Was I ripped off by the graduate school admissions committee at a top 10 university?

November 8, 2009 6:25 PM

Was I ripped off by the graduate school admissions committee at a top 10 university?

I applied to a CS master's program at a top 10 US university a few months ago. I had still not received any sort of answer from the school (mail, email, or otherwise) the weekend before the term (I had applied for) began. I called the program that Friday, but nobody answered. I emailed three different addresses; only one person answered, the director of the program. He emailed me on Sunday morning, the day before the term started. His email said that my application was rejected because I haven't had any math since high school, and because the admissions committee could not determine my mathematics background. In reality, I have taken five math courses in college, including an entire Calculus sequence, and I got A's in all of these.

These math courses were on my undergraduate transcripts; the university's "application status" website indicated that these transcripts had been received, so the program should've been aware that I had taken these courses. I emailed the director back, but he dodged my questions and became argumentative. He's now ignoring my email messages to him.

I feel that my application wasn't taken seriously, that the admissions committee made mistakes in evaluating my application (and is refusing to admit that they did), and that it was wrong of the school to inform me of my admission status the day before the term I applied for was to begin (if I wouldn't have emailed them, I probably would've have never known if I had been admitted or rejected--they have never sent me an official rejection letter). In short, I feel ripped off.

I paid nearly $100 to apply to this program, and I am far from rich. Am I entitled to refund? What would you do if you were me? I emailed the president of the university, explaining my situation, but my emails have been ignored.

posted by anonymous to education (39 comments total)

What would you do if you were me?

I would be annoyed and move on.
posted by The World Famous at 6:36 PM on November 8 [4 favorites has favorites]

Yeah, I would be really annoyed and move on. It sounds like someone messed up really badly, and it sucks that you're out the money, but it's probably time to cut your losses.

Sorry.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:42 PM on November 8

Having no idea which university you applied to or what their policies are, my guess is that no, you are not entitled to a refund. The application fee is not refunded to rejected applicants. "Ripped off" is a bit of a... loaded term? It's $100, not your life's savings (I hope!), and generally speaking the admissions consideration fee is meant as a way to discourage frivolous applications; you're not buying something, you're basically just proving that you aren't carpet-bombing schools with applications when you aren't qualified. You should have waved good-bye to the C-note when you applied.

Some thoughts about the other points you raise:

1) I wouldn't continue to try to contact the admissions people; it's unlikely to accomplish much more than elevating your frustration and wasting your time. It's also quite possible that you haven't given the recipients of your emails enough time to address them. I can't tell from the information in your post, but giving it a few days may get you some answers. I am trying not to speculate, but I get the feeling you may have freaked out a bit (possibly because of the nearness of the new term's commencement) and pestered the admissions people (possibly during a very busy time for them). This is unlikely to get good results. Also, talking to someone in person is preferable to email if that's geographically feasible.

2) Did you apply to any other schools? I suspect you didn't, and I'm not too sure why. Next time around, consider applying to multiple programs, and I'd not wait until the weekend before the term begins to push to determine whether you'd been admitted. I knew months ahead of time where I'd been admitted (and I had to call the department to find out, because they were stalling a bit trying to find funding options for me -- this was a PhD program, however).
posted by axiom at 6:43 PM on November 8

It's certainly unimpressive behavior, but I'm not sure you're entitled to a refund. Are there any rules that you're aware of governing (1) the kind of consideration that $100 buys you, and (2) the timing of their notification of your acceptance or rejection? Since you're getting stonewalled by the department and the administration, I think you'd need to be able to point to specific policies that have been violated in order to get a hearing. At least in Canada, the reasons for rejecting applicants are totally up to the department save for reasons that violate university regulations (e.g. regarding equal opportunity), and the notification schedule is a norm, not a strict policy.
posted by Beardman at 6:44 PM on November 8

I would ask them to reconsider your application in light of their statement that they had not noticed your math background. I would also contact the university ombudsperson.

