<p>Today, I went out to get the mail. Its April 17th, so I assumed my letter of appeals had been denied even though I had never officially heard back. This may turn into a bit of a story, but its not every day this sort of thing happens.</p>
<p>Back in February, I was looking online for my decision and was upset to find that I was denied. UIUC's engineering had been my first choice, so I quickly mailed a letter of appeal to the college. I tried to be very careful when writing it because I didn't want it to come off as a "How could you not accept me!?!?" kind of person. I was trying to ensure I was denied for both the division of general studies and engineering. I wanted to be sure they got it right away, so I ended up mailing it priority overnight by FedEx (President's Day was that Monday and I wanted to ensure they had it their next opening business day)</p>
<p>Several weeks went by, and I didn't hear a thing. However, I was sure that they had gotten it because my expensive $25 letter came with signature confirmation standard. Since it had been so long without a reply, I gave them a call to ask about the status of my appeals letter. I was eventually forwarded to I think a Secretary who assured me a dean would call me the next day to talk to me about it (apparently they are the only ones allowed to discuss it). I think another week or two went by and I assumed again I was still denied as no phone call came, but I got a letter offering to send all my application materials to University of Illinois at Springfield for no extra charge.</p>
<p>After a few more weeks of waiting (lots and lots of waiting) I got an e-mail from one of the deans of engineering letting me know that someone called regarding the status of my appeals letter (ironically they thought I was my mother =) ). However after looking into it, they said they had no record of it ever arriving. However, if I wanted to be considered I could e-mail the materials I had sent to him for review.</p>
<p>I was kind of in shock as to how I should deal with this. I didn't want to make it sound like I was blaming him (because I wasn't), but I knew for a fact it had arrived. I googled the person who signed for my appeals letter, and it was one of the secretaries. What I ended up doing was merely mention that I had signature confirmation it had arrived, but due to the unusual nature of my appeals letter only requesting confirmation on an alternate choice major it may have been sent to the wrong department on accident. I then went ahead to attach the original letter I had sent and a bit more of an explanation of why I had sent it. I wanted to ensure my alternate really was a denial, and if the decision was correct then I'd be able to live on knowing I was denied and not accidentally reviewed incorrectly.</p>
<p>That was I'd guess three weeks to a month ago. Today, I got an Orange envelope with my acceptance letter. Not only was I accepted to UIUC, but I was accepted to my FIRST choice major. Its quite a bit of a rush knowing I was able to turn an out right denial into an acceptance. I'm extremely happy at the moment, though I can't say as much for my parents. Ironically we had been waiting to see if I got accepted before visiting, and we drove over 3000 miles and across fifteen states visiting other universities trying to decide. UIUC wasn't one of them because of my original denial =)</p>
<p>Just wanted to write this because I know some people feel that a denied or wait listed is the end of the road. I had to pay $25, do a lot of waiting, and a lot of following up to finally get a decision. In the end, whats a bit of waiting and $25 to get into your first choice college? Appeals can work, and it did for me =)</p>