When to Update Colleges?

Applying to College
1

Hi CC!

I submitted my applications for Duke (ED), Vandy, Wake, and Emory in mid-Sept (so proud to have gotten them already!). Anyways, since submitting my application, some great things have happened to me! I was elected my National Spanish Honors Society’s VP, I was asked to be on the planning board for a charity event (an event similar to Wake and Shake), and I was cast as the female lead in my school play for the second play in a row.

Now I know these aren’t huge, but I feel like they have some bearing on my application. For several of these apps, I discussed my experience in theatre and I plan to be involved in some way on campus, like with Duke’s Hoof’n’Horn (not as a major though, I want to major in Chem, Bio, or Biochem). Additionally, I talked about my love for service in some of my essays and, as I mentioned, this event I’m helping plan is like Wake and Shake. Also, I mentioned my honors society memberships in my honors section of the common app, so my office may be relevant.

I also see this as an excuse to introduce myself to the reps without just emailing them for the sake of emailing them. I’ve met my Vandy and Emory AOs at my school college fair, but that’s it.

I’d love to know y’all thoughts! Just be polite!

2

bump

3

For starters, please don’t bump after 19 minutes; give people time to respond. If I were replying to you as a moderator, I’d point out that you need to wait several days after the last response before bumping.

Now to answer your question: you’ve submitted your application. Congrats. At this point, AOs have absolutely everything they need to make their decision. Every applicant to a selective college will have accomplishments which occur after submission. AOs know that, but they don’t want to be inundated with updates from 40K applicants.

So does that mean that you should not submit updates? No. That’s not what I’m saying. But you need to be judicious. If it’s something that made the nationally-read papers with your Academy Award nomination (or similar prestigious achievement), update them. If it’s to tell them that you got a 4.0 this quarter or that you were elected softball captain (or anything at the school level), don’t. And don’t email them every week/every other week with the latest update.