There is a scene from Animal House, where Kevin Bacon’s character, Chip Diller, is shouting “Remain Calm! All is well!”, while a panicked mob crushes him as it runs away from a parade gone mad. This is how I feel about this time of year. And at times, the end result is the same, with both of us trampled on the sidewalk, gasping for air.
During the two weeks surrounding a deadline, life is hectic in all admissions offices. Applications are swarming in, materials are delivered to us in large mailing bins, emails are flying through our computers, and the lights on the phones are always glowing, showing us the incoming calls. And almost every one of those emails or phone calls is about one thing, “Is it there yet? Why isn’t it there yet?”.
The best thing for everyone to do during this time is to remain calm and don’t panic. Give UGA (and any other colleges to which you are applying) time to dig out from the onslaught of materials. For our office, I expect that a majority of items that are sent by the deadline will be matched up by about January 27th or so. The one exception I give is if a student applied by using a paper application, as this slows down the process a great deal. So be patient, make sure that the materials were actually sent and have your correct name on them, and relax. Also remember that if multiple items were mailed in together, our office splits things up based upon what they are (transcripts, teacher recs, etc.) for quicker imaging and processing, so if one thing shows up as received and one does not yet, remain calm.
And just so you know, our status check is not real-time, but it is updated every night, and I have requested that our technology team also update it every afternoon so students can see more current information. This means you do not have to check it twenty times a day.
Go Dawgs, and remain calm ( I just had to say it one more time!).