Problems with online application

Parents Social Lounge
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<p>Parents, have any of your sons or daughters ever had problems with the online applications? My dgtr has been working on an application for about 2 months off and on now. It gives you the opportunity to save your work but go back and edit whenever you want until you are finished. Then when you are finished with a section, you click on complete and submit. Then you don't have the option to go back and edit.</p>

<p>She has completed the personal info part and has submitted that. She did part of her interests (there's 4 sections of that) and had saved it with the option to go back and edit. A few days ago, she was going to work on her interests again. However, the sections she is working on will not save. When she types it in, saves it, and goes back to read it, it is not there. The part she did a few weeks ago is, but not what she has done recently.</p>

<p>So, as a good, worried mother would do naturally, I got on there and tried it myself, it would not save. Note, that we are copying from a Word Perfect document that she had saved, and pasted it onto the application section. Thinking that the thing must not like copying and pasting, we tried just typing it in there. The same thing happened. It saved nothing. However, once in awhile, it would save a line or 2, but not all.</p>

<p>Being VERY frustrated at this point, I emailed the school (where almost all the folks are on Christmas break). The person emailed me back and said nothing was wrong with the application program. I emailed her back stating that we are having problems...really! So, they got my child's name, etc and went in there themselves and tried it. They were able to type in "testing" and it saved. So they emailed me this. I looked in and sure enough, "testing" was there. So I typed in testing also and was able to save it and it stayed. So then I typed in gibberish like this: iiiiiiiiiii- opppppppp oioooo and it saved that as well.. So I typed in a sentence and it would not save.</p>

<p>I'm no computer genius, but I am familiar with things online and basic computer skills and copying and pasting. I think something is terribly wrong with this application program. I emailed the folks back, but have not heard anything else back. Now it's 2 weeks til deadline and we have this problem! She can't go and do a paper application now at this point because some of her recommendations have already been done online into her application.</p>

<p>Sorry this was so long, but I'm just trying to find out if anyone else has had this problem. Any suggestions at all? If nothing else works, I will call the admissions head and ask them what we can do after Christmas break.</p>

<p>Help!</p>

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<p>My D had several problems with the online Common App, but not this one. Is your D willing to print out each section as she completes it and and submit hardcopy? Another option is to try another computer, one at your local library for instance. If I recall correctly, the "saved" version is stored on the Web Site computer, not the one you're typing on.</p>

3

<p>That really sounds frustrating! </p>

<p>Do you have a firewall like Zonealarm on the computer your daughter is using? If so, try shutting it down before using the application form. Also, you can try a different browser. If by any chance you use AOL, don't use their browser - instead open up a regular browser on the computer. If you are using Internet Explorer, try Firefox (you can download that for free and it sets up very quickly).</p>

<p>I make the above suggestions because security/privacy settings on a browser or firewall can sometimes cause difficulties with form entry. When you log into a web site, it will remember who you are by setting a cookie on your machine -- but the settings you have will sometimes interfere with those. Also, some forms require javascript - that is another area where the security settings can cause a problem.</p>

<p>We have encountered tremendous variation in the usability of online forms. My daughter submitted most apps online, but for the schools that only take common app she has had to print and mail the application - she found the common app online submission form too frustrating. I wanted to help her - but I too found it too cumbersome -- and I'm such a computer nerd that if I balk at an online form, you know its bad.</p>

<p>Another frustration: when she cuts & pastes an essay from Word, most of the online forms convert the non-ASCII characters into garbage. She had to go over the essays to replace quotation marks and ellipses wherever she had used them. </p>

<p>She did an application for Boston U online, filling it out mostly from her boyfriend's computer. When she got home and logged on again... most of the saved data was lost -probably because the app is designed so you need to click "Save" before proceeding to the next page -- "Next" won't save the page you just did. </p>

