Updating the app system

[Diverchica]

Quick question: I've called schools to make sure they have all of my materials, because many of them have the "apply yourself" interface, and it still is saying that my gre and trancripts are missing. After calling two schools, they both told me that all of my materials are there, but the people who are manually updating the system are behind.

Does this hold up the admin process? For instance, if they're not matching all of my materials, are they still sitting in one place, and not yet forwarded to the department?

Thanks!

Kat

[curufinwe]

UT Austin, having a deadline on the 1st of December, received my files on the 27th of November (according to FedEx) and STILL they show some of my materials missing. I asked twice about it via e-mail and once on the phone, so I confirmed three times that they have all of my files. But they STILL do not update the system How reliable, innit?

[hinesaj]

I think this depends on the schools/programs of course, but on several of my ApplyYourself applications it explicitly states that even after materials are received and collected your application status may still say "incomplete."

I don't know much about the ApplyYourself software, but I imagine that some schools may use it as a way to access the materials from remote computers, and as such they probably upload material that they've received in the mail. Others probably just print the full PDF application form that you see before submitting and put it in your file and just add your mailed materials to that file, never updating the website.

If you are missing something, the program will email/call letting you know that they haven't received a piece of your application. This happened to me, so this is something that actually happens. If you haven't heard from them, don't worry!

[grad_wannabe]

I'm picturing exhausted grad students/office gophers in the admin offices with seemingly endless piles of transcripts, rec letters, and GRE scores towering over them, laboriously entering all this crap into the database while frantic applicants call over and over screaming, "But I sent you everything!! Why isn't my status updated to complete?!?"