<p>I am an international student who applied to the University of Wisconsin - Madison for fall 2006. I was accepted, and I sent in my housing deposit to the university. Around mid April, I made the decision that I would not be pursuing my undergraduates at the UW - Madison. I acted promptly and sent in my withdrawal letter to the admissions office. Furthermore, I called the admissions office a week later to make sure that they had received the withdrawal letter and I was going to receive my deposit. The representative tried to connect me to housing, but it was busy. She assured me that as I had sent it my rejection letter I would be receiving my deposit. </p>
<p>After a couple of weeks, I called the university again to check what was going on with my refund. The admissions office said that I had to talk to housing about the issue. Housing's response was that I had to send in a separate form stating that I was not going to attend UW - Madison. They understood that admissions made a mistake and gave me the contact info for the supervisor of the admissions. I just got an email from the supervisor that nothing could be done and that I should contact housing. I am just fed up of calling and emailing people for 50 bucks.</p>
<p>I just feel cheated, and I want to let prospective students to be careful of the housing deposit. I have to say I was really disgusted by the contact with the UW - Madison staff. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you who are going there.</p>
<p>wow, i am not an international student, but i can feel your pain. I was accepted to wisconsin as a transfer, and my deadline is coming up to pay the 50 bucks and i am still unsure if i wanna go there. I had a worst experience than yours when it came to deposits. Back in the days when i was a silly freshman, i was going to attend SFSU, but i decided to withdraw as well, and i had to pay 1,000 $$ deposit AND I ONLY GOT 200 bucks back!! I was extremely ripped off...i never got my money back...so i totally feel your pain, although, 50 bucks is not that much..but maybe it is for you since you are an international student, so i totally understand!</p>
<p>Well i was surprised when i got a mail saying that my housing prepayment of 250$ had not yet reached them. I got this mail on 27th of April and the deadline was 31st May. My Housing prefferences were in jeopardy if i didnt send it in time. I had to hurry n in 2 days i sent em the deposit. They informed me that this prepayment information was sent to me on April 7th first. Housing response is really bad and they dont even have an online status check for students. They need to work on many areas especially in the housing department. They need to implement online payment and online contract acceptance and stop the old snail mail way of it.</p>
<p>I have to say that I do hold myself accountable for not reading ALL the papers. It is just so difficult when you apply to 5-6 places, and no matter what anyone says, you assume that the person on the other end is telling the truth. I think it was evident that I was not planning on going to the university. I sent in my withdrawal on time and followed up, and was given wrong info. It is clear that these guys are trying to rip-off people. I think Wisconsin could do a couple of things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Educate the person who is answering the phones on the policies</li>
<li>Have a better link between housing and admissions (seriously it seems like you are talking to two different universities...one is blaming the other...its crazy!!)</li>
<li>Hire supervisors that can come up with better than talk to this person and talk to that person...and just elongate the process...</li>
<li>some of the points that rishi made - make it online....go to the housing website...it looks like a 2 year old did it! </li>
</ol>
<p>Anyways, going to Brandeis University from fall...</p>
<p>$50 WOW. Times must be tough. Brandeis cost how much? Personally I'm glad you are not going to UW. You sound like someone they don't need around.</p>
<p>It's a big university; there are many policies. Sorry you had trouble, but it's not realistic to expect any one person to know every policy, particularly those of other departments. In general it's a bad idea to assume that personnel from different departments are in contact with each other, or that you can leave a message with one person and expect her to take over responsibility for your transaction with the folks in a different office. </p>
<p>I'm sorry that you encountered such difficulty, and understand how stressful it is to get things set up at a distant college. At the same time, though (maybe I'm a little old fashioned about this one), I wouldn't send a housing deposit to a university until I was absolutely sure I would enroll there. It's like making a down payment on a car before you've decided to buy it. Madison's vast administration system can be hellishly frustrating, but you can minimize your involvement with it by not entering into gratuitous financial contracts.</p>
<p>maryceleste, i totally agree that people shouldnt send a deposit until they are 110% sure they want to be there because chances (very slim) that one will probably never see that money again lol </p>
<p>to guarav: how come you chose brandeis over wisc? jw</p>
<p>50 bucks may seem like nothing to most of us. But for someone coming from overseas every dollar counts. It is easy for us to assume that not all sections of the University communicate with each other but that was not an assumption on his part, he was actually told by the admissions people that the information regarding the cancellation of admission would be relayed to housing without actually following up on that. There is no paper trail so the poor student loses his deposit. Looks real nice for our University doesnt it?</p>
<p>Any employee who speaks with a customer represents the organization and if he screws up it reflects poorly on the organization. If this guy was my employee he would be reprimanded and a refund sent to the customer with an apology. Now <em>that</em> would be old fashioned..........</p>
<p>but what I dont get is....... why Brandeis over Wisconsin?????</p>
<p>It's a huge place with 25,000 applicants and probably understaffed. At least the calls are answered in Madison and not in New Delhi like most private companies these days. The OP has a lot to learn about dealing with any large organization. Unit A rarely talks to Unit B and if you are after a refund you better be talking to the people who write the checks. I'd wager the fine print on your contracts tells you exactly where to call or write to cancel and you are responsible to know that info--not some underpaid person in the overworked admissions office. To say they are trying to ripoff $50 is obnoxious and stupid.