Beyond that, if they want you, they'll take you, and if they don't, they won't.
posted by zippy at 6:44 PM on November 8

You are not entitled to a refund. You paid $100 dollars for the opportunity to have your application looked at and not $100 dollars to be accepted into the program of your choice. Plenty of applications are not studied as in depth as people would like but that doesn't mean all those people are guaranteed refunds. You asked to be admitted. You paid the fee. They rejected you. They moved on. You should move on too.
posted by Stynxno at 6:45 PM on November 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

This question sounds very odd to me. For one thing, the timing is weird. You just applied a few months ago? I applied to grad school about nine months before the term when I eventually began. Is it possible that you got your application in too late to be seriously considered for admission?

I'm not sure why you didn't get a response and why they seem to be confused about your math background. However, you need to let it go. You sound, frankly, slightly unhinged. You have destroyed any chance you might ever have had at having your application reconsidered by that university. It's really not good for your career prospects to behave belligerently to people in positions of power.
posted by craichead at 6:46 PM on November 8

If it's a top 10 program, do they take applications that late? I'm in the humanities, so things may well be different, but my program (at a flagship state university) accepts students only for the fall, and our application deadline is January 2. If a student applies to our program more than a week or two after that, the graduate school classifies their application as one for the subsequent fall--i.e. an application received in February 2009 would be put in the September 2010 application pool. We don't even see it if we search for September 2009 applicants in the online admission system.

Is there any chance this has happened to you? If so, you might ask whether your application could be reconsidered in next year's admissions round. Even if you met the deadline, you might still point out the discrepancy between your transcripts and what you were told, and ask whether your application could be considered again in the next admissions round.

If I were you, I would have checked in earlier. You said you called on Friday during the summer break--no surprise that the office staff were out, since they probably anticipated an onslaught the following Monday--and then emailed the weekend before the term began. It should not surprise you that administrators, and many professors, do not check their email on weekends. I'm surprised that the program director wrote back to you on Sunday.

In short, it sounds like your situation sucks, but the best recourse you can expect is reconsideration in the next admissions round. You can certainly ask for that. It also sounds from your description as if you've been confrontational about this matter, which might make you feel better but probably won't help you actually resolve the situation.
posted by brianogilvie at 6:51 PM on November 8

IMHO, overlooking relevant background and experience on your transcripts is a major mistake on their admissions team - you may not have gotten in even if they had correctly considered your coursework - but all applicants deserve a fair and honest review of their credentials. I agree with those that mention that the timing seems a bit off here. But in the event that your application materials were in before the closing date, I would ask for a refund of your application fee, and move on (and do not ask them to review your application for a later, and do not apply to them later on - do you really want to be a part of a graduate program that is so completely disorganized?).

2-3 years ago, I applied to a graduate program. I had called to check on the status of my application, and got the run around. The eventual status of it, was that it ended up in a totally and completely different department, and I had been "rejected" - which wasn't a surprise, since I had neither background nor interest in this other program. It was also weird to me, that they didn't find anything suspicious about my statement, which was intended (and mentioned) the right and intended department. They offered to waive my application fee, and review my application for the following year (in the intended program). It was a good program, but I declined, and asked for a refund of my fee - this was not a department (departments?) I wanted to work with, considering the mass disorganization and constant BS info I received.

Get your fee refunded, but accept it as a blessing that you don't want to be involved in a department or program that fucks up so royally - and it could have been much, much worse had you actually been accepted.
posted by raztaj at 6:58 PM on November 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

