University "portals" and official transcripts questions

[justkeepswimming]

OK, I wanted to relax after dd sent in her applications, but it appears there's still STUFF to do while we wait. :glare:

 

Question #1)

For every application she sent, that university has sent her a link to their portal/communication hub/student website/ thing. They all have a varying name for the thing, but it's where she's supposed to check on updates for her applications, etc.

 

I'd thought that was supposed to be communicated through the Common App?  Or is she pretty much "done with" the Common App at this point, and all further communication will be done via portal thingy and/or email and/or phone communication with each school?

Because keeping up with 8 additional weird/assigned usernames and passwords is just what we need to keep track of right now. :mellow:

 

2) On said university portal thingies, if the "official transcript" is marked as still needed (she only sent in the Common App on November 1) - does this mean I have to mail them one? Or what? Wouldn't the one I attached to the Common App BE "official"? I thought that was the purpose of the Common App counselor transcript upload... ??

 

3) Total bait-and-switch - on TWO of the university portals, they have ADDITIONAL ESSAYS TO BE WRITTEN!!!! WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK IS THAT?? Why didn't they have supplemental writing portions ON the Common App???? DD has exactly zero hours to devote to that for the next two weeks - so they're going to delay her application processing because she hasn't written these additional essays? She might be able to literally throw something together tomorrow- but... it will be very much thrown together in about 30 minutes while she's scarfing down lunch. :ack2:

 

4) AND one of them has an asterisk by their own "Recommender" section (there are four available slots, all blank, with an asterisk by the first slot). She ATTACHED the recommenders (teacher and the optional) to her Common App when she sent it in! She doesn't have a copy of those letters - and she certainly isn't going to ask those people to send it to another place after assuring them all she needed them for was for the Common App recommendations....

 

Maybe they're not totally updated yet - but they have the other, basic information from her Common App on her portal account, so it doesn't appear to be an update issue.

 

grumblegrumblegrumble. We are both so totally over all of this nonsense and ready to move along to the next chapter of life. Blurg.

(There are other serious complications going on in our real life that are taking up an unimaginable amount of time and energy on both of our parts - so I'm sure this probably shouldn't be as overwhelming as it is... but for us, right now, it just is. :bored: It has been one heck of an autumn.)

[teachermom2834]

We didn't run into the thing with the extra essays.  That would be very frustrating.  I did find it annoying to realize that we were not done once we submitted.  There has been follow up on items through the portals.  One still says it doesn't have test scores that were sent a month ago so we are watching that.  Another that said 0 recommenders required on the common app actually showed us missing two required recommenders on the portal. Another (non common app) wanted proof of citizenship. One shows the file incomplete because it is missing a transcript from the university he is dual enrolled at for the first time this semester.  There would be no grades on it.  It is his first semester there.  He called and they said not to worry about it but it is still annoying seeing "incomplete file".  Makes me think they won't look at it until it is complete.  Which it isn't going to be for awhile. So, certainly alot to follow up on.

 

About the recommenders- you can look on the individual college app within the common app and click on "FERPA and Recommenders". It will show who you assigned to that school.  If the recommender did it but the school just hasn't downloaded it yet it will say "submitted" next to the name.  If the school has gone and gotten it will say "downloaded". I noticed this when our last recommender went in.  It switched from "submitted" to "downloaded" at different times for different schools.  My ds also has one school showing a recommendation missing but I see that haven't gone to the common app to retrieve it.  

 

I hate bugging the recommenders.  They are just doing us a favor and I hate for it to be hard for them.  We've had to go back again for scholarship and honors program letters too.  

 

The one that is causing us the most headache is one of ds favorites so we are being patient and jumping through the hoops.  He has called and talked to people on the phone and that has helped some.  

 

I think usually time will sort it out as the admissions folks work through the info.  I hate seeing those "missing" items when I know we did send them.

[Gwen in VA]

I'm sorry!

