<p>So my son got an e-mail from him EA school stating that they received no supporting materials -- no college counselor, no transcript and no teacher recs. Both teachers and the college counselor finished everything on time and mailed them off in the labeled (school labels so no error factor) and stamped envelopes that he gave them (more than enough postage). All of them had told him when they sent the materials and they were sent separately. The college says all supporting materials have been matched so there isn't the expectaion that it will turn up so today he ran around getting people to fax things. The college says it will not hurt his application (I certainly hope not) but I am mystified. What are the chances of three separately mailed items not arriving somewhere? I guess things can get lost when they get there. When my dd applied back in the snail mail days, we did return receipt on her stuff but it is not reasonable to ask anyone writing recs to go to the post office at this time of year (or any other.) Has anyone else had this happen? Fortunately, he encouraged everyone to make copies for just this scenario. But it did ratchet up the stress level.</p>
<p>Wow, that's annoying! Is this a big school? Can you take it up with a higher authority in admissions? I bet that stuff is there somewhere, they just aren't looking carefully.</p>
<p>When DS applied to undergrad 5 years ago, we actually submitted EVERYTHING ourselves except the recommendations from the HS and the HS transcript. He had one set of "stuff" misplaced from the same place TWICE. In both cases, we called to see if the materials had been received and to our surprise, they had not been received. So...sent again once (and not received) and sent again the second time. I often wondered if the school ever found the first two submissions. He was accepted at the school.</p>
<p>I think it easier to fax the stuff as they requested -- and have a fax receipt --than to try to get them to look more. I think it would annoy them which is not a good move. It's a big school and I can understand that they are receiving thousands upon thousands of pieces of mail. Glad it worked out for Thumpers son. One good thing is that the schools communicate by e-mail now (was snail mail with the last two kids), so they are more willing to let you know when they have everything or if things are missing. It used to be you might get a tiny postcard.</p>
<p>It's quite possible that a local mail carrier messed up. Happens more often than people think.</p>
<p>Some schools are swamped. DD received postcard from all her schools except one. Teachers and counselors said they mailed them all the same time.</p>
<p>"What are the chances of three separately mailed items not arriving somewhere? "
Based on my son's experiences 2 years ago, I'll be they are in another students file- someone with the same name as your S? I would have your S check to see if the name used by his teachers/ college counselor is EXACTLY the same name as on his application and collegeboard acct. My son went by his middle name his whole life, but when filling out his college applications, he thought he had to use his full name, which meant his application materials were filed by the admissions offices in a different folder under the name John C. XXX instead of in the folder for Chris XXX, even though the rest of the information on all the materials that were sent in was identical - address, name of achool, SS #, you name it. He was applied SCEA at Stanford, and it took a special effort , on the day after Turkey Day, by the Admissions rep for Alumni to find everything and get it into one file. Unfortunately, it was too late for consideration, and he was deferred to the regular round.</p>
<p>Ran into the same situation at the flagship school. GC sent everything again, and I paid extra to have CB resend scores. They have a backlog of items, and I really think they never got items filed.</p>
<p>Admissions offices hire inexperienced college students to help with the opening of envelopes and filing during peak application receipt periods, so one shouldn't be suprised [ unfortunately] when something is misfiled.</p>
<p>menloparks post makes the most sense....is your S name common? does he go by a nickname?</p>
<p>I would resend everything, obviouslly, but perhaps suggest to the college to look to see if there is another student with a similar name where the records might be</p>
<p>No, the name is the same on common app, school and collegeboard. I don't think that would be it although his first name is common and a similar last name could be confusing I suppose. I did not get the impression that they wanted to do any looking which is understandable as this must be a very hectic time. From their perspective, it's easier to get a fax than to look. From ours, it's an imposition to go back to teachers, etc. and ask them to do something else when they did everything right. I think the person who said there are students doing the filing probably has it right. They were probably chatting away with each other and misfiled his stuff. Or something like that.</p>
<p>Menloparkmom's S's situation is probably why on one application my S just worked on, it specifically asked if he went by another name at school. They explained that recommendations frequently come in with a different name than is on official records. Makes sense to me. I guess that is why they ask for SSNs on applications, although people now are understandably reluctant to put that information on everything.</p>
<p>We had this happen for both D and later S. In all cases, the materials were actually at the University, but not entered into the system. Schools do things differently. Some schools will open each piece of paper mail, enter into computer, and then file the papers in an actual folder. Others will pass the mail to different employees to sort. </p>
<p>Sometimes if rec. letters, transcripts etc, arrive before the students application, they will be held somewhere, as the school will not enter any data, until the application arrives.</p>
<p>We advised our son not to put his SS number on the common app. A couple of years ago there was a security breach at UCLA and personal records were at risk -- our son was one of the students who was contacted about the possibilty of identity theft. Sending his SS number to a number of schools seemed unwise in this day and age. He thinks that might be the issue but I doubt it since it's optional. The school said that the e-mails were sent after all papers were matched to files and that we should not assume it would turn up somehow. Out of curiousity, did most of your kids put their SS number down?</p>
<p>No, DD did not list her SS on the common application either. We shred everything in our household so we are aware of all this security laps.</p>
<p>No dd didn't list her soc either. </p>
<p>Oh, and I think slip-ups happens a LOT. A few years ago, my daughter applied to a state school by the Jan deadline. She never heard back from them in April. We called several times and, in late July, she suddenly got a rejection. She was well-qualified for the class but I'm sure they were full by then.</p>
<p>back when I was applying for college, a small LAC didn't get my recomendation that was mailed twice. It was finally faxed. It was low on my list and I probably wouldn't have been happy with the weather... but still quite frustrating.</p>
<p>Just a comment on SSN. If the student is applying for financial aid, it's important to have the SSN on the application (the aid process identifies students by SSN), but it's not necessary to have it on the recommendations, supplements, etc. Name and high school or Name and address are just fine for helping us match those items up.</p>
<p>So there is another twist in the story. He received an e-mail Tuesday saying "fax us this stuff". He inconvenienced teachers and the college counselor to get it done. The e-mail gave no fax number so he took it off the common app contact info for the school. Today he gets a letter from the school saying, "please fax us this stuff" with a different phone number AND a request that an ID number be attached to everything. None of that was said in the urgent e-mail that came on Tuesday. Now it would seem, he is going to have to go back to everyone and inconvenience them again. They should have included that information in the e-mail. One of his teachers was already irritated about it. I guess I'll have him call and check if they received the faxes before he asks them to send again.</p>