1. The deadline is January 1st, not December 31st.
You have until 11:59 PM on January 1st in your time zone to submit your application. Keep in mind that many schools share this deadline and while the Common App support team is going to be up 24/7 to help with issues, they are apt to be inundated with help requests on Monday night.2. Counselors and teachers aren't subject to your deadline.
You need to get all of YOUR parts of the application submitted by the deadline. Plenty of counselors and teachers have already submitted supporting credentials for students, but the system stays open for them. Your counselors and teachers are on a much-deserved break. No need to be emailing/calling them over the weekend.3. Paying the fee doesn't submit your application.
You have to go through a submission process through the Common Application. Don't stop with paying the fee.4. Your application will be incomplete the first time you log into UVA's information system.
This is explained in our application instructions. A few days after your file is pulled into our system, UVA's Student Information System will send an email with login information to the email account you used on your Common App. On the main screen, you'll see a "to do" list of items that need to be checked into your file.The first time you log in, you might see items that were submitted, but just haven't been matched up to your file yet. Please be patient. It takes a few weeks for our staff to match all those transcripts and teacher recommendations to newly submitted applications.We only log required documents due to volume.
Mid-Year Reports will be sent by your counselors once first semester grades are available.
5. We do not accept resumes, abstracts, research, or writing portfolios
We do not accept supplements that fall outside the lines of art supplements (for the arts, architecture, and marching band). Your activities should be listed in the activity section of the Common App. Be concise and brief. If we have any questions about your activity list, we'll email you.Recommendations should come from your counselor and a teacher of your choice. The feature for submitting "other" recommendations is turned off in Common App.
6. Virginia residents must complete the residency questions to get in-state status.
If you are a Virginia resident, please be sure to fill out the residency section of the Common App. The first section asks questions about you (you'll answer "no" to most of them). The next section asks about a parent. The parent section is where most of you demonstrate residency since most of you are dependents. Only send extra documentation to the Office of Virginia status if they contact you with a request for supporting information.
Submitting unnecessary documents slows the process down for everyone. The Common App is a robust application that provides us with plenty of excellent information. Don't complicate the application process with extras!
Good luck! I'll be watching the comments below for questions. My Twitter client pushes notifications, so you can also tweet questions to @UVADeanJ.