You know, I don't actually feel that 5 undergrad math courses is all that many for a top 10 masters program in CS. Maybe you were rejected for having inadequate mathematical background and the director of the program misspoke in his email and said that you hadn't taken any math courses. This doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't receive a fair evaluation, just that directors of graduate programs are very busy and sometimes make mistakes in the many emails they send out each day.
I have to take issue with the way you handled the situation. Firstly, as pointed out above, you should have checked in with how your application was doing way before the weekend before the term began. These things are decided months in advance and you would have had a better chance of correcting things, if a mistake had been made. Second, having suddenly been roused to action, you emailed three different people at once and seemed to have rapidly become an annoyance. Finally, am not sure why you thought this was worth escalating to the level of the president of the university. Graduate school admissions are generally conducted on the level of the individual department and the president is highly unlikely to intervene to return your $100 to you, especially since the evidence that your application was unfairly handled is slim at best.
posted by peacheater at 7:00 PM on November 8 [5 favorites has favorites]

FWIW, I didn't think you sound unhinged (although I agree with craichead that there's a risk of harming your reputation by keeping this up).
posted by Beardman at 7:01 PM on November 8

Nthing the general consensus to move on, as you are by no means entitled to a refund. One minor note, if it provides some context: application procedures for large universities are incredibly complex and involve dozens of people. I've had a grad program reject me because, for no reason other than their own clerical error, they thought that I was my little sister. I've had a major school accept me, offer me a lot of money, and then never respond to any of my inquiries about a visit. The program I'm attending now accepted 5 out of over 100 applicants. There's a good chance that the program director is mixing you up with someone else, or simply misremembering your application. He probably isn't (and shouldn't be) too bothered to figure out exactly who you are and why you didn't get in. This isn't because you aren't a wonderful, special, intelligent individual, but because you competed with an extremely large number of similarly intelligent wonderful folks. Not getting into a grad program is like not winning the lottery- it's disappointing, but likely. And, unfortunately, you don't get your money back.
posted by farishta at 7:01 PM on November 8

This is why I have a strict policy of never discussing an application with an applicant after the decision is made. The guy who told you anything at all about why you were rejected might not have a clue about the details of the process. You are just hurt. Let it go.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:04 PM on November 8

There's a good chance that the program director is mixing you up with someone else, or simply misremembering your application.

That's my hunch, too. I wouldn't assume that they misread your application. It sounds more like the program director might have been confusing you with another rejected applicant. I actually find it a little weird that the program director gave you a reason at all, since it usually boils down to "you were highly qualified, but this program is ultra competitive, and we happened to have applicants who were even more amazingly qualified than you."
posted by craichead at 7:07 PM on November 8

I actually do think you're entitled to a refund, but I don't believe you'll get it. Those saying you should move on are probably right; those saying that your paying the $100 fee didn't obligate the school to follow through on their end are incorrect (in terms of ethics, not in terms of the reality of academic admissions).

Someone screwed up. There's no good way to know whether it was a technical glitch (like, say, the application review tool on the website malfunctioned), or a clerical error (a staff member in the admissions office misplaced or incorrectly entered your transcript information), or an admissions faculty member's error (they simply overlooked the material in your application). This error cost you the opportunity to be accepted or rejected based on the actual merits of your application; the process for which you paid a $100 fee was not completed due to the fault of the admissions office, not you.

If you really want to pursue this, you need a sympathetic ear in the admissions office. The admissions director who reviewed your application has shown himself to be unwilling to reconsider. Depending on the atmosphere of the office, the relationship between the committee and the individual staff members who do general public-facing and clerical work, you might be able to reach someone and explain what happened and convince them to help you get a refund (or perhaps more easily, a credit toward a re-application). One thing you have going for you is that you have in writing an explanation for your rejection that doesn't make sense in light of the record on the university's website (which indicates that your transcript was received).

