Dealing with Glitches

In this video, we’re going to talk about some of the glitches or some of the headaches that you might have to deal with through the application process.

Slide 1: Glitches and Headaches

So in this video, we're going to talk about some of the glitches or some of the headaches that you might have to deal with through the application process. 

Slide 2: 

  • Being asked for something that doesn’t exist
  • Unclear specifics
  • Getting scores sent from College Board
  • Being asked for something that doesn’t apply to you

So you might be asked to provide something that just really doesn't even exist. I had one parent tell me that the school requested predicted AP scores. Now, there is such a thing as predicted IB scores, but there's no such thing as predicted AP scores, and they were being asked for them. So we talked about how sometimes the forms, there are very specific parameters around them. So you might have two situations here. You might be asked for something that's very difficult, like the whole scanning of the blue ink issue I had, or it might be that they're not clear about the specifics upfront, so they kick forms back to you, and you have to resubmit them with the specifics that they didn't tell you about ahead of time, which is super annoying. I have heard from more than one person who's had to follow up more than once with the College Board to get their scores sent successfully. Or you might be asked for something that doesn't apply to you like English proficiency, and maybe that field is required electronically on the form in order for you to move forward. So you don't know what to put in that form because you don't have an English proficiency TOEFL score. So yeah, there are definitely headaches around this. But they are headaches that have some solutions or strategies as well. 

Slide 3: Headache Reductions

  • Ask clear, concise, direct questions through email
  • Try to find a specific person to use as your contact
  • Track electronically
  • Start early

First and foremost, if you start early, you won't have as much stress when you have to follow up or resubmit documents and things like that, because there's not so much of a time crunch. The other thing I really want to make clear is that there is nothing wrong with asking questions. I think we take some of the US mentality here and think that like, I don't know, they're going to flag our application with, you know, asks annoying questions, and it's not really the case at all. I assure you that in some point of the process, you're going to have a question that you need to have answered. So one thing is that when you do have that question, and you ask it, it's really important that you ask a detailed question that's very clear and direct. It's also much better that the question comes from you and not your parents. Because sometimes the school will only deal with you. They won’t answer questions from your parents because you were the one that they're dealing with. Again, that’s very different from the US in that process as well too. 

So let's talk about an example of a clear question that you would send around the AP score issue we talked about. So for that, I would say, “The College Board does not provide students with predicted AP scores. Is there something else I should submit instead?” And if they say yes, then you know what to do. Another strategy around this is to track the process. And many places will have some sort of online area where you can track it. You know, where you can see that they received the SAT scores or they received your transcripts, or they haven't received your transcripts. So staying on top of that, you'll know when you need to follow up with the College Board or follow up with your school counselor about the transcripts, or whoever you need to. If there's no way to track it electronically, then you should figure out when you should expect a reply, or when you should expect — you know, if you know that your counselor is mailing the transcripts on a certain day, then you can time when you want to follow up and make sure that they got the transcripts, or they got the scores, or whatever it is. You'll need to do that process more sort of manually then than if they have a system. 

Now another great thing, if you can find it, is a good contact in the admissions office. Now this is sometimes hard because they'll have like a, you know, [email protected], and somebody different manns those emails. And so, you might have like a really good contact person with one question, and then you get somebody for the next question with the same email address, who maybe isn't as well versed as your initial contact. 

So the thing there is to keep all of your emails so that if somebody tells you to write N/A in the application around your English proficiency TOEFL scores, and then you get an email saying, “Why did you put N/A? You have to do whatever,” you can then forward that email from the person who said, “Oh, enter N/A.” 

So keep track of those. If you need to keep a folder for them or whatever. It'll minimize a lot of headaches. So okay, so that is it with the headache strategies.