atakan/Getty Images May 1 has for years been the theoretical end of the admissions cycle for four-year colleges and universities. Students have been admitted or rejected and have had time to weigh their offers and the financial aid they have been awarded. Many students have squeezed in one more campus visit by that date. Meanwhile, other campus offices have the task of planning for students' arrival in the fall. Orientation needs to be scheduled. Housing must be assigned, based on the exact number of students a college expects to enroll. The reality, of course, has been different. Except for the colleges that are the most competitive in admissions, May 1 may have stayed in place as a goal, but one that was rarely met. Most colleges routinely recruited and accepted students far later in the summer. But they didn't generally advertise this fact.