I say all of this because I have worked in various academic offices, including an admissions office, and in my experience a lot depends on the personalities involved and whether or not you can find a buddy. To be frank, I don't think you have much of a chance, but if you can connect with the right staff person, you might be able to do this.
posted by Meg_Murry at 7:08 PM on November 8 [2 favorites has favorites]

Also, after rereading your question: if you want to be taken seriously by this program for future admission, I would definitely stop emailing people. In fact your best bet might be to reapply and pretend all of this never happened. Remember: your department is selecting a colleague. Don't put them off.
posted by farishta at 7:09 PM on November 8

Oh, yeah, in light of farishta's comment: I should add, I don't mean by any of my above comments that you should harass anyone in a decision-making role. My advice would be to drop this despite having been wronged OR pick up the phone and try to reach a staff member and then play dumb ("I see online that my transcript was received but I got a rejection notice from the committee indicating they never saw it. I feel like I just wasted $100. Can you help me?").
posted by Meg_Murry at 7:34 PM on November 8 [2 favorites has favorites]

If dropping the whole thing and moving on seems too much like giving up, I'd consider writing an extraordinarily polite letter to the Department Chair or Dean responsible for the graduate program in your field of choice (not the Director who is dodging you), CC'd to someone in the central administration responsible for the overall graduate admissions process and, of course, to the aforementioned director. Do not write the President of the University; this information is of no use to him. In said letter, I would lay out the problems you experienced as calmly and succinctly as possible. The goal of this letter isn't to ask for any money back, it's simply to say: I held your program in great esteem and looked forward to applying, X/Y/Z happened, I feel like my time and energy was wasted, and I wanted to bring this to your attention in the hope that other applicants in the future may have a more positive experience.

Asking for money is just going to get your letter kicked into the circular file. Will this letter get you reconsidered for admission? Probably not, but there's little you can do in that regard at this point except through personal relationships with the faculty. The beauty of this letter is that you aren't asking for anything; you're giving them feedback by simply telling them what happened, how it made you feel, and asking that they take note of the situation so others don't wind up in the same boat in the future. The idea is to outclass them to the extent possible: you're not lawyering or making demands, you're sharing your story in the hope it will be useful to them.

From this, they can do one of three things:
* Ignore it. They are being jerks, you get the last laugh, tell everyone you know to avoid these folks, and life goes on.
* Promise to reconsider you for next year/schedule you for an interview/otherwise take action on your application. An unlikely result, but not impossible, and certainly nothing to sneeze at.
* Send back a brief apology letter. The most likely scenario. You've all acted like grown-ups, everyone comes out of this with lessons learned (e.g. for you: apply to more than one school, be much more proactive, etc...; for them: don't waste applicant's time), and you get cracking on your applications for next year.

Good luck!
posted by zachlipton at 7:43 PM on November 8

Not weighing in the debate, but having spent a bit of time around people working in admissions, please please please, be nice to admissions people. I'm not saying you are one of these people, but they deal with furious potential students all the time, students that call them names, shout at them, don't understand processes and don't respect them, or basic courtesy. It's easy to think of uni admins as heartless monsters, but the ones I knew weren't heartless, and the abuse really upset them much of the time. Like so many things, courtesy and friendliness will get you further than anger. Keep (politely, gently) going up the chain if you must, but I don't like your chances.
posted by smoke at 7:47 PM on November 8

+1 to peacheater above... 5 math courses, if those included calculus, are probably not sufficient for a graduate program in CS at a top 10 university, unless you did spectacularly well on GRE subjects or have a lot of other material to show. I'm also very confused about timing... even for masters, most applications are due in Dec or Jan for the following fall. But all that aside, my guess is that you were rejected and the director remembered a vague notion for why and told you that. I really wouldn't push this - you might want to apply to this department in the future, and even if you don't, burning bridges in one place has a habit of carrying over to other places as well.
posted by devilsbrigade at 8:21 PM on November 8

I think you should take them to small claims court. You've got the email and you've got your transcript, right? They're inept. You're entitled to a refund.

