitlisted might affect your financial
aid. That’s why it’s important to understand what to do if you’ve been waitlisted. You’ll also want to review how to write an email to a college admissions office so that your correspondence continues to be professional and polished.
As college application season comes to a close, you’ll want to start focusing on scholarships and understanding the FAFSA. Not only are these important steps, but they are also great ways to spend your time as you wait to hear from colleges.
Hopefully, come springtime, you’ll be admitted to your top college. If not, you may want to review common reasons college applications may be rejected. College admissions are incredibly competitive and sometimes it can be comforting to know why your application may have been rejected.
If you aren’t satisfied with your college decisions, you may want to explore applying to schools with rolling admissions, especially if you wish you had more options. The main difference between regular decision vs rolling admission is that colleges with rolling admissions don’t have strict application deadlines the way that colleges with regular decision deadlines do. Rather, they continue to admit students as long as they have openings.
Find out the exact regular decision notification dates for 2023 with our comprehensive list. From Ivy League to other colleges, know when to expect admissions decisions. Plus, tips on handling a waitlist and what to focus on while you wait.
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