In this article
- Mid-December: the three letters you can receive
- Regular Decision is built now, not in January
- One SAT date is left: 5 December, register by 20 November
- If you are deferred, you still have cards to play
- Your plan for the next ten days
- How Your Dream School can help
The 1 November early deadlines have come and gone. If you applied Restrictive Early Action to Harvard, Single-Choice Early Action to Yale, or Early Action and Early Decision elsewhere, your file is now in a reader’s hands and the next official news arrives in mid-December. That does not mean the next five weeks are a waiting room. What you do between now and mid-December decides how strong your position is on 15 December, whatever the letter says.
Mid-December: the three letters you can receive
Harvard states that Restrictive Early Action candidates who applied by 1 November “receive notification by mid-December”. Yale releases its Single-Choice Early Action decisions in mid-December too, and is explicit about the three possible outcomes: an offer of admission, a final denial, or a deferral to the Regular Decision pool, where the file is reconsidered with final decisions by late March. One rule surprises many families: an applicant denied in Yale’s early round is not eligible to reapply through Regular Decision in the same cycle. A deferral, by contrast, keeps the candidacy alive.
Most selective American universities follow a similar calendar, with early decisions landing in the second half of December. So plan for all three scenarios now, while you are not reading an answer with your heart racing.
Regular Decision is built now, not in January
The Regular Decision deadlines fall in the first days of January: 1 January at Harvard, at 11:59 pm local time, and 2 January at Yale, with decisions released at the end of March and a common reply date of 1 May. On paper, that leaves seven weeks. In practice, early results arrive in mid-December, which means you would have barely two weeks, over the holidays, to produce supplemental essays for six to ten additional universities if you wait for the news before writing.
The sensible move is the opposite: treat Regular Decision as your main campaign and the early answer as a bonus. Finalize a balanced list now, following the same logic we use with our students in our guide to Early Decision, Early Action and Regular Decision: a coherent mix of reach, match and more accessible universities, each with its essays drafted before 10 December. If your UK applications run in parallel, remember that the UCAS equal consideration deadline of mid-January follows immediately, so December is the crunch month on both sides of the Atlantic.
One SAT date is left: 5 December, register by 20 November
For candidates who want to raise their score before Regular Decision, the calendar is now very short. The next SAT takes place on Saturday 5 December 2026. The registration deadline is 20 November, and late registration, with additional fees, closes on 24 November, both at 11:59 pm US Eastern time. Scores are released to students on 18 December. After that, the next test date is 6 March 2027, far too late for January deadlines.
Harvard, which requires the SAT or ACT, recommends scores from the November series or earlier for Regular Decision, but will accept December SAT scores, and February scores for the ACT. In other words, a 5 December SAT can still count, provided you register this week. Our SAT and ACT 2026-2027 calendar lists every remaining date, and our article on the 7 November SAT explains how to decide whether a retake is worth it. Retake only if your practice tests sit clearly above your last official score: a December test slot is a tool, not an obligation.
If you are deferred, you still have cards to play
A deferral is neither an admission nor a rejection: your file moves to the Regular Decision pool. Harvard’s first-year admissions page confirms that an applicant deferred in the early round may then apply to a binding Early Decision II program at another college. ED II deadlines typically fall in early January, so this option only exists for students who prepared a second-choice application in advance. That is exactly the kind of scenario to think through in November rather than on 16 December.
Keep your academic momentum too. Mid-year grades are sent to universities during the winter, and for a deferred or waitlisted candidate they are the freshest evidence in the file. The worst strategy after 1 November is to relax in the classroom.
Your plan for the next ten days
Here is what we are doing with our own students this week. Confirm the final Regular Decision list and check every supplemental essay prompt. Register for the 5 December SAT before 20 November if a retake makes sense. Draft the remaining essays so that everything is in near-final shape by 10 December. Prepare a short deferral plan: which university would get an ED II application, and what update letter you would send. And keep December free of last-minute panic by doing the heavy lifting now.
How Your Dream School can help
Since 2018, Your Dream School has supported 1,300+ students in their applications to the most selective universities in the US, the UK and Europe (Your Dream School admissions database, application cycles 2018 to 2026; minimum figures: a student admitted to several institutions in the same group is counted once). Our families rate us 5/5 on Google across 160+ reviews. Our college counselling for international students covers the full US strategy, from the school list to every essay, and our premium admissions coaching pairs each student with a dedicated consultant through Regular Decision and beyond, alongside our broader bachelor admissions support.
If your early application is in and you want an expert eye on your Regular Decision plan, or a clear strategy in case of deferral, book a strategy call with our team: mid-November is the ideal moment to lock in a strong January.
Sources: college.harvard.edu, admissions.yale.edu and satsuite.collegeboard.org, consulted 10 November 2026.
Author
With a Bachelor's (LLB) from UCL and Assas, and the Grande Ecole program at HEC Paris, Adam co-founded Your Dream School in 2018. Since then the company has coached more than 1,000 students through university admissions and interview preparation for top global institutions.
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