Rude Admissions Behavior (outside of rejection letters)

[zoberg]

I received this email in response to my inquiry about the status of my application. I emailed them yesterday and received it promptly this morning, which is great.

Dear Zoe,

We are waiting to hear back from our Fellowship Candidates, we will

know more after April 15th.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Diane

The catch is... the application deadline was January 15. It's taking them 3 (or more) months to make their decisions, and they're making the rest of the applicant pool wait on their response until after the decision deadline. So, basically, the MA applicants are all on the waitlist because the Comp Lit program can't take the time to write a rejection email in the three months they've been reviewing applications.

What rude behavior have you faced over applications, inquiries, or other issues?

[frankdux]

sounds to me like an 'application pending' letter. the program wont know how many more students it can make offers to until the first round (or second round?) offers have been responded to. inconvenient? yes. rude? no. if its anybodies fault, its the fault of those first-rounders who refuse to make their decisions sooner rather than later.

[Jakrabite]

Doesn't seem that rude. One of my apps, UCI, says they will send results only in May. Which is infuriating, but they were pretty damn civil about it. It seems there is a lack of some information on their part rather than a lack of politeness. To the contrary, I've felt when I've called up the universities regarding my status that they have been over the top in their apologies and empathy. In most cases the phone is answered by some low man on the totem pole who really has nothing to do with the decisions, yet has to deal with all the overtly anxious applicants like myself. Best of luck. Hope the decision, whenever it arrives, is in your favour.

[sweetiemb]

I had already made up my mind where I'm going to school X, and school Y invited me to a group interview. Info on school Y stated the minimum qualifications needed (gpa, GRE, and the like) to be considered for acceptance, and one of the qualifications was attending and completing the group interview. Since I had already decided to attend school X, I told school Y that I am not attending the group interview, that I'd already made up my mind where to go, and to please withdrawal my app. School Y got back to me, telling me thank you for letting him know and good luck with grad school. Well, it came to my surprise a few weeks later when I received a rejection letter in the mail from school Y. I'm not hurt by it or anything, but moreso annoyed with the whole notion of "You can't reject me 'cause I'm rejecting YOU." :roll: Unless it was a miscommunication or something.

[teaganc]

I had already made up my mind where I'm going to school X, and school Y invited me to a group interview. Info on school Y stated the minimum qualifications needed (gpa, GRE, and the like) to be considered for acceptance, and one of the qualifications was attending and completing the group interview. Since I had already decided to attend school X, I told school Y that I am not attending the group interview, that I'd already made up my mind where to go, and to please withdrawal my app. School Y got back to me, telling me thank you for letting him know and good luck with grad school. Well, it came to my surprise a few weeks later when I received a rejection letter in the mail from school Y. I'm not hurt by it or anything, but moreso annoyed with the whole notion of "You can't reject me 'cause I'm rejecting YOU." :roll: Unless it was a miscommunication or something.

That's not really rude; you said you didn't want to interview, so they sent you a letter saying they weren't going to accept you. Tying up loose ends and all.

[BayAreaStat86]

I agree with teaganc, I don't think it wasn't rude at all, it's a black-white scenario. You either get accepted or rejected from a school (think about their internal computer system and the admission logistics, tracking all the applications and saving the 'outcomes' of each), and because you refused to participate in the group interview, you were "rejected" from the school. It's as simple as that.

[zilch]

so this is from the grad advising office of my undergraduate alma mater who handle the graduate admissions. I got an acceptance very late and the standard email put the decision date within a week so I just walked in to talk to them about getting an extension and they seemed happy to help me out and told to send the records person an email so they have a written request of the action. So I do that and I get an email back saying it was ok and also telling me that if I end up accepting I would need to fill out an international student verification form. I am not an international student nor have I ever been, I applied as domestic and not only that I did my undergrad there and they have my records and documents, I am of asian descent and thus have an asian name (that's pretty much the only international thing on my app). so I went in to tell them that I am not international and the lady looks at me and says "so what are you then?". I then asked if my application was processed as international as it changes my eligibility for funding options (international students have to taken english proficiency exams in order to qualify for TA-ships among other things) and instead of answering the question she just tells me it doesn't effect funding when in fact all of the application materials say that it does.

[TulipOHare]

:shock:

That is fucking horrible, zilch. Have you been able to get anything straightened out since then?

[liszt85]

We are in the process of making a decision on your application for admission. You may review the decision after 8:00 a.m. PST on April 21, 2009, by accessing your UC Davis application on the online admission web site. Please contact the Psychology program if you have any questions regarding this decision.

WTF! This comes on the 15th of April.

Same with MIT BCS, they sent me a nice rejection email late at night on the 15th! Why did they even bother? If they could do this late at night on the 15th, what held them from doing it on the 14th?!

[frankdux]

i called up one school i hadn't heard a peep from. this is the conversation, nearly word for word:

secretary: math department, ******* university

frankdux: i was wondering if you could tell me the status of my application.

--about 3 or 4 seconds of silence--

secretary: well... i guess its not even worth asking your name. have you received an offer from us?

frankdux: no

secretary: well, then that's a rejection.

she didnt even bother asking my name. what friendly service. :x

[kaybee]

i called up one school i hadn't heard a peep from. this is the conversation, nearly word for word:

secretary: math department, ******* university

frankdux: i was wondering if you could tell me the status of my application.

