A Not-So-Pleasant Payment Surprise

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>I was checking out the payment part of the common app so I could familiarize myself with it just in case I ended up submitting very close to the deadline... and yeah:</p>

<p>"For students paying application fees by credit card: please note that the processing of a credit card fee may take 1-2 days to reflect with the Common App Online. This college will not receive your application until your fee has been successfully processed. You may pay the fee at any point, even before submitting your application. We recommend that you do this to avoid a delay if you submit your application close to the deadline."</p>

<p>UHHH ***? So I have to pay a couple days in advance? Like now?</p>

<p>I don't want to pay until I submit because I procrastinated like crazy and haven't finished any of my apps yet. I don't want to pay until I know for sure I will have finished the app in time. So my plan WAS to just finish as many as I could (I expect to finish all of them, but still, just in case) and pay the fees accordingly.</p>

<p>does this mean I should just pay all of them now?</p>

2

<p>If you are serious about applying to all of the schools you are working on, then yes pay for all of them NOW before its too late.</p>

3

<p>Some colleges won’t let you pay until you’ve submitted. Same boat, wasn’t aware of the processing time issue. Thanks for the heads up…</p>

4

<p>I was able to pay for my daughter’s app before she finished, but she had to submit either the school’s supplement or the common app before it would accept payment.</p>

5

<p>Doesn’t that mean that it will be processed, just that it may not be “reflected,” or shown on your common app page immediately?</p>

6

<p>I don’t think so. It says, </p>

<p>“For students paying application fees by credit card: please note that the processing of a credit card fee may take 1-2 days to reflect with the Common App Online. This college will not receive your application until your fee has been successfully processed.” </p>

<p>Sounds to me like they do not send the app to the college until the payment is processed, which they are telling you takes 1-2 days. Therefore, the college will not receive your app for 1-2 days.</p>

7

<p>If it makes a difference, for UPenn everything came up submitted except my fee when they sent me that portal login thing so I don’t think it will be an issue.</p>

8

<p>Also, most schools you can pay by submitting just the common app without supp (just did it for Yale, Harvard and Northwestern to be safe)</p>

9

<p>This can’t be right. A imagine a lot of procrastinators would get very angry.</p>

10

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<p>I think the requirement is postmarked, not received. I believe the app is treated as postmarked at the time it’s submitted.</p>