Mind you, there's an excellent argument for dropping this. But I hate all forms of pay to play, and that definitely includes schools that charge people money for the privilege of rejecting them.
posted by shetterly at 8:26 PM on November 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

The truth is that you have no idea why you got rejected, and you never will. Maybe it was a clerical error. Maybe the thought wasn't expressed clearly in the email. And maybe you were rejected for some completely unrelated reason that can never be named: your ethnicity, your hometown, the fact that your name reminds some administrative assistant of her ex-boyfriend. Or maybe they had to give your spot to the chancellor's nephew. Maybe the person who wrote you the letter of explanation was feeling vindictive and tired, and decided to give you a ridiculous, obviously untrue reason just to fuck with your mind.

It isn't just and it isn't right. But it's a very common sort of situation. Comfort yourself by thinking of it like this: You haven't been rejected by a person, but by a system. It's not personal. It just didn't work out. Getting through the bureaucracy counts just as much as being qualified, and you didn't get through.

You are going to run into lots and lots of situations like this, especially in academia. Get used to it and don't internalize it.
posted by bingo at 8:31 PM on November 8

Given how badly you have been treated by them, would you really want to enroll — assuming they do end up offering you a position in the program — and suffer further indignities?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:32 PM on November 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is a derail, but 5 math classes is plenty to get into a CS program at any university. I say this as someone who managed to be accepted to 5 of the top 10 CS programs with a measily 3 math classes. No one is counting math classes. I shared an office with someone with an English undergraduate degree and no programming experience prior to grad school.

Anyway, applications for graduate schools are handled by the department, mostly by faculty and some upper-level graduate students. Some departments are more on top of this than others, and some, due to administrative energies being focused elsewhere are downright terrible.

So, taking your experience at face value, you ended up applying to a very disorganized department, one that either didn't read your application carefully at all, or one run by someone prone to giving out BS answers. The thing is, if they are this broken for something this important, then there is almost a guarantee that things that are less important to the department, but very necessary for its graduate students will get left by the wayside. Believe me, you don't want anything to do with a department that doesn't have its game together enough to help you find funding or travel programs.

If they're not answering your emails then there is almost 0 chance that you're going to get it back. For credit cards you can try a charge back. Otherwise, consider it $100 paid to root out a poorly run program disguised as a top 10 pick.
posted by Alison at 8:44 PM on November 8 [2 favorites has favorites]

I'd consider it a dodged bullet personally. The last thing you want is to go to a badly run masters program- it will turn your hair gray. I would write a letter to the Dean/ graduate office as noted above because that is the sort of thing they need to know (and the sort of ammunition they need to get rid of a slacker in their office too).
posted by fshgrl at 9:14 PM on November 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

Did you study previously at a US university? The US system is particular and does not work the same way as systems in other countries. Piece of advice for dealing with graduate programs in the US system: they do not make mistakes. Well, in reality they DO make mistakes, but you will not do yourself any good by insisting stubbornly that you are right, were treated unfairly, etc. Consider that their time is valuable and they would be doing you a favor if they would give advice on what is required in a successful application. Again, I am not saying they were right, it is more.. you have to swallow your pride and be a little more deferential if you want to find out the best way to accomplish your goal, which is to successfully complete a master's.
posted by citron at 9:53 PM on November 8

You paid $100 to find out that your potential school was operated in a shady fashion. From that perspective your lesson was very, very cheap; it could have been the cost of a year's tuition that taught you that lesson.
posted by davejay at 10:31 PM on November 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

like some others above have pointed out, i am confused as to the timing. i have never heard of top 10 university programs in this country accepting applications in the summer for admissions in the fall of that same year. it also sounds like you have only applied to this one program, which...why would you unless you were supremely confident you would be accepted? and i don't understand why you only began to inquire about the status of your application the weekend before term began. what?

shetterly's suggestion that you take this to small claims court seems...ludicrous and why the US has had such a reputation for being such a litigous society. i mean, it's $100. granted, not an inconsiderable amount of money but also not a considerable amount of money, though i may feel differently if some of the confusion i mentioned above was cleared up. furthermore, i don't understand shetterly's point regarding "pay for play." nearly every college/university in the US (if not all) requires an application fee. should no one apply for higher education in order to protest such fees?
posted by violetk at 1:01 AM on November 9

Who waits until the weekend before classes are going to start before following up on something like this? I find that completely inexplicable. At every level of education you have to apply for, you're informed of your status at least months in advance.
posted by kmz at 2:35 AM on November 9

I think there are no good reasons to accuse the department of acting in a "shady fashion" here, nor any possible cause for taking them to court, nor really much to be gained by raising a stink.

