<p>My first two kids didn't use the Common App so this is our first experience...not positive...</p>
<p>My son sent his Applications to 5 schools with the Common app on 11.4.2011. On the Common app site it states the app is downloaded to his school and his recommendations and transcripts have been recieved at each school.</p>
<p>Before Christmas break he got an email from one of the schools stating he was missing his transcripts, personal statement and recommendations. The schools finally reopened today and he called the admissions office.</p>
<p>The school stated his personal statement (personal essay's) were at the school but they did not have his recommendations or transcripts. HMMMM so he collected the admissions office fax so they could be resent. I then convinced him to call the rest of the schools....each and every school had his application but none had record of receiving the transcripts or recommendations.</p>
<p>So, on the common app website all 5 schools show having received the transcripts and recommendations and all 5 schools after being called state that they do not have either......</p>
<p>One school said wait a few more days just to be sure they weren't in the backlog of applications. So, we will wait until Friday and check back...</p>
<p>This is such a pain in the butt. Yet, we would never have known if one of the schools hadn't sent the email.</p>
<p>Has anybody ever had a similar problem with the common app?</p>
<p>I had a similar* problem in which colleges were unable to track down my high school records. It turned out the name on my high school materials didn’t exactly match up with the name on my common app/ FAFSA. Because the names were different, the colleges thought I was two different people. </p>
<p>*I was a transfer student a few years ago, so my process may have been a bit different.</p>
<p>I thought I would have a nervous breakdown over this. Don’t. My kids school didn’t have the capability to upload the documents and mailed them as a package, so they couldn’t be tracked. I even had tracking #'s and signatures, and they still said they didn’t have them yet.</p>
<p>I ended up calling each school and checking. Many times they were just so backlogged with apps they just hadn’t been filed away yet. </p>
<p>I’m sure your school has done this thousands of times and knows how to do it. </p>
<p>The one thing I didn’t know was that you couldn’t change the app after you saved it, and ds had typos on his. I spent one Saturday night drinking a bottle of wine and weeping over it - lol. (luckily ds was away)</p>
<p>Not a common ap experience, but somewhat similar:</p>
<p>Oldest son did 5 applications, and had already received one acceptance, when he got an email from one rolling admissions school that stated they were missing part of his application. When we called the admissions office they said they were missing his transcripts and letter of rec. from the guidance counselor. We replied that other colleges had received everything, and that we had a receipt from the guidance office stating the date those documents had been mailed. The admissions officer said, “Could you hold while I made another check to see if we have it?” </p>
<p>The missing documents were found while we were on hold. My son received an offer of acceptance within a week. </p>
<p>My other son applied to eleven schools, 9 of which used the common aplication. His transcripts, guidance counselor letter and all of his teacher recs were mailed via snail mail. Everything eventually found its way to his admissions folders at every university.</p>
<p>I’d bet your son’s documents are floating around in the admissions office, and just haven’t found their way to the rest of his application yet.</p>
<p>My sons school also sends the transcripts by mail…they are worried about the security with electronic transfer…are you kidding me??? Hundreds of schools do this without issue but my sons little school thinks hard copies are better…I’m hoping that when we call later in the week they will show up and just have been lost in the mounds of paperwork…yet to me that doesn’t explain the recommendations they were directly entered into the common app system by his teachers and show they were downloaded to the school on a specific date…Frustrating…</p>
<p>As awful as it is, it went better with my son’s all-electronic apps than it did with my daughter’s mostly paper apps four years ago. Only one lost reference and they found it the third time the teacher sent it. :)</p>
<p>@eyemamom You can make another version of the common app on the same account, so if you realize you have typos after you’ve already submitted to at least one school, you can duplicate the first version (there’s an option to duplicate an already created version or start from scratch), move over all of the other colleges (everything but the tiny “future plans” section gets moved along with them-- supplements included!.. but any uploaded documents like the personal statement have to be re-uploaded) and submit them from that version. It takes about 10 minutes in all. If your school uses an electronic system like Naviance to send their materials, it still works perfectly with another version of the CA. Don’t know if it will help you at this point, but in case you go through the process again with another kid, it’s good to know.</p>
<p>P.S. At times, I think my mom got more upset about this process and the things that have gone wrong with it than I did. Don’t worry; you’re not alone! ;)</p>
<p>This really is not a problem with the Common App. One thing to point out - even if the Common App indicates that the school forms and recommendations have been assigned, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the high school has sent them. Completing the “school forms” section only sends a notification to the high school, but the GC still needs to mail or electronically send the forms. I know many high schools use postal mail and the information can sit in college mailrooms forever, although Nov. 4 was a long time ago. </p>
<p>I always do a follow up email to our school’s GC to confirm that he sent the forms - he actually forgot my son’s top choice school, but luckily, it was still a month before the deadline, and he made sure it got there. I think many high school GCs are overwhelmed this time of year so things are not sent immediately - especially for RD - if a student sends in a regular decision application (Jan. 1 deadline) in early November, the GC may feel that they have until Jan. 1 to get the school portion sent in. It is always good to confirm that things are sent.</p>
<p>The Common App is a disaster IMO, we had nothing but problems 3 years ago and this year. And, since they are a monopoly, they have absolutely no customer service, no phone number, just robo emails that do not answer your questions.</p>
<p>The “good” news is that we had to call the admissions office at least twice at each school to confirm that something was downloaded or received because the CA didn’t show that it was. I think that made us a bit more “human” to the admissions people, most of whom had problems with the CA on their end as well.</p>
<p>Definitely contact the schools a few days after you submit and think everything is there. It may take a while for them to actually find it given that deadlines are here and their volume is way up, but definitely call or email. Actually, at one school where my daughter has already been admitted the CA says we are still in the process of filling out the forms. What a system!</p>
<p>The common app was a hassle for my daughter as well. The two schools that she used it to apply to both sent supplemental applications for more information. She would have been better off just doing the applications on the college websites directly and saved time.
