Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You
Admit It! You thought the anxiety would end when you clicked submit but sadly, it didn’t totally subside. Now instead of asking yourself what to write in your essay(s), you’re asking yourself whether everything arrived and if your application is complete. Despite the digital age we live in, you still feel a bit uneasy about whether your app made it through cyberspace and whether the postal service delivered the right mail to the right address. We understand. Now that your hard work is completed our hard work is underway.
But hard work requires patience. You had months to complete your application and now we need some time to compile and review it. Only approximately half of the applications we anticipate receiving were submitted prior to the deadline. Only a quarter were submitted by December 1. That means we have literally thousands of applications to download and tens of thousands of pieces of mail to match with all those downloads (if you subscribe to the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words here you go). It will take us several weeks to dig our way out from everything we’ve received – digitally and by post – in the last few weeks. So here’s what you need to know in the immediate future:
- Realizing that January 1 and January 2 were postal holidays we will gladly accept components that are postmarked on January 3 (heck, we’re not meanies, we’ll accept things postmarked through the first week of January).
- We will email you three times regarding your application. Email #1 will confirm receipt of your Common Application (your parents will also receive a copy of this email). Email #2 will either a) confirm that we’ve matched your Common Application with all required components and that your application is ready for review (your parents will also receive a copy of this email) or b) we are missing a required component (or components) and we will provide you with information as to how to submit whatever is missing (again, we’re not meanies, we will accept these components without penalty—believe us we’re just as interested in completing your application as you are). Email #3 will be your decision email (generally sent the first week of April).
– Note that several weeks can pass between the first email and the second. - Only an application is considered proof of desire to apply. We receive numerous standardized test scores and transcripts for non-applicants. What is mission critical is that we receive your Common App. We will work with you to make sure the other required materials arrive but we will not communicate with anyone for whom we have not received a Common Application.
- We cannot confirm receipt of optional materials (letters of recommendation, art submissions, optional submissions, etc.). We receive tens of thousands of such additional components and cannot track every single one (not if you want your decision in a timely manner). Additionally, we do not confirm receipt of recommendations to protect the privacy of the recommenders.
- We are more than happy to answer any questions you might have by phone or email but please do not ask us about receipt of materials at this time as we need time to sort through everything we have received. Please wait to receive the emails mentioned above.
Back to our downloading, printing, sorting, alphabetizing and compiling we go. We’ll be in touch.
Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Senior Assistant Dean of Admission
Comments are closed on posts older than one year, but we still want to hear from you. If you have a comment or question for us, please email admission@wm.edu.
Thanks for this post. I was a bit worried about not having received a confirmation email, but this seems to clear things up.
I have a question though. Yesterday I realized I entered the wrong SSN on my commonapp (I know, I feel awful. Here I thought I was done with colle app stress…). Everything I’ve read suggests that I should just contact the colleges I’ve applied to to correct this- but if you haven’t received my application yet, should I wait for that email? Or would it be best to call now?
Thank you!
We’re still downloading apps submitted in the last days of December so it could still be 7-10 business days before you receive the initial email confirmation.
We actullay do not use your SSN in our process so no need to correct that with us.
After sending my application, I realized that the last paragraph of one of my essays was cut off. I sent an e-mail with the complete essay attached but haven’t received a response. How do I know if it has reached my file?
Thanks! 🙂
To what email address did you send the complete essay? Generally we do recognize such emails with a response. As you can imagine, we’re a bit back logged at the moment processing applications and application-related emails but again, normally we do acknowledge your email and to let you know we will add whatever you sent to your email.
Generally we prefer that anything you wish to add come in the actual body of the email rather than as an attachments (we try not to open attachments to protect our server from viruses).
I sent my essay to the admission officer who handles applications for my region. Should I send it to a different address?
Thanks!
Thanks for letting us know about the process, but I was still a little bit worried about not having received the first confirmation email up to now.
By what time could I expect to be contacted?
Thanks.
That should suffice. You’re also welcome to double back with that person just to ensure they received the email you originally sent.
Thanks for responding (to my first comment)!
Will having the incorrect SSN on my college application affect my eligibilty for in-state tuition, or need-based aid (since my FAFSA will have a different SSN)?
Hello, I realized that I submitted my Common Application with the wrong essay topic checked 🙁 I’m sorry for the mistake…however, I did have the correct essay topic as a title on the actual word document that contains my essay. I don’t really know what to ask since it was such a careless mistake, but I guess what I wanted to ask was if this is such a big deal? Will this mean it will take a little longer for the admission’s officers to look over my application?
A, the domicile form (the part of the Supplement you completed to apply for in-state tuition) doesn’t even ask for your SSN.
As for the FAFSA and CSS Profile, they do ask for SSN and as long as it’s correct on that form you’ll be fine. We give you a W&M ID number upon applying and that’s the number we use to coalate all your information.
Nicole, no big deal whatsoever. Oftentimes, we don’t focus on which essay topic you checked and really just focus on what you wrote so I wouldn’t worry about this at all.
Hello, i submitted by Common app on 26th of December but still have not received the confirmation email, it says that the application has been downloaded. I just wanted to ask because it’s been more than two weeks.
Obaid, we still have over 3000 applications that are working through our software (not to get overly detailed but there’s an intermediate software that helps W&M’s student information system translate Common Apps) so those 3000 students have not yet received our initial email confirming receipt of their Common App. You must be in that group. Check back with us at the end of next week when we hope to be much further into that group.
Thanks for the clarification, it’s a relief
Thank you sooo much for answering my question!
My school has updated my transcript for the first trimester, will you accept it if i send it now as i have already sent you the previous one.
Obaid, yes your school can send your updated transcript. We’ll match it with the rest of your materials.
Is it possible for me to fax you the transcript or do I have to send it by mail?
Assuming your school mailed an “official” transcript previously then yes you can fax the updated transcript.
Shengjia Xu, sorry for not responding earlier. Your comment got caught in a spam folder.
We are still processing a few thousand applications so there are nearly 2000 applicants who haven’t received an email from us yet. We’re working as fast as we can and hope to have everyone emailed as soon as we can.
I faxed you my updated transcript, is it possible to confirm that it has been received?
Unfortunately not. We only require the official transcript and so that’s all we track. Because we receive tens of thousands of supplemental materials we just don’t have the ability to track each of them but you should receive a confirmation from your fax letting you know your fax went through.
We receive tens of thousands of such additional components and cannot track every single one (not if you want your decision in a timely manner).
^^Does that mean that not all of our optional components make it to our application?
@Beth, sorry for the late response, your email got caught in spam. Yes, we can say with certainty that 99% of the optional materials sent are included in a student’s file. What we were saying is that we cannot physically track in our system the receipt of every single piece of paper sent. They make it to your file, just not tracked in our electronic system.