Misunderstood UCLA deadline, missed by 6hrs, what to do next?

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wally_west

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Unfortunately I misunderstood my secondary deadline time. I was supposed to submit it by 3am this morning. I mistakenly believed I had to submit it by sometime today and am wondering what, if anything I can do at this point. I am first gen and trying to figure out how to navigate this. Any advice would be much appreciated
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No...everything was greyed out and I think I might have screwed the pooch. I'm communicating with them to see if this is the end of the line.
 
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Best of luck.

I hoped that the deadline was what it was but you'd still be able to submit (past deadline) - in that case, I'd say, not a big deal unless UCLA wants to make a big deal out of it. However, sine it's "greyed out" - don't really have an advice beyond crossing my fingers crossed for you.
 
wally_west said:
Unfortunately I misunderstood my secondary deadline time. I was supposed to submit it by 3am this morning. I mistakenly believed I had to submit it by sometime today and am wondering what, if anything I can do at this point. I am first gen and trying to figure out how to navigate this. Any advice would be much appreciated
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No one here can directly help you. E-mail the admissions office. The worst they can do is say no.
 
Independent of the UCLA result, I suggest you review the original emails and make a list/spreadsheet of secondaries and deadlines. Keep track of not-started/in-progress/completed secondaries. Try and complete them within 2 weeks if possible (understandable if it isn't, as long as you are complete by September 1 it seems you will be considered on time).

UCLA is just one school, and what's done is done, so (while you wait for UCLA's response) pay extra attention to schools/factors you can actively control. Best of luck!
 
I did the exact same thing... also thought I had until 3am to submit because today is technically still my "fifteenth" day. Please let me know if you receive any answers!
 
Same boat, and I just got a response from the office of admissions - since the invitation expired, they can no longer accept my application :''')

They did say if you had emailed them about any issues with your application prior, you can contact them with more details
 
Could you all help me with understanding the deadline? It states that you have until the 15th day at whatever time they sent the email. So if I got the email on July 1st, would it be due on July 15th or July 16th?
 
latinxbb said:
Could you all help me with understanding the deadline? It states that you have until the 15th day at whatever time they sent the email. So if I got the email on July 1st, would it be due on July 15th or July 16th?
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I think its still a confusing deadline, so if your secondary isn't greyed out yet I would try to submit it ASAP. Best guess is you will be locked out 360 hours (24x15) after you receive the invite email.
 
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I simply cannot believe that UCLA is summarily rejecting people for failing to meet an arbitrary deadline to return an application (and pay a fee), but also have to admit that I will never again doubt @gonnif when he warns of potentially dire consequences from failing to strictly follow directions. If this isn't the very definition of a sellers' market, I don't know what is.
 
KnightDoc said:
I simply cannot believe that UCLA is summarily rejecting people for failing to meet an arbitrary deadline to return an application (and pay a fee), but also have to admit that I will never again doubt @gonnif when he warns of potentially dire consequences from failing to strictly follow directions. If this isn't the very definition of a sellers' market, I don't know what is.
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They set a deadline and expect you to adhere to it barring (technical) issues with the application. It can definitely be stressful but is a reasonable expectation.
 
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gonnif said:
An automated system has no feelings
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Nor, apparently, does an admissions office with explicit instructions from above.

cutejeans said:
Same boat, and I just got a response from the office of admissions - since the invitation expired, they can no longer accept my application :''')

They did say if you had emailed them about any issues with your application prior, you can contact them with more details
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kokoriko said:
They set a deadline and expect you to adhere to it barring (technical) issues with the application. It can definitely be stressful but is a reasonable expectation.
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Reasonable? 15 days and 1 second -- "No soup for you!!!" :laugh:

It's the 4th week of July, a year before matriculation. What's reasonable about it? Their deadline for primaries is 10/1.

Seinfeld Soup GIF
 
KnightDoc said:
Reasonable? 15 days and 1 second -- "No soup for you!!!" :laugh:

It's the 4th week of July, a year before matriculation. What's reasonable about it? Their deadline for primaries is 10/1.
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There are plenty of things (edit: issues) to discuss and gripe about related to the application process but this isn't one of them. You have two weeks to write <1000 words (4 double-spaced pages). This is explicitly stated on both the admissions site and the secondary invitation email.

In college, you can reasonably be expected to submit a 4-page paper in two weeks. Yes, there are other secondaries you have to write, but most of their deadlines are more lenient. Task prioritization is an important skill.
 
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kokoriko said:
There are plenty of things (edit: issues) to discuss and gripe about related to the application process but this isn't one of them. You have two weeks to write <1000 words (4 double-spaced pages). This is explicitly stated on both the admissions site and the secondary invitation email.

