Incomplete application materials

[SimianVirus]

Hi everybody,

I am writing in the hope that somebody might be able to offer some advice regarding the situation I am in. Here is my predicament:

At the end of October I submitted my complete application for a MS in Biostatistics (Fall 2018) at a very well known university. Since both my undergrad and graduate degrees were from a foreign country, I had to obtain a WES ICAP report which served as the equivalent of my transcripts. I had WES mail my ICAP report to the exact address provided by the university. However, sometime in mid November when I checked my application status online, it said "status incomplete" because my transcripts (WES report) were not received.

I immediately  contacted WES and they confirmed that the report had indeed been mailed to the university address provided on the 4th of November. Afterwards, I contacted the university via email telling them that WES confirmed that my report was mailed on the 4th November. They replied pretty promptly saying my application would be updated as soon as they process my materials.

Long story short, after a lot of back and forth between me and the university (emails and phone calls), they conclude that they haven't received my transcripts and that I need to have WES resend my report. WES sends me a confirmation email that they resent the report on the 15th of December and I forwarded this email to the university admissions office. They replied saying "Thank you for letting us know." After the holidays, on the 8th or 9th of January, I check my application online again and same problem. Missing transcripts, application incomplete. I contact the university again and they email me back asking me if I go by some other name… After I reply, again no answers back.

My question is: what should I do at this point to have this university review my application already? I honestly have no idea why they're not receiving that WES package. Would you recommend I personally go to their office (I live about an hour away) or how should I proceed?

Their stated deadline for the program is spring 2018 for the fall 2018 semester but I wanted to apply as early as possible.  I just noticed that somebody posted that they already got accepted in December for fall 2018 to this same university for the same program, which means that they're reviewing applications as soon as they get them and make their decision. So now I'm starting to worry that I might be left at a disadvantage because eventhough I applied at the end of October, my application has not even been reviewed yet..

Thank you in advance for any recommendations/advice you might have.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Do you have access to exactly how WES worded the address, including your name? I would send this information to the program in case it can help them locate the transcripts.

I had similar issues with my GRE scores, but it was due to a name issue. Once I told the universities that had this issue that ETS required the program directly contact them about the issue, they were suddenly able to locate my scores (name changes and programs depending on computers to sort everything correctly are fun). 

Edited January 13, 2018 by GreenEyedTrombonist
One word was incorrect.

[SimianVirus]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, WES sent me an email confirming that they resent the report for the second time, and in that email they had my name and the address they sent it to. I forwarded this email to the university as soon as I got it (this was before the holidays) and they confirmed receipt of the email saying "Thank you for letting us know".

I had a slight issue with my TOEFL score, as well, with a different university, due to my name being hyphenated. But as soon as I contacted the university to let them know about how the hyphenation might be causing them to not able to match the TOEFL score with my application, they solved the problem immediately, with no further hassles or complications..

I just don't understand how or why this particular university cannot retrieve my WES report. It's very frustrating at this point. I wish they could at least allow me to email them a scan of my personal copy of the WES report so that my application can be reviewed already but whenever I ask this question in the emails, they don't respond back.