Nothing to see here: application “cycle prep”

Today a quick update from the “things no one asked but that I’m telling you anyway” file. As is the case around this time each year, our application will be unavailable on the website for a short period while we complete tasks for annual “cycle prep.” From both a technical and user experience perspective it’s not good practice to meddle with the application architecture during the year when it’s live, so we carve out a brief offline period annually to do various bits of freshening up and readying things for the coming application season. Mostly it’s a lot of date changing and other cosmetic updates, so nothing our future applicants need need to worry about.

While we’re tinkering behind the curtain – pay no attention to us! – you can absolutely use this time to work on your “peripheral” materials such as your resume, begin conversations with potential recommenders, or even start drafting your essays. But you’re also justified in just kicking back a bit to let the dust settle; there will be loads of time to get your application together. Once we have things ready to go we will make plenty of announcements to make you aware. Thanks for bearing with us!