Are CA schools the only one not observing the April 15th deadline?

[kaijura]

Just curious of this, and maybe it'll serve future reference for the next waves of grads.

I'm starting to notice that the April 15th deadline is not at all consistent. CA (both state and individual UC institutions) seems to barely follow this pattern at all.

Are there other colleges (outside of CA) that still have their applicants on pending?

[yoshiko]

This depends on program of study as well as public vs. private funding. For a MA/MS program, the April 15th deadline usually does not exist for a CSU/UC. Sometimes its later because the deadline to apply is usually later.

Also, I think future grads (and current ones) should take into account the financial crisis that California is in. Being a graduate of a CSU (both undergrad and grad) as well as a lecturer at a CSU, I can speak confidently about how grim the future looks for CSUs and UCs. The more prominent UCs (such as Berkeley, Davis, ect.) receive a lot of outside funding but are still getting significant tuition hikes where students are outraged, ect. I think the CSU's really have it the hardest and so if anyone is applying to CSU's, keep in mind that some deadlines might be "off" because they are waiting for funding. In my grad program, they were almost forced to cut grad classes (which is insane) when we were already enrolled in the class. One semester, they hid copy paper from us and we couldn't even find a stapler in the copy room. No joke. CSU's are fumbling and so deadlines will also fumble. That is my take on it.

[kaijura]

Interesting reply, I do see merit in your comments.

Initially I didn't think to correlate the budget crisis impact on gradate programs, but it all makes sense now after seeing your post.

Schools are probably delaying in order to extend funding renewals, grants, new sources if possible, etc. While that impacts the CSU moreso than the UC's since UC's are able to develop different methods of funding to be able to re-allocate their assets, while the CSU's are likely to be bottlenecked by state allocations and such.

Thanks for the insight (terrible story on the grad classes), and I'm also feeling the gloom coming in for future waves of students.

It isn't going to look like it'll get better anytime soon.

[imonedaful]

A lot of schools do not adhere to this deadline. It also depends on the program, when a committe can meet to make admissions decisions, etc. I think I heard from one of three schools before that date. It seems like a lot of the programs in Texas and the south took longer to respond to people. May or later. So, I don't think that April 15th date is set in stone for every institution.

[OregonGal]

Speaking of budget cuts and tuition hikes at UCs... the UC Regents are looking at 6%+ tuition hikes overall for 2012-13 and if the November ballot initiative fails, they'll have to seriously spike tuition to make up for a $250M shortfall.