Guidance Department News
January Calendar
4 Registration deadline for February 9 ACT
7 Last day for transcript request if college application is
due February
15 Last day for transcript request if college application is
due by February 15
16 -18 Final Exams (see http://www.paly.net/calendar/finals.php)
18 End of semester 1
22 First day of second semester
25 Last day for transcript request if college application is due
by March
26 SAT Reasoning, SAT Subject Test
29 Registration deadline for March 1 SAT Reasoning (no
Subject Tests)
For seniors and their parents
One of the unhappiest surprises many seniors experience is a notice from a college saying that it has not received the student’s TA or counselor recommendation, or transcript, or teacher recommendation. Please read the following from a member of the National Association of College Admission Counseling.
“Are you sure you sent my recommendation?”
It might help to know that colleges face a MOUNTAIN of admissions mail every day – mail that requires very systematic and careful handling. As a result, there will be a very reasonable delay between the moment your application arrives at the admissions office and the time it is processed and placed into your file. Let’s hear from the experts on this:
From a large public university: “I wish I had a photo that I could send you of thousands of pieces of mail sitting in the mail bins waiting to be processed. Maybe this bit of information will help . . . we employ an ‘army’ of students to help us process the mail. We receive so much mail that all some students do is simply slit open envelopes, other students will date stamp the materials, and another student places the information in the proper bin (Part I- Early Decision, Part I- Regular Decision, High School Transcript- Early Decision, etc.) From the bins, our processing staff enters the information into the computer.”
From ??? college: “We estimated that we received over 100,000 pieces of information for our freshman applicants alone last year (each application requires Part I & Part II, or the Common App and our Supplement, the Secondary School Report, the HS transcript, test scores, and at least one letter of recommendation). Try to have your students visualize 100,000 of anything, and that may help!”
From a mid-sized private university: “We track mail received per day by app type. Last year in November (alone), we received 900 frosh apps. It took us four days to get this mail open, let alone counted, stamped and sorted. While we have pushed for a system overhaul, this will still happen because kids will still wait until the last minute to apply.”
From a large public university: “This morning the U.S. mail delivered 30 tubs full of applications, counselor statements, and teacher recommendations to our office; two staff members spent all day just opening the envelopes, another fifteen concentrated on logging everything in, and yet our mail room still looks as though a paper bomb went off in it.”
From a private college: “Typically we receive more than half of our applications right at the deadline. They are processed in the order in which they arrive, and it takes us about three weeks to get all of the applications processed and in files. We do enter quite a bit of data on each applicant into our student database, so for most of our data entry people it is physically impossible to process more than a certain number of applications in one day.”
From a large public university: “We never receive a complete application all in one envelope since we require that ACT/SAT scores be sent to us directly from the testing agency. There always are sorting and matching processes that must take place daily since we receive hundreds (sometimes thousands) of applications, transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc. each and every business day!”
In other words: if you get a note from a college saying that a Paly piece of your application is missing after the application deadline, DO NOT PANIC. In all likelihood, it has indeed arrived at the admissions office, and it hasn’t been possible for their busy staff to enter it into the system yet. For the TA recommendations and transcripts, check with Ms. Deggelman or your TA, or, for teacher recommendations, check with the teacher about the date on which the material was sent, and give the college a few days or a week to sort the mail before you call. Usually, time takes care of the problem beautifully—but if it doesn’t, we can duplicate the materials.
Some colleges will send such notes before the deadline simply as a reminder to you to obtain the materials. Again, DO NOT PANIC. If you have submitted your request for a transcript and TA recommendation by the Paly deadline, your teacher advisor will mail them by the college’s deadline. Colleges with fixed deadlines will not begin the review process before then. |