Official Document Receipt COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Official Document Receipt COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog As all admitted applicants that will be joining us in the fall are aware, we need official transcripts and test scores to complete admission files so that we may forward all of the files to the Office of Student Affairs.   Your file will become part of your permanent academic record. Josh Dennee is the person in our office responsible for managing this process and I asked him to write a blog entry on the topic to provide direction and put people at ease.   Take it away Josh . . . In our continuing effort to provide complete transparency about the admissions process to avoid causing too many heart-attacks during a period fraught with anxiety and excitement, I am going to provide some insight into Official Documents processing. I understand that many of you newly admitted students are somewhat concerned about the status of your official transcripts and test scores with the impending June 15th deadline. Assuming that your scores and grades are consistent with your application, there is no reason to worry. Let me explain how the process works. If you requested to have your GRE, GMAT, or TOEFL scores sent to SIPA, they will be entered in the information system within the coming weeks. Every few days I receive an electronic file from the ETS containing either GRE or TOEFL scores. These scores are then compiled and uploaded in a rather time-consuming process. Currently, I am still uploading scores received as early as last year, so even if you had your scores sent in months ago, they may not yet be in the system. And, although it is not our preferred method, we also have the ability to verbally confirm scores with the ETS if for some reason there was a problem with the electronic file. Meanwhile, GMAT scores are downloaded directly from GMAC and uploaded in a similar fashion. Official transcripts are mailed to our office, recorded in Apply Yourself (the system through which applications were submitted) as official, and then filed alphabetically with other similar documents. This process is obviously subject to a certain degree of human error, thus the transcripts are carefully double-checked before we begin notifying students that they are missing. I highly suggest that, if you have not yet requested your schools to send us official transcripts, you do so as soon as possible as some schools take a substantial amount of time to accommodate such requests. Over the course of the next month you may receive an email from us requesting an official transcript. If you have already previously requested an official copy to be sent to us, please do not fret, there is a strong chance that it is somewhere in our office. Once we have received everything we need, you will be sent an email exclaiming Your SIPA File is Complete and you can rest easy. Lastly, I would like to note that, although June 15th is our preferred deadline, we are perfectly willing to accommodate late materials if delays are encountered. I hope that this helps assuage any anxieties that you have about the status of your documents. I look forward to seeing you all in the fall.