<p>I have a pretty urgent question. Actually, it's not that urgent since there's nothing I can do about it now. Also, I understand that saving things until the last minute is bad, but it's just what ended up happening in this case.</p>
<p>That said, here's the issue.</p>
<p>I am applying to both Brown University and Columbia University. Both of their deadlines are today, Jan 1. I have submitted everything – my Common App, the supplements, and school forms / letters of rec are all done. However, I am only just now getting on the collegeboard website to send my official score reports to these colleges. I had thought collegeboard sent these reports online, so the transfer would be instant or close to it. But it's asking me about "priority shipping," so only now I realize it must be a mail process. It's evening now, so even if they put these reports in the mail today they aren't going to be postmarked by today.</p>
<p>What can I do? Is this something colleges are going to be lenient about? Will they even notice? I did self-report my scores within the common app, if it matters.</p>
<p>Alright, here’s the low down with College Board (And how ridiculous they can be):</p>
<p>First off, the whole score report process and its inception is genius, but incredibly exploitative. It’s all electronic, yet they charge you for an instantaneous and inexpensive sending process. Technically, it shouldn’t take a few weeks to send your reports. It should take a few milliseconds, especially considering it’s only a few kilobytes of information. The whole “rush” shipping is just a scam to get extra money. You can’t “rush” digital information. They just charge you the extra $25 or so (On top of the $10 for each college) because you’re nervous and you want your scores to get there as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Relax. As long as you paid for and submitted your scores at a reasonable time (ie before January 1st or before a specific college’s deadline) you should be fine. Even if it still says pending. Your scores should already be in the system, and sometimes it might not show up as sent until the college requests the “stored” scores… if that makes sense.</p>
<p>All in all, don’t worry too much. It took exactly one week for my scores to send, and that was with regular delivery. Rush shipping is a joke.</p>