I am not 100% sure what you're getting at, so here's two attempts.

[hider=As in place in where your character may be in relation to the setting and how the RP will start playing out?]

Present day is 2512 17th of January or so. 

If your character is going to one on Vestiva, here's some things I should note:

First contact is going to happen in a outer colony star system world called Vestiva, which since the OOC is up I will reveal is a somewhat earth-like moon orbiting a blue gas giant. It's a very new colony, only twenty five years old. It's not going to be a ceremony as it is more a "controlled" contact arranged by BETA.

Chances are any character who starts on Vestiva made migrated to the world before BETA occupied the system, is part of BETA and recently moved to operate there, or be very young with parents who migrated before the alien signal was detected in the first five years. Occupation for the people on the world wasn't that oppressive, but everyone on the world [and any other world in the system, technically] were pretty much monitored and any talk of BETA's actions were censored, even private messages between relatives or friends concerning the affairs on the world.

As for why no other world detected the signal, it is because [s]the first signal wasn't really made in context of finding the Grand Coalition or other life at first, and later signals sent by them always directed at Vestiva and nowhere else, at least those detectable.[/s]

The info got out quick, but the GC put much effort in keeping future info from leaking and had a organization founded [the aforementioned BETA] to focus on dealing with the aliens.

The first contact "ceremony" in Vestiva is not public, in fact it is only between those on the occupied colony and BETA. Anyone else is pretty much out of the loop, outside the leaks or rumors, of course. 

Outside Vestiva, you're pretty much free to develop the world around your character however you want loosely following the culture sheet- I don't expect adherence to it. You can make up locations quite a bit.
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[hider=In terms of character sheet expectations?]
I don't expect that much, you're free to world build with a loose following of the outline I provided of the Coalition. You can start off your character anywhere really, but I recommend outer colonies more due to the closer proximity to where the action is going to really happen.

In terms of quality, I pretty much expect what is typical for character apps in advanced. 
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I hope this helps.