Here is a copy of a letter I recently wrote to West Chester University in response to my son’s application for admission… for what it’s worth.
I am compelled to write to you today to inform you of the unfortunate experience we had at the hands of the West Chester University Admissions Department. My son is a student at the ***** and also a triplet. Our family has spent the last year devoted to the college process times three. After nearly twenty school visits, thirty submitted applications and months of anticipation and hand-wringing, we began to receive the notifications. I am proud to say we have one DuPont Scholar with a full ride, another Schreyer’s Honor and Millennium PHD Scholar and **** himself with a merit scholarship to High Point University.
However, **** was determined to attend West Chester University and pursued this goal by taking honors classes, PSU Dual Enrollment credits and giving 110% to his academics this year on track to graduate with a 3.1.
As the admissions decisions rolled in, we were notified that WCU would complete the process by April 1st. Then we were updated with a new date of April 11th. I understand that you had a record setting number of applicants this year. I also understand that your staff worked diligently to get through every application as quickly as possible. What I do not understand is why my son was made to wait at the mailbox April 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th until we finally convinced your staff that his envelope was lost in the mail and we would drive the 30 miles to pick up a new one in person.
You apparently have a policy prohibiting decisions by email or fax (even though my other son was notified early by email and invited to apply for a scholarship). I would ask you to review this policy. In today’s world of electronic messaging, it seems archaic to rely solely on the US Postal Service for delivery of such important information. My heart broke as I watched my son stoically suppress his tears in the middle of your admissions lobby with strangers to witness.
Whether right or wrong, the pressures of going to college and sometimes reaching unrealistic heights have descended upon our kids with such crushing intensity that I often marvel at how they can endure. With all of this anxiety, a bit of sensitivity training in the college admissions process would be invaluable.
I thank you for your time in listening to me today.
So what is pissing you off more, that your son didn’t get in or that he had to wait so long to find out?
I’m sure it was a challenge to juggle 3 college applications at the same time and it seems like you had some good results. However, your kids are bound to face many challenges in life, as we all do. This one seems like pretty small potatoes or as the kids like to say #firstworldproblems.
Embrace and celebrate the successes your kids have had with the process! Perhaps if the college isn’t administered well, it’s better your son isn’t going there.
I know you are frustrated and that you hurt for your son, but I would not write the letter. Move on. Feel blessed that all of your children have excellent options.
Some schools do use snail mail (including my D’s LAC) and that is a perfectly acceptable option. In fact in light of some recent online snafus (ex. my D;s friend got an online acceptance letter and then the school notified him that he was rejected, not accepted) it is not a terrible way to go.
My issue is with the manner in which he found out. After 4/15 and no reply, only 15 days left to negotiate EFC grants with other schools, our only choice to discover the answer was to either wait another week for a new letter to go out or drive to the campus to pick up the reprinted letter. Someone at WCU should have authorized the faxing or emailing of the reply even if this was not their normal policy. You are right, however, that I am glad this in not the school he will be attending.
I agree that they should have found a way to get the letter to you via email/fax if mail did not arrive but nothing will be gained by your proposed letter other than venting and you already did that on CC. I always tell my kids to never burn bridges because nobody knows what the future holds so I still would not send your letter!
Congrags on getting through the college process in triplicate!
@doschicos - “You apparently have a policy prohibiting decisions by email or fax (even though my other son was notified early by email and invited to apply for a scholarship)”
@happy1 - Decisions by mail is certainly reasonable, but many schools that do this (ex: Georgetown) offer to let students know their decisions over the phone ~2 days after students are meant to receive their letters.
My niece was waiting to hear from a private high school. She went to 8th grade with a number of others who had received their acceptances to this school and others. The school financially reissued the acceptance. Turned out that the original letter was delivered to a neighbor’s house, but in their neighborhood all the mail is shoved through slots into the houses, this neighbor was out of town, so no one knew where it was.
If you send the email, make it shorter. I was lost by the end. Just say that your son wanted to go to that school and his letter was lost in the mail. Your experience with 30 schools is that email notification works best.
@Anonymoose3 We are in agreement. As noted in post #8 I believe that the school should have found a way to get the admissions decision to the OP’s son other than re-mailing a letter (ex. email/fax as the OP suggested, but a call would work equally well).
I am going to send the letter. Of course I worry about the risk of burning bridges but I would hope an adult in a position of such power would not chose to punish someone’s son for expressing a valid complaint. What I am hoping to accomplish is to have WCU admissions review and hopefully change their policy on how they deliver admissions responses.
If I had some time to edit it I’d probably take out the more emotional stuff (triplets, stress, app season) and stick more to the hard facts that a good, hard-working student was really strung along, only to hand pick-up a gut punch. Perhaps this is not the best way for WCU to deal with prospective students.
If I were a dean or a president of a university I’d like to know. Then again that’s me.
Do not substitute my judgment for your own . . .you know more about the situation. I just thought the note came across a little mama-bear-ish (which I completely understand).
Exactly - shorten it substantially and stick to the facts. For example, the part about the humiliation of opening it in front of everyone is irrelevant because he didn’t have to do that. The main grievance here is that they were so pigheaded about their “policy” that they couldn’t see past it to make a reasonable exception, particularly in light of the fact that it was a rejection.
I’d tone it down a little bit on the emotional parts, and tell them it was his first choice college. Heck, maybe they will change their mind and admit him if the right person reads it (stranger things have happened). I wouldn’t expect it, and maybe at this stage he wouldn’t take it, but I think late notification and not being willing to release the decision via email or over the phone at this last date is unacceptable.
For whatever reason the front line admissions people didn’t feel they had the authority (?) to release the decision in a non-conventional way. In light of the circumstances it would have been more professional if they had the freedom to use some discretion (and good sense).