Do We Have to Synchronize the Submission of All Application Materials?

I am going crazy trying to synchronize my daughter's application materials. It is nearly impossible to get application, writing supplement (she is a creative writing major so there are extra writing samples she needs to send besides the essay), SAT scores and transcript all to each school at the same time. What happens if one is earlier or later than the other?

You don't have to stress about this issue — your daughter's application materials don't have to all arrive at the same time, whether you are talking about their arrival at multiple colleges or even at the same college. Admission officials are accustomed to seeing this stuff show up on all sorts of schedules. So even if an unsolicited writing sample should appear in an admission office before your daughter has sent any other materials (and thus she is not yet officially a candidate), the admission folks have a protocol in place to store the early-bird submissions until a file is created for the applicant.

So don't sweat the timetable. Just make sure that your daughter meets all deadlines. Beyond that, she (and YOU) don't have to worry about when all the various (and often confusing) components of an application are dispatched.

Once the college does get all of your materials, here's the journey that the application makes throughout the admissions process, just so you know what to expect going forward.

About the Ask the Dean Column

Sally Rubenstone is a veteran of the college admissions process and is the co-author of three books covering admissions. She worked as a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years and has also served as an independent college counselor, in addition to working as a senior advisor at College Confidential since 2002. If you'd like to submit a question to The Dean please email us at editorial@collegeconfidential.com.