The Deadline is Approaching

As the deadline approaches, you might have questions about the mechanics of applying if this is your first time going through the process.

Here goes:   After you submit your application in Common App, you should receive an automatic confirmation.  Take note that only paying the application fee does not mean you have submitted.  You need to submit the general app and the UVa section in addition to your fee. 

Within five days of your submission, our system will send you login information.  The system is called SIS and this is where you’ll monitor your application, via your To-Do List.  The first time you log in, you will probably see many things missing from your file.  Please allow 5-7 days for your materials to be matched up.  This is a part automatic/part human process.   If we receive 2400 applications, it will take time for both of these groups to match up all of the important documents and information, especially if you wait and submit on March 1. 

Here are the answers to some other common questions and concerns.

-How do I handle the forms on the Common App?  Once again, we do not require the Common App forms listed in the right sidebar of the blog.  Yes, look over to the right, after you read this.  If you choose to send a Mid-Year Report, it would make more sense to wait until after the deadline and after your mid-term exams.  This is the only component of the app where I am encouraging late submission. 

-What happens if my transcripts arrive after March 1?  That’s fine, but we need your transcripts in the very near future, not at the end of the spring semester.  You and your fellow applicants are being reviewed based upon the work you have done thus far.  What’s most important is that you apply by the deadline of March 1. If your application is in on time, there is a little wiggle room for gathering these supporting documents.

 

-Do I need to do anything special if I’m applying to the architecture program?  Remember that if you’re applying for architecture, you must submit a portfolio.  See the post below.

That is all for now.  I imagine we’ll create another post or two before the deadline passes.

UPDATE: If you are still submitting your application, please do not print it out and submit it on PDF. What you've printed is likely old.  This slows down the processing and will affect your ability to verify documents.  Please submit through the common app portal.