University extends early action deadline due to Common Application glitches

For the third year in a row, the University will accept applications after its Nov. 1 early action application deadline, this time due to technical difficulties with the newly revised Common Application, according to a press release posted on the University’s Office of Admission website and announcements via its Twitter and Facebook last week.

The technical problems, which ranged from an inability to submit payments to formatting difficulties, caused over 50 schools with Nov. 1 deadlines to extend their application periods, including Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale, The Washington Post reported. In2011and2012, Princeton delayed deadlines for applicants affected by a major hurricane and Hurricane Sandy, respectively.

“Please be assured that we will be flexible if you are unable to meet our Nov. 1 deadline for single-choice early action because of technical issues,” an automatic email reply from the Undergraduate admission office read. The office will accept applications until Nov. 8, after which applicants will need to request an extension.

The technical difficulties were the result of a rebuilding of the Common Application, which was launched on Aug. 1. The relaunch was executed by technology provider Hobsons.

According to Scott Anderson, the senior director for policy for the Common Application, the online admission platform anticipated some technical issues “because [the rebuilding] was a massive technology change.”

The changes to the application were intended to handle an increase in both applications and application materials, Anderson explained.

Students and counselors were experiencing difficulties with the revamped site throughout the fall, prompting the University to begin accepting the lesser-used Universal College Application on Oct. 10, according to University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua.

In the days prior to the original Nov. 1 deadline, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South senior Michael Byrnes said the Common Application would change the formatting of his essays. After 45 minutes, however, Byrnes corrected the problem himself and did not need to reach out for help from the Common Application’s support center.

Despite the initial glitch, Byrnes said he was able to submit his early action application to Princeton without any problems.

“I was relatively lucky, from what I heard,” Byrnes said.

Meanwhile, last Thursday in Tallahassee, Fla., Lawton Chiles High School senior and Princeton early action applicant Jimmy Zhang was logged out of the Common Application site multiple times while he was entering his information. His teachers experienced difficulties with the application as well.

“The main problem was with the recommendations. My teachers could not upload their recommendations easily,” Zhang added.

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He said he reached out to the Common Application through the help center email but did not receive a reply.

Anderson said the Common Application does respond to every single question received. He added that Hobsons brought on and reallocated staff to address customer support and technical issues, though he did not know the exact number of additional individuals brought on.

“If a student feels like he or she did not hear anything from us, that does not in any way coincide with our practices,” he added.

With the Nov. 1 deadline looming, Zhang emailed the University’s admission office. He said it responded quickly, giving Zhang an alternate email address through which his teachers could submit his recommendations.

The Office of Admission directed comment to Mbugua.

“We are doing all we can to help students, counselors and teachers as they fill out the application forms this year,” Mbugua said.

Mbugua said he could not provide a number of applications that had been submitted and received by the University as of press time. When asked if the Office of Admission has begun reviewing applications already submitted, he said he could not go into specifics about what is being done on any given date.

Zhang was able to submit his application by the Nov. 1 deadline, though he said that if he had known he had more time, he would have looked over his Princeton supplement and Common Application essay again.

The next major college application deadline is Jan. 1, when most schools stop accepting applications for regular decision.

Anderson said he did not anticipate technical problems arising for this next deadline. While there were individual problems, Anderson said the new system was able to handle a large volume of documents submitted for the Nov. 1 deadline.

Anderson, who was a school counselor for nine years before joining the Common Application, apologized on behalf of his organization.

“I know applying to college is a stressful process to begin with. To the extent that we added to that stress, we apologize. We take responsibility for that. We apologize for the frustration, and we are confident that the big issues are behind us,” he said. “We will continue working as hard as we can to help every individual with whatever problem they are facing.”

The University will continue to accept both the Common Application and the Universal College Application for the Jan. 1 deadline. Early action applicants will be notified of their status in mid-December.