Despite Common App Glitches, Harvard Retains Nov. 1 Deadline

After several schools delayed their early application deadlines in response to technical glitches on the Common Application website, Harvard’s Office of Admissions and Financial Aid has decided against changing the date, according to Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson Jeff Neal.

Schools that have extended their deadlines include the University of Chicago, Columbia, Northwestern, Tufts, Duke, Dartmouth, and Yale. Harvard’s deadline remains November 1.

A new version of the Common Application website was unveiled in August of this year, and users began to experience technical issues in October.

On October 14, many of the millions of students applying to colleges were unable to access the site. Others faced extreme delays after clicking the “Continue” and “Save” buttons. The crash especially affected students applying to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, whose original early application deadline was October 15. UNC extended its deadline to October 21.

Jack Dummer, a senior at Edina High School in Minnesota, said using the Common Application site on October 14 went smoothly until the last step. Upon submission, the site stopped responding. Dummer called the Common Application Help Center and received word that the submission would have to be delayed until the following day, when the site could process his applications.

Senior Alex Lyass, from Marlborough High School in California, also said she had a frustrating experience. She was unable to log in for most of October 15. After trying multiple times, it granted her access, only to reveal that all of her activities had been deleted from her profile.

Lyass said that when the website finally started working again, all but one of her activities had been restored, although this was not the same for some of her friends.

Both college counselors and high school seniors said they are anxiously waiting to see how the site fares on the eve of October 31, a crucial date because of the many November 1 deadlines.

Megan Harlan, the director of college counseling at Groton School in Massachusetts, said she worries that if application delays continue, colleges may not have the manpower to effectively review each application before decisions are set to be released.

As colleges assess whether to move their deadlines, Peter Quagliaroli, associate director of college counseling at Groton, said he is grateful for those that have adjusted.

“The real saving grace has been the understanding of a fair number of Common App colleges and universities to be somewhat flexible in their published early decision and early action deadlines,” he said.