First Employers, Now Colleges

I've complained on here before about companies who just simply drop off the face of the Earth rather than reply to employment inquiries. Now it seems that practice has made its way to Universities.

I was interested in taking some graduate school classes, so I applied to some graduate schools. I applied to UT-Austin, TCU, Oklahoma and University of North Texas. I paid the application fees, got all the transcripts delivered and everything else that was required. All my checks cashed, so I know they got the applications and fees. But I've not gotten a single response at all from TCU. Not even a "Thanks for applying to TCU" postcard. And it's been some time.

The University of Oklahoma sent me a form letter saying they couldn't process my financial aid application until I was accepted to the University. No word from the University as to whether I got in (or a letter saying I didn't... or a letter saying they need more information).

The University of Texas did send me a letter turning down my admission. Of course, they did that before they even received my transcripts, which makes me think there was some mistake. I filed an official appeal, but to no avail. Well, I assume it was to no avail, they never responded to the appeal at all in any way.

UNT was the only one who replied. They sent a letter acknowledging my application and telling me all the stuff they needed to process the application. Then, apparently every time they got some new piece of information, they sent me a postcard saying they were still collecting the stuff. Though they've not yet decided whether I'm to be admitted or not, they've at leas acknowledged that my application is complete and that they are processing it now (I applied to UNT much more recently. Mostly when it became clear that other Universities wouldn't communicate with me).

So, is this just the way of the new world? Apply for a job or to a school and you should consider yourself lucky if they even acknowledge your existence?

I'd think for $50 a head, they could throw a postcard in the mail telling me I didn't get in. That would be better than just pretending I never applied.

 

You know, I tried emailing TCU, and the email bounced back to me.

 

Actually, I could've gotten them today. I haven't gone to get today's mail yet.

As for the deadline thing, TCU, at least, doesn't have a set deadline. The website says they decide on applications "as received". And it's been several months. I tried calling (and emailing), but nobody answers the phone and nobody has yet returned my call.

Plus, one of the things you can run into is having to rely on other institutions for the information to support the application. Unless TCU tells me, I don't know whether they received my transcripts (and UT doesn't even wait for transcripts to deny an application, which I thought was weird) or test scores or whatever. So, if there was a problem sending a transcript, it's really up to the school to tell me... or to tell me what's required to complete the application (for example, the OU application itself makes no mention of Letters of Recommendation, essays, what-have-you, but there is a part of the website that says those are required. Can they really rely on people finding that part of the website? Or maybe a letter would be the way to let people know, so they get the stuff in).

And, to me, it's fraudulent to charge an application fee and never show any evidence that they considered the application (as UT did. They can't accurately judge my application without knowing my undergraduate grades, but they did. For $50, they should at least look at the transcripts).

I assume that I will eventually hear from TCU and OU, but they could be better at communicating with applicants. And if either one of those schools tells me that they're denying my application because I didn't provide something they never asked me to provide, I'll be mad.

 

Checked today's mail. No word from anyone.

 

That was my initial thought.

I have narrowed it down to two options for dealing with TCU.

1. I just go up there and find out what their problem is.

or

2. I call and leave a message saying that since I have no evidence that they ever received my application, and since they refuse to confirm it, I'm going to have to call the bank and stop payment on the application fee check and report the check as stolen.

I figure one of those ideas will get some sort of response. That is, if TCU is even still there in Fort Worth.

 

Did they at least refund your application fee? I mean, the fee is to compensate them for considering your application, if they did not do so, they should've refunded the fee. They took your money under false pretenses otherwise, in my opinion.

 

Not that getting a refund of the application fee would've made you feel that much better anyway.

 

I never did receive any reply from TCU or OU or UT.

I finally called TCU. It took several tries, but I eventually got through to someone. It's interesting. On the TCU website, it lists a person as being in charge of graduate admissions for the college in which I was applying, so I called her. She didn't call back. I called again. She finally called me back and said, "I didn't call you back before because I don't handle graduate admissions at all." But that's what it says she does on the website. What a crazy college.

