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Some schools screwing up admissions??


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Guest guest
Posted

I want your opinion on something that happened to me with admission to one university.

I got accepted to 5 schools (and got rejected from 4), so I decided to go to one of them and told the rest of the 4 schools I was not going so they could offer the space to someone else. I signed the papers and everything, and was happy things were now set for the next five years.

I had not officially heard from one school, and although it was not a top choice, I was still curious about their decision. With March gone I thought they probably rejected me and would contact me much later to tell me. Then last week (April) I got the acceptance letter from the Graduate office, apparently sent February 15th, and told I needed to show I had 50'000 dollars per year to attend. They said that any financial aid had to be offered from the department, however the department had not contacted me in any way.

I was confused, so finally decided to call the department and ask what happened to my application. The graduate secretary was very rude, saying I was accepted with funding pending, and that it is not up to me to inquire what aid I'd get and when, it is up to the department to decide to contact me and tell me whenever they make a decision. (huh?!) As to when they would do that, given that it was early April already, I do not know. (This is one of the listed universities with acceptance deadlines April 15.) I tried to politely tell her back that it was ok, as I had other choices and had already decided to go elsewhere, and thanked her and said goodbye. This ended our conversation.

Within half an hour the admission committee chair called saying there had been a 'terrible' mistake, and he had signed the letter on Februay 15 but it had never left the department. He was trying hard to make me reverse the decision of going to the university of my choice and instead go to this tier 2 one. He was even offering advice on how to do that and who to contact to tell I had changed my mind! I was politely trying to tell him that it was late for that, and I had already decided and signed, but he kept saying that he could contact that university for me and tell them! It was freaking me out since he didn't seem to get it, but I didn't want to be rude to him, given that sooner or later I might run into him in the academic circles. He insisted that they had already accepted me and they'd immediately email me the SCANNED copy of the acceptance offer. Him and the secretary sent emails (polite now), asking me to accept their offer and still offering advice on how to decline the other one. The acceptance letter was dated April 04,2006, so definitely not a scanned letter signed on Febuary 15.

Now this whole thing bothered me a bit. I feel that this guy was feigning the whole thing about the letter being signed but not sent out. Afterall, don't they email first when they admit you? Wouldn't the secretary notice for a month and a half a signed letter on her desk?! Even if I was admitted without aid, were they ever going to inform me of it so I could reply by April 15?

I do not want to judge them to rashly either as mistakes happen. Do you think it was a true screwup with the secretary and the mail, and they are sincerely telling the truth? I am staring to doubt it and this whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe when they heard I got to better places they tried to save face. It'd be appalling if they really did this to me and other applicants that pay $80 to apply. Do you have similar stories?

Posted

That sounds pretty crazy... and like they are lying and a bit immoral. They should have apologized and said what the offer was and let you decide what was best for you. Unless they thought that you didn't know you could reverse a decision until April 15th, then I guess they could mention that and wait to see if you had any intrerest in doing that. If you said you wanted to, then maybe advice. I hope he doesn't contact the other school without your approval, because that could really mess you up. Also, I think it's wierd if it's a lower tier school trying to get you to take their over a higher tiered school. Just in case this guy is truly insane, I would contact the school you are attending by e-mail saying how excited you are to attend and asking a innocuous question (where do I get information on housing) to let them know that you are still gung ho. If he makes a comment to them for some reason then he will look like a lunatic. The screw-up part... maybe. The insane response, however, is unjustified. No similar stories, luckily. But, I have yet to hear from two schools and have already accpeted at my school, so there may still be time for insanity.

Posted

Nothing as bad as that, although I was told "you will definitely get funding" on three occasions from December right up until mid-March, when I got the default "such was the strength of this year's applicants..." rejection. It's just lucky I didn't turn down any other offers on the basis of trusting their word.

Mind you, weird as it is, it must give you some satisfaction to be so wanted :lol:. But seriously, if they can screw up -- and probably lie -- that badly about your admission imagine what fun they'd have organizing something tricky. Like a piss-up in a brewery.

Guest u_grad
Posted

I too have two stories to share, both somewhat funny.

The first goes like this. A good school in my field offers me admission with no aid ( how could I afford to spend 250'000 on a PhD?!). The email was saying they offered me admission, congratulated me and raised my hopes, but the attached letter said "Sorry, no money for you, but we still hope you can attend." I replied back right away saying something like "Thank you very much for seriously considering my application, but I'll decline, so that you can still offer the space to someone else. I instead will attend so-and-so [much better in the field] university which offered me a full fellowship". :) They replied right away and tried to get me to wait till April 15 for funding etc. It didn't matter to me anymore, seeing I was not a top choice for them. Then 3 or so days later I got the email from their Dean of Graduate Studies which said decision had been made on my application, but I had to log into the website to learn it. Guess what: it said I was rejected! I guess they didn't take very well my rejecting them part. :)

Story two. I had submitted the online part of the application to some ok school, which asked general questions- nothing specific, but I had not yet sent the rest of the materials (transcripts, references, resume, SoP). Within 3 days, I got this very long email from a prof at the place saying I could be a perfect match for his research lab, describing his research and saying I should study with him and let him know very soon whether I agree. This was even before the application deadline! On a closer look, the email had nothing specific to me or my application. Moreover, examining his proposed project, he pretty much wanted to get a programmer to make user-friendly software to sell, not a researcher. Then a grad student at my school told me the same had happened to him, with the same prof, when he applied for graduate school! So this prof pretty much tries to grab students before the admission committee even meets and tries to get them to agree to go study with him. I replied to this prof's email, saying I wonder how he deemed me suitable when he hadn't seen the rest of my application and that my field of interest is development of research methods not user-friendly software that makes use of them. I think he realized what I was implying, as he replied back trying to defend himself, but no use since I had already seen through his farce. How bad they are get away with these things! :x I can immagine a lot of students being decieved this way, especially foreigners who might not know the ins and outs of the admission processes.

I guess weird things do happen with admissions. Can't do else but grin and bear it. Lots of money well spent!

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