In college, you can reasonably be expected to submit a 4-page paper in two weeks. Yes, there are other secondaries you have to write, but most of their deadlines are more lenient. Task prioritization is an important skill.
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Agreed. I don't wait until the last minute, and I don't blow deadlines. But that's not the point. To knock someone out of the running in July over a hyper-OCD desire to try to control workflow is beyond crazy.

I hope they lose a 3.9/520 candidate who can't meet the deadline because they are busy winning medals in Tokyo. 🙂

Given the number of people who turn them around super fast, the number of people who don't return them at all, and the number of people at all points in between, there is absolutely no reason to impose a strict deadline on their return prior to the ultimate deadline for everyone. This is why no other school does this.

In a parallel universe, candidates would refuse to submit secondaries that were not sent out within two weeks of primaries being submitted, but this is the sellers' market we find ourselves in. I think it's an unnecessary dick move, but everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion.
 
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update - I told admissions I never received a reminder email for my deadline, and I was given a 24 hour extension. Application unlocked and was able to submit my secondary! I'm so happy!! Don't give up - communicate with them, show your continued interest in the program, and have your essays written and ready to go. Best of luck everyone!!!
 
cutejeans said:
update - I told admissions I never received a reminder email for my deadline, and I was given a 24 hour extension. Application unlocked and was able to submit my secondary! I'm so happy!! Don't give up - communicate with them, show your continued interest in the program, and have your essays written and ready to go. Best of luck everyone!!!
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I'm happy you were able to submit your secondary but I hope you learn a lesson about not leaving things until the deadline.

An equivalent experience during medical school is during residency applications you have to certify your rank list on a specific deadline, but the website to certify has a history of crashing the day before due to high traffic. If you can't submit your rank list you can't match. The smart applicants anticipate this and submit a couple days prior at the least or as soon as they have it finalized.
 
cutejeans said:
update - I told admissions I never received a reminder email for my deadline, and I was given a 24 hour extension. Application unlocked and was able to submit my secondary! I'm so happy!! Don't give up - communicate with them, show your continued interest in the program, and have your essays written and ready to go. Best of luck everyone!!!
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That's wonderful to hear! I ended up in the same boat last night when I was trying to save an essay to it at exactly 3 AM, thinking that I had a few more minutes, but it wouldn't let me. Was able to proceed to the payment page, but went back and tried to save the essay again, and by then everything including the payment page was grayed out.

I emailed them and explained the situation, apologized sincerely, and asked if they would be willing to extend it briefly so that I could submit. Also mentioned that UCLA was near the top of my list and expressed a great deal of interest.

I hope I didn't write or express too much interest that they ignored the email. They still haven't responded yet and I'm worried about turnaround time.
 
xffan624 said:
Ok. Not sure what else you're looking for here. They either let you submit it late or they don't.
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They did not, unfortunately. The pits, but I will take this as a lesson and be more diligent. Not really looking for more, first gen stress and and freak out, I'll be okay lol
 
KnightDoc said:
Agreed. I don't wait until the last minute, and I don't blow deadlines. But that's not the point. To knock someone out of the running in July over a hyper-OCD desire to try to control workflow is beyond crazy.

I hope they lose a 3.9/520 candidate who can't meet the deadline because they are busy winning medals in Tokyo. 🙂

Given the number of people who turn them around super fast, the number of people who don't return them at all, and the number of people at all points in between, there is absolutely no reason to impose a strict deadline on their return prior to the ultimate deadline for everyone. This is why no other school does this.

In a parallel universe, candidates would refuse to submit secondaries that were not sent out within two weeks of primaries being submitted, but this is the sellers' market we find ourselves in. I think it's an unnecessary dick move, but everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion.
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if this whole situation were a casper scenario, this response wouldnt give you very many points.
 
xfilez said:
A gentle reminder to the person who said "hyper-OCD": Using an actual illness to misdescribe behavior you see as uptight or unfavorable might seem insignificant but can be offensive. Consider using different descriptors. Just trying to increase awareness 🙂
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Okay. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone, but I also don't think I'm misdescribing anything. Whoever in the admissions office decided that a secondary being returned more than 15 days and 1 second after it was sent out could not be included in the pool of applications being reviewed this cycle certainly has some type of disorder, considering that secondaries will be submitted between now and their deadline in October without any disturbance to the Earth's rotation around the Sun.

As I have said in numerous previous posts, given the number of people who return secondaries almost immediately, those who don't return them at all, and those who return them at any point in between, allowing stragglers to come in after 15 days and 0 seconds would not have a meaningful impact on the workflow of the 13,000+ applications UCLA processes each cycle.