<p>I swear, at this point we probably could publish our own rankings on the relative usability of various college online sites. If we did, I think my d. would give the Fordham U. online application top billing -- she finished application last night in a matter of minutes and raved about how great the online form was. Even the wording of questions was courteous - I noticed that on the part that asked what other colleges she was applying to, there was a notation that the information was sought for statistical purposes, and that the applicant does not have to provide the information if they are "uncomfortable" doing so. Cool - one less thing to stress over. D. said it made her feel good about the school and good about herself to do the online app -- this for a college that was a last-minute addition for her, added mostly as a safety. I'm relating this simply because it shows how a little attention to detail can really benefit a college in terms of marketing itself.</p>

<p>Anyway, I hope that my suggestions above help resolve things.</p>

4

<p>Salem - I asked my son if he had any suggestions and he said she could take the essay and save it to a word processor like Microsoft Word or Appleworks. then delete the essay altogether. then log out and log in to another server... paste! GL if you haven't already figured it out for yourself. {as if college apps weren't difficult enough!}</p>

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<p>Oh we are STILL having problems!!! Deadline drawing near and the school still on Christmas break.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the suggestions, but I don't have another web server (just Microsoft) and I even tried disabling my firewall. Nothing has helped. We don't have access to another computer right now and she has just had her wisdom teeth removed and is still on the couch recuperating. Any other suggestions?</p>

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<p>Do you have access to a Kinko's or some other large photocopying story? You can usually rent a pc there. And I know my son used two different computers to do some of his applications.</p>

<p>Even if your daughter is sick and can't leave the house, you could start an application with the basic info to make sure it works on Monday. Then when she is hopefully feeling better, she could go and finish the app on that pc.</p>

<p>If that won't work, just call up the admissions office on Tuesday or whenever they reopen. Sorry to hear about all these headaches.</p>

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<p>i had problems with one of my online applications as well but this may or may not be the same situation. the issue i had was that the essays i copied and pasted into a certain online application came out jumbled when i tried to preview what i had written. </p>

<p>for that application, i would delete what i had written, save, log out, close the entire window, log back in, put it back, save, and log out again. it was tedious but for some reason that got past the bugs. i made sure not to click anything else while i was working on that particular section, always logging in and out and saving after each edit. there was probably a better way to do this but it did work.</p>

<p>another thing that may be an issue is if you're using microsoft word. try using notepad instead... copy everything in your word document into a notepad file. if you end up with any boxes (like this ☺) then that is some kind of formatting that will mess up plaintext. delete all the boxes and any gibberish before or after them, and try pasting from notepad into the application.</p>

<p>if that doesn't work, try deleting your cookies... but be advised that this may or may not delete information that you may need for your other online applications. i know when i did my common application online, i would delete a college from "my colleges", apply to one school, and add the first one back--information intact. but if you delete cookies midway, that might lose your information. i'm not sure. but maybe something you've done has affected the application's ability to accept a coherent sentence into the application. if you delete the cookies it will forget all that. to delete your cookies, go to Tools in Internet Explorer and click Internet Options. Then Delete Cookies. please don't do this unless you know that there is no other information on your computer that you need to save. cookies also store passwords, usernnames for certain websites, and like i said before, information on some online forms like applications.</p>

<p>if all else fails, maybe you could print out the application and mail it... but be sure they don't explicitly tell you not to. i know some of my online applications had a printable thing for editing on paper but it said not to put a stamp on it and send it in. </p>

<p>hope this helps.</p>

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<p>we used common app and two school's individual online apps and all worked great. But, we had also noted in an earlier thread that CA does not support any special fonts, or even italics, so son cut and pasted what he had. Fortunately, the personal essay was straigtforward prose, so special characters were not needed. </p>

<p>good luck!</p>

<p>From Common App website:</p>

<p><a href="http://app.commonapp.org/index.cfm?APP=AppOnline&ACT=Display&DSP=FAQ%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://app.commonapp.org/index.cfm?APP=AppOnline&ACT=Display&DSP=FAQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Try upgrading your browser to at least IE 6.0 or Netscape 6.
For Internet Explorer users, you can download and install the latest version from <a href="http://www.microsoft.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.microsoft.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>For Netscape users, you can download and install the latest version from <a href="http://www.netscape.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.netscape.com&lt;/a>. </p>

<p>For those using Internet Explorer (IE) be sure to reduce your security settings to "Medium." </p>