Graduate admissions are rarely handled (except pro forma, at the end) by any entity outside of a department -- there is no admissions office involved, unless it's a huge program.

Dollars to donuts the director mixed you up with someone else, or was talking out his ass.

Application fees don't make any money for anyone. They discourage spurious applications. I spend at least an hour on each serious application to my own grad program, and we'll discuss the top 20 or so for many hours in committee. Adding in the time spent processing your application, handling your phone calls, meeting you when you visit campus (if you do), etc., $100 doesn't begin to cover the cost of reviewing an application.

Just to give you a sense of the scale of these things: for our humanities department at a major university, we'll get about 350-500 applications this year for our PhD programs. We have 11 or 12 funded positions in the program most years. I doubt the odds are much better here.

A legitimate reason exists to reject any application, whether you were told that reason or not.
posted by fourcheesemac at 3:55 AM on November 9 [2 favorites has favorites]

For one thing, the timing is weird. You just applied a few months ago? I applied to grad school about nine months before the term when I eventually began. Is it possible that you got your application in too late to be seriously considered for admission?

i am confused as to the timing. i have never heard of top 10 university programs in this country accepting applications in the summer for admissions in the fall of that same year.

The deadline for University of Washington's CS Professional Master's program is July 1 for fall admission. But the quarter started in late September, so I'm not sure why the OP would only be asking this question now...
posted by puffin at 4:03 AM on November 9

Professional MA programs work on a different calendar than PhD programs. They also, generally, do not fund their students.

So the advice to the OP -- you don't want to go to a program you don't feel good about -- goes double here. Because one assumes you'll be paying the tab. And $100 is chicken feed, if so.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:38 AM on November 9

You paid $100 dollars for the opportunity to have your application looked at

Except it sounds like it wasn't looked at. Given the statements from the director of admissions, and the fact that no notice was given, it sounds very much like someone completely dropped the ball.

Well, save for cashing the check.

shetterly's suggestion that you take this to small claims court seems...ludicrous

Fraud is not ludicrous. Send me a hundred dollars and I'll give you a detailed explanation of why that's the case. Just because this is a university and not someone offering to enlarge your penis doesn't make it any less illegal. It sounds like they fucked up. He paid for services that were not rendered. If they are not willing to offer a refund, they are stealing his money.

Know, of course, that going down this route will likely get your name blacklisted.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:41 AM on November 9

Given the statements from the director of admissions, and the fact that no notice was given, it sounds very much like someone completely dropped the ball.

The director of admissions made that statement on a Sunday, because the OP contacted him the Friday before classes started. The director of admissions presumably wanted to get back to him before Monday, since the OP seems to have been under the impression that he might be starting the program on Monday. Academic programs get hundreds of applications. Directors of admissions don't store those files in their homes. He was going from memory, and he misremembered. That doesn't mean that the committee failed to consider the application in the first place.

It makes more sense, though, that this was a professional program. In my experience, departments often treat those like cash cows and treat the students pretty shoddily. I agree with people above who say that the OP should consider this a bullet dodged.
posted by craichead at 6:33 AM on November 9

This happened to my sister with the Occupational Therapy program she applied to. She was rejected summarily, despite a stellar academic record, impressive extracurricular activities, and being an alum of the university. Turns out that she never DID get a fair shake from the admissions committee: the fucked up. But they never admitted it. And I doubt that yours will either.

