Clues from Application Tracking?

Colleges & Universities Columbia University
1

<p>This is rather tenuous, but since it’s the day before I find out and I feel obligated to add to the obsessive hype on this board, here’s the deal:</p>

<p>You know how on Columbia’s site you can track your application? When you do so, it takes you to a screen where you can access four things: your application tracking (which stopped being useful a long time ago, since obviously they’ve received all of that by now); your financial aid document tracking; something that says “entrance/exit interviews” (I’m not entirely sure what this is); and then something that says “Award Letters.” Presumably the latter will show you your financial aid awards after you’ve received notice of your admission, if you get in, that is.</p>

<p>Now, I’ve been checking this Award Letters thing over and over again this week, in the useless and irrational hope that they’ll accidentally post a letter there. Obviously, nothing has shown up, just as I expected. It merely says:</p>

<p>“There are currently no financial aid award letters for you to view. If you believe this is an error, please contact your school’s office for more information.”</p>

<p>But here’s the kicker. It says underneath this message that it was last updated on 30 March 2005, which is today. Yesterday, it said 28 March, and a few days ago it was 26 March. This seems to indicate that Columbia has been carefully updating the lack of financial aid information on its site.</p>

<p>So two questions:

  1. Does everyone else get this same phenomenon, or is it just me? If it is indeed everyone else as well, then certainly it means nothing.
  2. If this does mean something and isn’t just a weird technological fluke or glitch, then what? Is it a bad sign, given that I certainly qualify for financial aid, that they have recently updated in this way, rather than say leave it unupdated while they’re still working on my file? Or is it a good thing, since the updates might indicate that they’re still considering my file this late in the game?</p>

<p>It’s probably utterly meaningless, and I am aware of how pathetic this post sounds, but I thought I’d throw it out there for those of you who need one more thing to freak out about.</p>

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<p>You can tell if you got in if on the day of decisions (march 30th, or maybe the 31st) you go to the financial aid document tracking and see what’s there. If there’s a letter there from David Charlow that says “On behalf of the admissions people bla bla congratulations” followed by your award, if any has been awarded, then that means you’re in. If you just have to know in advance. . . (understandable though some would criticize you). . . then bring your Columbia ID with you so you can log in, if you want, to the tracking. Some people, though, may see nothing if they still have missing financial aid documents. They’d probably have to wait for the email/letter. But I don’t know if this is true, because I didn’t have my Columbia ID with me, so I didn’t check anyway.</p>

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<p>yeah for international students, there will not be anything in the financial aid section</p>

4

<p>Not for most international students, but we Canadians luckily are eligible for the same aid as Americans.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, mine says the same thing. Even though I got in ED, I check to see if they have finished the final package. I am pretty sure its not just you. They probably have an auto update thing in the computer so that they could put all the information in and then when it updates everyone’s gets updated at the same time.</p>

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<p>i have the same “phenomenon” but i didn’t apply for financial aid. seems as though that message is a mass update message.</p>