--about 3 or 4 seconds of silence--

secretary: well... i guess its not even worth asking your name. have you received an offer from us?

frankdux: no

secretary: well, then that's a rejection.

she didnt even bother asking my name. what friendly service. :x

That's horrible frandux!! I can truly sympathize, it's horrible that we spend money on our applications only to be treated like garbage by some schools.

[mmr]

I had been on the waitlist at brooklyn college (my last option after 5 rejections) for almost 2 weeks when i received notice of my rejection. the following day i got an email saying that the rejection letter was a mistake, and i am still on the waitlist. i responded with a nice email saying how happy i was to still be considered, and have heard nothing back. this was over a week ago. can a school reject me twice?

[case]

can a school reject me twice?

I hope u get accepted dude, getting rejected twice sounds very awful and I dont think they would have corrected their mistake if the chances are that they have to reject u again. I see some +ve there. Good luck mate.

[sojourner]

I had been on the waitlist at brooklyn college (my last option after 5 rejections) for almost 2 weeks when i received notice of my rejection. the following day i got an email saying that the rejection letter was a mistake, and i am still on the waitlist. i responded with a nice email saying how happy i was to still be considered, and have heard nothing back. this was over a week ago. can a school reject me twice?

Same thing happened to me at UCSB. I was rejected and then contacted a month later saying it was a mistake. Then, a week later, I was prompty rejected again. Probably my worst rejection to date since they gave me hope and then yanked it away.

[Michelley262003]

Here's another one...

Me: Hi my name is ---- ------. I have applied for admissions for 2009. Would it be possible to find out the status of my application

Admission: No we have not made decisions yet.

The next day... my rejection came via email.

[MaximKat]

Here's another one...

Me: Hi my name is ---- ------. I have applied for admissions for 2009. Would it be possible to find out the status of my application

Admission: No we have not made decisions yet.

The next day... my rejection came via email.

so what?

[golonghorns]

so what?

HAHA! I think s/he's inferring that they rejected her because she asked the question?

[Tobson]

HAHA! I think s/he's inferring that they rejected her because she asked the question?

well then I would have been rejected many times. :?

Isn't it refreshing if even the graduate coordinator doesn't know when desicions will be made.....

It is not over till it is over!

[Michelley262003]

Here's another rude one:

I got invited to an interview at University of X... on the other side of the country. It took me 9 hours to get there, 12 hours back home. I was there for four days.

I have yet to hear back, and doubt that I will.

RUDE!

[snap]

so this is from the grad advising office of my undergraduate alma mater who handle the graduate admissions. I got an acceptance very late and the standard email put the decision date within a week so I just walked in to talk to them about getting an extension and they seemed happy to help me out and told to send the records person an email so they have a written request of the action. So I do that and I get an email back saying it was ok and also telling me that if I end up accepting I would need to fill out an international student verification form. I am not an international student nor have I ever been, I applied as domestic and not only that I did my undergrad there and they have my records and documents, I am of asian descent and thus have an asian name (that's pretty much the only international thing on my app). so I went in to tell them that I am not international and the lady looks at me and says "so what are you then?". I then asked if my application was processed as international as it changes my eligibility for funding options (international students have to taken english proficiency exams in order to qualify for TA-ships among other things) and instead of answering the question she just tells me it doesn't effect funding when in fact all of the application materials say that it does.

I feel bad for you zitch. I am a international student myself and I dont want anyone else to go through all the nunecessary troubles I am going through.

here is my story, I applikd to university X, deadline March 1st. (late...ok) and havent yet heard from them. When I call the admissions, they are polite (maybe im posting it on the wrong thread) and ask me to call the department coz they havent heard from the department yet. When I call the department, i always get their voicemail which is kinda annoying, so i gave up calling and all hope. rude or not rude, definitely frustrating.

[Morrius]

i called up one school i hadn't heard a peep from. this is the conversation, nearly word for word:

secretary: math department, ******* university

frankdux: i was wondering if you could tell me the status of my application.

--about 3 or 4 seconds of silence--

secretary: well... i guess its not even worth asking your name. have you received an offer from us?

frankdux: no

secretary: well, then that's a rejection.

she didnt even bother asking my name. what friendly service. :x

I've had a similar experience with another university, won't say which one.

[case]

here's my story with vanderbilt

case: Hello Dr. ----, I am ----(just first name), I am trying to find the status of my application for admission for Fall 09.

Dr -- : I am sorry we are not able to accept your application.

case: ooooooook, thank u!

I did not even tell him my complete name, he didnt ask either.

[mmr]

I had been on the waitlist at brooklyn college (my last option after 5 rejections) for almost 2 weeks when i received notice of my rejection. the following day i got an email saying that the rejection letter was a mistake, and i am still on the waitlist. i responded with a nice email saying how happy i was to still be considered, and have heard nothing back. this was over a week ago. can a school reject me twice?

no, they cannot reject me twice, i got my acceptance yesterday, huh.

[snap]

good to hear the news mmr. Congratulations.