Some last minute application information

The January 1st deadline is around the corner! Inevitably, there will be last minute questions. Here's how to get answers.

First of all, any trouble with the Common Application can only be fixed by the Common Application staff. If you have any problems with your Common App, submit a help ticket.  If you don't know how to do that, see #2 here. If you wait until the last minute, you have to expect a delay in the resolution of your problem. Don't freak out! Don't submit something that's half finished or incorrect in a panic. Wait until you get an answer.

Once you submit your application (all three parts, the Common App, Supplement, and payment must be submitted for anything to be sent to us from the Common App system), it will take a couple days of processing to prompt a login email for UVa's Student Information System (SIS) to be sent to you. If you are about to leave for college, you should be able to follow the directions in the email and log into our system successfully.  You can do it!

When you log in to UVa's SIS for the first time, scroll to the bottom of the main page and become familiar with the different areas of the status page.

Don't be alarmed by your to-do list at this time.

Credentials may be in our system, but not yet linked to your file. It may take a few weeks to get through all the applications submitted in these last few days, so please be patient! If your transcript arrived a month ago, it was scanned and put in a miscellaneous credentials file. A script and/or a staff member must link that transcript to your newly submitted application.  This takes time.

We will contact you when we are through the bulk of the processing if we are still missing documents. This will happen at the end of January or beginning of February. Don't freak out. Seriously. It will be okay.


That being said, here is how you can get answers to last minute UVa questions (not Common App questions) now that our office is closed for the weekend:

• Send me a tweet - the fastest method, I'll have my iPhone on me all weekend
• Post a comment on this entry - the second fastest method, comment alerts are sent to my phone
• Post on the UVa forum of College Confidential
• Instant message me through Google Chat (UVaDeanJ)

I won't be logged into all of those at every moment between now and deadline, but I will have my phone on me all weekend (hence Twitter and blog comments being the best ways to reach me). If I don't reply right away, I've either busy or am answering questions for another student.

Good luck with those last minute edits! Try not to submit at the very last minute!