 

My dd2 didn't fit into any of the standard boxes when she used the Common App, and enough of her schools had conflicting and mutually exclusive document requirements that she thought she was going to lose her mind! She ended up calling many of her schools and asking if she could send the extra info (including some recs, repertoire list, music resume, etc.) by snail mail. Every college she asked agreed that that would be fine.

 

The Common App is horrible for any students who don't fit in standard boxes and/or who are applying to different enough schools/programs that the documents required are too varied for the Common App to deal with. We had fun noticing all the assumptions that were buried in the Common App.

 

Have a glass of wine. Take a walk. Someday you will laugh at the absurdity of the whole process -- though I know you are NOT laughing now!

[regentrude]

You do not check for acceptance through the common app - that is always communicated through the school portals or other means.

 

We had one school create her an account, showing that they must have received the application - and then subsequently this school claimed to miss most of the application documents (transcript for example) which we had submitted through the common app. Clearly, they had it and lost it. I forgot how we resolved this. It was a pain.

 

As for additional essays: we did not encounter any such thing as required for the college application, but several schools suggested that DD apply for scholarships and those scholarship applications came with essay requirements. Are you sure it is not something like this?

 

Good luck getting it sorted out, and keep your sanity.

[angela in ohio]

As for additional essays: we did not encounter any such thing as required for the college application, but several schools suggested that DD apply for scholarships and those scholarship applications came with essay requirements. Are you sure it is not something like this?

 

This has been our experience as well.

 

And yes, the Common App is just a convenient way to complete applications to multiple schools rather than doing each one individually; once the application is submitted, you are done with it.

 

Yes, it's a pain juggling multiple schools, but I try to remember that it was a choice we made to apply to many schools; the average student applies to just a few. Individual schools don't care that we applied to ten others; they are just concerned about the system they have for processing many applications as quickly as possible.

[justkeepswimming]

Unfortunately, the "bonus" essays definitely are "regular admission" essays - not for the honors colleges. Those may (should) come later.

Both of the extra-essay schools are schools that are near the bottom of her list- but she should qualify for significant merit aid - so she's going to jump through their hoops. But - UGH!!

 

The "Common App" was supppppposedddddd to make this simpler! :p

[swimmermom3]

Most of the schools ds is interested in have sent portal information before the Common App. has been entered. Often there is a waiver of the application fee. Am I missing something here?

[regentrude]

Most of the schools ds is interested in have sent portal information before the Common App. has been entered. Often there is a waiver of the application fee. Am I missing something here?

 

Maybe that is the case with schools that are actively courting students and want to entice them to come.

It is definitely not the case with schools who reject 90+% of their applicants - you get your portal login after you apply.

 

[teachermom2834]

Most of the schools ds is interested in have sent portal information before the Common App. has been entered. Often there is a waiver of the application fee. Am I missing something here?

 

My ds got a few of these emails after he added the schools to the common app but before he submitted.  They were not highly selective schools. Maybe 2 or 3 of his ten did this.

 

There is a definite uptick of activity from schools once you load them into your "My Colleges".  DS added one school just to see the app that a friend was working on.  He is now getting snail mail everyday from this school and had gotten none before.  And ds does not have the stats for this school.  Not even close. 

 

He also got a "thank you for adding us to the common app" email.  So schools definite use it for marketing. 

[swimmermom3]

Maybe that is the case with schools that are actively courting students and want to entice them to come.

It is definitely not the case with schools who reject 90+% of their applicants - you get your portal login after you apply.

 

No way is Sailor Dude looking in that category. Most of his schools are in the 40 schools that Change Lives book or he has interviewed with the school.

 

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Couple of lessons learned--

 

Many schools sent similar portal information and offers of "waived" application fees to dd via email and snail mail.  I think it is mostly marketing--it seems that many of them don't have application fees anyway or perhaps there are marketing tiers and when you receive those notices you've been bumped up a recruiting tier.  I also think they love it if you apply via their online site (if they have such a thing) so they don't pay fees to common app for you.  

