Schools ignoring emails

[Polopo]

I am having trouble properly communicating with the schools.

 

For example, I see lots of acceptances/rejections for one school that I applied on Grad Café, so I go ahead and send a really nice email to the graduate coordinator/POI/graduate director asking whether my application is still being considered. I "usually" get nothing. I email again two weeks later, only to hear that he/she is not the right person to talk to, that I need to contact some other person.

 

Another example: I get into this one school and the acceptance letter says nothing about funding. Naturally I email to ask about funding - and the school never replies or keeps referring to another person to contact.

 

It's so frustrating when I hear "nothing" at all, not even an acknowledgement of receiving my email. What is even more frustrating is having to follow through their instructions to contact other people, only to be ignored in the end. I am especially fed up with the schools that I have already been accepted to and didn't hear about funding (all 5 of them). They can at least tell me that they haven't decided yet if they don't have the answer. It's almost like they are trying to dissuade me from accepting their offer (then why would they accept me in the first place?)

 

Anyone having similar issues?

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

Ask your POI

[Polopo]

For many of the schools that I haven't heard back, I don't have a POI. Some POIs stopped talking to me after my acceptance saying that they are not members of the committee that makes financial decisions...

[AliceLand]

Another example: I get into this one school and the acceptance letter says nothing about funding. Naturally I email to ask about funding - and the school never replies or keeps referring to another person to contact.

I have the same experience.  I was admitted to a school and got the notification from application website.  I never heard anything from the program, not even when I emailed them multiple times.  Their ignorance made me feel unimportant to their program even though I was accepted.  Sp I kept writing.  First I wrote to the program coordinator, then vice director of the program, then the director, then the chair of the department, and in the end I finally got my emails replied and questions answered.  But this is a really unpleasant experience.  I can understand they ignore emails from unadmitted students.  But to admitted students?  No idea what they are thinking.

[ANDS!]

If you were inundated with emails asking questions about something that - in time - will be resolved, would you take the time to respond to them?  I certainly wouldn't.  Nothing in the application process says that the ad comm's or any of the instructors need to answer decision questions, certainly not "Well I see you guys have let some people in, can you tell me if I'm in?!"

 

As for "ignoring" questions from admitted students, much of the same applies in spirit - these people don't come into the department once a year to admit students and then go back in hibernation.  They have devoted a portion of their time to recruit students into the program but they still have other duties that need attending to.

[cyberwulf]

If you were inundated with emails asking questions about something that - in time - will be resolved, would you take the time to respond to them?  I certainly wouldn't.  Nothing in the application process says that the ad comm's or any of the instructors need to answer decision questions, certainly not "Well I see you guys have let some people in, can you tell me if I'm in?!"

 

As for "ignoring" questions from admitted students, much of the same applies in spirit - these people don't come into the department once a year to admit students and then go back in hibernation.  They have devoted a portion of their time to recruit students into the program but they still have other duties that need attending to.

 

I couldn't disagree more completely with you. Applicants are PAYING MONEY to have their application managed. This means more than just an evaluation by the admissions committee; it should also include communicating to students the status of their application on request. Of course, some anxious students probably email excessively, but this is apparently not the case for the OP or apparently many people on this board. 

 

This attitude of "professors are too busy to deal with graduate students (or prospective students)" really bugs me. If a faculty member is too busy to deal with the responsibilities of admissions, they shouldn't agree to be involved. If all faculty members/administrators are too busy or unwilling to put in the effort, then maybe the department shouldn't be running a graduate program in the first place or at the very least should find some people willing to manage it better.

[AliceLand]

I couldn't disagree more completely with you. Applicants are PAYING MONEY to have their application managed. This means more than just an evaluation by the admissions committee; it should also include communicating to students the status of their application on request. Of course, some anxious students probably email excessively, but this is apparently not the case for the OP or apparently many people on this board. 

 

This attitude of "professors are too busy to deal with graduate students (or prospective students)" really bugs me. If a faculty member is too busy to deal with the responsibilities of admissions, they shouldn't agree to be involved. If all faculty members/administrators are too busy or unwilling to put in the effort, then maybe the department shouldn't be running a graduate program in the first place or at the very least should find some people willing to manage it better.

I totally agree with you.  We pay to have our application evaluated and replying applicants questions and requests is just what they are obliged to do.  I understand sometimes members in the admission committee have more things to deal with than their recruiting duties.  But they can always have the program coordinator/ assistant reply the emails for them.  Right?

 

I've got the best experience with one school.  The Assistant Director of the program was very responsive.  No matter how many questions I asked, she always replied with extensive information.  And when it came to the time when they started to send out offers, she was a bit slow in replying and I am sure it is because the overwhelming inquiry emails.  Then another faculty member was delegated to contact me and answer all my questions.  He was very busy professor himself and he was kind and helpful, answering all questions in great details, not just referring to department website like the others did.  I am just saying, everybody has a lot to do in the university, but there are a lot the program/department can do to make applicants, who are already anxious and fragile, feel better.  

Edited March 18, 2013 by AliceLand

[ANDS!]

This attitude of "professors are too busy to deal with graduate students (or prospective students)" really bugs me.

 

Who said anything even close to that?

 

. . .replying applicants questions and requests is just what they are obliged to do.

 

Not one of my applications, once submitted, said anything of the sort.  They certainly didn't say that - at my whim - I could get updates on the likelihood of my acceptance.

 

Edited March 18, 2013 by ANDS!