Application submitted out of order - will it matter?

Applying to College
1

I’m aware that colleges prefer to receive the “Part I” section of the application (the Common App and the supplement, for example), then the “Part II” that my guidance office is responsible for, stuff like the midyear report, the secondary school report, teacher recs, transcript, activity list, supplementary materials, etc. I am doing all of the “Part I” sections online and dealing with the stuff guidance has to do, naturally, on paper.

The problem lies in the following - my guidance office demanded that I hand all of that stuff in by the end of this week for early January applications so they can process it. I did all of the Part II’s for all of my colleges, and I have already submitted it to guidance. However, since I am doing Part I online, I wanted to take my time over the upcoming winter vacation and refine/write the multitudes of essays for these colleges (something I have been agonizing over for the past month, mind you). It is very likely, therefore, that my colleges, by this system, will receive my Part II’s before they even know about my Part I’s and before I pay them. Everything will be in before the deadline (hopefully), but I was wondering if it is ok if I submit my applications this way. Will the colleges end up losing my Part II’s because I don’t have a “file” on their system or I haven’t paid yet? If so, what should I do? I absolutely need winter vacation (or a miracle. . .maybe even both) to get this done. . .

Thanks in advance for answering my question.

2

<p>You should contact the individual schools you're applying to, since every school handles their admissions differently.</p>

3

<p>Generally, the admissions office will make a file on you as soon as they receive something - a rec, an application, a transcript or SAT scores. They don't really care what gets there first, as long as it has your name and SSN. You might want to call Monday and tell them that they might receive your GC stuff before the actual Part 1, but I can't imagine it will be a problem.</p>

4

<p>All right, that's good. Hopefully, I'll have the time to call my schools up and find out for sure. And they will do this even if I haven't paid them yet, correct?</p>

<p>Thanks again for your help.</p>

5

<p>What did you find out from calling your schools?</p>

<p>My teacher rec may have gotten to my schools before they received my application.</p>