Moreover, I have no reason to believe anyone at UCLA would have a punitive intent in imposing such a requirement, nor would they gratuitously seek to deny themselves the secondary fees lost by such a move. In my heart, I truly believe that whoever imposed such a requirement suffers from an OCD related disorder that compelled them to insist that secondaries be submitted within a two week window determined by when it was sent to the applicant, or not at all. There is no rational reason for a why an application has to be submitted within such a time frame three full months before a published application deadline.

I am truly sorry if I offended anyone similarly afflicted who has been properly diagnosed by a licensed practitioner. I didn't mean to trivialize anyone's illness. OTOH, that doesn't make this okay. It's having a real negative impact on real people, for no good reason, and it goes way beyond merely being uptight or unfavorable. It could very well impact the trajectory of someone's career.
 
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xfilez said:
A gentle reminder to the person who said "hyper-OCD": Using an actual illness to misdescribe behavior you see as uptight or unfavorable might seem insignificant but can be offensive. Consider using different descriptors. Just trying to increase awareness 🙂
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No reason to be upset, they were clearly talking about oral contraceptive devices.
 
KnightDoc said:
I hope they lose a 3.9/520 candidate who can't meet the deadline because they are busy winning medals in Tokyo. 🙂

Given the number of people who turn them around super fast, the number of people who don't return them at all, and the number of people at all points in between, there is absolutely no reason to impose a strict deadline on their return prior to the ultimate deadline for everyone. This is why no other school does this.
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They don't care. There is no shortage of applicants to medical school, and there are undoubtedly many more 3.9+ GPA/99th percentile or higher MCAT scorers than SDNers would like to acknowledge.
 
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Ezryk said:
so even though you have zero insight into the lives of these admissions officers, you are willing to make such broad assumptions and mischaracterizations of serious disorders? is this how you will treat your future patients and healthcare team? I'm not sure I'd want you as my colleague.
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Hey, trolls gotta troll.
 
DNAJB6 said:
They don't care. There is no shortage of applicants to medical school, and there are undoubtedly many more 3.9+ GPA/99th percentile or higher MCAT scorers than SDNers would like to acknowledge.
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Clearly!! 🙂
 
xfilez said:
A gentle reminder to the person who said "hyper-OCD": Using an actual illness to misdescribe behavior you see as uptight or unfavorable might seem insignificant but can be offensive. Consider using different descriptors. Just trying to increase awareness 🙂
Click to expand...
Or maybe it is, in fact, insignificant.
 
wally_west said:
Unfortunately I misunderstood my secondary deadline time. I was supposed to submit it by 3am this morning. I mistakenly believed I had to submit it by sometime today and am wondering what, if anything I can do at this point. I am first gen and trying to figure out how to navigate this. Any advice would be much appreciated
Click to expand...
UPDATE!!!!! I got in touch with the admissions office and got a 24 hour extension from an email sent yesterday. Finally submitted! Thanks for the well wishes everyone. Good luck 🙂
 
xffan624 said:
I'm happy you were able to submit your secondary but I hope you learn a lesson about not leaving things until the deadline.

An equivalent experience during medical school is during residency applications you have to certify your rank list on a specific deadline, but the website to certify has a history of crashing the day before due to high traffic. If you can't submit your rank list you can't match. The smart applicants anticipate this and submit a couple days prior at the least or as soon as they have it finalized.
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So I should be punished for using the time I'm allowed to work on a task? I don't think so.
 
This thread was an emotional rollercoaster 🤣🤣 really glad it worked out for you though OP
 
wally_west said:
So I should be punished for using the time I'm allowed to work on a task? I don't think so.
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Parkinson's law: work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

No one should be "punished" for using the time allowed for a given task. But the truly smart among us self-impose more conservative deadlines for tasks, particularly high stakes ones (like the UCLA secondary) to account for unforeseen problems. Because Murphy's law.
 
Med Ed said:
Parkinson's law: work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

No one should be "punished" for using the time allowed for a given task. But the truly smart among us self-impose more conservative deadlines for tasks, particularly high stakes ones (like the UCLA secondary) to account for unforeseen problems. Because Murphy's law.
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In fairness, no one is punished for using the time allowed. You get punished if you exceed the time. Bottom line - "Nike. Just do it!"
 
A-Fib said:
In fairness, no one is punished for using the time allowed. You get punished if you exceed the time. Bottom line - "Nike. Just do it!"
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The "when is it due" mentality can be a destructive one during undergrad as it encourages procrastination. During the application cycle, it translates into a nail in the coffin.
 
How was it worded since so many of you made the same mistake?
 
