<p>Have other parents out there called admissions offices about the time you think everything should be in just to verify that they have all the required parts of the application? Is it OK if I call, or should my son call?</p>
<p>Your son should call.</p>
<p>Some of the colleges that my daughter applied to sent her an ID# and password that she can check online to see what they have received and the date they received it. If you don't have any of those, I would suggest your son call.</p>
<p>Everyone is in such a hurry to call. My counselor specifically said not to call because it's very annoying for them to get so many calls going "have you gotten my app yet??" Have some patience and wait a week or two. If the school is missing anything, they will definitely let you know.</p>
<p>I would suggest you have son call each school to find out how to know everything is there. The schools that son applied to were not all the same. One-didn't care who called, and they did not notify him when stuff was missing. Most students are busy in school or activities until after 5 pm. The school that said son never sent in several things found it when I asked if he could send in it since he had a signed received receipt. Most schools had online info. One just accepted him as soon as they received the app-even before they had the letters of rec.</p>
<p>I think checking with the school is an excellent idea - my son applied to one college which didn't respond with specifics to queries for weeks. The school kept saying his material was being evaluated. Finally, after many other students reported that they were getting letters, we finally got through to someone who said, "Oh, we couldn't process it - the high school transcript never showed up." They had no explanation why on multiple previous occasions they hadn't mentioned the supposedly missing item. They ended up evaluating him after their main wave of letters had been sent and waitlisting him. Fortunately, this wasn't a first choice school. The moral is that one should be sure that someone affirmatively tells you that everything they need is there.</p>
<p>There's a lot of sound advice on this thread about whether and when a phone call is in order. But if a call is needed, I do think that this is a situation in which it's fine for the parent to make it. Finding out whether a file is complete is a purely administrative task, one that must be done during normal business hours, and one that a parent can take on without guilt.</p>
<p>It's oftentimes difficult for the students to call themselves. Mine left for school before the college offices opened, and most days got home after they closed. Having a cell phone at school is grounds for suspension, and they won't let students use the phone unless it's an emergency. So I made most of the general calls. If he wanted to call, I'd meet him in the parking lot with my cell and he'd make the call himself from my car.</p>
<p>I worried that it was a bad sign if mom called. I asked an adcom about this and the answer was that they would prefer that the student call, but they understand the time problem. He also said that most of the time a student worker in the admissions office would be the one to take the call, check the file and answer the question, and the adcoms would never even know a call was made.</p>
<p>Good question, I was going to ask this sooner or later. About how long should we wait until we call? Especially if sat reports will be sent after the application in december</p>
<p>This is after the fact, but perhaps it might help someone else: my son enclosed stamped and addressed postcards with everything that went out, even enclosed them in the envelopes he gave to his teachers for recommendations. They say "please return this postcard when you receive this document. Thank you." In the corner he coded them. XT1 and college initial would mean teacher rec 1 from college x.</p>
<p>My oldest son did this last year and it was very helpful. We knew what had been received and when thanks to the post mark. Some of the schools wrote nice little comments on them as well. The only thing he could not do this for was the SAT scores from College Board.</p>
<p>That is a good idea about the post cards in the teacher recommendations (ha, but too late for us!). His high school sends postcards already, but the loose ends I'm concerned about are the recommendations, the SAT scores and anything else that we might not even know about. Thanks.</p>
<p>The head of admissions at a small LAC gave a presentation at my D's school last spring and advised the students not to worry about little details involving their parents (e.g., did mom/dad call the school to see if the application is complete; did mom/dad ask an "embarrassing" question at an information session; did mom/dad boast about S/D to the admissions office receptionist while S/D was off in another area being interviewed). The rep said that the school is evaluating the student (not the parent) and that admissions folks recognize that parents can be over-anxious and over-you-name it during the process, none of which will be held against the applicant! Bottom line: I wouldn't worry too much about who makes the call.</p>
