About the SIS Application Status

I just got off the phone with a counselor from my territory who said he has a super nice family that is getting really worried about their student's status page. The counselor mailed the school credentials on the 29th and they thought that a week was enough time for the documents to get to us.

First of all, if you are at a school where counselors aren't allowed (ahem, my territory) or don't have the computer system to submit documents online, I can almost guarantee that it takes more than a week for a document to get to us. Just think about the chain of possession on that envelope.

1. Your High School
First, the counseling office prepares the required documents and probably sends them to the location where all the outgoing mail for your school is collected. Either the same day or the next day, the envelope leaves the building with the US Postal Service.

2. The Journey to Charlottesville
The US Postal Service has their own network of facilities that sort and distribute mail. We all know it is hard to predict how busy the distribution system will be. Eventually, the envelope will make it's way to Charlottesville, possibly after a stop in another city.

I don't have a picture of a mail truck. Pretend that is one. Beep beep!

3. The Journey to UVA
The US Postal Service delivers all mail for UVA to UVA's University Mail Services. Mail Services handles all of the mail for the University and the UVA Medical Center. This includes all the "messenger mail" that we send from one office to the next. Just because mail arrived at UVA doesn't mean we have it in our office.

University Mail Services sorts all the mail that comes in for UVA and then delivers it to each building. Once something arrives at Peabody Hall, our staff sorts it and distributes the items to the proper staff members.

Now, our staff members are pretty busy at this time of year. We have have a little over 16,000 Early Action applicants and each has a counselor and teacher sending us documents to support their application. Opening all that mail takes time and checking all those documents in takes even longer.

A long line of mail bins.

If your school sends items electronically, it still takes a few days for that information to make it into your file. The Common App doesn't send anything until YOU hit submit your application. After that, it will probably take a few days for us to get the documents downloaded from the Common App and then our staff has to match the newly-arrived item up with an application that is here. 

Bottom line: At this time, your SIS status is not a call to action. It is view into where we are with your file. There will be a point when we start contacting students about items that are missing, but that won't happen until December. Please do not rush into your counselor or teacher telling them they didn't send the documents correctly. In all likelihood, those items are either on the journey to us or are waiting to be checked in and linked to your application. I'll let you know when all submitted documents have been filed.

Sending Updates to UVa

If you follow me on Twitter or have been reading the blog for a while, you probably know that I have repeatedly mentioned that application updates need to be sent to our general mailing address (we prefer email since we are paperless) and not to individual deans and admission counselors. I took a picture that explains why. Here is the mail that was waiting for me one morning:

The envelopes inside the FedEx packages had my name on them, so our staff needed me to open them.

 During the busiest part of the reading season, admission officers read files away from the office. Just like you might go to the library to get away from distractions, it helps us to be away from email, phone calls, and drop-in visitors (some don't seem to believe that we don't use interest and want to say "hello" to the person who manages their territory). In addition, not spending time getting ready and commuting to/from Grounds (and then parking a mile away and walking up to Peabody Hall) gives us more time to focus on applications. Admission officers around the country are doing this...not at every school, but at many.

So when you mail something directly to an admission officer, it may sit in their mailbox for a few days because they are reading outside of Peabody Hall.

The items in my mailbox might have been filed by now if they hadn't been sent directly to me because I wasn't reading in Peabody last Friday.

Please make sure you are sending updates to our general mail and email addresses. They have always been on the bottom of our website and on our contact page.

Two Reasons the Early Action Review Take So Long

Most of the blog comments, tweets, and emails I've gotten from Early Action applicants in the last few days have inquired about our release date. We officially say that decisions are posted by the end of January. The timing isn't a strategy, it's a necessity. 

1. We have a small staff

We have about a dozen people who process and file documents. They had all EA and RD documents that were submitted by mail filed before we closed to the office for a three-day Christmas break. Since the 29th, they've been back at it.

There are about 18 admission officers reading full time between late October and late March to review applications. That's a fairly small staff for our applicant pool (when this blog started, we were able to send decisions to our much smaller early pool in December). We've been told that many of our peers have double the number of staff members we do OR have dramatically different review procedures that allow them to move through the bulk of their applications more quickly.

2. We read our applications. All of them.

Though our office went paperless years ago, our review is still fairly "old school." There are no preliminary rounds where certain GPAs or test scores get applicants tossed to a deny pile (remember what I've said about GPAs). We don't score application components or use a rubric to render our decisions. If we did those things, perhaps we'd be able to have a six or eight week turnaround, but much of the application is prose and much of our review is done in prose as well.

