Please note that the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid will close at 5:00 P.M. on December 31st and will reopen on January 5th, 2009 at 9:00 A.M. Happy New Year and we look forward to the application reading season.
Archive for December 2008
Tracking documents sent to our office takes up the bulk of our time surrounding the admission deadline. We understand this is a concern for applicants but rest assured we make every effort to track your documents in a timely fashion.
Regarding mail sent to us, please note there is always a slight delay in the receipt of postal mail that is not sent to our office directly by an express courier (UPS, FedEx, etc.). This is due to the fact that general mail that is addressed to our office is first sent to a central Columbia post office for sorting.
This process can add three to five additional days to the delivery of documents to our office. We are aware of this delay and we account for this when tracking documents. Documents delayed by the internal sorting process are not negatively impacted.
With this in mind, please understand that it may take up to two weeks following the deadline for documents to be tracked into the system. We appreciate your patience and please understand if we are unable to respond immediately to questions concerning the receipt of individual documents.
Please check the application Web site for updates and we will do everything we can to ensure that your application is complete and forwarded to the Admissions Committee for processing.
Our online application system makes it easy to send reminder messages to those you have asked to compose letters of recommendation for your application to SIPA. All you have to do is log into the application site with your PIN and password, click on the “Application for Admission” link on the top of the page and then click on the “Recommendations” link on the left menu.
When you click on the “Recommendations” link you will be taken to a new window. Then click on the “Recommendation Provider List” button and you will see the following:
Simply click on the “resend” button and an automated message will go out to the email address you have provided for each recommender yet to submit a letter. Please do note that it is a good idea to let recommenders know to look for an email message Apply Yourself.
In order for an admission file to be complete and forwarded to the Admission Committee for review we do require that official transcripts from any college or university attended be mailed to our office. Even if an applicant only took a few classes at a school, we still need official transcripts. Another way to look at it is this: if the college or university is listed on your résumé or on the application, we need official transcripts.
For the majority of schools we work with this means that the college or university seals the transcripts in an envelope for delivery to our office. However we work with schools from all over the world and realize that policies vary. The point is that transcripts mailed to our office (we do not accept electronic delivery) must be authentic and official and this can be defined by schools differently. Examples of ways that schools certify transcripts can include:
- A heat responsive stamp
- An embossed school stamp
- Official stickers or ink stamps placed on the transcripts by a university or authorized official
- A signature of an authorized official across the sealed flap of the envelope
Transcripts do not need to be sent directly to our office but if transcripts are sent to you, please do not open them prior to sending them to our office. There are two circumstances where we can allow for you to open the transcripts and both involve third party translation or authorization.
Some schools will only provide one official transcript to a graduate. In this case we recommend that you hold on to the official copy since we do not return documents submitted to our office. If your school will only release one copy, take the official copy to a notary public and have them copy the transcripts, authenticate the copy, and seal the copy in an envelope for delivery to our office. Contact information for the official who copied the transcripts should be included in the envelope.
The same would apply for transcripts that need to be translated into English. If your transcripts are not in English, deliver them to an authorized official for translation and have the translated copy certified and sealed for delivery to our office. A common organization we recommend for transcript translation is World Education Services.
If you participated in an official exchange program and this is noted on the transcripts of your home school, we do not need official transcripts from the exchange school. However, if there is no official relationship between the home school and exchange school, we need copies from both schools. The reason for this is that each school may use different codes and grading systems. These codes and grading systems are typically explained on the reverse side of the transcripts.
Finally, if your school does not use a 4.0 grading scale and you are wondering what to put on your admission application, you may input a GPA of 0.0. The GPA listed on the application is self reported and does not influence your evaluation. Indicating a score of 0.0 will alert the Committee to pay attention to the scale used by the schools you have attended.
"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."
—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs
