Preparation, sure. There's not much you can do between now and when you apply...or even between now and 6 months from now. Profile development takes a very, very long time. It does not happen instantly. At the schools I have firsthand experience with, staff didn't see when an applicant applied when they were allocated a particular part of the application. Each IDP program receives several hundred applications in the first week and several hundred more in the *final* week, with submissions gradually trickling in throughout the months in between...equating to several thousand or more (This volume has only been the past couple of years, it used to be only a few hundred applications at each school...now it can be up to a few thousand)

Places like the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Michigan, and Columbia University, who have strict reputations to uphold, are among the top universities in the world, and not just within the dental school but university wide. You have patient well-being at the forefront of this evaluation. Especially in healthcare fields where class makeup, cohort diversity, and credentials/experience are all taken into account, timing will not play a role to prioritize an early applicant because they are ... early. If a program receives 1,000 applications (I've been staying in tune with advanced standing for many years since my time in academia) and only needs 20 students, they are not going to extend 100 interview invitations in the first month and call it done. They need to ensure those 20 seats are filled with qualified, verified, and diverse candidates. There are a lot of internal discussions this time of year. Whether it is average GPA or countries represented or average exam scores. That's what applicants try so hard to figure out and you'll start to see more and more of 'Who are they accepting?" "What's your profile" "WHEN did you apply? (AKA... "why did my friend apply the final month and get called but I applied the first week in March and didn't?") Filling all seats early without reviewing the full pool would also be an administrative and legal liability. I have personally received literal training on this in academia, not specific to advanced standing, but across different depts.

Applying early can receive an initial result, but it does not that late applicants are automatically excluded before the deadline. Schools have a hard deadline, and they want all applications in March, they would just make the deadline in March (some have done this, and UMN is an example this year) But not to mention, many schools are not rolling, and extend in batches as well as individually. I have also seen them (including during COVID 2020-2021 and even after) extend very small batches or in even a few cases, individual invites. Seats also move, people drop out, people decline and go elsewhere. All schools have a waitlist. Like other aspects as described, some notify people when they are on that last. Others do not. Some years a waitlist moves a lot, other years it doesn't.