Last-Minute Flood Jams College Application Site

Some high school seniors submitting college applications hours before the Dec. 31 deadline encountered timeout errors and slowdowns that gave them quite a scare, the New York Times reports. The Common Application site—used by a million students to apply for 350 colleges—buckled twice under the volume of last-minute applicants. The site's director played down the delays.

"This is completely unacceptable," says a parent. "You have these wonderful kids who’ve been working so hard on their applications and they’re completely at the mercy of the Common Application." (More college admissions stories.)