<p>Only about a month left 'til decisions...shouldn't we have been notified of any missing materials by now? If we find out any later I feel like there wouldn't be enough time for the adcoms to fairly review applications w/ missing/misplaced applications given that we have to get everything in and confirm its receipt...</p>
<p>I feel the same powerbomb. Tracking is not available to my son as well. You would thing by now we would know what things they have or possibly need. What if a teacher recommendation is missing. The decisions will be made in less than one month. Does not make any sense.</p>
<p>^For all you know, the decision was already made!</p>
<p>Even though the actual tracking system is not posted, there’s a statement saying “nothing is missing at this time” on the site.</p>
<p>which site?</p>
<p>Can we call them?? I’m especially worried because two of my recommenders completed their letters online while my GC opted to use paper…</p>
<p>You can call, but most likely what will happen is that they will say don’t worry about it, we (Penn) will contact you if we need something. They usually do not penalize you for missing stuff that are not in your control. They will contact you when they get around to ascertain what is missing from your application.</p>
<p>I called today to find out if they had a supplementary recommendation. They pointed out to me that tracking will be available tomorrow. But, they can’t find out if they have my supplementary recommendation… :</p>
<p>And if it works like last year, the tracking is going to say you are not current in certain items like teacher recs for a long time when in fact your teachers have sent them in. It takes awhile for things to catch up and posted into the system. I know it is disconcerting but it is normal to have certain things missing on your status tracking. We are talking about many tens of thousands of separate mailings and electronic transfers for a staff of maybe 10-15 people.</p>
<p>we pay 75 bucks an app, you figure they could staff more than 10-15 people, just saying, haha. I guess they have their own system and we should just leave them alone, I just want the freaking decision, but don’t we all.</p>
<p>Actually the WikiMan, 75 bucks an app doesn’t nearly cover administration costs… like how many students do you think apply? Staff of 15 people is at the VERY LEAST (50k a staff member) 3 quarters of a million dollars… just sayin’.</p>
<p>I called today and they told me no decisions had been made yet and they’re still waiting for everything to come in, if that makes anyone feel better? :)</p>
<p>I highly doubt admissions people work the entire year, I think it is more of a seasonal gig, with say 4800 early decision applicants thats 360,000 dollars, and then with say 26,000 applicants overall, thats close to 2 million dollars in just application fees. I think more people work in admissions than fifteen though, so maybe the admissions cost doesn’t cover it.</p>
<p>It’s definitely an all year job, I heard an admissions officer say it. It makes sense; they have to do advertising gigs, travel the country and what-not.</p>
<p>Admissions representatives and admissions officers are different, right?</p>
<p>From what I have read, it is the regional directors that travel the country and put the school’s name out there, and then there are two types of admissions officers who review apps, one is the graduate student who is looking for that extra cash, and the other is the seasoned admissions administrator who has been doing admissions for years. So my best guess is that the regional directors do work the whole year, and maybe the seasoned administrators too, but the grad students are hired only periodically and for the actual admissions season. No way 15 people make it through 26,000 apps in 4 months, they have committees and stuff right, so that must mean more people at work. </p>
<p>My question is, if everything I sent is electronic, then why the hold up, I mean I literally mailed nothing in save an arts supplement, but that isn’t crucial. Maybe a more streamlined process would be better?</p>
<p>26k apps in 4 months = 6k apps a month = 200 apps a day = 16 apps an hour
1 app is given 4 minutes… sounds about right.
(lots of guesstimation, I didn’t use a calculator or anything)</p>
<p>^ Guesstimation aside, I just want to point out that there are indeed more than one person on the admission committee.</p>
<p>^Absolutely - but more than 15? Not necessarily.</p>
<p>it says that my SAT 1 scores are missing…I actually sent them in twice already (is this bad?) and am wondering if I should send them again or wait until things have cleared a bit more.</p>