Missing documents! by Matt McGann '00
FAQ: What happens if part of my application isn't showing up yet?
The most popular question in all modes of communication — blog comments, emails, phone calls, owl post — this week has been, where's my stuff? (Or, "OMG I sent my stuff before the deadline and it's not showing on MyMIT yet AM I DOOMED?") Let me respond to this series of questions.
First: no, you're not in trouble if your materials haven't yet shown up on the tracking system. We're still processing lots and lots of materials, many of which were postmarked before the deadline.
Why is it taking so long? We are processing documents from more than 10,000 students, each of whom has multiple letters of recommendations, transcripts, interviews, supplements, test scores, etc. Taken together we will process more than 50,000 documents over the next few weeks alone.
Please be patient. If the tracking system isn't showing a document yet, relax and wait another couple of weeks — if we don't have it at that point, you'll get an email, and I'll post another entry so you can have any missing materials sent to us. But at this point, we're only reading complete applications, and we won't start admitting anyone until all of the applications have been read. So don't worry.
A couple of requests:
- At this time, do not send a second copy of something that you have already sent. Odds are, we have your original and have not processed it yet. Sending additional copies will only slow down processing. If we need another copy of a missing document, we will let you know, and you will not be penalized in any way.
- At this time, please do not call or email to inquire about missing documents. The MyMIT tracking is up-to-date with what has been processed. If you were to call, basically all we could do is tell you that MyMIT is up-to-date and to be patient as we process thousands of documents. By not calling or emailing about this at this time, we are better able to serve the problems that we can do something about.
And a few notes:
- We do not track supplemental or optional materials on MyMIT. Sorry. Know that we will primarily be relying on the required materials in the admissions process, and those materials can be tracked on MyMIT.
- No need to worry about the Midyear Report yet — we'll have more information on that when the time comes.
- Feel free to fill out the Conducted Interview form (on the MyMIT Application Tracking Detail page) if it has been more than two weeks since you had your interview, but do know that the deadline for interviewers to submit their report has not yet arrived.
Finally, I hope you'll join me in saying thanks to the entire Records Office team, including Sofia, Noah, James, Diane, and dozens more helpers, for all of their hard work on processing all of the documents!
A.K.A. “Don’t Panic”
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) I forgot where I was going with this… oh yeah… DON’T PANIC!
(\(;…
Worry about other important stuff like a possible ant infestation resulting from moldy leftovers sitting on your dusty computer desk. Oh wait… it’s winter. (If you are living somewhere hot like California, you better panic! I’m serious. Those ants are Craaaaaaayzeeee
Although mentioned in 99.99% of the comments, I would like to thank the admissions office at MIT for working extremely hard and giving me an excuse to procrastinate my homework for 5 minutes.
To the above: Don’t Panic indeed. Now… where’s my towel?
Thanks for these posts, Matt. Makes me feel a lot more confident that I’m not going to screw up my chances by missing something or being a little late or something like that. A little leeway on the extra stuff is nice…
Er… quick question. If we include links to a few short YouTube videos in our Midyear Report, will they be seen by admissions officers or the committee?
Many thanks to you and the admissions office for all of your hard work. MIT probably wouldn’t be the same without you guys.
May I send supplemental documents (essays) via Email?
I cannot fax it since I am 13 hours ahead of MIT, and am afraid mailing will be too slow.
If Email is alright, what Subject Line should I use to make it more convenient for you all to process? Is Docx or PDF format alright?
Thank you very much.
Thank you all at MIT for keeping us up to date and all the support! ( I think I called the admissions office like 5 times, just to check I was doing everything the right way)
Even if I am not admitted, this Application process has been of great joy to me because I was able to take some time, go into myself and actually learn something about me.
The hardest part follows now where everyone knows that he or she has no possibility anymore to increase or decrease the odds of getting in. I hope after a couple of days the thought that something may have gone wrong with the materials I have submitted will settle and I will be able not to break my head over it all day !
Now it happened to me again,
I wanted to deliver a short message and ended up writing a long text,
well,
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!
Thanx Matt and a Happy new year! You people must be enjoying our stories. Though you assure every time and with repeated advices, even then an anxiety prevails in applicants’ minds. I hope this post of you will definitely work . Thank you again.
Thank you Sofia, Noah, James, Diane, Matt, and dozens other helpers!
@Kenza: As you can see in the “Test to Take” part at MIT Admissions page, it is written that any international certifications, such as IB, A/AS/O Level,etc., couldn’t subtitute the testing requirements. You could put your AS Level grades in the part 2 of your application form, as only an additional qualification. Hope it helps, and please anybody correct me if I were wrong.
-Samuel
Thanks for the post It gives me huge relief. Once again thanks.
