First Employers, Now Colleges

I'm pretty sure Oklahoma isn't part of Texas, so I've not completely left the out-of-staters off the list.

The truth of the matter is, though, that I don't really need a graduate degree, I just want one, and I don't really have a good reason for wanting one. So, I really don't want to ramble too far away. I applied to four schools - OU, UT, TCU and North Texas. There's no doubt about North Texas. So if I want to go and nobody else ever comes around, I'll go there.

Plus, I imagine with school starting in under a month, the deadlines for applying anywhere else have come and gone. If I had to wait until next year, I'd probably just forget the whole thing.

 

I did that weeks ago.

I called OU this morning. The Graduate College told me to check back at the end of the week and they should know something.

Of course, I will be mad if they deny my application. They have their admissions guidelines on their website, and I exceed those guidelines.

 

I'm at the point now where I'm burning bridges. Note my email to UT-Austin (not that I expect a response since they can't be bothered to respond to anything else):

Some time ago, I applied for admission to the University of Texas graduate advertising program. Some time later, my application was denied. After said denial, I wrote a probably long, drawn-out and quite possibly boring letter to your department begging that my entire undergraduate history be taken into account when making said decision as to whether or not to admit me to the University.

You see, my admissions denial was based transcripts from only three of the six colleges or universities I've attended, and it didn't really seem all that keen to make such a heady decision based on coursework that didn't even include the bulk of the last 60 hours I've taken, including ALL of the advertising coursework I've managed to put together.

At the time of my appeal, I also made noises about how my undergraduate advertising professors would rave about my abilities if asked. It's even entirely possible that one or two of them got around to writing letters of recommendation and sending them your way (I know one professor said she would do so, but she has been caring for a sick relative and hasn't found the time).

At any rate, I was just wondering if my appeals to be judged based on my entire academic career, including my most recent work leading up to the BA degree I'm picking up in just under two weeks from the UT-system school, were falling on deaf ears.

I ask this since I've not heard anything since my request for a fair hearing on my record. Not a peep. My understanding is that communicating with applicants has gone the way of the dodo bird at many universities, as I've also not heard from the University of Oklahoma on my application, nor from TCU regarding my application there. That's not your problem, I know. But I thought perhaps it was part of an alarming new trend - the university that doesn't respond to your entreaties.

I realize that, at this point, it's altogether unlikely that I will receive anything positive from the University of Texas regarding my application and appeal. But I would be interested in having some acknowledgement of my appeal and the situation in which we find ourselves - that your university denied my application BEFORE waiting for the transcripts to come in even though the deadline for said transcripts coming in had not yet passed.

I do find it unfortunate that the University of Texas would not want a student that has been described as "uncommonly talented" by more than one professor (who were deemed worthy enough to work at a UT-system school), a student who is an award-winning writer, etc., but I understand how grades in unrelated courses earned years ago at a time when said student was stuggling through the after-effects of a divorce can be FAR more important than, say, the last 60 hours the student has earned, most of which were actually in the advertising field and were earned very recently.

Yes, that cost accounting class I never dropped and got an F in during the Fall of 1991 is so much more relevant to my potential for success in the graduate advertising program than the A grade I got in advertising campaigns class in the Spring semester of 2003. But you didn't even want that UT-Arlington transcript, apparently. I mean, you didn't wait for it to get there before turning me down. That says to me that grades earned five and ten years ago are more important to you than grades earned in the past year.

Of course, by writing this email, I'm sure I'm proving to you that I just don't have the maturity required for graduate work at such a fine institution. I admit it, I'm pissed off. I'm pissed that my $50 application fee can't buy me a FAIR appraisal of my academic history. The decision was made WITHOUT HALF MY TRANSCRIPTS. The decision was made without regard for what professors who taught me in the field I wish to study in graduate school thought of my true abilities. And to add insult to injury, when I bring this breach to the attention of the department, it is ignored.

So yeah, I'm immature when I can't get a fair hearing. I'm immature when my abilities and my capacity are not fairly judged. And I'm immature when my request for fairness is shuttled off into the trash or wherever my previous correspondence has ended up.

All I wanted was some fairness, some true consideration, and some courtesy.

 

I just sent that email to the department, in general.

I was going to keep moving up until I had mailed it to the damn regents. Not that I think it will do any good, but because it feels good.

The thing that gets me about TCU is that they don't have more seats than applicants, as far as I know. Their advertising/pr program is very new. Certainly their capacity has exceeded the number of enrolled students in the previous semesters since they started the program.

