<p>I don’t have a problem with an admissions office creating procedures for dealing with rejected applicants, or recording calls from their parents or advocates (or senators). I would think less of an admissions office that actually ridiculed rejected applicants, but I don’t see evidence of that here. It seems to me that the NU admissions folks are awfully busy for that sort of thing. </p>
<p>I am curious about how these screenshots made their way to the parent of a rejected student. Did someone employed by the admissions office forward them? Did someone hack in to see them? Those behaviors sound unprofessional, or worse.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how they are having fun at the applicants’ expense. OP, can you enlighten? I can’t see a lot of this, just the bit everyone else seems to. If there is more than what is explained above, tell us. Otherwise, this is no smoking gun except how your friend is getting confidential information/</p>
<p>It looks like most of the comments on that article agree with what people here are thinking. No one seems to think it was a terrible way to deal with abusive calls.</p>
<p>Lol I like the comments on there. They are echoing what we’re saying. </p>
<p>I see nothing wrong with this. When you take so much abuse on the phone, you need an outlet. </p>
<p>IMHO, the parents deserve this. I wish they’d name names and publicly shame the parents. However the students, if they didn’t know about their parents, don’t deserve that.</p>
<p>The problems that the admissions staff at Northwestern have because they have to field phone calls and email from upset parents and counselors seem to me to be “first-world problems,” practically by definition. While I don’t defend the parents who called–and can’t imagine that they actually thought it would be helpful–I believe that it is useful for the admissions personnel to be acutely aware of how important their decisions are to the students (and in some cases, to their families).</p>
<p>I’m an NU parent, so there’s my “bias” upfront. The OP seems to have “disappeared” after all these comments and it was interesting to read about this again in Inside Higher Ed this a.m. Someone is trying his/her darndest to try to make this into a “federal case.” This seems quite different from the Penn case. I was able to see all the catagories created and the Associate Provost was not making fun of any denied students. No one could seriously allege that. This was an internal memo designed to poke fun, INTERNALLY, at incredibly annoying guidance professionals and parents of students denied admission to NU. Those who issue these threats to Admissions Offices should be poked fun at.</p>
<p>Now that I can see the screen shot it doesn’t seem like these are comments being made by the adcoms about parents, but simply a tracking of what was said to them by parents or guidance counselors. If that is what the OP was upset about, then call the parents and tell them to stop making ridiculous phone calls. There is no wrong doing on the part of the people receiving the abuse for keeping track of what is being said to them.</p>
<p>QM - what makes you think that the adcoms aren’t very aware that they are disappointing 85% of the applicant base who isn’t admitted? Why do they need a reminder? </p>
<p>Yes, an adcom having to deal with a ranting, out of control parent is a first world problem. But I would also submit that not getting into Northwestern is also a first-world problem, as those who had reasonable qualifications and got denied will surely wind up going to some other good school. Sounds like some of these parents were arrogant enough to count their chickens before they were hatched.</p>
<p>I have no reason to doubt that the admissions people at NU are totally fine. As far as I know, they take their responsibilities very seriously. Back when QMP applied, the NU application was one of two that actually gave the students the opportunity to learn something interesting, while also providing non-statistical information about themselves.</p>
<p>I don’t know how seriously the admissions personnel everywhere take the students’ disappointments, though. A few seem to radiate a devil-may-care viewpoint; but I don’t want to go in that direction on this thread. Perhaps they give that impression for self-protection.</p>
<p>I can sympathize with an admissions staffer who has signed up to evaluate applications and pick out a set of very interesting, highly qualified people, and then finds out that he/she has also unofficially joined the Complaints Department. That can’t be any fun. To a certain extent, it seems to me to come with the territory, though.</p>
<p>NU made a mistake by apologizing. This was their chance to say it is to help with the mental health of adcoms who are being abused by phone calls.</p>
<p>But ultimately the denial of any given good student from any given top university in the US IS a first-world problem. This isn’t like other countries, where there are really only X slots that promise golden eggs and if you don’t get it, you’ll be slaving at a menial job the rest of your life. This is America, where there is really unequalled opportunity for everyone, even if they don’t land the Ivies / the top 20 / whatever. I’m sorry, it’s just not a great loss to society that all 30,000 applicants to NU (or insert other school) failed to be admitted. If they were that caliber, they’ll go elsewhere and do great things too. Maybe different things, that’s all.</p>
<p>Northwestern’s acceptance rate has quietly plummeted to half of what it was 5-6 years ago. My son’s Chicago high school traditionally sent 5-6 top kids to NU every year; two years ago when my son graduated, only 2 got in. It may eventually settle on one top student every second or third year.</p>
<p>I would not be surprised if NU gets a wildly disproportionate number of angry complaints these days, necessitating a little relief humor among its staff members. Students with better stats than their siblings or recent high school alums must by necessity get turned away in droves, and that won’t sit well with some parents and GCs.</p>
<p>I thought the pull down menu was pretty funny … then again I have a bias.</p>
<p>I was the guy who had the final say on who made a travel soccer and basketball teams and which team for years in town. After the placement announcements I’d get a string of calls from angry parents. After a couple years my kids starting asking me about the calls … looking for counts by categories similar to the pull down list. I treated these parents and their kid who tried out with respect … however, at the Macro level, a certain level of nutty calls was to be expected as well as the categories of the calls. It works like clock work. And this was in a very small sample size world … I can imagine how predictable the complaints are at an admissions office.</p>
<p>I envision an admissions bingo - each of the staffers gets to cover a square based on what they hear and have to deal with. “I’m calling my senator!” “You @#$#$&!” </p>
<p>I kind of wish <em>I</em> knew Pat Ryan, though.<br>
Looking through the board of trustees, I realize (too late to do any good) that I …
a) worked with the brother of one of the trustees;
b) worked directly for the sister of a second trustee;
c) worked (indirectly, a few layers down) for a third trustee; and
d) know (at the friend-of-a-friend level) the daughter of a fourth trustee.</p>
<p>I also knew the Dyches of Dyche Stadium before it became Ryan Field. That should count for something! That’s it - I DEMAND my future grandchildren be admitted!</p>
<p>One of the wisest things I’ve heard in the last 5+ years of searching colleges with my two daughters came from an admissions officer at Swarthmore who said when he first started in his job, he lost sleep agonizing over the many highly qualified applicants Swarthmore was turning away. But over time he came to appreciate that this is America, where well qualified applicants have dozens or hundreds of excellent colleges to choose from, and every one of those highly qualified applicants turned away by Swarthmore would also be highly qualified at other excellent colleges. And all–or at least those who played their cards right–would be admitted at other excellent schools where they would have opportunities to get outstanding educations. It’s not this way in most of the rest of the world.</p>