Have graduate admissions gone 2.0?

Graduate School
1

<p>When I applied for college six years ago, the decisions came in either “thin” or “fat” envelopes. However, it seems to be the opposite for graduate school: all of the universities have notified me of their decision by e-mail. (UC Davis said it would send me an official notification letter by mail, but I never received such a letter.) In some cases, I had to log in to a website to check my status. Is this now the norm for graduate admissions?</p>

<p>The problem with doing everything online is that glitches can occur. After all, everyone knows that computers tend to act up when we’re under stress. :)</p>

<h2>For example, two of my references had trouble submitting their letters of recommendation to ASU using the online system, so the school had to tell them to send the letters by mail. What’s even more bizarre is that the decision e-mails from ASU, Berkeley and Northwestern never got through; I had to contact the schools in order to find out whether I was accepted. On the other hand, getting a “personalized” rejection e-mail (as opposed to a canned, run-of-the-mill one) was pretty nice for a change. :D</h2>

<p>Danny
University of California, Berkeley '09 (B.S.)</p>

2

<p>Um, yeah, it’s the norm to have everything done electronically. It really does make the job easier for the grad admissions.</p>

<p>And yes, getting more personalized letters are soooo much better than getting mailed letters from the Grad School :)</p>

3

<p>Admissions (in all arenas) have gone web-based because even though there are problems associated, there are MORE points for errors to occur the old way. If there is a mistake over a web-based system, it can be fixed pretty quickly - usually through a few emails and over 48 to 72 hours. If there is a mistake over a mail-based system…you have to wait at least 3 days just to get the first letter, then mail them back when you find it’s an error, and so on. Pieces of applications frequently get lost in the snail mail, and paper files are easily misplaced and there are no records of them as there are with electronic communications.</p>