I just can't believe how reliant TCU is on one person, apparently. I emailed the head of the department, as well as her boss, and the response I got was "we have to wait for Robyn (from the Dean's office) to get back from vacation."

By the by, she's back from vacation, and she sent me an email that comes across as relatively rude, especially given our previous conversation. I get the feeling she wasn't happy that I contacted other people about the situation.

So, I wrote her back (being sure to cc the other people I had written to at TCU). I had already pretty well decided I wasn't going to go to TCU (can't stand a university that doesn't respect me enough to respond AND who can't manage to not lose my transcripts - especially when they lose the ones from the one school where I have to pay for transcripts), so I officially withdrew my application.

Given that I had pissed her off, I probably wasn't going to get in anyway.

 

I emailed the UT letter to the head of the Advertising Department, the Dean of the College of Communication and the Provost of the University.

Like I said, it won't do any good, but it makes me feel better.

 

Ah. a response, of sorts, from the Department Chair.

Dear Mr.. Paige:

I appreciate your concern and frustration. As Chair of the Department, I am worried that the right kind of communication may not have reached you in a timely manner. I will forward your note to the Department Graduate Advisor and request that he reply to your inquiry as soon as possible.
Since I do not serve on the admissions committee, I cannot tell you what their concerns were regarding your application. In many cases, this process follows specific rules and criteria. Because of the high demand for admission in our program, many deserving applicants have to be turned away each year. I regret that, but given our limited resources we cannot accommodate all qualified students.
In any case, I will make sure that we respond to your questions and give you a thoughtful justification for the decision made by the admissions committee. I apologize for the miscommunication and hope that you will not hold this against our program.
Sincerely,

Isabella Cunningham

 

Well, except that it is, so far, the runaround. The admissions people told me I had to talk to the people in the major department if I had any questions, etc. Now she's telling me that the admissions people are the ones who know.

In the end, there's no good answer, because we can't escape the fact that the University of Texas denied my application before the supporting materials were even in despite the deadlines for getting said materials to them had not yet passed.

And it doesn't answer why my inquiries to her department have gone unanswered since early May.

The only answer I'm interested in is the one where they explain to me how it is possible to accurately judge one's capacity for graduate school without looking at that applicants undergraduate record.

And there is no answer to that question.

But I do appreciate that she took the time to respond. The lack of communication really has been my major beef.

 

More on this. This admissions person who sent me the rude email noted within the email that it is the policy of TCU to not communicate with the applicants when they receive letters of recommendation or transcripts, etc.

I noted that she told me on the telephone the one time I was able to get hold of her that she would contact me when I sent her a letter she requested, as well as when she got my UTA transcript since they lost the first ones.

And to add to her web of lies, I get an email from one of the professors I asked to write a letter of recommendation for me. She noted that she spoke with this woman at TCU some weeks ago to figure out what happened with the letter of recommendation that TCU never received.

At that time, this woman told my professor that she (the woman) would call me to let me know that the professor had spoken to her, etc. and got that all worked out.

So not only is she a big fat liar to applicants. She's a big fat liar to college professors from other Universities.

I don't think this woman is following the Christian ideals this University supposedly supports.

 

Finally got a follow-up from UT, though it didn't answer the question as to why I was turned down for admission or why that admissions decision was made before my UTA transcript got there.

The admissions guy just said my overall application was not as strong as those who were admitted. I asked what the GPA breakdown, etc. was for those who were admitted, etc. And he said he didn't have that information.

He added that it's not just test scores and GPAs they use to make their decision, they also use letters of recommendation, which is funny because no where on the application or in any previous correspondence with me did UT ever let me know that they wanted letters of recommendation. It was only after I got the initial rejection letter from UT that I asked my professors for Recommendation Letters.

Of course, even though my professors told me they'd send letters, not a single one did, according to UT.

The guy kept encouraging me to apply next year as if I'm a glutton for punishment. What's going to change between now and then to suddenly make my application acceptable? I think I can find a better way to spend $55 rather than setting myself up for another rejection.

I don't need more rejection from them, I've got women lining up for miles just waiting to reject me.

Still no word from OU, though I did call and they promised me someone would call me back that very day... though that was last Thursday.

And no more word from TCU since before. And now I'm not hearing from UNT where I figured I was practically guaranteed admission since they use a mathematical formula to determine admissions, supposedly. I've met that criteria, but still no word. To their credit, they did let me know when my application was complete, etc.