<p>My MIT account says that the application is still not complete as the secondary school report and an evaluation have not been processed.
Shall I panic and start calling admissions office or should I wait till some future time. Next week will be thanksgiving week and after that it might be too late.</p>
<p>My recommendations/test cores/transcript havent been processed either… as mollie stated before, just wait until a Blog post by Matt McGann stating they’ve finished processing mail… That is when you should call if you see–after updating the tracking files on the accounts of everyone–that something has not been processed…</p>
<p>Thanks, I thought so but wanted to confirm.</p>
<p>This is definitely true – as Matt said last week, they haven’t finished sorting the mail and he will notify everybody when they are, in fact, done.</p>
<p>More to the point, though, it is never time to panic with regard to getting your application materials to MIT. They are extremely accommodating and very willing to work with you when materials are missing – it’s easy to fax a missing letter or transcript over, and it won’t be counted against you, of course.</p>
<p>I got an email from my EC saying she was worried my secondary school report and transcripts didn’t clock in yet.</p>
<p>Time to panic now? :P</p>
<p>Where’s the problem? You got plenty of time…</p>
<p>My account is missing 2 documents still. But my school GC says not to bug before Monday. I’m not sure what to do as it is already Nov. 19th, when will they read the application if it is not complete yet.</p>
<p>According to rule of thumb applications completed early gets more time for reading than completed late.</p>
<p>Rationale is:
- Readers are different from the people processing applications.
- MIT won’t halt application reading process unless all applications are fully processed otherwise there is no way they can read all the applications thoroughly.
- Applications won’t be read unless completed.</p>
<p>That give applications completing late less time for read and may be at a disadvantage as the reader have already read many applications and might have made up their mind.</p>
<p>Applications are being read as other applications are being finished. But applications are read by several people, and in a standardized way, so applications which are finished early don’t have an advantage. (No one is selected, after all, until the days of selection, and selection only starts after all applications have been read by several people.)</p>
<p>So all three steps of your rationale are correct, but this doesn’t mean that applications which aren’t complete until relatively late in the process are at a disadvantage. The admissions officers are reading applications full-time at the moment, and they will have time to read all of the applications fully before selection begins.</p>
<p>I reiterate that Matt has asked all of you please not to worry until they are through opening all the mail and filing all of the application components. When they are through, they will post on the blogs.</p>
<p>I do understand that MIT tries to be fair and indeed is very fair during the admission process by having the myMIT and letting people know how and when the applications are getting completed. If they won’t have such a transparent process it would not be possible for applicant like me to know what is missing on the application to begin with.
But with that said there is limit to everything. Let us assume the following:
- An application is read by 3 readers.
- A reader reads all application randomly giving equal time to all applications.
- Readers being human and not computers will get stressed after reading a number of applications.
- Let us say December 6th is the date by which all readers have to complete their applications.
- Let us say 30 minutes to be devoted to each application.</p>
<p>Now if the application is completed early there is a good chance the application will be read early in the cycle by all readers even if it is random to begin with and will get at full 30 minutes. It is true if the application is interesting it may get more time or less if not that interesting</p>
<p>OTOH if the application is completed after thanksgiving, then
- It will be read by all readers at the bottom of their pile.
- It might not get the full 30 minutes.
- All the reader might be stressed to finish the read by the deadline.</p>
<p>Thing is I couldn’t have done anything more. I tried my best to complete my application ASAP.
- All my testing was complete by June 2008.
- I filled the part I of application in August 2008.
- I sent my score during September 2008.
- My interview was done in September 2008 and was processed by 15th October 2008.
- I gave my teachers and counselor everything during September, 2008.
- I sent part II of my application Oct 20th, 2008. </p>
<p>Irony is that my application is still not complete so morale is there is limit to what you can plan and execute. You can be the most organized person in world but you may end up suffering because not everyone is so organized.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, MIT’s individual readers don’t make final decisions on applications. Multiple people read each application; odds are that you won’t have readers who are ALL in a bad mood/tired. </p>
<p>Those readers do make summaries, but selection occurs in a group format and begins in December, therefore one or two tired readers will not cause you to be deferred/not admitted. All of this is detailed on the admissions website.</p>
<p>indianInLA: Dude, you are thinking WAY too effing hard. Sign out of your MIT account, go read a book, and log back in when Matt posts that all of the application materials have been processed.</p>
<p>It’s never a bad time to panic.</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>Keep in mind also that MIT standardizes the entire process to the extent that it is possible, and trains new readers to read applications in the way that other readers do. They keep and analyze statistics on absolutely everything, and if they found that applications read later during the reading season tended to be admitted at lower rates, they would change their process.</p>
<p>The order in which applications are read does not affect chances of admission.</p>
<p>^^^:“They keep and analyze statistics on absolutely everything, and if they found that applications read later during the reading season tended to be admitted at lower rates, they would change their process.”</p>
<p>But their might be genuine explanation for this effect.
- The applications that completed early generally belong to a stronger more organized group
- Application completed late might due to the applicant taking late SAT testing which mean their averages tend to be lower
- Application completed late might have applicant’s writing last minute essays which tend to be of lesser quality</p>
<p>So the effect of stress reader doing a not so good job on a well organized well written application might be lost.</p>
<p>This speculation won’t lead to any positive result. It’ll just result in you grinding your nails down to the flesh.</p>
<p>It’s out of our hands now. We can only sit and wait.</p>
<p>Sure, and applications submitted late could have been reviewed more carefully and may have better writing quality and have been more carefully proofread. Or any number of other things.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a strong effect of application submission time on quality or on likelihood of admission. But ultimately this is speculation; we don’t have this data. MIT does.</p>
<p>OK, real time to panic as MIT is done with application processing and my application is still not complete.</p>
<p>No, it’s still not time to panic. You can do something about it, but don’t panic.</p>
<p>You can fax materials to MIT if they haven’t been recorded yet. This isn’t a problem.</p>
<p>Hats off to MIT Admission staff! They processed the documents immediately after receiving the fax today.
The application is complete now.</p>
<p>actually, i have another somewhat-related problem…</p>
<p>earlier in october, i sent MIT an envelope with a copy of my greencard along with a brief description of some research I’ve completed. the greencard copy was never processed (until today, when i faxed it in)…so do i assume that my research info also was never received? if so, can i fax that in as well? or are we only supposed to fax the required materials?</p>