Schools Not Receiving Transcripts/Secondary School Reports?

<p>I'm getting very worried. Annoyingly, my school doesn't mail transcripts for us; they make us do everything ourselves. So I mailed both the secondary school report forms and my transcripts on December 23rd. 3 of my schools (UVA, William and Mary, and Brown) had a Jan. 1 deadline and 3 had a Jan. 15 deadline (Colgate, VA Tech, JMU).</p>

<p>I have recently finished the applications for my final schools, and as I've been checking my application status pages, only 2 schools have said they've received my transcript. I can understand that schools like Brown will have a lot of applicants, but is this a normal amount of time for having not yet processed my transcript? Should I be worried?</p>

<p>And in the case of JMU and VA Tech (my only non-Common app schools), was it wrong for me to send in my transcripts before finishing my application? What do they do with transcripts that don't have applications yet? Is this a normal processing time for them?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance to any replies. I'm just freaking out about everything getting through on time.</p>

<p>They are processing them. If anything is missing they will call you. It’s not in their interests to leave incomplete applications. To them, you’re a potential 4-year pot of tuition money. Don’t forget that.</p>

<p>^^^really? Won’t they just assume, in general, that you changed your mind during the process and decided not to complete your app? I’d think the admissions committee doesn’t even bother looking at those files which are incomplete or not completed by the application deadline. I know we’ve changed our minds after sending transcripts and no one called us to point out that we’d not completed the application.</p>

<p>Yes, this is very normal. I’m not familiar with Colgate or Brown but UVa and W&M will contact you after they sort through all of the credentials sent via snail mail and electronically if you have something missing. At that point you can resend anything still outstanding. They want completed applications to review. JMU and VT as you know can be tracked online and are also still sorting though massive amounts of data. This takes time. Keep your eye on your portals for another week to see if your transcript shows up before calling admissions. </p>

<p>Out of curiosity I (double)checked each schools officially stated deadlines:</p>

<p>VTs deadline is 1/15 but states clearly supplemental materials may follow later.
JMUs deadline is 1/15 for all pieces (again there is processing time!).
UVa’s deadline for supplemental materials is 1/10.
W&M states supplemental materials may follow ‘shortly after’ the 1/1 deadline.
Brown doesn’t address supplemental materials, only the application deadline of 1/1.
Colgate’s deadline is 1/15 for the application and supplemental materials. </p>

<p>So, you see many allow for supplemental materials to follow later. I believe the vast majority of schools will work with you if your transcript doesn’t show up after they process all of the backlog of data.</p>

<p>jkeil911 - If a school receives scores, a transcript, or another item from a prospective applicant this is not something they are going to pursue. However, if you have completed and sent your Common App, the schools supplement (paid), and from remaining credentials (LORs, scores, transcript, GC report) you are missing a single element they can assume you are a serious applicant that had a glitch somewhere along the line you may or may not be aware of. Schools have differing policies on this. I do know UVa and W&M give applicants the chance to (re)submit missing credentials. This is certainly not universal, but not isolated either.</p>

<p>thank you for the clarification, blue iguana. I thought the responsibility would be left to the applicant to make sure everything is complete.</p>

<p>^ It most definitely is, however at this point students don’t know if their supplemental materials that aren’t showing up on their online portals are truly MIA and won’t show up or if they are there and haven’t been processed yet. So soon after the deadline most schools advise if you sent your materials in good faith to arrive by their stated deadline to allow time for processing before you contact the school. Some do ask that you wait until they send out notices saying what’s missing (as is the case with UVa and W&M). It’s very important to know how each school you applied to handles this so you know how to proceed. </p>

<p>Clear as mud, right? ;)</p>