Even though it takes a lot of time and results in us pulling crazy hours during the application reading season, I feel good about our review. While the transcript, showing four years of academic development, is the largest piece of the puzzle, our in-depth review allows me to understand more about you. I get to hear about the topics that excite you, the experiences that have influenced you, and the obstacles some of you have had to overcome.

We're building a class through this review. This isn't just about admitting qualified students. After all, the majority of applicants are qualified...that's why they are filling out the application. But we don't have the space for all the qualified students who apply, so we have this review to select a great class out of this great applicant pool.

I know this wait is hard. We are moving as quickly as possible without sacrificing the review. Hang in there!

Regular Decision Notification Update

The last two weeks of March, everyone is looking for signs that we are finished with the review process. I've had students tell me about my patterns on Twitter or the blog and how they relate to when we released decisions in past years. I've had people contact me almost every. single. day. to ask if this is the day they we'll be done.

Where did everyone go?

There are so many different pieces to this process. Besides the application review, we have to look at mid-year reports, early action students who were deferred to regular decision, the scholars programs, and we also have the rolling spring breaks that bring hundreds of students to the UVa Grounds every day.

I am so excited to tell you all that this afternoon, we finalized the last decisions and we are ready to let them go. We're going to post Regular Action decisions on your SIS accounts TONIGHT! Please keep reading!


 1. You have to log into your SIS account to see the decision. Some time tonight, that "View Decision" link at the bottom of the dashboard that goes to a dead end right now will go to a decision letter. If you can't find your login info for the SIS, use the links on the login page to generate a new password. A welcome mailing with info about next steps will come later. Please do not open multiple windows, hammering the system. Students have slowed SIS down to a crawl in the past by doing it. Use one window.

I don't have a time for the release because it takes the IT folks a while to run the script that posts the letters. It's not a case of just flipping a switch.

Welcome mailings

2. I will post blog entries where you can talk about the different decisions. I will step away from the blog this evening to give you time to chat (I'll be on Twitter during the basketball game because I like seeing UVa as a trending topic). I'll be back to work through any questions that are asked in the comments tomorrow.  I trust you to be respectful of others in the comments. Feel free to flag a comment if you need me to step in. That notification will go to my phone.

3. Notification Day brings a lot of joy, but there are going to be some hurt feelings as well. While I want you to be happy and celebrate your successes, I hope you'll be gracious around classmates who might not get good news. If you don't get the good news, I hope you'll be happy about the options you DO have.

4. Please don't post personal information in the comments (contact info, statistics, etc.). This is not a private page. What's more, statistics like GPA and rank are subjective and don't represent the applicant accurately. GPAs are meaningless without the high school profile's explanation of the methodology used to calculate them. What's more, posting that you took 87 AP courses doesn't tell the story of your high school career.

5. I'll share statistics on Monday afternoon.

Good luck to you all!

Whoo Hoo! You made it to the finish line!

A Note About Status Pages

Within five business days of applying, students get an email from our Student Information System telling them how to log into their status page. The status page is where you can see a "to do" list for your application. If you apply for financial aid, a separate list will appear for that process.

Many of you got the email and eagerly logged in to see your status. That's when you might have seen items on your to-do list that you thought were already sent to us.

Cue tons of emails asking me if we're going to move an Early Action application over to Regular Decision.

First of all, I've mentioned it before, but your counselors and teachers have a different deadline for submitting their materials. We don't expect everything to be in the office on the deadline day. That would be pretty amazing since those folks are probably filing supporting documents for lots of different students.

Second, we get a veritable deluge of documents right around the deadline. It takes a while to process them all. Back before applications were online, we would get dozens of bins of mail each day. Everyone in the office would be charged with opening mail and even then we wouldn't be able to open everything that came in a day. This is how we (even Jack Blackburn) spent the days following the deadline:

These days, far more counselors and teachers submit online, but some still send things by mail (that's totally fine). We wind up having a lot of paper to scan into our system and link to an application.

We want you to have a complete application. Our staff is processing and filing things as fast as they can.

Please don't panic about your status page yet. When we are done processing, we will start to send emails about missing credentials. Keep in mind that sometimes, things go astray. A missing document might have been sent, but didn't make it to us for some reason. Applicants aren't penalized for this.

Only send duplicate credentials if you have been asked to send them.

Now, if the mid-year report is the only thing left on your to-do list, you're done! The mid-year reports get sent by counselors later in the year (usually in late January or early February). That's after the Early Action notification, but we still need to see those reports.

Questions? Topics you'd like me to cover next time?

