After you submit your application, you should receive a student ID from the schools to which you applied or an e-mail confirming your submission.  Be sure to follow up and make sure that all of the pieces of your application have been received.  The most common things missing are:

1.    Letters of recommendation

2.    Transcripts

3.    SAT/ACT scores

Unfortunately, things get lost or sometimes there is a glitch in the system, so just make sure that you are on top of everything.  The first step if one of these items is missing is to speak with teachers or guidance counselor about items 1 and 2.  Make sure that they have sent them out before calling the school.  Once you have the information, call the school if you know they have been sent out on time.

If your "official test scores" have not been received, you will need to call the College Board for SATs or Educational Testing for the ACTs to see why they have not been sent. The College Board made their site very confusing this year and I spoke with several colleges who said that they would not penalize students for a problem with sending the SAT scores.  However not all schools are as forgiving.

Contacting the SATS SATs

Contacting the ACTs ACTs

Application followup : Common Application schools

You should see a chart like this when you click on the school to show you that you have completed all the pieces.  If everything is not green or marked as complete, you have not completed your application.

When you log into the individual school sites, you will be able to see what has been completed and received.