Deadlines-- What about supporting docs?

[gliese876d]

Anyone know how stringent admissions committees tend to be about when your supporting documents arrive? I know I'll have all my apps completed by the deadlines, but it seems like ETS takes ages to send things out and same with my school and transcripts... I endeavored to try to get these things done early but with the stress of the holidays and offices being closed, etc., I'm running really close to deadlines. I'm never sure whether schools need to *receive* things by the deadlines, or have them *postmarked* by then, and I'm also not sure how lenient they are if things arrive a couple days late?? I just found out, for example, that the registrar's office at my school is closed til Friday and that's OSU's deadline for astronomy, and since my school takes 2-3 days to send out transcripts after you request them, I'm pretty sure they won't even be postmarked by the deadline. Likewise, UCSC's astronomy deadline is Jan. 5th so I'll be lucky if my transcripts are postmarked by then. Am I just basically totally screwed? Will these school just automatically reject me for an incomplete application???

[nonick]

I am not 100% sure about this, but my impression is that the admission committees don't start reviewing the applications before mid January, even early February. I believe that means that as long as your application is complete by then, you will be fine.
Can anybody else confirm this? ... maybe admissionprof?

[Fritz.Zwicky]

Am I just basically totally screwed? Will these school just automatically reject me for an incomplete application???

I don't think so, I have asked at few places that I have applied to, and as long as your application and statement are there by the deadline, they will consider it. Of course you want your other stuff to get there sooner rather than later.

Fritz "The Original Dark Matter" Zwicky

[zxcv]

I am not 100% sure about this, but my impression is that the admission committees don't start reviewing the applications before mid January, even early February. I believe that means that as long as your application is complete by then, you will be fine.
Can anybody else confirm this? ... maybe admissionprof?

This is not necessarily true. For example, last year Davis admitted me a mere two weeks after I submitted my application.

Get those supplemental materials in as soon as you can. Usually they want them by the submission deadline, but you may well get away with it if they come in a few days late, since the programs you're applying to want the best students, too.

[sirius]

While it's nice to have all the transcripts in on time, its not always possible. Recommendations definitely need to be in on time, especially since they are all online. I think schools are lenient on transcripts. mainly because it can take a week for your registrar to send and another week for the graduate office to find and attach the transcript to your application. GRE scores aren't really a problem as long as you pay attention to whether you should send them to the department or the grad school office instead. Schools can access our scores online as well.

[mhazelm]

this might be a dumb question, but is there a way (other than calling the department) to make sure they received our official GRE scores from ETS? I want to call them after everything is mailed to make sure it gets there, but I don't want to call more than once and become a nuisance...

[nathan12343]

I don't think so. If they don't get the scores on a CD, then whenever you receive the score report in the mail, they should have the report. The problem is, if they do get the CD, then they get all scores once or twice a month (not sure which), and there's no way to tell.

I guess if you got the report in the mail you can be reasonably sure.

[happymonkey]

I have G*D awful pgre scores 640 and I have to spend $$$ for all of the unis. I'm applying to trying to get into one . I'm not sure, if you find a way around spending $ send your gre scores to interested parties please contact me.

[Helio]

well the only thing missing on my apps is the stupid financial statement for some which i can't get in cause my parents have to sign and the stupid bank was closed for most of last week or the guy that has to sign it is on vacation.

[gliese876d]

sirius, not to nitpick, since I don't know what schools you're applying to, but I have at least 5 schools that require hardcopies of recommendations, so no, not all are accessible online. Even UCLA still requires hardcopies, as does U of Chicago (at least for the astronomy department), U of Rochester, Lehigh, and, though OSU has recommenders submit letters online to the graduate school, their astronomy department also requires hardcopies sent to the astronomy department. So that one could be a problem for me, UCLA is already done, and the others have a little more time before the due date...

happymonkey, I feel for you, as I'm in a similar boat. I took out an extra loan to pay for all the application expenses I'm incurring, but I don't know of any way around it. ETS is clearly an evil corporation; if you just do the math, between general and subject test fees and additional score report fees, they are probably making ~$500 per graduate applicant each year, and that's just for the GRE--let's not forget the monopoly they have on practically all educational testing, from SAT, to Praxis, to TOEFL, they must be making a criminal amount of money each year!

Helio, I'm curious, what schools have financial statements? And why would your parents have to sign? I assumed you'd be required to be an independent student once you finish a Bachelors degree; your parents can't claim you on their taxes forever, can they? Maybe I'm just out of touch since I'm older and have been independent for almost a decade, but I just haven't encountered any schools so far that require financial statements...

everyone, thanks for your thoughts. I guess I'm just going to get everything in as soon as possible and hope for the best...

[Helio]

Helio, I'm curious, what schools have financial statements? And why would your parents have to sign? I assumed you'd be required to be an independent student once you finish a Bachelors degree; your parents can't claim you on their taxes forever, can they? Maybe I'm just out of touch since I'm older and have been independent for almost a decade, but I just haven't encountered any schools so far that require financial statements...

everyone, thanks for your thoughts. I guess I'm just going to get everything in as soon as possible and hope for the best...

international student with US degree it is the weird thing that you have to show funding to get a visa... as if paying for the past 4 years was not enough proof... my parents co sign all the stuff so they have to sign this BS as well

[pqortic]

well the only thing missing on my apps is the stupid financial statement for some which i can't get in cause my parents have to sign and the stupid bank was closed for most of last week or the guy that has to sign it is on vacation.

