We hope that you, your family and community have weathered Sandy without significant disruption. However, we are aware that in some cases, the storm may have interfered with the Intel STS application process. Examples of such disruption are lack of access to transcripts caused by school closings, or technology failures caused by power outages or other exceptional situations that have prevented or delayed applicants and/or recommenders from accessing the application site. For those affected in this manner, SSP is extending the Intel STS application receipt deadline to Sunday, November 18, 2012 at midnight Eastern time.

We ask that students and recommenders who experienced only minor disruption or who were unaffected by the storm honor the original application receipt deadline of Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, to enable SSP to prepare all entries for evaluation within this shortened time. Proof of hardship is not required nor will it be accepted -- both the application and recommendation systems will remain open for all users until Sunday, November 18 at midnight Eastern time; the extended deadline is offered on an honor basis. All complete applications, whether they are submitted by the original or the extended deadline, will be given comparable consideration. Transcripts, which are the only documents that are only accepted as hard copy, must arrive by 5:00 p.m. by Monday, November 19, no matter which deadline is used for submission of the electronic application.

The technical support deadline for those who have been disrupted by the storm will now be Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. Technical support requests received after this time will not be honored. Students must have a valid autoreply e-mail from SSP technical support with a ticket number and a date/time that is prior to the technical support deadline, and the technical problem must be related to the submission system itself. Examples of technical problems that will NOT allow an entrant to submit after the deadline, even if a technical support ticket is received before the deadline, are:

• My clock was slow by X minutes.

• My computer crashed/ my screen froze when I tried to submit.

• I forgot the deadline was Eastern time.

• I didn't send a request for all three recommendation types. (The system will allow you to advance all the way to the Submission screen before stopping you for this reason. Do not assume that getting to the submission screen is proof you will be able to submit.

• I made late changes to my paper and when I tried to upload it again, the file size was too big.

• I submitted a request for help after the technical support deadline.

• I thought I had submitted a request for technical support, but I never got an autoreply e-mail with a ticket number.

We hope that this allowance for those who are coping with exceptional disruption will enable all applicants to submit their best work. If you have any questions, please contact us at sts@societyforscience.org.