Common Worries Around Deadline Time

The Early Action deadline was Friday night and it seems like more students than in the past decided that they wanted to submit an application to UVa early. I'll have some unofficial numbers to share in a few days. Today, I wanted to address a few of the things that keep coming up calls, emails, and blog comments.

1. Admission officers have ALWAYS been flexible around deadlines.
There's a story that goes with this. 

Back when I was a college student, I gave a tour to someone who is a bit of a legend in the college admission field. He wound up pushing me to think about working in this world. I went to the admission office at my Alma Mater and begged for a job. After promising to stay at school and work for them over holidays and spring break, they let me join their staff. 

On my very first day in the office, probably within the first hour I was in the office, I took a call from someone who had been prevented from applying (I can't remember the reason) and wanted an application sent out. (This was in the dark ages, when we had to mail applications.) The call came after the deadline, so you can imagine my total shock when my supervisor told me to stamp "Late Application" on the packet and mail it out. 

Looking back, I have never worked for a school that refused applications after 11:59 PM on deadline night. Even the school I know that is very strict about their application process being followed precisely has a very loose deadline. When something beyond your control affects your ability to submit, we are understanding. 

This is probably why the majority of colleges didn't feel the need to make a big statement about extending the application deadline in the wake of reports of Common App glitches. We always leave the application open for a little while after the deadline. This is pretty standard in college admission.

2. Applications are transferred electronically once each day.
There were several comments and emails over the weekend about the date "stamp" you are seeing on your application when you log into your Common App account. There could be lots of reasons why your account says you submitted a day after you did, but the bottom line is that if there's something there, your application was submitted to us.

Common App has a scheduled delivery once per day for us. Be aware that if you hit submit after the day's transfer, we'll be getting it the next day. This isn't anything to worry about.

3. Counselors and teachers have a different deadline.
I was a little surprised that I got a slew of emails from people panicking about teachers not submitting recommendations by November 1st. November 1 is your deadline. Teachers and counselors have so much going on and it seems like more and more students are leaving the recommendation assignment to the last minute (back in my day, you were expected to give forms to your teachers/counselors about a month before deadline). No one is in trouble if the recommendations come in after deadline.

4. Application components accumulate in your file.
More than ever, people seem very worried about the different components of an application getting matched up in the admission office. With a few exceptions, the different components of applications have always arrived separately and get reunited in the student's file.

Back in the day, there were schools that wanted to applicant to send everything in one envelope, but plenty had a stack of envelopes in the application that students would distribute to their counselors and teachers so credentials could be mailed separately.

These days, things are much faster. Everything that is submitted electronically through the Common App is already tagged with your basic information. Our system knows how to file everything that comes in electronically. Everything that comes by mail is scanned into the system and then filed.

The process is much faster than it was in the paper days! Back then, this is where we put items send for students who hadn't applied:

This is what about 16,000 applications looks like. Imagine how much more space we'd need for the 30,000 applications we'll get this year!

What Kinds of Supplements Should You Send to UVa?

Colleges ask students to submit the things they'd like to receive in an application. Everyone lays out their requirements somewhere. On the UVa website, we have a little chart that lists all the different components of an application with deadlines for the different kinds of applicants (btw, if you use an old version of IE, the chart comes out a little wonky...I'm not sure why). We also have a page that explains the different supplements that some students might opt to submit if they are interested in the arts or architecture. If you aren't submitting an art supplement or architecture portfolio, just focus on filling out the Common App.

Over the years, more and more people have taken to submitting extra items that don't fit into the parameters of the art and architecture supplements. I think the assumption is that either the Common App, long though it may be, doesn't provide enough information or that the exceptional student must go to extraordinary lengths to convey their awesomeness.

For UVa, you really don't need to submit extras with your application. Sure, now and then, there's an extra recommendation that tells us something that didn't come through in other components. We'll definitely read those if you send them. Outside of that, we think you should focus on completing the Common App instead of chasing down supplemental items.


By the way, did you know what we have a special place for anything that comes in that doesn't fit into the application? It's called the "Not Art Supplements" bin. We don't look at the things that go into that bin. It'd probably be a lot of fun to go through those bins, but with 29,000 applications to review in just a few months, we don't really have time for that.

The good news is that if you are a busy high school student with many commitments on your plate, you don't have to spend time crafting elaborate application documents. The required credentials are exactly what we need for our review.

Regular Decision Deadline TOMORROW!

The regular decision deadline is tomorrow at midnight!  My hope is that most of you squared things away and hit submit already.  If that isn't the case, be careful about waiting until the very last minute.  The load on the Common App's servers is apt to be huge and their support team is probably going to be very busy.  For peace of mind, try to put those finishing touches on your applications early.

