<p>Just wonder: If colleges require the applicant to send documents with only his/her name and date of birth written on, how will they distinguish him/her from another applicant with the same name and date of birth (in case there is one like that)?</p>
<p>If you were the office manager, how would you, with common sense, handle it? Probably the same way.</p>
<p>If I knew, I wouldn’t have created this thread 
Maybe they just look at the address (or something else that appears in both the online application and the documents) and see if they match. But it will certainly be a lot more complex and time-consuming. Why don’t they give each applicant a particular number, for example, so that there won’t be this kind of mess?</p>
<p>You’re assigned a number when submit your app, but can you remember your application number by heart? Are you sure you won’t mistaken from your dozens of numbers from different colleges?</p>
<p>What’s the chance that two applicants have the same name AND same birth date?</p>
<p>This is why we have to submit our SS or a student number on every application. When I was sending stuff I had to give my SS or ID number, that’s how they distinguish.</p>
<h1>a_mom: If the applicant makes that kind of mistake, it is his mistake, we cannot blame the college.</h1>
<p>"What’s the chance that two applicants have the same name AND same birth date? "
I’m not sure about the situation in the US (I’m an int’l student). But I have experienced once that there were 2 people in my class sharing the same name and date of birth; as a result, we had to add “A” and “B” to their name
If one school annually receives about 10,000 applications on average, and there are hundreds of schools out there, so there must be some possibility for that to happen, right?</p>
<h1>Versani: We int’l students don’t have SSs (or some of us, i’m not sure), and basing on ID number is risky. However the question here is about what they require us to write on the top of the documents, not what you think is necessary to be written on.</h1>
<p>Anyway i’m just curious about that. There must be some explanations for their way.</p>
<p>OK: is it possible,especially from a country/region where names are similar? Yes. It’s possible. Does it happen often? I can’t imagine so. Certainly not so often that when two completed applications come in, that the office staff wouldn’t then go back and sort through the file which has been accumulating submissions for both students, right? Simple.</p>
<p>If two applications come in (from different addresses, attend different high schools – obviously different people with the same birthday) before other documents, wouldn’t you assume that the office staff would note this unique situation and be extra diligent about the stream of materials that would be processed?</p>
<p>One of the MIT admissions officers recently posted this on the MIT board:
</p>
<p>Pure number is error-prone for manual processing. Unlike computers, we human beings are more sensitive to a mis-spelled name than a mis-placed digit in the numbers.</p>
<p>Using names for the first search is more efficient since less error will happen. When you mis-type a letter, most likely you won’t find a student and you might notice it right away. Yes, you still have the probability that two applicants are only different by one letter. Again, chances are small and that’s why you have the DOB and other info to verify.</p>
<p>But what happen when you use a 12-digit number - If you miss-type a digit, 100% you get the wrong applicant.</p>
<p>However, number is important since it’s unique. Use it as the last resort. When EVERYTHING is computurized including opening the letter and scan the number, we should only use it :)</p>