Early Action, Regular Decision: Which Application Deadline Should I Choose?

The UNCW 2018-2019 application is open for all of our first-year and transfer students. If you’re reading this post you’ve already made one important decision: you are applying to UNCW! The next decision you may have begun to consider is when to apply.

UNCW offers two application deadlines for our first-year students – Early Action and Regular Decision. As an Admissions Office, we encourage you to apply whenever you feel the most confident in your application. This time can be different for each student, and we encourage you to carefully review your GPA, grade trends, test scores and essays to determine if you have put forth the best application possible. As you are considering these factors, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the application deadlines and the implications for each.

Early Action: 

Students who apply Early Action to UNCW will need to submit their application by 11:59 PM on November 15. Early Action is a non-binding deadline: you are not committing to enroll at UNCW if you’re accepted Early Action. Students will have until May 1 to either accept or decline their offer of admission. Students will be informed of their Early Action admissions decision on/around January 20.

Admission decisions coming out of Early Action may vary. During Early Action, UNCW has to be a bit more selective when offering admission to ensure that we are leaving enough offers for Regular Decision applicants. Students can either be admitted, denied, or deferred. Deferred applications will be re-reviewed during Regular Decision, so don’t be discouraged if that’s the answer you get. Deferred students have the opportunity to strengthen their application until the Regular Decision deadline, which is February 1.

The benefit of applying Early Action is, of course, that you get your admissions decision back early. Getting the application done also means you’ll be less stressed by a looming deadline as your senior year progresses. If you’re accepted during the Early Action round, you’ll be one of the first students to choose an orientation date, sign up for housing, and have access to the UNCW scholarship application.

Regular Decision: 

Students who apply Regular Decision to UNCW will need to submit their application by 11:59 PM on February 1. You’ll be informed of the final admission decision on/around April 1. Coming out of Regular Decision, students can be admitted for Fall, denied, or admitted for Spring as part of UNCW’s First-Year Spring Admit cohort.

The benefit of applying Regular Decision is that you have plenty of extra time to polish your application, including all that free time during Winter Break. You can re-take the SAT or ACT if you’d like, or you can wait for your fall semester grades to appear on your transcript and boost your GPA before you submit your application.

UNCW’s application is available on SeaLevel, CFNC and the Common Application. If you have questions about your application, deadlines or notification dates, we encourage you to contact your admissions coordinator. They’re incredibly helpful and want you to have the best application experience possible.

Happy applying, #FutureSeahawks!