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Lawrence University
Many colleges are extending admissions deadlines this year, with the pandemic creating doubts among some students about where they want to enroll. Colleges figure they would rather scramble to deal with applications coming in a few weeks late than not get them at all.
Lawrence University is taking a different approach. It is keeping its traditional deadline, which was last week. But it is adding a new deadline, Feb. 16.
Ken Anselment, vice president for enrollment and communication at Lawrence, said, "We didn't want students to see the original deadline and not see an opportunity."
This year, he said that "the more we can flex toward student needs, the better."
And he said Lawrence is happy to turn around answers to those applying now by mid-March.
"This additional deadline is in response to students -- we’ve heard from many -- who are still having a difficult time, mostly exacerbated by the pandemic, getting through the application process," he said. "They may be waiting on a letter of recommendation, waiting for their first-semester grades -- the first actual grades they’ve been able to earn since the pandemic started -- trying to find quiet time on a shared family digital device to compose or upload their applications."
At the same time, the university didn't want to discourage applicants who could make the original deadline from meeting it.
Applications aren't doing poorly, he said. The university is down only 50 from last year.
