This post most notably applies to Ohio State University and Columbia, both of which I am applying for under the November 1 deadline. However, after a call to Ohio State, they indicated that the entire application, including ACTs, transcripts, and Letters of Rec, must be “reviewed and dated” before marking them as submitted, a process that apparently takes roughly two weeks.
Is this true? I assumed the November 1 deadline for these colleges was when I needed to physically submit everything. I, along with the rest of my school, is screwed if this is the case because transcripts were just sent today and I just requested ACT on Saturday. I’m also waiting on a few LoRs.
Any insight is valuable and appreciated at this point.
It sounds like it will be close. I would talk to your LOR writers to get those in. Schools will usually give some leeway for items not entirely in their control but it seems like OSU is following UMich in this.
It is probably safe to assume that at a university the size of Ohio State, a huge number of applications will not be submitted in their entirety by Nov. 1. Generally speaking, most colleges want the applicstion itself by the deadline and will add submissions to the app as they arrive. If you are really worried, I would ask your GC to add a note explaining that LORs were not available earlier. You’re still going to apply, right? So you just have to submit and hope for the best.
I don’t have experience with this issue personally, but I can tell you that when my daughter submitted one app, she was unaware that a glitch meant the entire common app essay was filled with weird and random punctuation marks. Turns out this happened to a lot of other students, and it wasn’t an issue. If you were the only one,I might be worried, but there is no way yours will be the only one. It’s possible you were misinformed by someone new? I would call again and talk to a different person.
I think they mean that it might take them two weeks to process everything they receive for all their applicants, so your application won’t show as complete on the portal until two weeks after Nov 1. I think they don’t want you to freak out if you check on Nov 3 and if says incomplete.
^^This was my interpretation also. I don’t think they are saying you need to submit your app 2 weeks before the deadline.
Caveat: they will want the test scores by the deadline, but as long as the Common App is submitted by the deadline they may give you some leeway if scores haven’t arrived by that time. I think that depends on each school’s policy which should be available on their websites.
Similar to my reaction, too. The school wants it all by 11/1. You can’t expect your account to show as “reviewed” for completeness for up to 2 weeks.
Most of us don’t know if they’ll start an admit review before the ACT comes. But you can do everything in your power to (nicely) get the rest sent. You or the GC can tell them the ACT is en route.
Count me in as agreeing with me29034’s interpretation. It’s more a caution for you not to freak out if you don’t see things marked on their portal as submitted right away.
When I applied to Pitt I notified them that College board was taking abnormally long to send my scores. So they had me screenshot my scores along with the receipt of the order to send them. They counted that until my scores finally arrived.