I think most of the universities allow international students to send the financial statement until the admission offer has been made. because in that way you can estimate how much support you will need. and if you get full fund admission from the university there is no need to provide the form.

[excel]

Helio, what you are saying sounds strange. I am an intl student with BS from the US, and currently in grad school. Such a form was required only at one program--at UNC chapel hill. And, there, I simply wrote on the form that I will not consider joining the program unless given full financial support.

Like emperial says, an intl student is generally supposed to submit the proof funding after getting admission, during the process of getting I-20. Not during application.

[Helio]

UT told me that they needed it by feb 1st, which is their general deadline. uwash also needed it by the deadline according to them. i dunno schools are really imprecise about stuff like this

[dustdevil]

I thought they were more lenient with recommenders and deadlines (two of mine haven't submitted anything and the first deadline is today - OSU astro), and our school switched to the National Student Clearinghouse transcript service (which blows!). I have an email that said all of my transcripts were sent on December 12th and not one school seems to have received them based on the app status pages. I have a bad feeling about all of this.

[Helio]

I thought they were more lenient with recommenders and deadlines (two of mine haven't submitted anything and the first deadline is today - OSU astro), and our school switched to the National Student Clearinghouse transcript service (which blows!). I have an email that said all of my transcripts were sent on December 12th and not one school seems to have received them based on the app status pages. I have a bad feeling about all of this.

Dont worry too much about the transcripts because schools take forever to process them. NYU still does not have mine and i sent to them over a month ago.

OSU supposedly hasn't received my PGRE scores by now i am a confused cause they received the general gre ones.

[valkyrie]

OSU supposedly hasn't received my PGRE scores by now i am a confused cause they received the general gre ones.

Did you take the general before Physics, so that the score report might have been sent before your Physics one was available? (This happened to me - I put down different schools for the general and Physics GRE, crossing to have both scores sent in both cases, but since my Physics score was not yet available, score reports got sent containing only my general scores. And I had to pay to send extra score reports with my Physics score to those four places - it appears ETS always wins in the end.)

If that's not the case and they should have been sent, maybe just email the grad admissions person saying they should have been on the same score report and asking if ETS screwed up...

[dustdevil]

@Helio

On the application status page for OSU astronomy, it still says they have not received my PGRE scores, however I have an email from the admissions office in response to me updating my PGRE scores with the November test stating that they had already added the November scores. The email was sent by them on December 18th, so I know they have had them awhile even though it hasn't been updated on the web page. I'm pretty sure on the status page under "Test Summary" the test dates displayed are the scores they have.

[Fritz.Zwicky]

OSU supposedly hasn't received my PGRE scores by now i am a confused cause they received the general gre ones.

Is that OSU physics or astronomy? If astronomy, I would just e-mail the guy and asked, he seemed pretty responsive.

Fritz "I see a supernova" Zwicky

[pqortic]

@ dustdevil and others

they may probably have received your records but since updating the online application for these items is done manually in some schools they have not appeared in your file yet. and I know some of the secretaries are so lazy. it's better you wait few days until they comeback to work and ask them directly.

[Helio]

OSU supposedly hasn't received my PGRE scores by now i am a confused cause they received the general gre ones.

Did you take the general before Physics, so that the score report might have been sent before your Physics one was available? (This happened to me - I put down different schools for the general and Physics GRE, crossing to have both scores sent in both cases, but since my Physics score was not yet available, score reports got sent containing only my general scores. And I had to pay to send extra score reports with my Physics score to those four places - it appears ETS always wins in the end.)

If that's not the case and they should have been sent, maybe just email the grad admissions person saying they should have been on the same score report and asking if ETS screwed up...

well i dunno i made one big order and all order schools got both scores at the same time except for them. I will email them and see what the hell the problem is. and i took the PGRE before the GRE and both scores came out at about the same time... ironically my general score had my PGRE score included on the paper score report came, but the PGRE did not have the general scores, even though the PGRE score report came a couple days later.

[dustdevil]

Helio,
Look at Test Summary on the status page. The dates listed are the dates of the tests that they have scores from. You should email just in case, but that is what they told me.

[Helio]

Helio,
Look at Test Summary on the status page. The dates listed are the dates of the tests that they have scores from. You should email just in case, but that is what they told me.

those are there, so i guess they have the... now NYU with the stupid transcripts

[admissionprof]

I am not 100% sure about this, but my impression is that the admission committees don't start reviewing the applications before mid January, even early February. I believe that means that as long as your application is complete by then, you will be fine.
Can anybody else confirm this? ... maybe admissionprof?

At almost all universities with a semester system, nobody is even around until the second week of January or so. But then they will definitely start looking at them. If letters come in a couple of days after the deadline, it's no big deal. As far as ETS reports are concerned, you can e-mail them your score if you'd like--that's enough for evaluation (although the official one will have to come before any official offer). Nobody expects transcripts for the fall semester to arrive before January 1st--most campus post-offices are even closed until several days later. So if a place hasn't received your transcript yet, chill for a few days---every department got two weeks of backlogged mail today and secretaries won't even be able to open all of the envelopes for a while.

[sirius]

About the problems with Ohio State: I called the grad school office, and asked about how it shows they've received my general scores and not my physics scores. I sent both together, so that doesn't make sense of course. OSU is having problems with the physics GRE scores. The woman on the phone updated my application to say that the PGRE is completed. I would recommend you call OSU about this, so that yours can update as well. The phone number is given in the email they sent me with how to check my application status.