What does Yale’s “Recommended Submission Date” mean?
Yale’s Undergraduate Financial Aid Department has few hard deadlines. Most true deadlines are set by outside agencies. The recommended submission dates cited on our website are based on annual process cycles and were created to provide guidance to students and families. For example, it is estimated that it takes 6 weeks from the time a file is complete before an award letter is mailed to the student. Therefore, to guarantee an award by June 1, the recommended submission date is set in mid April. For applicants, the recommended submission date allows time to create a record in the University database and process the financial aid application. Because recommended submission dates are guidelines, if your application is late by a day or week you may still have a completed award before 6 weeks. However, meeting the recommended submission date enables Financial Aid to guarantee the completion of financial aid packages by Yale’s admissions timeline, and allows thorough attention to every fina
