I previously suggested the wait-list as a way to deal with the late applicant. Another strategy would be to accept late applications, and evaluate them normally, but let people know there is a $50/day (or whatever level) surcharge for late applicants, and no discounts available. This has a number of positive effects:
It deters people from applying late.
No hard cutoff, so people who just missed the deadline are still incentivized to be as early as they can.
Late applicants compensate you for the costs they impose rather than free-riding.
Deter late applicants who don’t value the conference that much.
It’s credible you might actually enforce this, in contrast to the difficulty in actually rejecting a high-value late applicant when the time comes.
Thanks for sharing!
I previously suggested the wait-list as a way to deal with the late applicant. Another strategy would be to accept late applications, and evaluate them normally, but let people know there is a $50/day (or whatever level) surcharge for late applicants, and no discounts available. This has a number of positive effects:
It deters people from applying late.
No hard cutoff, so people who just missed the deadline are still incentivized to be as early as they can.
Late applicants compensate you for the costs they impose rather than free-riding.
Deter late applicants who don’t value the conference that much.
It’s credible you might actually enforce this, in contrast to the difficulty in actually rejecting a high-value late applicant when the time comes.