Tips for Last-Minute Applications

If you're a college student, you've probably seen them. The wonderful program, scholarship, internship, or fellowship that you could have gotten if only you had found out about it more than two days before the due date. Don't give up hope! Whether time slipped up on you, or no one bothered to mention it before now, with a bit of preparation you be poised to snag opportunities that come up at the last possible minute.

• Keep at least three official (or as close to official as you can arrange) transcripts from all of your colleges and/or high schools. Applications tend to come in waves and/or require multiple physical copies.
  
• Keep at least three copies (most likely unofficial) of all of your standardized exams (SAT, ACT, GRE, etc.
• Keep your resume up to date, and keep electronic and printed copies available.
• Have scanned (electronic) versions of all of these documents. Make certain that you have them all in either PDF document format or JPEG or PNG image format, as these are the only formats that are almost universally readable. (PDFs can be created by 'printing' to a PDF from the editor of your choice a free program such as PDF Creator or Bullzip PDF. It pays to have these installed in advance. Microsoft Office 2007 also has an optional add-in that allows it to save directly to PDF.)
• Keep contact information for professional and academic references current. It helps to have it written down or in a file, along with frequently needed application information such as university official addresses and dates of attendence or employment.
  
• Know how to send a fax from your computer, or find a local business that you can fax from. (Mailing centers and copy shops can usually do this.)
• Know the location of convenient copy shops, mailing centers, and post offices. If you use a printing service on a campus, make sure you keep extra credit on your printing account, especially if you can't re-fill it online. Also know a back-up location to print in case they're out of paper or having other technical problems.
  
• Keep at least three priority mail and express mail flat-rate envelopes, including labels. This will allow you to do all the packaging at odd hours, though you will still have to go to the post office to send them. (But you won't have to wait until you're in line to fill them out.) Get replacements as you use them.
• Get an account with FedEx. That way, you'll only have to give someone the account number and they can ship something at your expense. Sometimes services that operate through U.S. Mail can substitute for FedEx if they don't have to pay for it. (Naturally, be very careful with this number!)
• Know the long poles in processes. Some things simply can't be rushed, such as mailed copies of GRE scores. Ask if electronic or faxed copies will be sufficient instead.
• Find out the phone number of the person accepting the application. (It's usually on the letterhead for printable forms or on the related website.) You can often accomplish much more speaking to someone live than by e-mail or not asking at all. Also, they're more likely to accept a slightly late application if they know it's coming!
• Ask if temporary copies can be temporarily substituted for documents with long processing times until official copies arrive.
• Look for electronic processes wherever possible, as they usually operate 24/7
• Do paperwork and packaging in the evening so that you can drop it off early the next day.
• If you don't know which way something should be done, but can't wait until the next day to ask before starting, prepare sets of paperwork done each way so that you can ask later and then stuff the appropriate copy in the envelope at the last minute. (This usually only works for things where you can narrow down the correct approach to one of two, maybe three alternatives. One or two of the copies will be wasted, but why would you be applying for something that wasn't worth at least the paper of the application?)
• Above all, keep a level head and don't panic!
  

Sometimes a good strategy, preparation, and little extra effort/money can make up for several weeks' worth of lead time. It won't always work, and knowing the dates ahead of time is your first, best defence, but these tips can be a lifesaver in a pinch.