<p>Make the call! My son applied early decision at a school and we never heard a word from them. Apparently the online application was held up at the school's server and no one knew it. The school said that they reconvened the admissions staff to review his app once they got it but we were never sure if this impacted his chances. He did not get in. Also....College Board has had many problems getting the test scores to schools. Always check on everything! The only one you can depend on is yourself.</p>
<p>Just spent the morning calling the admissions offices of my daughter's top 5 schools. I'm so glad I did. One pointed out one (minor) item we have neglected to send. Thankfully, it is not holding up her application process but it does need to be completed. Another told me I was missing three items. Two of these were sent from here a month ago, the other from her school three weeks ago. I had proof of the two we had sent and offered to fax them copies. They investigated further and called me back to say they had all three items....they had been misdirected. So her file is complete...and could have been off to the "committee" two to three weeks ago if they had had everything in it's correct place. Thankfully, we are "complete" now. </p>
<p>When daughter returns home today I can also tell her she's been academically accepted to one of her schools (yet another I contacted today...THAT was a surprise to discover!)....NOW to be accepted to her choice of major...Musical Theater...via her audition! (THAT's the tough part!)</p>
<p>Words to the wise....call to be sure your files are complete!</p>
<p>I have had success in e-mailing the school's admissions office. Usually I have an answer within 48 hours. Most of the communication was done before the ED application was submitted. Now S has a PW and way to check his applicant status online. "Our records show that you are an Early Decision Candidate. Your application is complete." Sweet words.</p>
<p>DD had applied to her 1st choice school by on-line application - thru which she received a password to follow it up. Same for her 2nd choice also. All the ''stuff'' was submitted on time and by deadline per the schools site and we started the waiting process, expecting it to be about a month. Not quite 2 weeks later I had to call to ask about info for a scholarship program - needed the deadline date and it was approaching quickly. The gal who answered the phone said to me - ""you better check the on-line application checklist"". Not having a clue as to what could be the problem, I went and checked it out. What a shock was there!!!!! ""We are happy to inform you of your admission to.......!!!!! WOW LOL in 12 days!!!!! I had to bite my tongue not to tell my DD hahaha. She received a very nice letter about 5 days later and the dancing started!!!!! 5 days after that she received an invitation into the honors program. And that is where she is right now, at her 1st choice - and very happy :)</p>
<p>Our daughter did online early registration she was accepted to the college of her choice on academics. We heard in about 10 days from the school telling us everything was in order.
I opened up her copy of her transcripts and was shocked her SAT scores were not on them so we made sure the school resent those to the college again.
Now she is getting together the scholarship stuff for the college and she should have her letters of reccomendation this week but they specified to have childs full name and SS # on them so shes passed that onto to the teachers.
We are hoping the 2 essays and all this will be in order to finish online this weekend.
Now I was shocked you had to book a dorm now but I guess Texas College dorms fill up fast.</p>
<p>Sonya</p>
<p>Last Saturday, my son checked on-line to say the status of his EA app. The system said - call admissions, something is missing. Panic!!! Since Monday was the deadline, DH trotted over to admissions first thing to ask about it. Turns out, information is still be processed (the non-online bits I suppose). He is supposed to enquire again Tuesday. What they did say was that since he asked, it would be ok. I think deadlines are a little softer if you are legitimately trying to get everything done in good order. All portions should have arrived well before the deadline. The missing info could be something as simple as SAT's not in from the November sitting.</p>
<p>I agree - the kid should be doing the checking - but should not feel bad about a little parental help.</p>
<p>What we did do last night (for the RD apps) was to print up postcards to be included with the school's packet for college admissions to return to us. We didn't do that with the EA app. The cardstock did not want to feed through the old laser printer. Argh. I don't know how Jamimom maintains her sanity with <em>20</em> apps. Hats off to her.</p>
<p>Oh - congrats to Jeepmom, Kinshasa, Sonya and Musical and all their s's and d's!</p>
<p>About SAT's - son got a cute little postcard from Carleton promising not to lose his SAT scores while they were waiting for his application. Nice touch. </p>
<p>Texastaximom - thanks for the tip about enclosing the postcard in the teacher rec envelope - we'll do that, too.</p>