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From: Me To: Graduate Divsion of the Math Dept. at University of Washington. To Whom This May Concern: My name is Joyce Cheuk, and I submitted an application for the Ph.D program for Mathematics for your school several months ago (well before the Feb. 1 deadline) along with the supporting material packet. I have not heard anything from your school yet, and your website suggests sending an inquiry if no response has come by about this time. Please contact me by e-mail as soon as you can about this. Sincerely, Joyce Cheuk From: Staff member of Student Services To: ME Hello In regards to your application some offers have gone out. Starting last week some decision letters were mailed. As things progress, more will be sent on through April. I hope this helps the waiting. Sincerely, Staff Member A Student Services Math Dept. From: Same staff member from Student Services To: Me Joyce, As I look further I find that you withdrew your application as of 9/28/01. Please review your information again. If you have any other questions please contact us further. Sincerely, Staff Member A Student Services Math Dept. Me:WHAT?!!! OH (Insert profanity here) and (insert more profanity) how in the name of Galois (breaks some chairs, you hear a cat screaming in the background running away in fear) From: Me To: Staff Member A Dear Staff Member A, What?! I didn't withdraw my application! I even sent in supporting material at the end of December and no one said a thing to me about problems with my application! If I did withdraw my application in September, why would I send in transcripts, letters of recommendation and GRE scores? Shouldn't someone have contacted me about my strange behavior if I did withdraw my application and then sent in supporting material later? This is horrible. Aside from this e-mail I haven't heard anything from your school since September 21, when I got an e-mail from you answering my question about where to send printouts of my online application. How did I withdraw my application? Please contact me about this. Sincerely, Joyce Cheuk Me: So ten days pass until I finall get an e-mail. Anyone want to buy some broken chairs and a cat with really straight fur? From: Staff Member A To: Me Joyce, I only have the information shown in the database as to your withdrawal. I would suggest that you contact Staff Member B staffmemberb@u.washington.edu in the Graduate Admissions dept. to ask further about your application and how this came to be. Sincerely, Staff Member A Me: Uh... I waited 10 days for this? I thought they were doing some through investigation or something. I suppose my e-mail was just wasting away at the bottom of an e-mail list. Okay, off to talk to Staff Member B. From:Me To:Staff Member B Dear Ms. Staff member B, My name is Joyce Cheuk, and I'm forwarding you this string of e-mail between myself and Ms. Staff Member A from the math department. Ms. Staff member A suggested I e-mail you about this problem with my application for graduate school. I was only recently informed (after e-mailing Ms. Staff Member A about my application status) that the records at the math department show that I withdrew my graduate application as of 9/28/2001. This is very much news to me, since I never asked to withdraw my application. I even sent in supporting material in December with a letter asking for a reply if anything else was needed. I would very much appreciate it if you could tell me what happened to cause this. Please contact me as soon as you can. Sincerely, Joyce Cheuk Me: Translation: "I want to know whose head shall roll for this total injustice! Is it you? Is it Staff Member B? And you'd *bleep bleep* better not keep me waiting for another 10 days! Interestingly enough, a third person replied back. We'll call this person The Director. Wow, now it's really starting to sound like a conspiracy story! From: The Director To: Me Dear Ms. Cheuk, your question has been forwarded to me for a response. In looking into this situation, it appears that in the course of our changing to a process of automatically uploading electronic applications to our database, your application was entered twice. This was corrected by withdrawing one of those entries. Unfortunately, this was interpreted by the Mathematics Department as a complete withdrawal of the application and it was not considered with the others for Autumn 2002. Me: Sure... blame the computer. Sheesh, don't you people communicate between one another? Argh. I'm still wondering why no one thought it was strange I sent in all the support material. After discussing the situation with faculty and staff in the Mathematics Department, it is clear that it is now too late to consider your application for Autumn Quarter 2002. I will therefore arrange for a refund of your $45 application fee. Me: At least I can buy a video game with that money. :p Now I need to make a disgruntled Konasento icon. In addition, if you would like to have your application deferred until Autumn 2003, I will do so without charge. If you would like to take advantage of this option, please let me know by June 1, 2002. Me: Ah ha ha ha HA! Oh man, you really expect me to give up all the other schools for a deferred APPLICATION?! Oh man, you people are hilarious! On their website they state that for extreme cases they consider peple for Winter Quarter. If this isn't extreme, I don't know what is considered extreme. Please accept my sincere apologies for this misunderstanding. Me: What? No groveling? Oh well, I will accept this apology. Doesn't mean I won't hate University of Washington for the rest of my life, but what else can I do but sue you? HMM.... Best wishes in your future educational endeavors. Me: And have fun losing more overqualified applicants with your funky computer program! The Director Office of Graduate Admissions University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-2191 Telephone (206) 543-5815 Fax (206) 543-8798 http:/www.grad.washington.edu |
