Submission with Time Zone Issues

So, I’m an absolute idiot and forgot time zones were a thing. In my mind, applications were due January 1 at 11:59pm, so I submitted at about 11:30pm. Unfortunately, I just realized that though I submitted before the deadline MST, everything was in at about 1:30am ET on January 2, which is past the deadline.

I know, I know, it was really stupid of me to submit last minute, but Columbia is my dream school and I wanted to use every second I had to perfect the essays. Is there even a small chance they might still read the application? I’m perfectly aware the answer is probably no, but I would have really hated to have missed my small shot at my dream school and wasted the $85 application fee, which was already a financial stretch for me. I’m honestly just an idiot.

Common App shouldn’t have let you submit the app if you were past the deadline, so you are probably fine (my friends had this with the Oct. 15 deadline). Look out for the “downloaded by college” tag next to Columbia on the common app, it’ll mean that they’re going to look at it.

That was what clued me in in the first place, my application still just says ‘submitted’ next to Columbia. I wonder if it was different for your friends because they applied early?

My friends tried submitting at like 12:01 on Oct 14th and common app would not let them through to the payment portal (UNC set their deadline one day early, it was a whole thing). So common app wouldn’t have let you put through a payment if you hadn’t met the deadline. Also, it’ll only say “downloaded by college” once a representative goes into common app and downloads it. Columbia is closed right now so give them a couple of weeks.