 

We've also discovered that several schools retrieve info from common app slowly so it may take a day or two after submission for your application to be complete.  Others don't even try to pull down info for a regular admissions candidate this time of year since they review those later...  Dd even had one school mark her application as incomplete on the portal but when she phoned was told everything was completed--portal wanted her 1st quarter senior grades.  

 

Also-in the be prepared category--a few schools wanted homeschoolers to interview via phone but you can't schedule those interviews until your application is complete.  The schools dd is interviewing with had very specific dates and times when interviews were available.

[teachermom2834]

Couple of lessons learned--

 

Many schools sent similar portal information and offers of "waived" application fees to dd via email and snail mail. I think it is mostly marketing--it seems that many of them don't have application fees anyway or perhaps there are marketing tiers and when you receive those notices you've been bumped up a recruiting tier. I also think they love it if you apply via their online site (if they have such a thing) so they don't pay fees to common app for you.

 

We've also discovered that several schools retrieve info from common app slowly so it may take a day or two after submission for your application to be complete. Others don't even try to pull down info for a regular admissions candidate this time of year since they review those later... Dd even had one school mark her application as incomplete on the portal but when she phoned was told everything was completed--portal wanted her 1st quarter senior grades.

 

Also-in the be prepared category--a few schools wanted homeschoolers to interview via phone but you can't schedule those interviews until your application is complete. The schools dd is interviewing with had very specific dates and times when interviews were available.

As far as the interview goes- ds has one that requires the phone interview for homeschoolers. There is a two week window to schedule but that is two weeks before the EA deadline. So, that was odd. Fine for us because we were aware of it but it could catch someone off guard. They also said transcript and teacher evaluation had to be in before the interview. So, good thing we had all of that done for other schools with the 11/1 deadline.

[justkeepswimming]

:001_smile: She did receive some university portal information from some schools before she applied (none that she was actively planning to apply to, though). We had just thought it was a marketing thing - "Join our Portal for Up-To-Date Information on Our Great University!" and opted to ignore those emails since we'd gathered the information she needed via internet, friends, phone calls, and not being afraid to ask questions of complete strangers, lol! 

 

Once she added specific universities TO her Common Application, there WAS an increase in email from those specific universities. (One I found funny - one Ivy League school had been sending her quite regular, unsolicited emails and USPS mail for months. She chose to add a DIFFERENT Ivy League school to her Common App, and I swear - it was instantaneous - the NEW Ivy League started emailing her (they hadn't before) and the OLD Ivy League school's emails ceased. I'm sure they didn't know - but it was almost like their emails sensed the new school's presence in her email account, lololol!)

 

I'd assumed it worked like this:

 

1) Apply through Common App

 

2) Common App (or an email) would notify her if there was a missing part to her application (which there shouldn't be... because we assumed that the Common Applications had ALL of the parts right-there for us to see and deal with all in one tidy location)

 

3) Amy would receive either an email, a phone call, or a BIG envelope in the mail one glorious day - and VOILA! Accepted!! Yay! Celebrate! Big sigh of relief! (or wimpers of despair if tiny envelope and bad news)

 

4) Said email and/or BIG envelope mail would say something along the lines of:

"Congratulations! You've been accepted into Our Awesome University! Please sign on to our University Portal for further details for your registration, dorm information, scholarship information, yadda, yadda..." and, in some cases, "We would like to invite you to apply to our honors college! Please refer to the following information for instructions on how to do so." (and HERE is the point where we were prepared for additional essays, additional letters of recommendation, possible interviews, etc)

 

So - signing up to all their portals to find out that the Common App really WASN'T all they needed is frustrating to both of us. These "troublesome" universities ARE those that have the option to sign up through the Common App OR through their own application process. Amy opted for the Common App because... ya know.. Common. lol She'd have filled it in on their website in the first place if she'd have known she'd have to answer their essay question (why didn't they just add it to the writing supplement on the Common App? I don't get it! It's there for a reason!), and have her recommenders send their recommendations & transcripts directly to this school anyway. They are asking for her to upload her resume. Whyyyy didn't they ask for that on the Common App???? (at least three others schools did, so I know it's possible!)