<p>For those using IE use the following steps to reduce your security settings: </p>

<p>Tools
Internet Options
Security (tab at top of dialog box)
Custom Level...
Select "Medium" in drop-down menu
For those using ZoneAlarm be sure to reduce the security settings to "Medium/Low." </p>

<p>Finally, try opening your supplement in a new window. To do this simply right click on the supplement link and click 'Open in a new window'. Fill out and save the supplement as normal. </p>

<p>or,if pdf issue:</p>

<p>If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, first make sure you are using the latest version (download free from <a href="http://www.microsoft.com)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.microsoft.com)&lt;/a>, preferably with all the current patches and updates applied. Additionally, make sure your Acrobat Reader is configured as follows:
If using Acrobat Reader version 4, start the Acrobat Reader application and then select the File – Preferences – General dropdown menu. In the dialog box that displays, the Web Browser Integration box must be checked ON. Close Acrobat Reader and the Internet browser application. Restart the Internet browser and try again. </p>

<p>If using Acrobat Reader version 5, start the Acrobat Reader application and then select the Edit-Preferences-Options dropdown menu. In the dialog box that displays, the Display PDF in Browser box must be checked ON. Close Acrobat Reader and the Internet browser application. Restart the Internet browser and try again. </p>

<p>If using Acrobat Reader version 6, start the Acrobat Reader application and then select the Edit-Preferences-Internet dropdown menu. In the dialog box that displays, the Display PDF in Browser box must be checked ON. Close Acrobat Reader and the Internet browser application. Restart the Internet browser and try again. </p>

<p>Since Acrobat 6 seems to be producing the largest number of problems, you might want to try to use Acrobat 5.x instead of 6.0 if you are having problems with 6.0. In order to use Acrobat 5.x: Remove Acrobat 6.0 or Adobe Reader 6.0, and then install Acrobat 5.x. You can download the free Acrobat Reader 5.1 from the Adobe Web site at <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/alternate.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/alternate.html&lt;/a> </p>

<p>In addition, try opening your supplement in a new window. To do this simply right click on the supplement link and click 'Open in a new window'. Fill out and save the supplement as normal. </p>

<p>If the problem persists, try using a different web browser such as Netscape or Mozilla (both free), or Opera, none of which seem to have this problem with displaying PDF files.</p>

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<p>Thank you all, I have just about tried everything you suggested. I use Microsoft Internet Explorer and even downloaded NetScape Navigator and tried it with that. This did not help at all. Same problem.</p>

<p>I use Adobe Reader version 7.0, so that shouldn't be a problem, should it? It's the latest version. Besides, I'm not doing anything with a PDF format.</p>

<p>I've deleted my cookies. This did not help. </p>

<p>Also, to add fuel to the fire, she tried to upload her essay into the essay section, wanting it to be where she can go back and edit. Well, it just took it and didn't give her an option to edit and now has "submitted" on it. When we went to the section that had "print to hard copy" we viewed what she had in there and it says essay was not submitted yet. However, it states on the app that it is submitted.</p>

<p>Oh what a horrible mess this has turned out to be!!!! I have finally gone ahead and emailed the head of admissions there and told her of the problems and asked her what can be done at this point. But she will not be there until tomorrow. (of course)</p>

<p>We can't do a paper application as we do not have one and you can't print one from the site. So, we're stuck trying to fix this thing.</p>

<p>I'm at the point that I don't think it has anything to do with my computer, I think it is something to do with the online app.</p>

<p>See!!!!! I TOLD my daughter that she should not procrastinate til the end to do these things! You never know when something like this will happen. shessshhhh!!!</p>

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<p>I strongly suggest that she submit the essay using Microsoft Word, NOT Corel Wordperfect. Down load the software from Microsoft [ even though you may hate Blll Gates] and have her cut and past it from Wordperfect to Word then submit it. Good luck</p>

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<p>If I was having these problems, if I could refrain from smashing my computer, I would probably email the essay as a word document attachment to the admissions office. </p>

<p>I can't guess why you are having so much trouble, but if there is a problem at their end then others should be having similar problems. If you are the only one having problems then chances are the problem is at your end.</p>