<p>My son is applying to one school that has an application that doesn't let you see how it will look before sending. The admissions office said that he can enter the wrong date when he goes to submit, and then will be able to see the whole thing. When he did this, his personal statements were all CENTERED, and hard to read. We tried using a different browser, copying text files in, and even typing directly into the box. Each time it comes out centered. We have an older Mac and cannot update to the newest firefox; the version we have is 3.6.28.</p>
<p>I don't know if what we see is actually how it will appear when received on the other end.<br>
So
1. What do you think?
2. Does it matter what browser is in use when the information is entered- if a different (up-to-date) browser is used while submitting the application? (ie would it help to send from a different computer if all the entry was done on ours?)
3. If it looks OK when we view the application during the normal mode of filling out the application, should it look OK to them?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance. This is the only application that has given him trouble, and we want it to look its best. While I will call on Monday, I don't know if i will get a technical person, so was hoping to get some clarification now.</p>
<p>Things can be formatted differently in different browsers and just appear different in different browsers. Some websites have a ‘recommended’ browser to use which usually means that’s the browser they tested the web pages against. </p>
<p>Did you see a recommended browser on their site?</p>
<p>If it looks okay to you it’ll probably look okay to them and whatever happens with it will probably happen to hundreds of other persons’ apps as well.</p>
<p>Thanks. No, they don’t recommend any particular browser. i just worry that as Mac users, with an older browser, we might be the exception.<br>
The fact is that, if we had not had an earlier browser-related problem with this application, we would not have known about the date “trick”, and would have just sent the application off without checking.</p>
<p>When DD1 applied to a half dozen colleges back in the dark ages (late 2010) I was astonished at the ad-hoc nature of the homegrown college applications and the general lack of quality. I mean, people, it’s 2010, you should know how to write PHP or ASP or what not. </p>
<p>Imagine having to go thru a very lengthy list of courses and if you took a class, you enter grade. If not, you enter a zero or some other marker in each class listed to indicate you did NOT take that class. This was in a west coast state flagship.</p>
<p>Don’t get me started on the departmental or supplemental applications or Mickey Mouse schemes to upload portfolios. </p>
<p>I have not tried the common app yet but hopefully the team that coded it had a general clue or two about (a) making it work with different browsers (b) making it easy to use and (c) allowing an app to be completed in a timely manner without asking questions that they will get answers from in a transcript…</p>
<p>^A few years ago the Georgetown Application was so badly designed, that my son ended up printing it out and mailing it. Huge panic as he decided it was impossible to deal with on Saturday afternoon and we needed to find an open post office. </p>
<p>My best advice is to try a different browser and see if the results are the same. If there’s not an easy fix I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Son’s Georgia Tech writing sections are showing up centered in the xps file he saved. He had no idea, and I don’t think he had a way to check before he submitted. No ideas for you …sorry!</p>
<p>Thanks to all for your responses. He just may end up submitting a paper copy. (Does that mean you fill in all the blanks by hand?) Probably won’t look good for someone who is trying to get into a competitive CS major.</p>
<p>At this point we have tried 3 different browsers, text files, filling in the boxes rather than copying and pasting- all to no avail. Now I’m worried about the other applications he sent without being able to check the appearance. Somehow, this was way easier when my daughter applied to colleges 8 years ago.</p>
<p>I really don’t think the appearance will make that big a difference. The school may be printing these with a totally different program our reading them online.</p>
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