Deadlines Hide Unexpected Traps
Procrastination is a common issue many students acknowledge but struggle to overcome. However, effective time management is critical in the application process, as deadlines conceal numerous unexpected problems far more serious than you might imagine:
1. Time Zone Differences and Daylight Saving Time Changes
The U.S. has Eastern, Central, and Pacific time zones. When applying to schools, always remember to convert the times.
Many schools specify deadlines to the exact hour, and these times often vary. For example, Purdue University's deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
However, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has a deadline of 5:00 PM Eastern Time:
Students should carefully check deadline details. For programs that don't specify an exact time, it's advisable to confirm with the school via email.
For students in China, it's also important to note that the U.S. switches to daylight saving time in October, altering the time difference with China. This must be taken into account during applications.
2. Different Deadlines for Supplementary Materials
A key strategy of CheersYou（清柚教育）'s senior admissions consultants is to wisely and scientifically manage application timelines. Schools' deadline arrangements typically fall into three categories:
- After the online application deadline, no further changes to materials are allowed;
- After submitting the online application, there is a separate deadline for submitting materials, often called a grace period, during which students can submit additional documents;
- Some more flexible institutions will still accept and consider materials submitted after the deadline.
Tailoring your application strategy based on these different deadline scenarios is a sophisticated skill. To seize opportunities, you need to accurately estimate the time required for each step, such as how long WES evaluation takes, how long recommendation letter submission takes, and so on.
Submitting on the deadline day is naturally a major no-no, but wasting the flexibility some schools offer could also cost you a chance at your dream school.
Discrepancies Between School Websites and Application Pages
Many schools provide only a general description of essay requirements on their official websites, but on the online application pages, they specify detailed requirements regarding word count, content, etc.
Schools that have specific requirements (such as answering listed questions in the personal statement) place greater emphasis on the essay content. If students fail to notice these details or don't have time to make adjustments, submitting a generic personal statement could easily irritate the admissions committee and even lead to rejection.
Essays are a key criterion for evaluating applicants' overall abilities. Each school prefers different types of students. To understand how to address each school's pain points and ace your essays, you can refer to another CheersYou（清柚教育） article, 'Unusual 2019 Graduate School Essay Prompts: Can You Tackle These Soul-Searching Questions?' This article provides a detailed analysis of what schools truly seek in essays and how to polish recommendation letters to win over admissions officers. Click the image below for details:
Where Has My Recommender Gone?
The recommendation process is another area prone to problems, as the initiative lies largely with others. Busy professors have many commitments and likely won't spend a lot of time writing recommendation letters. During the application season, students must invest extra effort in keeping tabs on their recommenders:
In addition, problems like recommenders using personal email accounts instead of institutional ones, or not receiving the link, can occur. Students need to be proactive and learn the proper way to communicate with professors.
Think submitting your application is the end?
Think you're done once you hit submit?
Any of the following errors could be a major problem:
- Similar applicant names causing matching errors
- Never processing the student's application
- Not receiving GRE scores or other materials
- Materials received but marked as not received
These aren't even the scariest part. The scariest is:
The school emails you asking for supplementary materials, but the email goes to your spam folder.
And you have no idea!!!
Here, we might take a jab at that goose above, but to ensure application success, we recommend using Gmail or another stable email provider.
Of Course, Everything Going Smoothly Is Ideal
Applying to schools is a comprehensive task. While you must adhere to schools' hard-and-fast rules, there's still plenty of room for effort and initiative. Smooth sailing is the best-case scenario, but problems can arise in many areas, including the application system, recommenders, and more.
When CheersYou（清柚教育） consultants assist students with applications, they maintain strict oversight from the moment the application starts until the offer is received, never letting up at any stage, communicating with schools via phone and email repeatedly to ensure nothing goes wrong.
To help students avoid these hidden pitfalls, on November 29th at 9:30 AM Eastern Time, CheersYou（清柚教育）'s senior consultant, who has helped countless students secure offers from their dream schools, will conduct an in-depth online lecture titled 'Fatal Mistakes to Avoid When Targeting Top Schools.' This session will thoroughly explain and defuse all the misunderstandings and issues you might encounter on your study-abroad journey.