DNAJB6 said:
How was it worded since so many of you made the same mistake?
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It's pretty unmistakable. I think the issue is that literal enforcement, down to the second, is so obnoxious that people can't believe it's actually happening, plus, of course, pathological procrastination that we are all guilty of from time to time.

"Your Secondary Application is due on the FIFTEENTH day (15th) from the date and time of this email."
 
DNAJB6 said:
How was it worded since so many of you made the same mistake?
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KnightDoc said:
It's pretty unmistakable. I think the issue is that literal enforcement, down to the second, is so obnoxious that people can't believe it's actually happening, plus, of course, pathological procrastination that we are all guilty of from time to time.

"Your Secondary Application is due on the FIFTEENTH day (15th) from the date and time of this email."
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It unambiguously states the following:

“Your Secondary Application is due on the FIFTEENTH day (15th) from the date and time of this email.”

I take issue with applicants being surprised by the enforcement of admissions policies and that one would classify following a written and unambiguous process as “obnoxious.”

Procrastination is fine and has its place (I have like 4 secondaries just hanging out because I don’t want to do them), but timeliness, application prioritization, and following provided directions are fairly desirable traits imho.

If you submit far in advance of any due dates, you shouldn’t have to worry about due dates. And if you foresee issues with submitting on time (ie. Hospitalization, deployment, missions trip, etc.) Then that can be communicated to the school, not after the fact.
 
2021-2022-NonTrad said:
It unambiguously states the following:

“Your Secondary Application is due on the FIFTEENTH day (15th) from the date and time of this email.”

I take issue with applicants being surprised by the enforcement of admissions policies and that one would classify following a written and unambiguous process as “obnoxious.”
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We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

It was already discussed earlier in the thread. The deadline is entirely arbitrary. There is no operational reason for it. And, they are making exceptions, based on nothing other than how motivated people are to call or e-mail and beg.

Unfair, unreasonable and arbitrary. I think it's oboxious. You don't. Agree to disagree. 🙂
 
KnightDoc said:
We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

It was already discussed earlier in the thread. The deadline is entirely arbitrary. There is no operational reason for it. And, they are making exceptions, based on nothing other than how motivated people are to call or e-mail and beg.

Unfair, unreasonable and arbitrary. I think it's oboxious. You don't. Agree to disagree. 🙂
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Acceptances not being given out until October 15th is also arbitrary but we all kind of just agree on that 🤷‍♀️. Every due date ever is arbitrary. Believing something is arbitrary/obnoxious doesn’t make it any less real.

Squirrels are obnoxious but I still observe their existence.
 
2021-2022-NonTrad said:
Acceptances not being given out until October 15th is also arbitrary but we all kind of just agree on that 🤷‍♀️. Every due date ever is arbitrary. Believing something is arbitrary/obnoxious doesn’t make it any less real.

Squirrels are obnoxious but I still observe their existence.
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And I never denied that UCLA had the absolute right to arbitrarily establish 1,296,000 seconds as the absolute deadline to return their precious secondary, unless you are motivated to call or e-mail them with a moving excuse, in which case they also have the right to grant an arbitrary exception, or not.

It's not necessary, and will prematurely end some people's dreams for no legitimate reason. Like you with the squirrels, I observe its existence. And, like you with the squirrels, I find it obnoxious. 🙂

Schools agreeing to a uniform 10/15 acceptance date, that, for the record, they do NOT all honor, is fine. It doesn't adversely impact anyone's cycle. And yes, all dates are somewhat arbitrary, but there is some rationale behind most of them.

Not this one. They can and do make exceptions. Their workflows will not be impacted by some being returned after 15 days, since many are returned way before, and, some won't come back at all. It's just an obnoxious sellers' market flex. In an alternate universe they'd be sending umpteen reminders to return it, accompanied by fee waivers.
 
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2021-2022-NonTrad said:
Acceptances not being given out until October 15th is also arbitrary but we all kind of just agree on that 🤷‍♀️. Every due date ever is arbitrary. Believing something is arbitrary/obnoxious doesn’t make it any less real.

Squirrels are obnoxious but I still observe their existence.
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A polite reminder to 2021-2022-NonTrad who wrote "Squirrel": naming an actual mammal by using a common name to bring up something that you see as common and ubiquitous may seem insignificant but can be hurtful. There is a lot of people who love Sciuridae. Consider using different natural examples. Just trying to increase awareness 🙂
 
A-Fib said:
A polite reminder to 2021-2022-NonTrad who wrote "Squirrel": naming an actual mammal by using a common name to bring up something that you see as common and ubiquitous may seem insignificant but can be hurtful. There is a lot of people who love Sciuridae. Consider using different natural examples. Just trying to increase awareness 🙂
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10/10 💩posting.
 
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