UC Riverside College of Engineering's Annoying E-Recruitment Campaign

[waddle]

I somehow made it onto the mailing list of the UC Riverside College of Engineering Ph.D. programs' recruitment campaign a few months ago (see, it's funny 'cause I've no intention of applying to engineering programs).

In the months leading up to their application deadline (I believe it was sometime in January), they blasted me with email reminders about how great it'd be to join their up-and-coming college and how they are "quickly gaining a reputation for producing world renowned research and world class students". They also waived the application fee for domestic students--a nice touch I guess. But this led me to wonder--if they needed to waive the application fee, how difficult is it really for UCR to get a good number of applicants? Well, turns out, it looks like it's been a rough year on their side of the fence. They've extended their deadline for applying for full funding consideration twice now (they're still accepting applications--at least for BioE--, if you're interested), and they've even allowed applicants to enter their estimated GRE score! (I quote, verbatim: "You can enter your estimated score and still submit if you are still waiting to take the GRE." ) Sounds like they're really getting pretty desperate now.

So for y'all who are having a rough time with admissions now, chin up--it can get pretty ugly for the grad schools too! Just wanted to share.