The CASAA timeline: what to do when

Understand rolling admissions

Many programs review applications as they arrive rather than all at once after a deadline. Two comparable applications can end differently purely because one arrived months earlier.

That means your effective deadline is far earlier than the posted one. Plan to submit near the opening of the cycle, not near its close.

Verification takes time

After you submit, CASAA verifies your coursework and transcripts before your application reaches programs, and that processing window stretches during peak periods.

Your application isn't really in when you hit submit — it's in when verification completes. Build that lag into your plan rather than discovering it.

Do the administrative work first

Request official transcripts from every institution you've attended, including dual-enrollment and community-college coursework. A single missing transcript stalls verification for everything.

Ask for letters of recommendation early, and give recommenders a deadline well ahead of yours plus the context they need to write about you specifically rather than generically.

Then the parts only you can write

Draft your personal statement early enough that you can set it down and come back to it. Statements written against a deadline tend to read like it.

Keep a copy of everything you enter — coursework, hours, experiences — so supplemental applications and interviews stay consistent with what you submitted.

Verify this cycle's dates

Opening dates, deadlines, and which programs participate change year to year. Confirm the current cycle on CASAA and on each program's official page before you build your schedule around it.