BC Agora "Tabs" and EA candidates

<p>So, I’ve heard a lot about “tabs” on BC’s Agora Portal and how, come mid-December, for candidates accepted early, a mysterious new “tab” shows up essentially confirming that you’ve been accepted before your letter comes. Does anyone know if this is true? Also, can anyone explain exactly what the “tabs” are, because my Agora portal doesn’t really have anything that I would call a “tab”. Thank you!</p>

<p>Apparently there is a tab that says “pay enrollment” on it. It appears mid-December if you’ve been admitted.</p>

<p>Oh my goodness, I hope that this rumor is true and that I get one! Do you know what the “tabs” look like? My portal doesn’t really have anything like the tabs on internet explorer or safari, so I’m not really sure what the “tabs” are supposed to be. Thank you!</p>

<p>When our DD applied EA two years ago, this same question came up and we “confirmed” that the portal change had happened prior to letters being sent in past years by looking at the previous year’s decision threads. It looked to us like they had made some adjustments to their process though and during that year, the portal change was not happening ahead of the letters being sent.</p>

<p>That being said, much to our DD’s dismay, she got deferred to RD and had to wait through the whole process one more time. For that decision, her portal did change about one week before the letters were sent out but, again based on the thread traffic, that appeared to be the exception rather than the rule. We were guessing at the time that it might be because she had been an EA candidate to start but don’t really know.</p>

<p>Bottom line message, don’t worry if you don’t see a portal change ahead of the time the letters come out!</p>

<p>Good Luck! BC is an exceptional place!</p>

<p>Thank you very much for the answer and the advice! I can’t wait until “mid-December” comes!</p>

<p>If you look back at prior treads the tabs change is a true indicator of your acceptance into Boston College. In December 0f 2010 our son was notified of his EA in the College of Arts and Science. I just reviewed the extensive notes that we kept during the college application process.
The tab “Pay Enrollment” appeared on Agora Portal on Dec. 15th. My son’s acceptance letter is dated Dec.16th. The letter arrived in Connecticut on Dec.17th.
My son has discussed this process with some of his friends at BC. They are were aware of the “Tab Change” and whether they were accepted EA or RD their tabs changed a few days prior to their acceptance letter.
It has been my experience over the last 4 years that for EA a change in will be seen a few days prior to your letter. If no tab change occurs then you have been deferred to regular decision, waitlisted, or denied.
Start checking your Agora regularly!</p>

<p>Good luck to all. I hear that this years incoming class in one of the most competitive in many years.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your detailed response ben51094! I’m going to start checking my agora everyday starting December 15!</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Actually, it’s been more than four years.</p>

<p>The ‘beauty’ of antiquated systems (and agora is running on 70’s technology). Admissions on Agora is primarily a batch process, some/much of which runs overnight. So, the sequence appears to be:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Admissions approves an applicant. </p></li>
<li><p>Admissions enters decision into Agora, which then sends to the print queue to print letters for snail mail. Some letters go out same day, some the next day… Depends on the print queue, the mail truck, mail room clerks, etc. (Letters are printed as decisions get made.)</p></li>
<li><p>But, at the same time, Agora automatically notifies other college departments, such as Collections (pay deposit), Res Life (dorms), college Deans (honors, orientation, a&s, csom), and the like.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s the spot to ‘Pay Deposit’ that is a dead give-away.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>My son checked his BC portal today and a different page came on the screen. It was aimed at BC students and asked him to submit his password again. Could this mean anything? My son was so excited that he didn’t read it through carefully, but it was something that definitely was never on his portal before.</p>

<p>I don’t know if it means anything, it could be a glitch in the system or it could be (as bluebayou said) that the admission staff entered his acceptance into Agora. If there’s a spot that says “Pay Deposit” he’s probably in, if not then it was probably a glitch. Good luck to him!</p>

<p>Thank you, swingerofbirches.</p>

<p>No problem! Good luck to your son!</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Most likley, no. (sorry)</p>

<p>Like I said, it is an antiquated system. BC updates over the weekends, so every so often the firewall opens up by accident.</p>

<p>When my D applied a few years back, late one night she logged in and had access to professor’s personal e-mail accounts, and a bunch of other internal data bases. The next morning, it was gond.</p>

<p>What kind of software updates would enable privileged access to protected areas? </p>

<p>It doesn’t matter how old the software is, firewall holes like that are a serious bug or operator error - where either will get fixed with immediate show-stopper priority once their discovered.</p>

<p>Dear omzac : Please note that admissions has not yet concluded all of the readings of the Early Admission applications - everything has been read twice at this point, however the final decisions on the fence-applications are taking place this week. Next week (Monday, December 10th) package preparations will begin for mailing on or about December 15th. (bluebayou : This is the insider information from the admissions office.)</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your insight scottj, I literally cannot wait until I receive my letter in the mail/see a change in my agora portal! Does anyone know how long it usually takes a letter to reach Long Island, New York from BC?</p>

<p>Dear swingerofbirches : As a fellow Long Islander, expect about three days from the December 14th/15th postal mailing date. Remember that the volume of e-mail coursing through Boston during the EA round from all of the local colleges is huge.</p>

<p>Thank you soooo much Scottj! I really hope that I get my letter ASAP, but I totally understand that the high volume of mail in the holiday season often delays mail. I am under the impression that up until a certain date you cannot call BC to find out your admission decision, do you know when that date is (I’m a little worried that I will leave for my family’s holiday vacation without yet knowing if I’ve been accepted)? Thank you, again!</p>

<p>PS: Woohoo! Go Long-islanders!!</p>

<p>Dear swingerofbirches : Every year for the last six here on College Confidential, I have posted a similar essay on the Boston College board - let me share with you the core elements of that thesis. Everything you can do for your Boston College application has been done. If you are accepted, only the financial aid aspects remain to be decided. If you are deferred or rejected, you need to be considering your regular decision applications.</p>

<p>So, given the situation, focus on your regular decision applications at this point. The Boston College application status will not change one way or another. Continue to be proactive to product your best possible outcome - hence, focus on your regular decision applications now. Hopefully, this makes sense to you.</p>

<p>Thank you very much for rewriting your “essay” for me Scottj, it definitely makes sense to me and I completely agree that you’re right for students who have not yet finished applying to college. However, I am 100% finished applying to all 12 of my colleges-I wrote all of my applications in August and submitted everything in September. I’m even done applying for all of the scholarships I am going for, so there really isn’t much for me to do proactively in regards to college aside from my schoolwork (which I wont have over the Holiday break). Again, thank you for the reply.</p>

<p>Does anyone else know when/if we are allowed to call or email BC to get our admission decision?</p>