Soothing Words About Deadlines From Joanne Cummings

Oct 29, 2007

Soothing Words About Deadlines From Joanne Cummings

This is the time of year in which people start worrying a great deal about deadlines. Rather than give you my own "don't panic" advice, I thought I'd give you the words straight from Joanne, who oversees our entire process from the moment your application arrives at MIT through the mailing of admissions decision letters.

Joanne writes:

Having worked in the admissions office for a million years, currently serving as the director of the freshman process (as well as Evie’s mom), let me share with you some wisdom surrounding deadlines and missing application pieces.

Let me say right off, don't panic! A decision on your application will not be made if we do not have enough information. While it is important to file your Part 1 in a timely manner (as close to November 1 as possible), materials received after that date are accepted and will catch up to your file.

Around the deadline, our office assistants are processing, with tremendous care, thousands of pieces of mail a day. Between the US mail and processing delays, please be patient and allow two weeks, from the time you think something was mailed, for the tracking system to be accurate. If on November 14th the tracking system still shows missing items, fax the materials to 617-258-8304. Again, be patient, as faxed materials take a day or two to process. As you know, November tests are acceptable for Early Action, but the scores will not reach us until late November. If by December 1, the tracking system doesn’t reflect your test history, fax your score report to the aforementioned number.

Easy for me to say "relax," I know - but truly, materials received a week or two after the deadline will be reviewed and will not make or break an admissions decision. Rest assured we have your best interests at heart and will treat your case with great care.

While we're on the topic, let me clarify something I said on the road about December test scores and Early Action. I mentioned that the November 1 application deadline doesn't apply to scores, as we begin selection committee around December 7th, and any scores we have at that time will be considered. While this is true, I'd optimistically thought that scores from the December 1 testing date might be able to reach us in time, but I've been told recently by the data entry folks that the testing service traditionally can't turn things around that quickly. So unfortunately, it sounds like my hope that scores from the December 1 tests would reach us in time for EA selection committee was a bit too optimistic.

If we are missing required scores at the time of EA selection, we'll simply defer an applicant to Regular Action (with no penalty, of course) and consider him/her at that time, once the scores have reached us.

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

Is there a deadline for the midyear grade report? It says to turn it in as soon as the grades are available, and says that you realize some won't be available until January 1st. But I can't get my grades until January 21st. Should I turn in first quarter grades instead of first semester?

Posted by: Taylor on October 29, 2007

Yes, I have that question as well. Here, our semester exams are in late January.

Posted by: 0 on October 29, 2007

To answer the first question:

"Early Action applicants on quarter-based systems often ask if it is okay to send in their first-quarter grades. This is not required, but it's certainly okay. Please note, however, that you must still send in the mid-year report after the second quarter grades have been released."

From: http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_freshman_application/

Posted by: … on October 29, 2007

I sent an email regarding this very same question, but hopefully here it will be a little more public and accessible as I'm sure I am not the only individual with this anxiety.

My name is Eric and I live in San Diego, CA. Our public schools have been closed for over a week due to the devastating fires in the region. I do not know if our counselors have had the opportunity to send out or even work on our secondary school reports. I know that mine has not yet been entered into the MIT app. tracker. Will there be some leniancy for the postmark deadline for this portion of the application if they are not mailed in time for the EA deadline?

Thanks so much,
Eric

Posted by: Eric on October 29, 2007

@Taylor - EA applicants need to turn in midyear reports whenever they're available, but MOST EA applicants won't have a midyear during selection time (like when I was applying), so don't worry about it. "..." above covered what to do about quarter grades, but essentially, they're optional ^.^

@Eric - There was a post a couple entries back that covered the CA fire. I believe, in summary, it said MIT would be lenient on time considering the situation.

Posted by: Hunter '11 on October 29, 2007

thanks Hunter I missed it.

Posted by: Eric on October 29, 2007

It took me 25 words extra on the long essay to say what i needed to say. Bad? Good? Indifferent? These have got to be the most stressful 25 words of my life.

Thanks.
A'non Imus

Posted by: Anon on October 29, 2007

My question might not be related to the subject of this blog, but I would like to ask one question about the Application Part 2 question Number 8. For the AP, IB, and GCSE section, I found out that I should write the name of the courses that I took. My school does not provide any AP courses, but I took the AP exams.

In question 8, Should I write the name of AP exams instead of the AP course names, or should I just leave everything in blank and only send the AP scores through College Board?

I also sent an e-mail regarding this question, but I hope posting this question here will be helpful to others, too...

Thank you!

Posted by: Brian on October 29, 2007

Well, here's what I did. I began listing the AP exams that I took in previous years and their respective scores. Then, I listed the current AP courses I was taking this semester (and next semester). However, my school integrates certain AP topics, such as AP Spanish, AP English, etc. etc. But come May, we can take either the French Language test, the Literature test, or both. Since I haven't made a decision, I am just listing AP Spanish.

Sorry if that didn't make sense, but to sum up, I would just list all the past exams taken and current AP courses you're in the process of taking.