Uploading is not always perfectly smooth. To make sure that all submissions will get to us with minimal frustration, please follow these guidelines:

1) Don't wait until the last minute

The electronic submission system uses a robust server with high-bandwidth access to the internet, but everything has a limit. If you wait until the last minute to submit your work, your submission may be delayed,

2) Upload early and often

Once your submission is complete, you are still allowed to edit it and add to or modify the supplementary materials right up to the deadline. This means you can upload some materials early as soon as they are ready and upload the remainder later, avoiding the need to upload everything at once. This also means you can upload a rough draft of your materials early and replace it with more polished versions later. Upload drafts that are roughly the same size as your final material. This will allow you to get a feel for the upload process and the time it takes to upload files of those sizes, and give you time to diagnose problems. Then, as your draft gets refined, upload revisions. This way if the last polish or final render encounters problems, you only lose the polish, not the entire submission.

3) We do not control the internet

In our tests, we have found upload speeds of anywhere from 20 megabits per second to five kilobits per second. We have tested uploads from two gigabytes to 10 kilobytes. We have seen upload times from one second to 24 hours. If you are traversing a path to our server that is through congested nodes, your upload may fail, and you will have to retry. You may even have to do the upload from work, school, home, or a local business-services firm. Don't wait until the last minute to find out.

4) The progress bar says you're done, but then nothing happens

The progress bar in Internet Explorer lies. It will show a completed upload a few minutes into what could be a 10-hour upload. Ignore it. Go have lunch.

5) Don't try to upload too much

Some programs have upload limitations. For example, each sketch submission should have no more than 100 MB of data total for all uploaded materials. Make sure you check the upload requirements for the program to which you are submitting.

6) Don't wait until the last minute

Yes, we said this already, but it's worth repeating! The deadlines vary by program, but deadlines are defined as the time by which the entire submission, including all supporting images and video, must be completely uploaded. The deadline remains firm: we're on a tight schedule and won't be able to extend the deadline to accommodate straggling uploads.

Despite all these dire warnings, we are happy to report that the electronic submission process works very well. We don't anticipate major problems. Just don't wait until the last minute!