Application Not Displaying East Asian Text

[lordtiandao]

My writing sample is from a journal article that I submitted for publication. My field is Chinese history, so as you can imagine the paper has Chinese characters in it for names, keywords, and citations. However, I noticed that a lot of the application portals do not display them after I upload them as docx format, causing the Chinese text to become squares. I've already submitted my application, so I was just wondering if this is going to end up counting against me.

[TMP]

Have you tried using the PDF?  You can also contact the graduate student coordinator in the department who may be able to take the PDF version of your writing sample and attach it to your application. 

[lordtiandao]

3 minutes ago, TMP said:

Have you tried using the PDF?  You can also contact the graduate student coordinator in the department who may be able to take the PDF version of your writing sample and attach it to your application. 

I've called UPenn and they said committee know it's a problem and if it makes me feel better I can send it to them as a PDF and they can upload it. I'll call my other programs and ask, but I'm mostly worried about the programs with earlier deadlines since it's been two weeks already. Stupid mistake on my part...I should have checked.

[TMP]

Don't worry about it... most profs don't even have time to look at applications after the fall semester is over   the earlier deadline (Dec 1) is more for the Graduate School and depts to get organized.  It does take a while to go through dozens of applications to make sure that those completed ones go forward and contact is made with the applicant about missing materials.  Grad coordinators also have other tasks at hand.... so they're incredibly busy!!!

[lordtiandao]

Well I've contacted all but one program where I had this problem (person in charge wasn't picking up so I'll try again later) and was able to get them reuploaded as PDFs. So I guess if anyone else has a similar problem, contact the department. The big lesson here is always use PDF, not docx.

Edited December 15, 2017 by lordtiandao

[AP]

This can happen even with basic characters in the western alphabet used in Spanish or Portuguese so I feel you. As a general rule, always upload PDFs or similar documents to play it safe.