Underwhelming..........

anirudhreddy · 03-21-2008, 08:24 AM

Student Viewbook:
Let me start by saying that I was awed at actually recieving a college handbook, a few forms (one of them had a section where my admission pin was highlighted and the pin was written by hand(def not computer generated)) and a cd about cmu in the mail, right after I applied(in NOV07). None of my friends even got a small indication, in the mail, that their application had been recieved.
Decision Letter:
I recieved a small white envelope usually given to the unlucky who have been rejected. The letter in the envelope was actually a "You are accepted" letter, nothing more, nothing less (A depersonalized letter........those which usually say "signature not required as this is a computer generated letter"). I was already like "ok.........".

3 months later:
Have not even heard from them since...... The student online chat room was empty yesterday (no i was not using it at the wrong time, someone was supposed to be there).
All this, while my friends who had applied to other uni's later than me, have now recieved all the info from the schools they were accepted into (Personalised certificates of admission, correspondence from the freshman at that university etc.)
I know that the admissions committe is really busy...............but could the current students please shed light on this?

KrazyKow · 03-21-2008, 10:16 AM

So you're saying you were admitted ED and you haven't heard since? My guess is that they will send you housing info and the like when they send out the first batch of RD decisions (CMU normally takes about 2 weeks to send out all decisions), since it isn't really advantageous for them to print and mail stuff before then. The fat letters are in physical existence now, though; I happened to walk by a room that seemed to be full of them...

pjpj · 03-21-2008, 10:50 AM

I'd say there's not a kid on the planet (well, there *are* masochists...) who will appreciate a school more because it makes him wait an extra week or two for the decision. So an admiss department that wants applicants to love them (and by association, the school) would send out the fat envelopes the minute they've been stuffed, wouldn't ya think?

It's funny how gatekeepers sometimes come to think they own the mansion, very generally and metaphorically speaking and not necessarily applicable here.

anirudhreddy · 03-21-2008, 11:44 AM

I think u misunderstood my previous post pjpj............YES they would post them out as soon as they could. Thats why i was ASKING the CURRENT students whether they were in the same situation("could current students shed some light on this") as me, had to wait for 3 months before hearing from CMU. Also, I have already recieved a decision letter, and its 3 months (hello!) not an "extra week or two". (wouldn't u be a teeny bit worried? especially if it was your first choice school?)
Thanks for your VERY rude post.........buddy.

pjpj · 03-21-2008, 01:14 PM

Well, I hope anirudhreddy actually picks a different school, cause s/he doesn't read well and seems to come with an anti-social chip on the shoulder. I had nothing to say to that posting, not being a CURRENT STUDENT, and was in fact responding to the immediately previous post, KrazyKow's comments about the piles of envelopes sitting in a room, unmailed. So sorry to have earned OP's ire.

anirudhreddy · 03-21-2008, 08:33 PM

I am sorry if u think so! I thought your previous post was directed at me....but anyway does anyone else have some useful comments?

rlm919 · 03-21-2008, 09:24 PM

Well I am a parent of a current student. While I think the education my daughter is receiving is excellent, the nuts and bolts of how the place is run is horrible. Very inefficient and antiquated administration, which is odd since they have a high-tech rep. So I don't think your situation is odd at all, but you always could call admissions and ask if there is any additional info you should have received, just to ease your mind.

Abhinav · 03-26-2008, 07:48 AM

They finally sent out my welcome packet today (ED), but at their speed, I think I'll get it by May if I'm lucky.

Witt · 03-26-2008, 01:14 PM

Is that packet of info anirudhreddy recieved equivalent to a likely letter? cuz I recieved the exact same thing. I assumed everyone who applied did.

awvvu · 03-26-2008, 01:36 PM

I already sent my enrollment deposit and everything (ED) a while ago. All we've received are tiny little envelopes, so I'm guessing this will finally be our "big" packet with all the enrollment information and such.

Abhinav · 03-26-2008, 01:55 PM

Anirudh was accepted ED, so was I.

We got our acceptances as totally oring one-page letters, and that's about all we've heard from CMU so far.

KrazyKow · 03-26-2008, 11:44 PM

A few things-

Prices on housing for the following year aren't typically set until mid-March, because Room Draw hasn't yet happened. That means they couldn't send you complete housing information, and given that they send everything together, it wouldn't make sense to send anything.

While it's bad that the stuff was printed and sitting there, it wasn't done- I don't think they were in envelopes. They might have just be the information without actually letters of acceptance in them - meaning decisions may not be done, or scholarship decisions might not be done; they may have just gotten most of the stuff back from the printers.

I'm not claiming that CMU's administration is great, but cut them some slack.

RacinReaver · 03-28-2008, 12:25 AM

If you attend CMU, you'll quickly find out that the central CMU administration is absolutely terrible, but the people that work in your department are fantastic. It's really a shame that they can't get their act together.

I remember one time I was getting my transcripts for grad school. I dropped by the HUB which is where you purchase them.
Me: Hi, I'd like four transcripts and one unofficial transcript.
HUB: Ok, thanks for the check, let me get your official transcripts.
::gets 4 official ones::
Me: Can I get the unofficial one?
HUB: No, you have to request that online.
Me: Can I use the open computer next to you really quick to do that? (Nobody else was in the office).
HUB: No, you can't do that. You'll have to use your own computer.
Me: Ok, fine, be right back.
::runs to a computer lab, requests unofficial transcript to be printed out by them::
Me: Alright, I requested it online, can I pick it up now?
HUB: Sorry, you missed the same-day deadline by five minutes. Come back tomorrow.

Abhinav · 03-28-2008, 12:55 AM

Five minutes? They need to learn what "human" means!

RacinReaver · 03-28-2008, 07:03 AM

They also have a pretty bad tendency to charge you for random things or to forget important things. I had a number of friends that had financial aid mixups which took a week or two to get corrected, a bit of an irritant at the beginning of the semester when you need to buy books, pay rent, pay tuition, etc.

I graduated half a year early, and even though I filled out all the paperwork and everything was set up, CMU still continued to issue me my student loans. If I hadn't randomly checked my account status one day, I wouldn't have noticed I was randomly up $7000! Once I pointed it out to them they fixed it pretty quickly and I wasn't charged anything, but it can still be a bit of an annoyance.