Also, you may, in fact, have a nice selection of acceptances but still want to explore your possibilities for geographical location, specialized curricula or some other reason. There’s no hard and fast law that says you need to have all your decisions in hand and be ready to make an enrollment choice by May 1. The richness of America’s many thousands of institutions of higher learning provides you with options.

If you are one of those in the above circumstances, or even in another situation looking for additional colleges, there’s a truly convenient resource for you to use: The College Board’s BigFuture listing of schools with late application deadlines. The introduction tells us:

Many regular college application deadlines fall in January. But if you missed those deadlines, it’s not too late to apply to a college and enroll next fall.

The list below shows colleges with application deadlines of January 15 or later. It includes colleges that use a rolling admission method. That means they have a long window of time to apply, and they respond to applications as they get them instead of waiting till all applications are in.

Click on the college’s name to see its profile in College Search and learn more about its application requirements.

Note: The colleges gave us the information below — but deadlines can change. To make sure you have the most up-to-date information for a college, visit its website or contact its admission department.

To give you a taste, I have excerpted some of these schools from the BigFuture listings, sampling them in chronological order of their application deadlines. Go to the BigFuture site to see the entire comprehensive list, which can be a little overwhelming at first glance. I'll start with some schools that have mid-April deadlines, since we're still in early April.

My list of excerpts isn't even 50 percent of the BigFuture list. Thus, your options are plentiful!

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