<p>Alright, I applied to this school under ED. Conversations were flowing well between the two of us until early last week when the officer suddenly stopped responding to my emails. The unusual thing is that there was no response ever since she replied to one mail on the same day I sent another (which was not responded to). The last reply was a general acknowledgement. </p>
<p>The three mails that were not responded to contained a few additional questions, a Thanksgiving wish and some additional information, respectively.</p>
<p>Is this normal? What could have gone wrong? Should I take this behavior as a sign of a sickly thin envelope reaching my house soon?</p>
<p>given that you are international (based on earlier posts) you may not have realized that last week was Thanksgiving here in the states; many schools (possibly the one you applied to ED) closed, including admissions offices from last Wednesday (or some even Tuesday) until yesterday…</p>
<p>Rodney, I do realize that (notice that the second mail was a Thanksgiving wish). It’s been about a week (excluding Thursday and Friday- closed for Thanksgiving) since I last heard from her.</p>
<p>I would also caution you not to make a pest of yourself. If you have very specific, unique questions that cannot be answered by the website, that’s fine, but these are busy people and they cannot be constantly emailing back and forth with everyone who applies ED. It’s fine to sign a note inquiring about something else with a wish for a happy Thanksgiving, but to send an email specifically for that seems overkill.</p>
<p>Well, I guess that was a specific question as I didn’t find much information about it on the website. However, I did send a separate mail with the wish. I thought I should do it as a sign of courtesy.<br>
Prior to these three, all my mails (quite a few in number) were perfectly responded to though.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for letting me know, Pizzagirl. I’ll keep your advice in mind.
I thought not keeping in frequent touch would mean not being interested enough.</p>
<p>Aaah…how I wish all admission officers were familiar with child/teenage psychology! Hehe!</p>
<p>Intstud - think of it from the admissions officer’s perspective. Can he really be corresponding on a regular basis with all the ED applicants, and also get his job done? Your emails may only take a minute or two to respond to, sure … But now multiply that with all the applicants. My S is applying ED to a university that so far has 2,000+ applicants for ED - and that’s not even counting the RD students who may also have questions. It’s eminently fair to ask the questions – but just not bombard them into frequent communication. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Yup, I totally agree! Thanks a ton! Honestly, I am panic-stricken as I already have a feeling they wont accept me because of my huge financial need (the school’s the most expensive in the country). Aid is the only factor that makes the school a reach for me, otherwise it would be a low match. When you really love something, you end up doing silly things in the fear of losing it (you actually lose it, i.e., your mind, in the fear of losing it…lol!).
I’m guessing the impulsive behavior is a side-effect of the anxiety (although I do have a tendency to ask many questions, in general).</p>
<p>Thanks again! I genuine hope your son gets admitted to his top choice school :)</p>
<p>It seems you have crossed the line from inquisitive to annoying.</p>
<p>Just because this AO hasn’t responded to your emails that doesn’t mean he/she hasn’t read them. The AO may be inundated with ED applications; they may think that your questions, while important to you, are secondary to the questions of other applicants or answered on the website. They may also be wondering why you applied ED if you have so many remaining questions about the specific school. At this point I’d wait for your ED result before asking anything else. If you are accepted then you’ll have plenty of opportunity to ask for more information, if you get rejected the answers won’t matter.</p>
<p>Unless you have other information to support your application, I can’t find any reason for you to be e-mailing the Adcom at this point instud. The time for “questions” was before you pushed the ED button. And, unfortunately, given the short time frame from Nov 1 to mid-Dec, your ED app may have already been processed, so any additional information may have been too late.</p>
<p>instud,
If you could see how busy Admissions offices are at this time, you would really understand what’s probably going on here. They are overwhelmed with paperwork and reading applications and are probably starting in Committee meetings to discuss applicants. It’s just too late to think that all your questions will still be answered in a timely manner.</p>
<p>The fact that you applied ED shows that you are very interested. You don’t need to keep sending questions to the admissions officer to prove it. :)</p>
<p>They are, so don’t worry about having sent the emails that you did. I think the Thanksgiving note was a nice idea. As others have said, this is simply a busy season. You let them know of your interest and there is nothing wrong with that. I wish you the very best of luck.</p>
<p>I really don’t know your background, so please don’t be offended, but students of some particular country of the world come from a culture where things work more by negotiation, and via lots of communication with others and connections, that you can sort of haggle your way into things. These are the students in class that tend to assume their grades are negotiable and if they visit the prof enough, they will do well (but not because I am helping them with course material but simply because they have curried favor). I try to meet with all my students as much as they want, but if I sense one isn’t legitimately asking questions, but is trying to win me over, I am less motivated to keep up the interaction. </p>
<p>I realize this isn’t about your prof and grades but I did wonder if the adcom is having the same sense I get with some students. Only you can know if this fits you however.</p>
<p>This is a busy time for adcoms as they read all of the ED apps and make decisions. So I would chill out and wait patiently for your admissions decision.</p>
<p>@starbright- Don’t worry, I’m not offended. I understand you’re trying to help. Well, I can’t speak on behalf of other students from my country, but I can assure you that this is not the case with me. Most of my emails contained additional information to support my application (only 2 had questions). I never had it in mind that pestering Adcoms would, in any way, boost my admission chances. I was just trying to keep in touch so they didn’t get the feeling that I didn’t love the school enough. In fact, it was mentioned in a website that Adcoms expect applicants to be in regular touch and appreciate this. </p>
<p>Instud, when my son applied to a selective college a few years ago, he never got an answer to even one email. They were emails with legitimate questions, not answered on the website, not just “expressing interest” emails. I mean, he didn’t send many… maybe 3 in total over the course of 3 months or so, and never once was there a reply. To get the answer to one very significant question I actually called the office myself, after his call didn’t get returned. The person answering the phone (a student, I suspect) took a message, but it was never returned. I called a second time and was actually transferred to the person who could answer the question --finally-- but nonetheless, my son did end up getting accepted and is happily a junior at that school now.</p>
<p>So, I agree with the other posters, just chill. I think some of these offices must, at least at a certain point in the year, not even try to answer emails anymore. The staffs tend to be small and the applications come in by the truckload. They are working crazy hard.</p>