So anyway, I finally get hold of someone, and she says, "We never got your transcripts from UTA."

ME: Well I sent them. I have my receipt right here.

LADY: We didn't get them, but sometimes things get lost on the way to us.

ME: Okay.

LADY: Speaking of, we also didn't get letters of recommendation from two fo the three people you listed on your application. That's really why I hadn't called or written to you.

ME: Seems to me that you'd let the applicant know what he's missing so he could get those things to you. I mean, that's what I'd do.

LADY: (crickets chirping)

So anyway, she tells me that she's going to go ahead and send my application through without the UTA transcript. That makes no sense to me since the UTA transcript has over half of the last 60 hours they say they use to determine whether a person should be admitted. But whatever.

She also tells me to write a letter telling my story and email that to her to give to the admissions committee. So, I do that by the deadline she sets for me. No response.

I send another UTA transcript. No response. I guess it was just some sort of mistake that I got through to someone at all.

By the way, I contacted the professors who said they'd write letters of recommendation for me to ask if they ever did that (since my transcripts got lost, I thought the letters might have, too), one of my professors actually told me that she never got around to writing it. And she never bothered to tell me that she was backing out of writing the letter.

I mean, I don't care whether she writes one or not, but if you're not going to do it, don't tell me you would be glad to do it. And if you change your mind, take two seconds to tell me.

The other professor has apparently really gotten into this whole "I work for a university so I don't have to ever respond to anything anyone says to me" and not bothered to return my repeated emails or phone calls.

I also called OU. Since I sent my UTA transcripts to them on the same day as I sent the ones to TCU, I thought I'd check and make sure they got them since TCU didn't.

After some fiddling around, I was told that my application was on one of the admissions person's desks and that they did, in fact, receive the UTA transcript.

The thing that gets me is that the Fall semester starts on August 25th. They've had my application for months, and they've had all the supporting materials for about a month and a half, and my application hasn't even gone to the committee yet, AND it hasn't even gone to the department yet.

The lady at OU told me that this is just a preliminary check to see if I qualify for admissions at all. This should be a check the GPA, check the GRE score and send it along, but it's already taken about a month and a half. The lady at OU also told me that the department in which I want to study might well have additional requirements prior to approving my application - things such as essays and the like. But they'll let me know when the application goes to the department.

And school starts on August 25th.

And don't forget about financial aid. It takes a month just to do the paperwork, and they won't even start the paperwork until I've been officially admitted.

So, I'm not so much sure how this is all supposed to work.

As for UT, I just sent them a nasty email.

 

And on a semi-related note, a friend of mine has been job hunting. After being out of work for months, he hit the goldmine and got four interviews in a single week.

The last of the four was in Bentonville, Arkansas. By the time he drives up for the interview, he's already got offers from two of the other three. But he wants to know what Bentonville has to offer. So he still goes.

Interview goes well. Friend informs potential employer of situation and says he can't leave those guys hanging, but he'd really like to work in Bentonville. Potential employer says, "Call me at 3:30pm Tuesday, and I'll let you know my decision."

"Sounds great" friend says.

Tuesday rolls around. Friend calls at 3:30pm. Potential employer is in a meeting. Fine. Friend calls back later on. Potential employer still in meeting. No problem. Friend calls back around quitting time knowing that he's told the two other potential employers who have made offers that he'd get back to them by end of business Tuesday. Now potential employer has gone home for the day.

Friend goes ahead and sticks to his word and takes one of the other two offers.

But the weird thing to me, potential employer from Bentonville NEVER calls to confirm or deny job. He just pretends friend doesn't exist anymore.

Worst part? As part of the deal to get friend to come for interview, Bentonville potential employer agrees to pay for gas and mileage to Bentonville from McKinney. But now Bentonville potential employer is nowhere to be found.

I really, really don't like this trend of pretending that applicants don't exist.