The did ultimately backtrack and "found a spot" for her in the program. But by then she had seen the true colors of the administration, and had decided to join the Peace Corps. She gleefully declined their offer.

If I were dead set on the program, then I would ask for an appointment with an admissions counselor and I would ask to have my application reviewed "so that I can understand what I need to do to be a better applicant." That could start the "WTF" ball rolling in their court, and aid you in reapplication later. (Maybe even with a waived fee...)
posted by greekphilosophy at 10:09 AM on November 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

I had still not received any sort of answer from the school (mail, email, or otherwise) the weekend before the term (I had applied for) began.

This means you were rejected, and they screwed up and did not send you your rejection promptly. I assure you that if they had expected you to show up on Monday, you would have received a tuition bill long before--even if you had been awarded a full fellowship, you would have been billed for "student activities fees" and what-not.

I called the program that Friday, but nobody answered. I emailed three different addresses; only one person answered, the director of the program. He emailed me on Sunday morning, the day before the term started. His email said that my application was rejected because I haven't had any math since high school

Yeah, this just means that the director of the program misspoke in his email, or perhaps confused you with another rejected applicant. It really doesn't mean that they didn't consider your transcripts correctly during the actual admissions process.

Maybe they didn't consider your transcripts correctly. I don't know, and you don't know. But you don't have any evidence that they didn't, other than the program director's off-the-cuff email (presumably from his home) on a Sunday. THE SUNDAY BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF TERM.

Now, I spent 5+ years as a university administrator, and I can tell you that the day before the beginning of term is a crazy time and overstressed people make a bunch of mistakes.


Here is who can help you: the university ombudsman, as already suggested. (If there is no university ombudsman identified on the website or in the catalog, contact the Dean or Director of Student Life--they will know to whom to direct your concerns.)

Here is who CAN NOT help you:

- the President of the university (who will have some 20-something aspiring novelist or playwright dismiss your concerns with a form letter--I know this, because that was once my job)

- small claims court (it will cost you more than the $100 in filing fees and in the cost of getting another original set of transcripts, and the director's email proves nothing except that the director made a mistake in his email)

- the director of the program (you are just a thorn in his flesh right now, because you bugged him with what he thought were crazy questions and harangues on day before term started and on the first few days of term).


So I would encourage you to work through the university's ombudsman and the Admissions Department to find out if your application was, or was not, correctly assessed. If there was a mistake, it's pretty likely they'll refund your application fee, just for the goodwill.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:34 AM on November 9

Fraud is not ludicrous.

I'm not anyone's lawyer here, and I'm not offering legal advice. But before you throw around the word "fraud," you might want to look up the elements of actual, actionable fraud.
posted by The World Famous at 11:43 AM on November 9

craichead and Sidhedevil: the guy didn't even get an actual rejection letter! While I completely agree that the Director was quite possibly making things up over a busy weekend, the fact that the program couldn't be bothered to communicate the most basic fact that the OP didn't get in speaks volumes to the point that his application was not seriously considered. Sending admission and rejection letters to all applicants is absolutely a basic function of an admissions office. (Calling far before the weekend before the semester starts if you don't receive any letter is also a basic responsibility of the applicant, but that's another story.)

The question here is what, if anything, the OP should do at this point.
posted by zachlipton at 2:10 PM on November 9

zachlipton: Not receiving a rejection letter isn't as strong a sign as you might think. As far as I can tell, admissions coordinators for CS grad programs are seriously overworked, and failing to send rejection letters is not an uncommon occurrence. When I applied to Ph.D. programs in computer science, two of the six programs I applied to never bothered to send me rejection letters.

I know that in at least one of those cases my application was (somewhat) properly considered: a professor from the department emailed me in January, referencing my personal statement, to ask if I'd be interested in working with him. After I declined -- the link between my stated interests and his research was kind of a stretch; I was hoping for a different professor -- I never heard from the department again. I'm not sure what happened with the other program.
posted by Serf at 1:27 AM on November 13