 

It's November and I'm feeling Grinchy toward this entire process right now. :hat:   :leaving:   She is going to be home approximately 4 days out of the next 2.5-3 weeks (not 4 days together - just 4 days period). She'd like to get this taken care of ASAP, but she simply doesn't have the time. So, I'm going to do as much of the computing/data entry and possible and she's going to write on the road in between flights and destinations (with time she should be using for Calculus...) and we will hopefully have all these new boxes checked off within the week.

 

THIS WILL BE SO MUCH EASIER WITH THE SECOND KID, oh my gosh!!! :D

[TeaTotaler]

 

As for additional essays: we did not encounter any such thing as required for the college application, but several schools suggested that DD apply for scholarships and those scholarship applications came with essay requirements. Are you sure it is not something like this?

 

 

This was true for ds as well. He is not exactly thrilled about writing more essays especially when he's been sick this week. 

Hang in there with this whole process.  :grouphug:

[GoodGrief]

The additional essays for admission WOULD be frustrating, especially if you have paid a fee on the Common App! My daughter has not encountered that, thankfully, with the Common App schools.

 

The portal thing is totally normal though, and, yes, that's a lot of usernames and passwords with which to keep up.

 

The schools will sometimes take a while to process bits and pieces of the application.  If it hasn't shown up in a week or two, call.

 

Just read that you have Ivies on your list...they are processing in the tens of thousands of applications, so it does take a while for things to go through there.

 

I have an older daughter that went through this in '13, and pretty much handled it all herself.  It's been a little shocking to me to be more involved with daughter #2's apps and realize that the Common App is fairly complicated, with lots of moving parts that require tracking.

 

 

[teachermom2834]

Ds has one school he submitted the common app for on 10/1 and sent test scores the same day.  His file is still incomplete according to the portal.  They just processed his test scores Friday (so that is over a month).  He spoke to someone and they told him they are now just waiting for his second LOR. That was submitted on the common app two weeks ago.  I believe they just need to go download it.  It is a bit frustrating to think that the EA deadline is going to come with it still incomplete when he submitted so far ahead of the due date.  It is a small school but I suspect they have a small staff and are still busy recruiting.  It seems schools (common app ones at least) are getting more and more applications each year and it is possible these admissions offices at small schools have some growing pains too.

 

One upside of the portal.  My ds applied to our state flagship and the portal actually listed his test scores.  He was able to see that they only had one date and as a super score school they really needed both sets of scores.  DS was able to figure out that they had created two files for him based on the two different addresses he had when he took the tests. State flagship with thousands and thousands of applicants it is understandable that happened.  It was a good lesson for ds in the differences with navigation the large university vs.  the small liberal arts colleges he has applied to.  He was able to get his two portal accounts merged but it took alot of phone calls and time to get to the bottom of it.  But without access to the online portal we never would have known they were missing half his scores.

[AngieW in Texas]

We ended up not doing the common app and just applying directly to schools. It was easier to figure out and my dd didn't have that big of a list anyway. She is applying to three schools in New York and one in Texas (safety).

 

Pace sent her a link to the Pace Advantage application, so she switched over to that one instead, but then it showed her application incomplete because she had two different applications up. They did fix that yesterday.

[J-rap]

Regarding the portals...  My daughter had to set up a school portal for the majority of her applications.  The interesting thing is that one school that she applied at, was accepted at, but in the end declined, is the school she decided to transfer to the following year.  When reapplying as a transfer student, she found that her portal was still there, complete with hundreds of emails that she had been sent throughout what would have been her first year as a freshman there!