Also, in response to OP, I will re-iterate things that have already been said, mostly for the sake of helping the poster understand how uncompelling most of his/her reasoning is. There is a TLDR at the end.
1a. As far as I know, every graduate school in the United States charges an application fee of $80+. While applying to programs, I looked up 50-65 programs, eventually narrowing it down to 12 based on a combination of placement record, fit, and geography. All of them required an application fee. In fact, while applying for undergraduate programs (which, for me, was only 4 years ago), I didn't find a single four-year college without an application fee of at least $50. Does it reek of elitism a little? Yes, it does. Do I hope to someday see a world in which education is affordable and people of all social classes can earn a quality degree? Yes, I do. But if you're offended by a $100 application fee, then, between its history of elitism and the trend towards corporate thinking, American academia is not the place for you.
1b. If you think that a $100 application fee is unfair, think about the funding packages UC Berkeley has to offer. UC Berkeley's History Department openly says that it receives 400 applications a year. This means that, in an average application season, they make $40K ($100 x 400 candidates) off application fees. If the program accepts just ONE funded student with a $16K stipend over 5 years ($80K total), they've already burned twice as much money as they've made. Except they don't accept just ONE funded student. They accept TWENTY-FIVE, meaning that, for every $1 they get during application season, they give away $50. I understand that graduate schools don't have one big pot of money where application fees go in and funding goes out, but my point remains the same: when you weigh the cost of the application against the kind of funding you could be offered, it is a very, very reasonable risk.
2a. Again, UC Berkeley receives 400 applicants a year and rejects 90% of them. When I wrote the first draft of my SOP, I literally created a fully-written SOP with blank spaces labeled as follows:
- "School I'm applying to" (i.e.: UC Berkeley)
- "POI 1 name" (i.e.: Professor Xavier)
- "POI 1 interest overlap" (i.e.: mutant superpowers)
- "POI 1 influential publication" (i.e.: "In fact, Activation of the Mutant Gene played a major role in my growth as a student.")
- "POI 2 name"
- "POI 2 interest overlap"
- "POI 3 name"
- "POI 3 interest overlap"
When it came time to write actual SOPs, I copy-pasted this and filled in the blanks before trimming based on each individual program's requirements. I did this for 12 schools, and, as far as I know, everybody who applies to multiple PhD programs uses a similar process. The people who wrote me letters of recommendation? None of them wrote me twelve different letters of recommendation. They each wrote me ONE LOR, copy-pasted it 11 times, changed the name of the school for each one, then sent them off. The entire application process is built on boilerplating. When I had to write 12 SOPs, I boilerplated. If somebody has to write twenty-five times that many rejection letters, then it would be hypocritical of me to criticize him for boilerplating. If you write a completely different SOP for each school you applied to, then I commend you.
2b. There's only so many ways you can say "We regret to inform you that you didn't make it into UC Berkeley. We receive a lot of qualified applicants for a limited number of slots, and we end up having to reject a lot of students that we would love to have." It's especially tricky because you have to sound sympathetic and professional at the same time. I consider myself a fantastic writer; a professor of creative writing recently told me that I consistently pull off some of the most elegant and complex sentences he's ever read (briefly tooting my own horn here; forgive me). But if you asked me to write 350 personalized rejection letters, I'd laugh at you.
3a. If you're planning to try applying again, be careful what you send to anybody in academia anywhere. Even if this incident has turned you off to UC Berkeley, there's no telling how many other schools might hear of this. If you decide to apply to University X instead, there's a solid chance that somebody there knows somebody from UC Berkeley, and it wouldn't take much to have you automatically rejected from University X. This advice is doubly valid because you're writing to somebody at Berkeley, one of the most respected institutions in the world; pretty much any university you could name has faculty members who've either collaborated with or studied under a professor at Berkeley.
3b. If you're planning to try applying again (even if this incident has turned you off to UC Berkeley), be careful what you post online. By the very nature of TheGradCafe, it can be tricky to post anything without revealing information about yourself, your academic qualifications, or your background. Academia can be a surprisingly small world. If a professor somewhere stumbles onto this thread, he/she wouldn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who a lot of TheGradCafe's posters are. If that professor happens to be faculty at a university you're applying to, it wouldn't take much to have you automatically rejected.
4a. I got rejected from UC Berkeley too, and yes, it's difficult news. But seriously. A cursory glance at the webpage openly says that only a small fraction of applicants get in and that "fit" is an important factor. You openly admitted that Berkeley was a bad fit. You should've know that it was a long shot and expected this rejection.
4b. If this is your first rejection, I hope you don't take every rejection this personally. Because they're almost always done in this manner, and if more rejections are on the way (hopefully not, but still), then this won't be a fun period for you.
5. It sucks that they mixed up your GRE scores. You paid good money to have your application considered properly, except it wasn't considered properly. If only for this reason, you deserve a refund. This is the only valid complaint I saw in your entire post.
TL;DR:
1a. The application fee is fine. Everybody charges application fees of $80+.
1b. The application fee is fine. The kind of funding you're offered if admitted MORE THAN offsets the application fees, even if you scale down the funding numbers based on the mathematical probability of admission.
2a. The boilerplating isn't a big deal. Everything in the admissions process (i.e.: SOPs, LORs) has been boilerplated up until now.
2b. The boilerplating isn't a big deal. Do you really expect somebody to write 350 personalized rejection letters?
3a. Be careful what you write in correspondence. UC Berkeley is a big school, and a lot of people there have the influence to ruin your academic future.
3b. Be careful what you write online. The internet isn't completely anonymous, and the academic community is small. Somebody could stumble onto this, discern your identity, and ruin your academic future.
4a. Don't take this rejection personally. UC Berkeley openly says that the overwhelming majority of applicants are rejected, and even you admit the fit wasn't great. It was a long shot and you knew it.
4b. Don't take this rejection personally. As long as they notify you in a professional manner and timely fashion, you shouldn't be offended. If you take every rejection this personally, this admissions cycle might be hard for you.
5. It sucks that they mixed up your GRE scores. Assuming that it was an error on their part and not your own, you deserve a refund.