The deadline is around the corner!

Good luck!

Remember:
1. Check your "future plans" page to make sure you selected the regular decision option.
2. There are THREE items to submit.
3. Use the "help" link on the Common App website if you have trouble. Our office is closed and we can't fix problems you're having with tech issues.

From the processing side

I wish I could say that being a paperless office was exactly that.  Unfortunately, just because we go paperless doesn't mean everyone else goes paperless with us.  Applications numbers are up again and the paper is arriving by the bucket (see below) each day.

Our staff is pretty amazing.  Before we went paperless, I remember opening mail in January that had arrived before Christmas because it took more than a day to open what arrived each morning.  Now, most of the mail gets opened the same day it arrives in our office.  From there, paper documents must get scanned into our imaging system and then manually linked to an individual application file.  As you can see, the linking is where the process slows down...

There are people who seem to think online applications, with their confirmations and status pages aren't trustworthy, so they send paper copies of everything that's been submitted online.  There is no reason to do this.  This slows down the processing of credentials.  What's more, it negates our efforts to green the process a bit.  When we started working on implementing our imaging system in 2007, I sometimes wondered about how much paper (and postage) would be eliminated if every university in the state went paperless along with us.  Now, I realize that there will always be paper.  There will always be plenty of paper.  


Please, please do not send a duplicate of anything at this time.  Only send us a duplicate of something that was already submitted if we contact you and ask for it. 

Those papers hanging out of the bins aren't loose...they're irregularly shaped school profiles or international documents..  Lots of schools use a format that has a flipped top.  When you flatten the profile, it's legal sized.

If you are looking at your status page and worrying even though I've told you not to (here, here, here, and here), stop.  Your documents might waiting to be scanned and linked. 

Please do not call our office about your status page or to check on a document.  Your status pages will update in time.  You just need to be patient.  We will contact you by email if we want you to send us something.  I will post when the first "missing credential" emails go out.  Last year, they went out on February 12th.  I know you feel like you have to do something right now, but you shouldn't.  You need to wait.

Clearly, we do not expect mid-year reports to be here at this time.  That item will remain on your status pages until those reports are sent by your schools in February (unless you're on a trimester system, in which case we have what we need already).

Psst...what to see what this process looked like in past years?  Click on the "office photos" tag and you'll see all "behind the scenes" posts.  The ones from the early years, before we went paperless, are pretty amazing.

To worry or not to worry?

We're processing right now.  We're going to be processing for a few weeks.  While we're working on that, I thought I'd make a list of things you should worry about and things you shouldn't worry about right now.

Things you should worry about:
-checking your Common App account at commonapp.org to make sure that all three parts of your application are submitted.  If you didn't submit each part of the application, we did not get anything.  Submitting one item did not automatically submit the other items.


Things you should not worry about:
-your status on the UVa SIS
-your status on the UVa SIS  (seriously)
-your status on the UVa SIS  (really, I promise)


It will take us a few weeks to process everything we have gotten.  Right now, your "to do" list on the SIS may have items on it that have already arrived in our office, but haven't been checked in and matched up to your file.  I heard about a school that doesn't even let students check their status until February.  Part of me thinks that's a great idea.  Part of me thinks it would drive students crazy!  I wonder if it prompts more calls/emails from people who want to verify that items have arrived.  That reminds me...

Please do not call asking us to verify receipt of credentials.

Our staff needs to process.  They can not check on documents for you.  This is what the SIS will be for at the end of the month.

Oh, and because I haven't posted a picture in a little bit, here are photos of the two things college admission folks hate the most at this time of year:

 

Staples have to be removed so we can scan things into the system

 Special packaging. 

Everything gets yanked right out of these folders and binders so we can scan the contents.  

Please, please save your money and stop using these things!

Behind the scenes logistics

For decades, admission offices around the country (and world, no doubt) have been receiving components of applications. 

Back when I was in high school, schools sent application packets to students by mail.  Those packets included all the forms one needed to submit and some included a slew of envelopes that were labeled for each component.  Regardless of envelope, everything got to admission offices by mail and got filed from there.

I wound up working in my Alma Mater's admission office and spent a good part of my year filing documents.  There were thousands of documents coming into the office, but our little staff filed and filed to make sure all the components met up.  We actually enjoyed the work a little bit...I even remember sneaking into the office with two admission officers (one of whom is now a counselor at a private school in Connecticut *wave*) one Saturday to finish the filing as a surprise to the administrative staff.  The dean came in to garlands made out of envelopes strewn around his office that Monday.  This is probably why I enjoy the days when we help open the mail here in the Office of Admission at UVa.