Thank you the entire admission office staff. It has indeed been a pleasure applying to MIT. Also, Happy new year to everyone!
)
Hope this year goes well for everyone and all your wishes and dreams are fulfilled
thank you very much for the great post
and many thanks to other helpers
Thank you Sofia, Noah, James, Diane, and dozens more helpers!
I can’t even imagine what would it be like for me to be dealing with thousands of documents of great people from all over the world, it must be like reading a huge book with huge books inside it!
You guys are awesome!
Matt as always,at his best…
@All Applicants- “YOU ARE IN GOOD HANDS”
Thanks guys for all your works and dedications in making this admissions process works amazingly! Love ya all
-Samuel
I have a question, someone please answer me.
In May 2011, I have taken Math II and French as my two SAT II tests. However, MIT requires a science SAT subject. Could this requirement be waived for my case as I have already taken AS-level Physics in May 2011 ?
AS-level physics courses include: Newtonian mechanics, matter, oscillations and waves, electricity and magnetism, modern physics.
Thank you
Hello Matt!
If we want to send supplemental information, e.g. some YouTube URLs, or links to some other projects/research work we would like to be considered in the admission process, is there any way to send that to MIT (Before the Mid-Year report)? By email, maybe?
Or does that kind of information need to wait till the Mid-Year Report to be sent?
Thank you!
(This is the stuff you would normally put in the Additional Info section of the actual application)
@Kenza: I agree with Samuel. I think the SAT subject test is a requirement that can’t be replaced by other tests. Good luck on your applications!
Thanks for this post, Matt, and the previous one. My son is one of the many whose document is probably suspended in postal purgatory (teacher recommendation) — along with his Nov. ’11 SAT subject test not showing up in MyMIT. It is reassuring to know that these are common issues and if the recc letter really isn’t found, he will be notified. I echo the comments of so many others, you Admission folks are very nice people.
Feels great to have finished the greatest part of the application process. People, pat yourselves in your backs! We deserve it.
I’m impressed at the amount of work that is put into admissions! Thanks for all your hard work!
I am just a little worried because I sent the teacher’s evaluations out around Dec. 23rd and I still haven’t seen any “completed” signs on MyMIT…but I really understand you circumstances! Thank you very much for all the efforts!
@ Bhaskar- Perhaps its your only comment where you need not mention your favorite disclaimer.
Earlier- ” DISCLAIMER – I AM NOT AN ADMISSION OFFICER”
Now ( in this post ) -“CLAIMER- I AM A MIT APPLICANT”
Yeah, its true, people are really there nice and always help us out.
@ Matt and others- Thank you everyone- From all the applicants.
Thanks so much to have understood our restlessness.
Thank you records office team! Now I feel a bit guilty for asking about my documents hehehe…
All the best, hope we’re all admitted!
I was literally minutes away from sending off an email in your direction, partly due to the lack of updates on MyMIT and partly (and probably mostly) due to me not getting any tracking information since the letter left Sweden Dec 27.
Hopefully all ends well.
@Ken: We make no guarantees that we will view all videos, but yes, the MYR is probably the best place for them at this point.
@River’s Melody: You should fax them using the Supplemental Document Cover Form. Our faxes are open 24/7 so time zones are not an issue.
@Kenza: I don’t know what to tell you beyond what is already said here: https://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/tests
@Anon: You can use the MYR or the Supplemental Document Cover Form.
hi i am an international student and my school has sent my transcript along with the secondary school report and evaluations A and B in December, however MyMIT only confirms that evaluation B has been sent. Is there something wrong? or anything I could do? Thanks!
Hey Matt,
My EC is not responding to my request for the interview, even after several reminders there is no reply from his side. I contacted the admission office and the lady there told me that nothing can be done about that. So what should be follow up for the matter
Hi Matt sorry to disturb you again. My teacher send the evaluation form to MIT, but unfortunately I forgot to sign the document. So what you suggest about it?
Thanks
Zain
hey,
i applied for my interview long back. I got no reply from my interviewer yet. I even sent a reminder. What should i do now?
Hi Matt,
So i sent my application fee waiver with my second teacher recommendation two weeks before the deadline. The teacher recommendation has been processed but the fee waiver is still yet to be checked off on MyMIT. It’s weird that only one would be processed, considering they were sent together. Could this be a possible problem or just a normal situation I should ignore?
You should add a line to MyMIT: Approx. # of unprocessed documents. Only call us when this number gets to 0 and your stuff is not listed.
A bit of UI would go a long way towards killing the FAQs.
