College App Horror Stories

<p>Alright, so I just called Northwestern to find out why they withdrew my app. They told me that I didn't send in a counselor rec and that the fax number I had wasn't even theirs. Come to find out, I sent my Northwestern-focused counselor rec (which is esentially the same as my other recs, except that the name of the school in the letter is different) to U of Penn. Now, barring divine intervention, I'm not exactly at the top of their list (especially considering my 'U of Penn is the only school for me' essay), am I?</p>

<p>So, I'm wondering, anyone else have horror stories, or am I alone in the crazy world of late, wrong, or screwed up apps?</p>

<p>Welcome to the club...ironically, my problem was also with Northwestern. I sent my common app half way through december. They received my supplement and my payment, but not my actual application. I figured they just hadn't received it yet, and everything would be ok. Unfortunately, I also received the withdrawal notice, without any warnings beforehand(I thought they would have at least told me what was missing, I guess not). So, I faxed them over my actual application, and now it's complete. </p>

<p>This happened about 4 days ago, so I'm probably not at the top of their list, either!</p>

<p>Also, my high school completely forgot/neglected to send my transcript to another college I applied EA to. That sucked. But at least that was fixed, too. </p>

<p>Basically, this whole application process sucks. Especially when someone else messes up your future. Ugh.</p>

<p>lol today i just sent an e-mail to 1 of my colleges about an update w/ a picture in the body of the e-mail....except the picture doesnt show up. yay i just wasted their time</p>

<p>Woohoo! I'm not the only one.
audslvpal: Congrats on getting your app in. I called them to explain and asked if I could fax it, but they said they were no longer accepting any missing items (sucky). The withdrawal stands I suppose, but at least now I have a great story for my friends.</p>

<p>Who else cares to join the club?</p>

<p>My school sent an incomplete transcript to every place I applied (it only had ninth grade classes/grades). I had no idea anything was wrong until JANUARY, when one school emailed me. Needless to say, my guidance counselor had a frantic day of making phone calls and faxing the correct transcript.</p>

<p>a particular teacher at our school messed up MANY people's applications. he has been found to be the common thread in all these problems! Stanford, U of Chicago, were missing his letter, and i was rejected from theUSC BA/MD program, which probably never even got his letter AND didnt bother to tell me that they didnt get it??? im not saying its totally his fault, because i doubt i would get into these 3 places even with the letter, but i paid the app fee and wrote the stupid essays and spent all this time, only to have a stupid technical problem. the teacher says he wrote them and sent them, anyone have any guess whats going on? is he lying? why?!?!?!?</p>

<p>oohh so when you type in san diego on college board to send your sat scores it doesn't give you ucsd because thats in La Jolla... and i wasn't smart enough to figure that out. I was kind of rushing because I was tired of doing it and I had sent all of my sat scores to a bunch of UC campuses. As soon as I saw "University" and "San Diego" I hit that one and sent my SAT scores there. A month later I was just looking over some stuff I had laid down on my desk when I realizede that I had sent it to USD not UCSD. I freaked out. Badly. Luckily, I am pretty sure it was the last day possible to send it in, so I sent it in rush delivery and was pretty sure I screwed it up. However, I got into UCSD so I am okay!</p>

<p>^^ I did the same exact thing, and now they are constantly contacting me with all this stuff I don't want.</p>

<p>But really, I would think SillBill's horror story would trump any other one here.</p>

<p>What's SillBill's horror story?</p>

<p>Not a horror story, but ...
DD decided not to apply to UMich after submitting pre-app, sending the test scores, transcript, recs in November. Her mid-year report went there (she was still debating whether he should apply right before Feb 1). So the ONLY missing package were her essays. I uderstand, these are mst important. BUT THEY COULD BE IN ONE ENVELOPE that could get lost. And I suspect they are lost once in a while.
They never let her know that her app is incomplete. </p>

<p>Now, one of her favorite schools did not have an online tracking system andsent no notification at all. You could guess what we felt. The first and only thing that came from them was ... acceptance.</p>

<p>sammie - SillBill's story: go to the Chances subforum and click "Clam Fart"</p>

<p>hopefullybright-Ouch, that's the stuff nightmares are made of. D:</p>

<p>But these do make me feel a lot better about the things on my app that I'm regretting right now-good for lightening the mood. ^^ Hopefully most people were able to fix the problems and the colleges will still consider the apps.</p>

<p>UCLA - For most of my majors I put "Theater Arts Management," but I didn't know that I had put down "Musical Theater" for UCLA. I was aware that there are interviews needed for Drama-related majors at UCLA, so when I went to register for an interview slot, it wouldn't let me! I had passed the deadline for the "Musical Theater" interviews! :(</p>

<p>Ithaca - A few months ago I received an e-mail from Ithaca stating that they had one open day left for interviews, but it would be on their campus, which is in NY (I live in LA). I tried to click on the link and reply to the e-mail, but I didn't get any responses back. So I just kind of disregarded it and forgot about it. A few weeks ago I received a voice mail from another NY school I am applying to (Manhattanville) saying I could schedule phone interviews. I called Ithaca yesterday and left them a message explaining my problem. They called me back today, saying sorry but their interview period ended on March 1st.</p>

<p>And for 3 other colleges, I barely sent them my official transcript this week. Pretty bad... =T</p>

<p>citymom- I hate it when stupid stuff gets lost. I wish more schools would let you know that your file is incomplete BEFORE they jump to conclusions.</p>

<p>My RISD application was lost, period.</p>

<p>You're kidding right?</p>

<p>No. I did not recieve any notification from them, thought it curious, called them and they said that they had no file under my name. I told them that it must be a mistake and asked if there was anything I could do, they said no.</p>

<p>I then had to withdraw my Brown/RISD application and now, if I do get into Brown, it will make my decision all the more difficult.</p>

<p>I also made some other buggy mistakes in my applications (one school [Chicago] did not recieve one of my reccomendation letters or my mid-years [and possibly an essay], but still accepted me).</p>