<p>Does anyone know if a positive/negative interaction with graduate department secretaries for administrative purposes through the admissions process can have any effect on their decision about you? </p>
<p>I just had an unpleasant conversation with a secretary at an unnamed school about my interview weekend, because I did not get any info about it and was seeking some. She spent 5 minutes trying to convince me that I was not yet admitted without the interview, something which I already knew and did not ask about…</p>
<p>On one of the grad school websites, there was something about how contacting the school too often could result in a lesser chance of acceptance. I would also imagine that on a practical level, the secretaries would be more than happy to share negative experiences with the ad com since they may have to deal with those students in the future.</p>
<p>Yeah, if you have to worry with a crappy secretary it can really be a huge pain in the ass. The one on my hall loves to walk up and down the hall for an hour complaining to everyone about how much work she has. We actually have a group policy where if you see she’s standing there talking at someone in their office, you say you need to talk to them, drag them off somewhere else while she follows behind, and then close the door to wherever you were going. Otherwise both of you are going to lose 30 more minutes. :(</p>
<p>I think that the interactions with the department administrator can give you some powerful information. If this person is unfriendly and incompetent, that may affect you if you were to be a grad student at that department. Remember these are the people who will forget to book conference rooms, blow off your questions about reimbursement for travel, forget to send your paycheck (or submit the info to the payroll dept), accidentally leave you off of important email trees etc. I am really hesitant about going to my interview this weekend due to the unpleasantness associated with dealing with the administrator.</p>
<p>I would hope that applicants would cut the administrative assistants some slack during admission season. They are overworked, underpaid, but extremely valuable members of a department.</p>
<p>Yes, yes, and yes. They do have control over the files and where your file might be stacked (from top to bottom, say, so the DGS doesn’t get to you for a long time). Be super nice to them. I was in great contact with the secretary of the history department here throughout the admissions process and when I was rejected, she was very considerate and offered to take care of transferring my file over to another department for a MA program, and deal with the paperwork from the Graduate School. She was so fantastic to me that I e-mailed the DGS telling him what a great hire she was.</p>
<p>I definitely agree - administrative assistants have a lot more power than most people think. I attended some med/grad school interview seminars and one of the recurring words of advice was to be as nice as possible to the secretaries, complete with horror stories of applicants being rejected for being jackasses in front of them.</p>