Is it normal that the universities take very long to answer emails?

[Kim9090]

Hi!

I am an undergraduate student from Germany and I am going to apply for fall 2014 at Penn State for the master's program "Media Studies".

 

Penn state would be really my first choice and I still hope I can do it, even they take only 6 to 8 students... but since I really want to study in the USA I'll apply at other universities, as well.

 

My question is, if it is normal that the Universities do not respond to emails? Some universities, which I contacted, did responded very quickly and friendly and were open to any further questions I may have, but other Universities and unfortunately this includes Penn State, do not respond, at all. For example, I've send around 5 emails in the last weeks to the graduated school, but they never responded to me. After contacting several persons from the department itself, I've got responses (after 3 times emailing them). And even they answered very friendly and also asked me if I have other questions, it is they same that I have to send them those additional questions about 4 times to get finally an answer.

I am really worried about that, because I really need some information just to be able to apply and then I also need more information about the program, as well. But as I told, it is very difficult to keep contact to the persons, because of any reason they do not respond to me.

 

Do you think this is pretty normal, because Penn State for example is a huge University and they receive probably lots of emails? Or is this already a bad sign for me and it is very likely that they will not accept me, because they are not interested in me as a graduate student?

 

I would be really happ if anyone can give me advice about that, thank you!!

[babubot]

It definitely can be very busy this time of year, so I would not worry if it takes a long time to respond. Generally, I'd say wait a week before sending an email a second time. Since graduate admissions is handled separately for each program, there may only be one or two people responding to emails. If this also happens to be the week they are hosting orientation for new students, they may be very busy.

[BAW]

It definitely can be very busy this time of year, so I would not worry if it takes a long time to respond. Generally, I'd say wait a week before sending an email a second time. Since graduate admissions is handled separately for each program, there may only be one or two people responding to emails. If this also happens to be the week they are hosting orientation for new students, they may be very busy.

Agreed. And it might be that their offices are understaffed during summer hours.

[Kim9090]

Thanks for your answers! I really feel more relieved now about this

[somethinbruin]

During the summer time it can be difficult to get responses from universities in the US. They can be like ghost towns. At my last university I worked all summer as a research assistant in one of the larger departments. The department had about 25 full-time faculty members, and I probably saw three of them regularly during the course of my work week (M-F 10 am-4:00 pm). None of those three were on campus more than twice a week. It's the same way at my new university, where the only people regularly in the office during the summertime are the administrative assistants. The rest of the faculty are off working on research, writing books/articles, etc, and that doesn't require them to be in the office. Some faculty even put auto-responses on their e-mail to let people know they're not checking it very often.

 

I will say this in particular about Penn State, though. My friend applied for a PhD there, and she also had difficulty getting in touch with personnel there. They did not respond very quickly, if at all. 

[Guest |||]

Universities often hire snails and place them on the keyboard so that they may respond to emails.  Though I hear theyre updating the technology and will soon begin hiring turtles.

[biochemistry professor]

This is a bad sign that they're either understaffed (not enough resources), don't place a high priority on students, disorganized, or have a bad work environment with high staff turnover.

[Guest |||]

This is a bad sign that they're either understaffed (not enough resources), don't place a high priority on students, disorganized, or have a bad work environment with high staff turnover.

 

 

I wouldn't be that bold on it.

 

You could easily argue that worse schools will get back to you faster because theyre more keener on attracting students and have less emails coming to them in general, where as a top school will be slower as they get far more emails.

 

 

But if you really wanted to test the question, email the top 10 best schools in your opinion, and 10 far worse off schools.  I doubt there is a real relationship.