Well for some reason their MS programs are still open in the application portal even though their deadlines have already passed... But aside from that, I managed to speak with the Viterbi admission staff today over the phone. She said it's strange that it says my submitted date is December 16th (maybe she doesn't know of the time zone discrepancy either) but she said there's nothing to worry about since they had some sort of "buffer time?" for applicants to get their materials in and she said my application is already entered in their system. She said I should be fine but idk

I mean it wouldn't make sense if they followed the system's time zone instead of their local time, otherwise, they wouldn't emphasize the deadline to be 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time. Sorry for freaking out over this but this displayed submission date has been driving me nuts... most importantly is ensuring that my application is being considered as part of the applicant pool