GRE report date vs. actual sent date?

[kingslayer]

Hi everyone,

• Took my GRE on Dec. 8.
• Scores showed up on Dec. 23.
• Hours later, the Report Date changed from Pending to 12/23/2015.
• Automatically assumed this meant is was sent 12/23, but I called my schools today and they haven't received it yet.
• Going to call ETS tomorrow (they closed at 11 PST today) and ask what's happening.

Is the Report Date the actual Sent Date from ETS to my institutions? I'm worried that the names may not match up (even though I used my First/Middle/Last on both the institutions and GRE). What is the best way to handle this?

[fuzzylogician]

49 minutes ago, highborn said:

Is the Report Date the actual Sent Date from ETS to my institutions? I'm worried that the names may not match up (even though I used my First/Middle/Last on both the institutions and GRE). What is the best way to handle this?

If you're worried, contact the schools you applied to and follow up on this. I'd wait until after the new year, since it's likely that reports sent right before Christmas haven't been processed yet, even if they arrived. I don't really know the answer to your report date question, but I don't think it really matters. I think it'll be sufficient to say in an email/phone call that you believe the report was recently sent and you'd like to verify it arrived because of a possible confusion regarding your name. 

[kingslayer]

On 12/28/2015 at 0:35 PM, fuzzylogician said:

If you're worried, contact the schools you applied to and follow up on this. I'd wait until after the new year, since it's likely that reports sent right before Christmas haven't been processed yet, even if they arrived. I don't really know the answer to your report date question, but I don't think it really matters. I think it'll be sufficient to say in an email/phone call that you believe the report was recently sent and you'd like to verify it arrived because of a possible confusion regarding your name. 

Thank you! I contacted ETS a couple days ago, and they told me that the scores were sent out on the report date. However, they weren't processed (like you said). Two of my schools with 1/1/16 deadlines processed the scores in time, while another one may just throw out my application entirely (even though it was there). I sent them an email asking them to please use a placeholder, but they won't. Going to call back on Monday and see what can be done.

Thank you again!

[fuzzylogician]

Glad to hear about the first two schools. The third school is being ridiculous so I hope that gets resolved. You had everything in on time, it shouldn't be your problem that they didn't process it on time. I don't know if you're talking to someone at the Graduate School or the department, but if it's the Graduate School and they end up giving you trouble, you'll have nothing to lose if you try to involve someone from the department. Maybe they can help. If it's the department, then frankly they are giving off red-flag vibes and I'd think about whether this seems like a reasonable institution you'd want to attend. 

[LuanFDS]

Which university rejected you application? I was fine until read your post, now I am very worried. The report date of my scores was January, 1st, but the deadline of one university is Jan, 2nd. I have already contacted them, but I think I will just receive an answer on monday. It seems that ETS sends the scores eletronically, so I do not understand why they said they have not received your scores. I really hope they you try to process all scores right after the deadline, so the adcoms will have a complete application. 

Good Luck!

[darth_vader123]

 

On 1/1/2016 at 3:56 PM, highborn said:

Thank you! I contacted ETS a couple days ago, and they told me that the scores were sent out on the report date. However, they weren't processed (like you said). Two of my schools with 1/1/16 deadlines processed the scores in time, while another one may just throw out my application entirely (even though it was there). I sent them an email asking them to please use a placeholder, but they won't. Going to call back on Monday and see what can be done.

Thank you again!

I'm equally worried, more so for the TOEFL  than the GRE. For some weird reason, TOEFL scores take at least seven working days to be 'shipped' (what, they send paper reports???!), and another seven working days to reach the recipient. Combine this with the fact that many universities match scores manually, and it takes three weeks for your scores to show up at some places. GRE scores are better, usually reflecting within a day or two of the order. Though I faced your problem with one university, which updated both a week after the deadline, even though I'm sure the scores arrived well in advance since other recipients updated them immediately. It wasn't a hard deadline and I can only hope it doesn't cause problems to my application, but it's frustrating given the time and money you spend on each application. I can't order all score reports in one go either due to financial reasons, and I can't for the life of me fathom why the whole process is so slow given the kind of money they make you pay simply for xeroxing the same report and mailing it to a university.

Now the same tensions for two programs with explicitly hard deadlines in mid-January, and I can only hope the GRE and TOEFL reports I ordered today (had to borrow money from parents) reach them in two weeks and that they'll be updated promptly.  
I may be amazingly wrong, but I find both exams utterly pointless, a huge drain on finances (average masters student in a developing country), and there is something very racket-y about paying for 'additional reports'. 

Ha, rant over.