We also had an issue at one of the schools on the recomendation section. It had the GC name in wrong so she had to print out the questionaire and then send it in manually for several students that were using the Common Application</p>
<p>In my experience, lots of counselors (and some teachers) will fill out the online Common App form and submit it, but attach a blank document with “transcript will be mailed” or something along those lines as the only text.</p>
<p>The Common App system can’t “see” that the attached document isn’t the transcript. </p>
<p>The “help” button is on every page of the Common App and their help desk people tend to respond to requests with an hour or two. I’ve used it myself and have been pretty surprised by the speed of their reply. If you’re working at the last minute, I could see that being a frustrating response time.</p>
<p>I think that forms that show up as missing by colleges are often simply just not filed in the appropriate kid’s files, yet. Things take time to sort out in college admissions offices, and humans can make mistakes. Kind of like the kids that proofread their CA’s and still have typos!</p>
<p>So many pieces of paper are mailed and likewise transmitted electronically - it may take a while for everything to be matched.</p>
<p>Dean J - yes there is a “help” button on every page but it often doesn’t answer your question and you have no recourse but to send the email and wait until they answer it, incorrectly, and then start again. It took two days for one of my problems to be solved after going back and forth like this far too many times; other problems were answered after only two or three tries. Very inefficient, frustrating, and shows a complete lack of customer care but hey, they’re a monopoly so no problem!</p>
<p>When I have hit the help button, the responses have been fast and problems have been solved. I’ve never had to go back-and-forth multiple times over the same issue.</p>
<p>We had a different online app before the Common App. Common App is vastly better than some of the other options out there.</p>
<p>I feel you. My son was on “merit role”, his dad’s address was wrong, the ACT scores he put in were incorrect (a “6” on writing!), and he left out 2-3 important ECs. He just didn’t think to tell me he was about to submit and ask me to look it over. In fact, he didn’t do the PDF preview either.</p>
<p>He actually called the 3 common app colleges and told them about the mistakes. Had an interview with one the next day, talked with someone at the other two.</p>
<p>He’s since applied to 2 more common app schools, but not using the common app, since it can’t be edited even though the schools were added later!</p>
<p>I was a big fan of the common but not anymore. His school also submits transcripts and recs by mail or electronically through Naviance, so the CA offers no advantage there either.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how the submission of records through Naviance work? If I understand correctly, the high school counselor enters the information including transcripts and recommendations into Naviance, but does the information then get pushed to the schools through Common App, or do schools that got an application from a candidate then upload the information from Naviance or Common App somehow?</p>
<p>I just like to know, when the colleges are saying they are missing some information, who do I talk to, to get the needed information to the schools, the admission office or the high school counselor?</p>
<p>Unless your son is applying to schools with rolling admissions, there is no nightmare. If your child is applying regular RD, relax, take a deep breath because you still have plenty of time to get the transcripts and recommendations in to the admissions office. While your child may have a due date of 12/31 or 1/1 the school will usually have until mid February to submit their part of the application. Your best bet is to check the due date for each school then proceed accordingly.</p>
<p>Well it sounds like CA problem lies in the issue that the items are listed as downloaded or received by the college but in fact might be in a pile of paperwork waiting to be filed. That is nerve wracking…We are waiting for next week and hopefully everything will be in it’s proper place and all will be well…</p>
<p>Yes there could be glitches and delays, but it’s not a huge deal. Imagine how many procrastinators are hitting that ‘submit’ button in the last 48 hours!!! It is actually quite amazing that things come together the way they do.</p>
<p>Once your school records and teacher recommendations have been submitted via Naviance edocs, each time you add a school to the Common Application those documents get linked. The student has to add the college to his list on Naviance, as well as on the Common App.</p>
<p>It can take weeks for the bigger schools to process 50,000 applications. We did have an issue at one big school, and made many phone-calls to the High School, the college, emails to Common App. etc. and it took 2 weeks to get sorted out. If we had just waited calmly instead of going nuts, it would have still gotten sorted out in 2 weeks.</p>
<p>I could understand if he had submitted at the last second but he did his application in beginning of November and the Ltrs of Rec and Transcripts were in Dec…So, technically his should have been in before the onslaught of last minute applications,</p>