Brown Embark System

[Aubergine]

...is going to give me a heart attack!

Is anyone else having trouble with this system sending prompts to your LoR writers? I just found out that none of my referees have received their prompts! Because of this confusing message-- "Both saving and submitting your application will send an automatic notification email to your recommenders to initiate the process"-- I thought that maybe I had to actually submit my application for the prompts to send. But I called the admissions office this morning and the woman on the phone assured me that that was not the case: I need merely to save the application. I asked her how to resend the prompts and she directed me to recommendation.embark.com -- where my login information doesn't work.

I'm waiting for lunch hour to end so I can call them back to hopefully resolve this issue. Has anyone else had similar problems?

[Aubergine]

Whoops, never mind! Just spoke to an admissions person and apparently their system is having issues. Referees are being asked to email their letters directly to admissions. What a pain!

[LLajax]

Wait- I've been having issues with mine- one of my recommender tried to send his in a month ago and never could (and no one ever got back to either of us about fixing it)- what's the email for sending it in directly??

[Aubergine]

The email address is graduate_admissions@brown.edu

Ask your referees to put your name and the title of the program you're applying to in the subject line of the email, and to add the letter as an attachment. I would ask your letter writers to confirm with you after sending their emails, as we'll have no official confirmation of receipt. The woman in admissions said that I could call in a couple of weeks, however, to confirm that the letters arrived.

[Aubergine]

I've already run into another problem with the application. The university where I did one of my degrees (major Canadian research institution) does NOT appear on their drop down menu, and there is no place to write an 'other'... I'm tearing my hair out here!

[Grunty DaGnome]

I hate them all. Cuny's was also super dodgy.

[gellert]

Wait, so if we did put the recommender info in, like, two weeks ago and saved the application, were our recommenders notified or not?

[Grunty DaGnome]

Hmmm. Brown shows all my recommendations have been received. I entered all of this info around early October, though, and resent them Thanksgiving weekend.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Grunty DaGnome

[Aubergine]

It's quite possible that this glitch in the system developed recently. Brown was a fairly last minute addition for me (I saw the chair of the department I'm applying to speak a few weeks ago and was totally inspired), so I only opened the application and attempted to generate the LoR prompts a little over a week ago.

Gellert, did you receive confirmation that your letters were submitted?

[gellert]

I don't remember. I usually keep the confirmations in a folder in my inbox, but I know for a fact there have been times that I've accidentally deleted them. So I really don't know for sure. I emailed one of my LOR writers and she says she thinks she did Brown, but then again, she's done 100+ letters so I should probably check and make sure.

ETA: The app system is back online! If you sign on to the general online application and click "check status," you can see if you reccs have been received. (And, luckily, it appears that mine have indeed been submitted!)

Edited December 10, 2011 by gellert

[LivePoetry123]

"cuny's was also super dodgy" ??? I thought that CUNY required everything sent in hard copy??? did I miss something?

[Mr Grimwig]

This made me freak out today. I saw I was missing a letter at Brown, even though the recommender said he'd submitted it. I told him to send it to the email address Aubergine listed above because, since I've submitted my application, I can't find a way to send him another official email requesting the letter. Thank goodness for this thread!

[wintergirl]

With all this chatter about Brown, I just want to verify that their deadline is Jan. 1st (date listed on their website). Even though Brown's still just on my "maybe" list, y'all are starting to freak me out! : )

[Aubergine]

My deadline is this Thursday (December 15th), but I'm applying to Theatre and Performance Studies.

[Mr Grimwig]

Deadline is January 1 for the English Ph.D. at Brown.

[perrykm2]

This is making me freak out now, too, because all of my LOR writers said they submitted to Brown, but I never did get a confirmation email from Brown. Did other people get confirmation emails say their professors submitted?

[gellert]

^ No confirmation here, but I asked one of my profs and she said she got a notif and submitted.

[perrykm2]

Thanks, Gellert.

[gellert]

Is anyone else having problems with Embark not letting them submit because it says all the required fields haven't been filled out?

Like...what? Nothing else is required! Unless they're talking about uploading a writing sample, which isn't required for my department anyway.

Also, what did everyone do for employment history? Did you just list those random non-academic retail jobs you held in college if you haven't worked as a paid RA?

[ecritdansleau]

Is anyone else having problems with Embark not letting them submit because it says all the required fields haven't been filled out?

Like...what? Nothing else is required! Unless they're talking about uploading a writing sample, which isn't required for my department anyway.

Not for Brown--but for another school that uses Embark--the application would not submit when I first clicked it, giving me a message that it was incomplete (even though the automatic checklist told me everything was complete). I totally freaked out and thought that maybe it was too late or something, or that there were problems with the website. Then I tried submitting again, (without "completing" or changing anything on the application) and it worked fine. Weird, but I was relieved.

[gellert]

Okay, I keep trying to submit to Brown and it keeps telling me to fill out all required fields. I have checked the application exhaustively and I've filled everything out. I don't know what else to do; I've submitted a request but I'm worried they won't get back to me by the deadline.

Has anyone else has this issue?

[Aubergine]

I haven't submitted mine yet! I fear that I might have the same problem when I do, since I actually can't fill out all required fields because of my drop down menu issue, which I'm waiting for Embark to get back to me on. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking onwards towards Thursday's deadline.

Gellert, did you try calling Admissions? If so, what did they say?

[gellert]

It actually ended up resolving itself about an hour after I made my post. I didn't do anything differently, it just ... stopped saying I had missing information. Huh.

[Aubergine]

Brown application submitted! I was anticipating many problems, but actually faced none. Phew! My anxiety levels have paradoxically skyrocketed since clicking submit, alas.