So PM me the address and I'll send you $50.</p>
<p>Wiscydad, when was the last time you called a big company to try to get something?? Times have changed. After the 6th transfer you hangup and give up.</p>
<p>I think it was not a rip-off 'cause no individual takes the money, and the university can do without $50. As barrons said this is a big public university where bureaucracy rather than humanity is in control. That's why people pay $40,000 to go to small private universities.Gauravgc, I think you made a wise decision not to come to UW-Madison. I think I made a wise decision to go to Madison.</p>
<p>Anyone that has to post about a "horrible experience" over a $50 charge has no concept of the word horrible. And to further imply that they are trying to rip you off shows an attitude that goes beyond the pale. Good riddance.</p>
<p>tsk tsk...........a little bit of restraint from the senior members would be in order here. Remember, these are 18 year old kids and they are looking for guidance and information. It is in their nature to be argumentative and challenging. It behooves senior members to be a little more forgiving and understanding so as to present a positive image of the alumni and the University.</p>
<p>well, i'd whine about $50 too, but its not horrible - a long shot away.</p>
<p>But don't be surprised to not see your money fully refunded, wherever you go.</p>
<p>Schools are out to make a profit, just like hospitals are out to make a profit, despite their good deed service of "educating" and "healing" people. Without profit, they'd go under easily.</p>
<p>So.. profit first, pride second, and then all that humanitarian gobbledy-gook.</p>
<p>$50 isn't all that bad, and I would bet 100 that at some point in your life, you'll feel ripped off by more than 50.</p>
<p>Why is it that we have to always quantify things?? </p>
<p>Would my situation be any different if we were dealing with $5,000? </p>
<p>To me it would make no difference. It is a question of principle. My frustration with UW-Madison is not the 50 bucks. I have an issue with how they dealt with the situation. They would not listen to my story, and I was being transferred from one department to another without any resolution. One department was blaming the other, and I feel sorry for anyone (current or prospective students) that will have to deal with this organization. </p>
<p>For people like barrons, please don't make this discussion board about the $50.</p>
<p>Well, I have always been treated very well at Madison. When I forgot to mention my NHS membership on my application, I emailed them and the emailed me back the next day, telling me they would add it for me and that it was taken care of. Madison deals with sooo many people, that they are bound to mess up at one time or another.</p>
<p>Yes, it would be different if it were $5,000. We all only have so many hours in the day and we have to prioritize what problems to take care of. Do you think the police with limited resources will spend much time on your $1,000 home burglary versus a major bank robbery? Well the answer is no--not even close.
You have told one side of the story and I am sure the U would have a different view. For one thing admissions has nothing to do with housing. If you read all the documents carefully I am sure it would have said where to send cancellations and by when and in what manner. Anything allegedly told to you by some unknown person on the phone has no weight versus a written contract. That's business law 101.</p>
<p>Many have posted here that the UW people were friendly and better to deal with than most. That was always my experience too.</p>
<p>It's a shame that you have to go through several steps to get your money back from UW Housing.</p>
<p>You should know that UW does not have enough public housing on campus to accommodate every freshman. When you sent in your deposit and UW accepted it, UW accepted a responsibility to reserve housing for you.</p>
<p>Since UW now has received notice from you that you will not be living in the housing reserved for you, it must ascertain that it has another student who can take your place; otherwise they will be left with a vacancy.</p>
<p>Thus they will not release your deposit until you take the responsibility for notifying them that you will not be attending and would like your deposit back. How incredibly difficult and horrible is that?</p>