I am a bit late for providing any help regarding essays I guess :p
Anyways Good luck to all R-2 applicants
I submitted my application on the deadline date of R-1 and received an interview invite in about 10 days, thereafter gave my interview in the 2nd week of November.
If the submission time has not been specifically mentioned on the website you can consider it to be 11:59 PM EST.
In case you guys have any last minute queries, feel free to drop me a personal message.
P.S. I have been admitted into the program