Application updates for schools with no upload?

[raddeaddude]

Hi! I am a current EY2022 applicant who graduated in May 2021 so I am doing a gap year. Due to COVID-19 my plans were extremely tenuous at the beginning of the application cycle so I put down one of my degree plan options on the primary (Plan B), and then both of my possible options on all of the gap year essays (Plans A&B) but did not commit to one. Long story short, I was offered a full-time job where I was interning which was slightly better, but basically the same as my original Plan A. Since that happened, I dropped out of my Plan B degree plan and enrolled in my Plan A which is completely different.

Normally I would not update schools until there was something much more substantial, but this involves drastic degree plan changes (which I had on the AMCAS primary) and I was super flaky in all of my gap year essays cause I had no idea what was going to work out. I saw somewhere that if you drastically change your degree plan, then you should update all of the schools, but I was not sure if I should do that pre-interview. I've already gotten one rejection so I don't want them to reject me with not-up-to-date information.

I have updated all of the schools that allow an update in their portal, but I applied to 35-40 schools so there are several who do not have update boxes. So do I reach out to all of the schools who do not have application update boxes in their portals? Do I do that pre-interview?

I wish I could update the AMCAS primary with this info but they don't allow changes unlike TMDSAS which was super great and allowed me to change most of this info.

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[Goro]

Actually, this isn't worth an update.

 

[KnightDoc]

This isn't an accident. As you have seen, most schools that welcome updates make it easy for you to send them. Most that don't make it easy don't want them.

Rather than reaching out to each school, why not go back over the instructions you were given when you submitted your secondaries? Most will either tell you how to submit an update, or tell you they don't want them pre-II. If any schools haven't said anything one way or the other, you can then reach out to them.

 

[HannahSparkle]

I have emailed admissions departments directly when there was no document upload function on the application service.

About 2/3 of the schools thanked me for the update and let me know that they have attached the information to my application file.
A few schools have told me to reformat the information and submit it as a different file type or with some other such change. (SKMS, others)
A few schools told me that I've used up 1 of my limited number of application updates per cycle. (Geisinger, others)
A few schools politely informed me that they don't accept any updates after submission. (Penn State, RFU)

The takeaway is: each school has different policies. Check the websites and admissions FAQs for published information on how to submit updates. If you can't find this info, just email your update to the admissions office. The worst they can say is that they can't accept it.

 

[sasukeuchiha33]

you can email the admissions offices but to echo what was said above you really don't need to