Hit December 1 merit and honors deadlines

December 1 — the second merit deadline

Who sits on this date

A second large group of colleges runs its scholarship priority deadline on December 1 rather than November 1. Rutgers requires a December 1 application to be considered for honors-based merit scholarships. The University of Rhode Island gives priority consideration for its full scholarship range to applications complete by December 1. The University of Washington Honors programme uses the same date.

"Complete by" is the operative phrase. An application submitted November 30 with a transcript that arrives December 5 is not complete, and at some schools that is the end of the scholarship conversation.

Complete means all of it

• Application submitted
• Official transcript sent by the counselor and received
• Recommendations submitted, not merely requested
• Test scores sent, if the school requires or you are submitting them
• The separate scholarship or honors application filed, where one exists
• Fee paid or waiver applied

Check each school's applicant portal directly. Portals show missing items; email does not.

Three December 1 walls at once

This date collides with QuestBridge Match Day and with arts prescreen deadlines. If more than one applies to you, sequence the work now — none of the three has any flexibility, and they cannot all be done in the last week of November.

While you are in each portal

Confirm the aid applications too. Several schools require the CSS Profile by December 1 for merit consideration, not only for need-based aid.