<p>When paper applications are received at admissions offices, the relevant stats SAT’s, ACT, etc) are input into the college’s database so that the adcom’s have a uniform manner of reviewing applicants.</p>
<p>What if stats are input incorrectly? - input a 570 instead of 750 (and yes I know that the reverse can happen, as well). Numerical errors are way to common in our everyday life…Is this college scene making me paranoid??? and how do we ensure that the stats are input correctly - getting a rejection and we’ll never know the “real” truth behind it…</p>
<p>I don’t honestly think this is a problem to worry about. From what I could learn last year, for the schools my son applied to (except the UCs, where I admit I have no idea how they do it) the actual application itself was circulated among the “adcoms” who read it. If he had mis-entered his own statistics, there wouldn’t be much the admissions people could do about that, but I’m pretty sure many colleges will use the actual application, and not transcribe the application’s contents into a database. Besides, you’re talking about self-reported scores. Schools expect the official scores to arrive from the College Board, and I suspect by now the CB has a pretty non-manual scoring and reporting method. (That’s what filling in all those boxes using #2 pencils is all about. )</p>
<p>Susan, I think that’s one reason that the colleges now all seem to prefer online submission. If you make a mistake on your online submission, you will be able to see it – and at least take measures to correct it. I am sure that the process is completely automated for the college- the common app and other e-application sites probably give the colleges very sophisticated software to enable them to easily import and manipulate data. </p>
<p>By “manipulate” I don’t mean change - just that I bet there is some sort of college “common app manager” software that would let a college easily sort all apps by test scores or GPA or zip code or whatever they wanted. </p>
<p>Any particular reason you are choosing to do a paper application? I do think that at this point, using paper could be a disadvantage for a variety of reasons, especially at larger colleges which handle a large volume of applications.</p>
<p>LOL you sound like me. I recently had a medical test and the woman after me had similiar symptoms and I was thinking oh my…what if they mix our results up and think I am her and she is me and she gets my results and I get hers…blah blah …
Anyway I got good results and sadly she didnt. But I have to admit all this stuff crosses my mind too.</p>
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