What do colleges think about receiving official documents after their application deadline?

Last night, I made a rash decision to apply to NYU. I turned in my Common App and recommendations on time, but I completely forgot that I had to send SAT scores and high-school/college transcripts. My fault. Deliveries may take 1-2 weeks. NYU’s application deadline is January 1st. If my official documents come in late, will they disregard my application?

I wish this crossed my mind before I paid the application fee.

Depends on the school. Some schools are totally inflexible, and won’t take late materials, period.

Other schools are a little more forgiving, and as long as everything the student is responsible for (essay, application, etc) is in on time, they will allow documents from other parties (test scores, recommendations, transcripts) to straggle in a little later. Notice I said a little later.

The only way to know for sure is to call admissions and ask.

And it depends on when they get to your app, to review. Imagine yours being read before the transcript arrives.

At certain schools that receive tons of applications, it won’t even make it to the review pile until complete. Little more leeway with smaller schools.