Monday, May 15, 2006

Rejection at Penn State

Pooped in Tucson writes...

I thought you and your readers might want to
know what happened with Penn State. I, along with many others, applied to PSU
by their January 15th deadline and paid the online fee (which, if I recall
correctly, was rather steep). Not only did they not notify until May 5, but
when they did, they did so via a form e-mail -- an e-mail that showed the
e-mail addresses of every single rejectee! The director violated both common
decency and Penn State's posted privacy policy, and even in the face of massive
uproar, has thus far refused to apologize. People are seriously pissed -- I've
gotten more than 30 e-mails from angry applicants in the last three days.
People are talking about demanding application fees back; somebody even
mentioned a lawsuit.

I think that's going overboard, but I'd be curious to know what you think about
the situation. And to your readers, they should think long and hard about
applying to Penn State in the future.

Thanks PiT. I saw that email, as a couple of readers cc'd me on their responses to the program director and the other 400 rejected applicants. Lots of anger there, which is understandable. I'm shocked that there's not been an apology. My sense is that the administrative person must have included the emails in cc: instead of bcc:. This is likely a simple mistake, but with complex consequences, such as word getting around about the ineptness and coldness of the program. An early apology might've settled all this.

I have a question for our readers actually: What percentage of your application responses (either acceptance or rejections) arrive via email? I'd be interested to see how programs are leaning.

And of course you can write in about your responses to Penn State, including any new news. Thanks.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had 1 acceptance, 2 wait lists and 8 rejections, all of which arrived via snail mail, except the acceptance which was a phone call.

Anonymous said...

First, I only applied to low-res programs because of family responsibilites. Therefore, I applied to three. Yes, three schools.

Second, my acceptance came via mail then, as a way of introduction, an email.

Third, I got one rejection through mail, but I've still not received word from another. That was more than a year ago.

Anonymous said...

Out of 6 schools I had 1 email acceptance, 1 acceptance by phone, 1 waitlist letter, and 3 rejection letters. Sometimes you can get info sooner by checking your app. status online... this was what I did with Wisconsin.

Anonymous said...

Vanderbilt rejection came via e-mail. Arizona waitlist and eventual acceptance came via e-mail. Washington (Seattle) waitlist never came, but eventual rejection notifying me of my previously waitlisted status came by e-mail. Tasteless Penn State rejection via e-mail.

Anonymous said...

I applied to and was accepted by four schools. One school accepted by phone call first, two others by email first, and then in all three cases, an official letter arrived by snail mail shortly after. One school sent a letter by snail mail only.

Anonymous said...

Rejections from:
U-Iowa
Virginia
Texas-San Marcos
Irvine
Michigan
All by regular mail.

Anonymous said...

Applied to 4 schools.
Rejected by 1.
Accepted by 2, with merit $$$ offers.

As for the last one, I got an e-mail saying I'd made the first cut, then was told, on the phone, that I very likely won't receive a decision until August.

Meaning that I couldn't go anyway!

I brought this up. The gentleman there said that if I wouldn't be able to attend I should withdraw my application. I didn't ask if I could get the fee back.

Anonymous said...

4 rejections all by snail mail (UT-Austin, Brown, Notre Dame, Florida).

2 acceptances by snail mail, but I got an email from one of them before I got the letter, asking what my response to the letter was (my fault: I moved and didn't update my address with the program).