These days, the process is far smoother and doesn't take nearly as long.  The Common Application automatically tags every document you send online with data that allows our system to file automatically.

Each night, the Common Application system sends newly completed applications (we have things set up so it only sends us your file when you submit all three parts of the application, the Common App, UVa Supplement, and payment).  Our system runs a script (an automated process) that looks through any miscellaneous documents that have arrived by mail.  If it finds a match, the system moves those documents from the miscellaneous area of the filing system to the newly created file for your application.

Items that arrive in the mail are scanned and loaded into the system for the same matching process.

No matter how your documents are sent, they will all meet up in the end.  Some schools still have the traditional, paper filing system and that will work just fine (it will probably take a little longer than our automated system, of course).  This is one part of the process I don't want you to worry about.

Once your application is processed by our system, you'll get an email confirming its arrival.  That email contains your login information for our SIS (Student Information System).  You can log into SIS to track your application (you'll see your checklist shrink as items arrive).  You'll also see a link to your decision on notification day  This is explained in the application instructions, which you've hopefully read at this point!

They're gone

It took a few trips to the mail truck, but your decision letters are in the hands of UVa Mail Services. Their machines with seal and meter all of the envelopes and then release them into the US Postal Service system.

Scenes from the office

Photos from the back office

We're still processing credentials that were mailed to our office. Some of you have probably noticed updates to your SIS status pages, but there's still some work to be done before you should worry about missing items. Sit tight for now!

Some mid-year reports have already arrived

This is where each admission officer used to find their allotment of folders.
Each of us had a vertical row. Now, the bins are used to store documents.

Feeling worried?

CavDog looked perpetually worried as a puppy

The application reading season is extremely hectic and while I try to carve some time out of each day to check in on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and College Confidential, it's not always possible. Sorry for the delay between posts.

It's still too early to worry about your status pages. We will contact you at the end of January or beginning of February if you have missing credentials. Hang in there. I know you feel a little lost right now. I'm here...I'm just a little busy!

The logistics of filing applications and credentials

For a few decades now, admission offices around the country have been processing applications and filing all the supplements (required and completely superfluous alike) that come along with them. Everything was paper "back in the day" (and by that, I mean 2006) and an entire room of our office was dedicated to keeping track of of the paper.

Applications got file folders. Anything that arrived before an application got filed in miscellaneous credential files. Each time an application arrived, staff members would go through the credential files to match supplements with applications. This process was used at every school at which I have been employed. It worked quite well.

With the implementation of paperless admission processes, all of those physical files are gone, but the process remains, albeit with a few changes. When credentials arrive before your application, they still get filed, but they get filed electronically. Ideally, the items coming from your school would come electronically, though the Common App's counselor and teacher portals. If something comes in the physical mail, it has to be opened, have staples and any special packaging (folders, binders, etc) removed, then scanned into our paperless system, and manually labeled with your information and the document type (transcript, recommendation, etc.). Items that come in through the Common App's system already have all of that information embedded in the electronic files, so our system can automatically file them.

The testing agencies have been sending scores electronically for years. Scores show up almost daily and they just sit in the system until there's an application.

One thing that we've have to deal with since going paperless is, surprisingly, MORE paper! For some reason, despite getting confirmation that an electronic item has been submitted to us, people are sending us paper duplicates. Some applicants fill out the Common App online, but print it out and mail it to us. Others send us elaborate supplements (and I'm not talking about the portfolios submitted by students who are going to study performing or visual arts). Please help us out! We are a relatively small office and all of this extra paper slows down the process.

Remember that colleges ask for what they need to make an admission decision and they will provide a vehicle for you to submit that information. You don't need to submit complex extras. This process is complicated enough without worrying about those sorts of things!

A few notes about today

Just a quick run down of some things of which you should be aware.

1. The release of decisions is pre-programed. The system will show the decisions at the appointed time. There are people in the Office of Admission and in the tech department who will monitor the system. The system has been tested many times and we don't anticipate any problems.

2. I will post three entries for you to talk about offer, waitlist, and deny decisions. I will step away from the blog until tomorrow so you all can chat about things. I realize that some will want to blow off steam and that's fine. You all have done a great job of moderating yourselves and I will leave you to do that.

3. Blogger, the site that hosts this blog, has some scheduled downtime this evening. The blog might be down for about 10 minutes.

4. I realize that you are going to be seeing decisions for a few other schools tonight. I hope you'll be gracious and compassionate when it comes to sharing your news with classmates.

5. I'll be posting a number of times today to pass the time. I will have some stats to share with you this afternoon.

Good luck, everyone!