My daughter’s school started a file when we visited for recruiting (coach gave the info to admissions). HUGE mistake. D then applied, using her full name (which honestly isn’t that different than her first and last, no nickname), and the school opened another file. Two names, two student ID’s…and only a 50/50 chance of her scores, h.s transcripts, etc ending up in the right file. She set up a portal, but when we visited couldn’t get it open so they opened another, so now had two portals (although one was empty)! Things were wrong, merit aid wrong, outside FA missing (but on ‘master list’), room assignment, etc., but every time we called they just fixed that problem so I didn’t suspect anything was wrong. This went on until they put a hold on her registration for second semester because she had no high school transcript in her ‘file.’ Called the high school, they sent TWO more (one mailed, one electronic), but college claimed never arrived. No registration allowed - on a Friday night at 8 pm. Monday morning the registrar still wouldn’t allow until the hold was cleared. I called and finally said “Is there any way she has two files? There have just been so many errors.” Yep.
My child’s name is not common, but not unusual, no funny spelling, no random punctuation, but there are not two kids at her school with the same name.