Application Timelines

Application deadlines for graduate and professional school programs can vary widely depending on the discipline and program. Knowing when you’ll need to apply will help you stay ahead of the game.

It’s helpful to think about your planned matriculation date and plan backward from there. The timeline above assumes that your graduate program will start in the fall. This could be immediately following your graduation from Grinnell or after you’ve spent a year or more away from school.

Professional programs in health professions, particularly doctoral programs in medicine, dentistry, or veterinary medicine (MD, DO, DDS, DVM) require significant advance preparation: These application cycles open almost a year and a half before the anticipated matriculation date. If your goal is to start one of these programs in the fall of the year you graduate, you’ll be preparing your applications in the spring of you third year at Grinnell. Medical school applications open in May. Although the final deadline is in October, the programs admit applicants on a rolling basis. This means that qualified applicants are interviewed and potentially admitted as their applications are received. As such, early applicants are at a significant advantage. Your target submission date for these programs should be early/mid-summer. (Seriously. Do not wait until October.) Other degree programs in healthcare, such as public health or nursing, tend to open their applications in August and have variable deadlines.

Law schools also use rolling admission, so again, applying early is beneficial. Aim to get your law school apps submitted by mid-November.

Academic graduate programs—PhDs and MA/MS programs—typically have deadlines between December 1 and January 15. If you’re aiming for grad school directly after Grinnell, plan to spend your fall semester working on your applications.

Many professional master’s programs have application deadlines in late fall or early winter (December – February). These include programs in public policy (MPA, MPP), teaching (MAT), and fine arts (MFA).

Finally, with greatest flexibility, many graduate programs in business or finance offer rolling admissions throughout this timeline. You’re also likely to find master’s programs with application deadlines in spring, or with multiple application deadlines for different start dates. Graduate programs outside the U.S. often have rolling deadlines.