kirag714 Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 My daughter hit "submit" on her first application last night, to University of Pittsburgh woot woot! Not high on her list, but a good school - and has rolling admissions so we should know the result fairly soon. However, I was looking on their website again and it says that they require a recommendation for homeschooled students. Since they don't normally require recommendations (other than from the counselor) this was not flagged in the Common App at all, so we submitted without it. I'm going to call today to confirm that they need this, but I wanted to make sure that I could still add it to her submission. Looking at the Common App, it does appear that we could add a recommender to her Pitt application, but I can't tell for sure. Has anyone added a recommender after initially submitting an application? If we can't do it that way I'm sure we can figure out a work-around, but I'm hoping that it's actually as easy as it looks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirag714 Posted October 8, 2018 Author Share Posted October 8, 2018 nvm - I just spoke with them. The truth is that Pitt isn't REALLY using the Common App at all (just for the student profile and student responses) so all the school stuff I submitted there they won't see at all. This just seems bizarre to me, but apparently I need to resubmit all of it, including her transcript, directly to Pitt. This is the first year they are using the Common App, but so maybe it's not surprising that their system is not coordinated fully. But still I wish they had said something on the website since I am now duplicating work I already did. Annoying. And BTW the person I spoke to in admissions said that the only recommendation they need is the counselor recommendation from me. We'll see, but since I have all that material together I'll just send it all at once. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 We've run into that with a couple schools where you submit via the common app but then you need to re-enter a whole slew of info again in their system. Super annoying and it would be nice to know that up front! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 On 10/8/2018 at 11:08 AM, FuzzyCatz said: We've run into that with a couple schools where you submit via the common app but then you need to re-enter a whole slew of info again in their system. Super annoying and it would be nice to know that up front! How did you know that? Portal? And I guess that means that one could miss having everything in by the application deadline if one submitted the common app just prior to deadline. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirag714 Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 31 minutes ago, Penguin said: How did you know that? Portal? And I guess that means that one could miss having everything in by the application deadline if one submitted the common app just prior to deadline. I only knew that because I called the school after we submitted the application on the CA. It was totally unclear otherwise. I'm sure that eventually they would have reached out to us asking for the information - and in this case the deadline is rolling so it wasn't critical. But yes, this could be an issue with schools that have a hard deadline. Going forward I plan to call every school before submission. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 So, if the CA shows that all the school profile/Counselor letter are downloaded, you aren't necessarily in the clear? DD has only two schools left (one rolling, one regular decision), but at lwast one has a portal with a very clear application checklist so she can see what the school says they don't have yet, but some schools don't have portals. (She doesn't have a portal for the rolling app school, but should get one soon. She just hit submit on that one Friday night.) I could see where it would be anxiety-inducing if there wasn't a way to tell they were waiting on the transcript and other school info. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirag714 Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 1 minute ago, RootAnn said: So, if the CA shows that all the school profile/Counselor letter are downloaded, you aren't necessarily in the clear? That's what I conclude. On the CA it shows that those are required for this school and indicates that they were linked to the application. Everything was downloaded. Obviously we didn't try submitting without them but given the way that the CA is set up I doubt that she could have done that. So yes, there was absolutely no indication that (as the person in admissions said) "we don't receive any school information from the Common App." Thankfully because my anxiety about this process is on overdrive lol, I decided to phone them about a completely different issue and so found out right away. I think I may start another thread about this so that any other people planning to apply to Pitt can be made aware. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 1 hour ago, Penguin said: How did you know that? Portal? And I guess that means that one could miss having everything in by the application deadline if one submitted the common app just prior to deadline. Right!? Ah - such a nerve wracking process. Yes - from the portal. It makes me want to keep the kid filing at least a week before due dates. This was for a large state flagship and their admissions system is a mess this year. I've seen many complaints about it on CC as well. It requires you to fill out a SRAR (self reported academic record) via a 3rd account (not the school portal, not the common app). Even if all your classes are entered in the common app. ? 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 1 hour ago, kirag714 said: That's what I conclude. On the CA it shows that those are required for this school and indicates that they were linked to the application. Everything was downloaded. Obviously we didn't try submitting without them but given the way that the CA is set up I doubt that she could have done that. DD submitted two without my portion being done, FYI. (Two schools clearly show my counselor letter being downloaded the day I submitted it--one day after her portion was submitted and downloaded.) I expect stuff like this the first couple years of the CA, but not after all this time. Although, you did say it was Pitt's first year with the CA? Most of DD's schools offered either the CA or their app. If DD hadn't wanted to skip a particular (separate) essay that would have been required for a certain school's own app (but not the CA), she likely would have just filled out each one individually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirag714 Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 Just now, RootAnn said: I expect stuff like this the first couple years of the CA, but not after all this time. Although, you did say it was Pitt's first year with the CA? Yes it is Pitt's first year with the CA so it's not too shocking. However, I still wish that they had said something on their application page because I thought I was saving work by using the CA, while I think that I actually added multiple steps. Ultimately no big deal, and I think it's all complete now! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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