It’s wired that I sent my materials two weeks ago but my MIT account still says they are incomplete. So wired… and scary…
I’ve just found out that one of my teachers is just now sending her recommendation letter. (Jan. 9th) I asked her to submit a letter at the beginning of December but for personal reasons she hasn’t been able to send it until now. Should I be overly worried? I know that these letters should have been postmarked by Jan. 1, but I honestly had no control over having the letter sent.
Hi Matt,
I gave my TOEFL about a month ago, and chose MIT as a score receipent. But it has still not been checklisted on MyMIT. Is there anything I can do, or should i just wait for another week or so?
Thanks
Hey Matt!
Is is possible to send supplemental materials via e-mail rather than regular hard-copy mail? I live far away and it is slow and expensive sending in material that could communicated via e-mail anyway.
Thanks!
@Matt
Hey
On MIT-part2’s Non-Scholastic Distinctions I put
“The Hindu Young World Quiz” and checked “national”.
“The Hindu Young World Quiz, National Champion” would have been more appropriate. How bad is that?And if bad, can I mention it somewhere on the mid-year report?
Thanks much.
Hi Matt,
I am an international freshman applicant. I just want to make sure that I only got to submit CSSProfile and an income statement to apply for financial aid, right?
I AM NOT AN ADMISSION OFFICER
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@Zain
there would be no problem. if you don’t sign that it means that you want to have access to that document in future.
@Leandro
I faced the same issue too. there shouldn’t be any problem. I think the reason is that the different parts of application reviewed by different offices. for example the fee waiver.
Hi Matt,
Unfortunatly, I decided to apply for MIT around December 25th, because I was unsure if I really wanted to study abroad. So, I have submitted the application forms (part 1 and 2), but I couldn’t get in touch with one of my teachers, who is on vacations, to fill out evaluation A. I think he’ll be available on february.
Are you still accepting these evalutions by that time? And if not, do I have any chances to be accepted?
So, how long before we should resort to panic, violence and cannibalism?
Or better yet, to rape, ultra-violence, and Beethoven?
(I do not actually condone those things, it’s just a quote from the book A Clockwork Orange)
Hi Matt!
On my “myMIT” account, the “Testing Requirement” part has been checklisted, but there is no score viewed there (only the test taken and date of taken). Will the score appear later? Or it will never indeed?
Thanks!
Thx for the posts Matt.
I’ve sent the evaluations as well as the high school report and transcript together. However, on the tracking system, it shows that the evaluations have been received but not the high school report… Should I be worried?
Hi Matt,
I know you are not an admissions officer, but I was wondering if you could help me get in touch with someone regarding test scores that aren’t correct on the MyMit portal.
I took two subject tests in May and three in October (The same two plus an extra test.) The scores shown on my portal only show my scores from the tests taken in May for the retakes but my extra test is shown on the portal, so they have recieved my scores from the October tests. I want to make sure this is fixed because the two retake tests were significanlty higher (+100 points in the case of one of them) in October than they were in May.
Who should I get in touch with to fix this/ can you help me with this one? Thanks!
It’s now been a month since my teacher sent in his evaluation and my portal *still* shows that “Evaluation A” has not been processed. Is it time yet to request him to send in another copy???? Thank you.
@Anxious. SAME HERE!!! im kinda worried…and my green card too!! OMG
I AM NOT AN ADMISSION OFFICER
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@Bhavik @ANNE
Hi, I’m an international applicant, and I was in the exactly same situation in early January. All my paper materials were sent together, but only my two evaluations appeared on the tracking system. I had been worried about my Secondary School Report and Transcript, but everything turned okay yesterday in the morning. Thus, I guess this is just a normal situation that might happen to anyone. You guys really needn’t worry. Your materials are not lost. They are just somewhere in the office, waiting to be processed and put into the online database. Just relax and grab a hot chocolate.
Yay…my missing eval finally showed up….all is well
Okay, I will warn all of you beforehand, I am about to use the intellectual property of the marvelous Mr. Matt McGann in my post, so please do not pull out PIPA and SOPA at me because I already dealt with that on Wikipedia all of yesterday. I would like to extend my gratitude to the Records Office team, including Sofia, Noah, James, Diane, and dozens more helpers, for all of their hard work on processing all of the documents! Also, I realize all the hard work the admissions committee puts into reading all our applications and making crucial decisions and I would like to offer an early congratulations the wonderful admissions staff at MIT for selecting the future technological pioneers of our generation.
@matt ‘oo……I am 15 and in 10th grade. I am from india and wish to join MIT for a degree in aeronautical engineering. I wanted to ask when am i supposed to apply,is that when i will have completed my high school or while i will be in the senior year of high schhol..please do reply to my comment….i am very anxious and dont want to miss any lifetime opportunity to join MIT..