<p>S made his ED choice late because he's a recruited athlete and has been taking his official visits up until the end of last week.</p>
<p>He will submit his application online, but I was planning to FedEx the supplementary materials and teacher recs. My husband just told me he heard that some schools won't accept FedExed materials. </p>
<p>We do have some leeway, as materials for this school only have to be postmarked by November 1, but I just have a preference for FedEx over the USPS. Is this a no-no?</p>
<p>Because accepting or not accepting FedEx is an individual school preference, only the school can give you the right answer for your situation. My suggestion would be to call them and ask (or have your S make the contact.)</p>
<p>I can’t imagine why a school would not accept FedEx’d materials, except to preserve the excuse that something must have gotten “lost in the mail.” With FedEx, you get the time, name, and signature of the person who received it, online, which pretty much eliminates the deniability of receipt.</p>
<p>Your husband (or the rumor he heard) may be confusing FedEx’ed materials with “rushed” SAT scores from College Board. Some schools don’t accept “rushed” scores because College Board sends them by snail mail; otherwise, schools download them electronically. </p>
<p>If these are materials that would otherwise arrive on paper, there’s no reason the schools shouldn’t accept FedEx.</p>
<p>Of course, when in doubt, call the schools on Monday and confirm.</p>
<p>Although FedEx probably won’t break your budget ;), typically it’s okay if they are mailed regular. So long as the primary application (your son’s portion) meets the deadline, recs etc. trickling in slightly later is usually no problem. Again, check with the school - on their website or by phone if not on the FAQ portion of the website.</p>
<p>PS - this type of qx, it really doesn’t matter whether you or S make the phone call. An administrative person is going to answer it, and this will not become part of his “permanent record.”</p>
<p>We sent our son’s ED request priority mail with delivery confirmation receipt. He received an e-mail indicating when and what time the mail was received at the college.</p>
<p>Remember that you cannot FedEx to a post office box. </p>
<p>If the address for the acceptance of admissions materials is a post office box, you will either have to use USPS or ask the university whether they can supply a different address.</p>
<p>When DS was applying, he made a last minute application decision. We sent everything express next day guaranteed delivery USPS. It cost us a LOT, but it was a guaranteed next day delivery. And yes…we had to rush the SAT scores too (although this was a conservatory…I can’t imagine they even looked at them). As mentioned above, the supplementary materials we didn’t have arrived later. We called the school and they verified that the application had to be received, but the other “stuff” (letters of recommendation and HS transcript were our slow movers) could arrive a bit later.</p>
<p>It never ceases to amaze me what folks are willing to spend in order to get an edge and a little more time.</p>
<p>BB, apps don’t get read in order of receipt or completion. they get read when the readers get to that point in the pile. And I know of no advantage to being among the first read.</p>
<p>While I agree that Fedex is a bit more reliable than USPS, Electronic is even more reliable and preferred by most schools (saves them a ton of scanning.)</p>
<p>Supplementary materials don’t need to be there as quickly as the rest of the app. In fact, teacher recs and such often come in quite a bit later. The thing that counts is the primary application. </p>
<p>Regarding rushing SAT scores, seems like more of one more CB scam to me. After all, as others have said, most scores are sent electronically, which is almost always faster anyway - faster to send and faster to process (in fact, other than to get more revenue, it is hard for me to imagine any reason why rushing scores would get to a college faster. After all, when they’re scored, they’re done.)</p>
<p>S1 also applied ED. Another student from his high school and from our neighborhood, applied ED to the same university. Word spread quickly in their small class of the friend’s acceptance, so several of S1’s friends drove him home over lunch hour in anticipation of a smilarly felicitous outcome.</p>
<p>No envelope.</p>
<p>Granted, not a good plan to let your friends make an assumption. At least they all had the fun of seeing S1 go ashen. </p>
<p>Turns out that our dear but befuddled postman had tossed the “fat envelope” in an enormous stack of like-sized mail in the back of his van, where it all sits until he decides to sort through it. </p>
<p>No doubt that USPS is cheaper, but had we not tracked down said postman and inquired as to whether he might have anything else for our address, I have no idea how long that stack may have grown. </p>
<p>FedEx, unfortunately, lost too many of my packages, but USPS is still doing a fine job with their express mail. I once shipped a laptop to D at summer school, and the package came on time, intact, and only cost $50 for overnight delivery of 15 lb across the country with $2K insurance. I’m shipping a bunch of EA envelopes tomorrow. With so many students applying to colleges these days, I wonder if the line at my local post office is going to be as long as it usually gets on April 15? :)</p>
<p>Sometimes FedEx would not accept my packages without phone number of someone at the destination address, so make sure you have a number handy to write in that box.</p>
<p>For the record, I agree that the reliability of FEDEX is far better than USPS. We lived in a neighborhood two years ago that had a postman that routinely mis-delivered or lost about 5% of the mail. It was a good way to get to know neighbors, but not a great way to receive important stuff.</p>
<p>BB, we had two unfortunate experiences with USPS Express Mail. In both cases, the stuff was not delivered on time, and it was a big hassle to get the fee refunded per their guarantee.</p>
<p>We have a personal FEDEX account that makes shipping easy. We log on, fill out the delivery info, pick the service and print the label. We then drop the package at a nearby Kinkos. The hours are better, and we had no lines.</p>
<p>We also found that FEDEX ground can actually be cheaper than USPS rates. 20 lb from DC to Chicago was about $6.00</p>
<p>of course apps get read when they are in the “pile.” But, they are not submitted to the “pile” until all materials are in…why would a reader waste their valuable time reading an incomplete app? Thus, the faster all materials are in, the faster it gets to the reading pile. If teacher recs don’t show up until say, Dec 1, do you think the app will be read before then?</p>
<p>For a perfect example, check out UChicago next week. Last year, they posted pictures of piles and piles (boxes, really) of envelopes arriving daily from USPS, Fedex and UPS air/ground. Since the early reading period is only six weeks…</p>
<p>I do agree that rushing test scores is not a good use of money, since colleges would rather receive them electonically, and not rushed which goes by mail.</p>
<p>In the OP’s case, I would send Fedex third-day air (Express Saver), which is less expensive. And, depending on the volume, third-day sometimes arrives on 2nd day.</p>
<p>Where did I ever say earlier was “better” or an advantage? I just made a simple, factual statement: the sooner all materials are in, the sooner the file is read. In this case sooner might be an advantage, however, since Dizzymom’s son is a recruited athlete. </p>
<p>One advantage to earlier submission is scheduling alumni interviews if offered…</p>