We are about to hit the RD application/Deferred EA part II deadline, and everyone now starts to get into the mindset of “Now what?”.
Here are a few hints to get you through the next few weeks/months.
- Patience. Patience is key, as any deadline brings out a rush
of supporting materials. We will receive tens of thousands of documents,
and we need time to match these items up, enter them into our system,
and have them show up on the myStatus page. The myStatus page is not a
live feed, so if a teacher recommendation is added to your file right
now, it will not show up until at least the next day. If documents were
sent prior to you applying, it will take longer to match things up, as
we need to do it by hand. As well, some items get split up when we
receive a packet, such as a fee waiver form, as different steps need to
be taken with different items. A school/counselor form, for instance, needs to be reviewed by hand if it is not done through our online portal, and thus takes a little longer to
enter into the system. Same with residency documents/permanent residency
cards, etc. You do not need to call/email us if you do not see an item
on your myStatus page. Give us 10 business days from when you applied or
the document was sent (not requested but actually sent), whichever was
later. - Test Scores. We will take the January SAT for admissions
review for this year, but that is the last exam we can use. In addition,
you need to make sure to request any scores be sent to us by 2/1, as
we have to keep on a timeline in order to get decisions out in a timely
fashion. - Timelines. Review the Timelines page
on this blog, as it can give you more details on when things will
occur. We do not have rolling freshman decisions, but instead have three
decision release dates. One, the EA decision date in November, has
already passed, another small group of admissions offers will go out for
RD/deferred EA applicants who meet our Early Action admission criteria
(see last year’s February post for details on this group), and our final decisions will go out in late March. - Responsibility. While your parents, your HS counselor, and
our office are here to help you with the application process, the
ultimate responsibility for your application resides with you. Make sure
that we have all the items needed for review, check your emails and
myStatus page for details, and make sure that you have a complete
application ready for us to review. The worst calls are always the ones
from students where we were not able to make a decision, even with our
reminder emails, phone blasts and text updates. Take care of your
application. - Scholarships. From about mid-November through mid-April,
our office will be reviewing files and awarding scholarships to a
limited number of admitted students. This is not a quick process, so
please be patient as we do this. If you are awarded a scholarship, you
will receive a letter in the mail, and email will be sent out, and a
scholarship section will appear on your myStatus page. You do not need
to call/email about this process, just have patience. - File Reading. From now through about mid-March, the counselors in our office will be reading files. We will be reading, then reading more, then reading even more. As such, we will be limiting travel, we will have “quiet time” in our office where our counselors focus on reading and are not available to answer questions, and we will focus almost all our attention on reading files. Please be patient and think positive thoughts for our sanity.
- Finish strong. Admission to any university does not end with
an acceptance and a deposit. It ends after you graduate from high
school, when we review your final transcript. Senior year is a time of
celebration, but don’t take this to the extreme. We will be looking at
senior grades and any new conduct issues, so make sure that you finish
up your senior year academically and personally on the right note. I do
not want to have to call you and ask why your grades tanked during the
last semester, and I do not think you want to talk to me either. Keep on
track with things.
Hopefully this helps, and Go Dawgs!