Calling departments about documents: don't take anything for granted

[rev IT]

Guys, this is just public service. i called one of the departments and realized that there's a mistake. an important deadline for funding was coming up so i called just to clear my head and lo and behold one of my documents(u guessed right LOR) was missing. Yup. just like that. they emailed me to send it. i sent it and it got lost again. so they just didn't contact me.

so its mid-february, a lot of adcoms are coming to peak decision time. it doesn't hurt to call and make sure they have all ur stuff. i took a cold shower after the scare.

[mdrake]

I had a similar experience with University of Florida. I received an email from them saying I was missing 2 letters of recommendation. I checked my application status page and it said that they were in. I emailed them back, only to not get a response for about two weeks, which they responded with the exact same email as before. After the second email, I called them and found out everything was in and that there was a mix up with a student they had hired to help them. I had no reason to worry because the committee had everything they needed. The next day, I got my acceptance later.

Sometimes, it just really helps to talk to an actual person on the phone and get it straightened out.

[urbanchic]

Yup, this is one of my greatest fears...losing my things and not telling me. But I don't want to be a pest because they recommend not calling in asking if they have our materials or not.[rant] Well, I wouldn't need to call if you would just tell me what's missing instead of tossing me to the reject pile. [/rant over]

[strokeofmidnight]

It really depends on the department, I think. One school received none of my transcripts and none of my LoR's. They accepted me about 2 days after I sent over replacement transcripts and my 2 of my profs resubmitted their LoR's. As it turns out, they've already made decisions based off of my unofficial transcripts (my official ones had not even arrived), and actually gave me an offer with only two LoR's. I suspect that--particularly for programs with smaller cohorts--they will chase you down for missing materials if they're really interested.

Still, it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

[rev IT]

It really depends on the department, I think. One school received none of my transcripts and none of my LoR's. They accepted me about 2 days after I sent over replacement transcripts and my 2 of my profs resubmitted their LoR's. As it turns out, they've already made decisions based off of my unofficial transcripts (my official ones had not even arrived), and actually gave me an offer with only two LoR's. I suspect that--particularly for programs with smaller cohorts--they will chase you down for missing materials if they're really interested.

Still, it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

hmm,

i will update this post next week when they send me the decision. i was told that they'll make a decision within a week. in fact they've already sent decisions for people who applied early(like moi). it sounded to me that they've already decided based on my 2 LOR even though the lady didn't cleary state it.

[Nighthob]

I had very similar issues. My last name is difficult to spell, and sure enough, I had multiple schools misfile transcripts and GRE scores. If I ever have to go through this kind of application process again, I'll call well before the deadline and ensure that everything is in order.

However, I've discovered that missing materials isn't necessarily the disaster it could be. I found out one of my transcripts was misfiled when U of SC notified me because they needed the official transcript in order to nominate me for a university fellowship. Then again, I was told BC wouldn't even look at my file unless everything was in order by the time reviews started. Once again, it's all a crap shoot depending on the school (and likely the department).