I am getting completely fed up with Chapman. My daughter will be attending in the fall, and we can’t get anyone down there to answer an email, return a message, or even answer a phone. We have questions about financial aid requirements, questions about parking permit (is the online form broken for anyone else?). If this is the way they communicate, I have serious reservations about putting up with this for the next four years.
The last three days were a holiday weekend. How long have you been trying to get in touch with someone, and where have you been trying?
We’ve been trying off and on for nearly a month. She has had problems trying to get a parking permit (when they do get back to us, which is rarely, they bounce us back and forth between the parking and computer services offices), questions about financial aid, and questions about course offerings. We finally managed to get through to financial aid today. Are still waiting for computer services to get back to us - I believe this is the third service ticket they’ve opened on her problem and they never seem to close them. We’ve given up on asking about the courses she’s interested in.
Hi Spaamie,
I hope my comments below are helpful.
At the site shown below it says “Parking Services will begin mailing permits July 6, 2015. Permits will be available to pick-up in person beginning August 6, 2015”:
http://www.chapman.edu/campus-services/parking-services/
Why does she need a permit now if Orientation when the new students first come on campus does not start until the end of August? If she is on Campus now for some reason and needs a permit why is she calling; why not just go to the Parking Services office?
The Financial Aid office is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday (714) 997-6741. In the past 3 years I personally have never had the phone not answered by a person. If you turned in the FAFSA they have already mailed the Financial Aid Package to you. If you are unhappy with it you need to fill out this form and email or mail it to them:
http://www.chapman.edu/students/tuition-and-aid/financial-aid/_files/15-16-forms/review-15-16-v3.pdf
The courses available at Chapman are shown here:
https://www.chapman.edu/catalog/oc/current/ug/
Just find her major and start taking the classes that are available during the fall semester that are needed to graduate. If there are prerequisites classes they are stated.
The registration process is all laid for her here:
http://www.chapman.edu/students/academic-resources/registrar/student-services/course-registration/registration-dates.aspx
When she logs into to her Chapman account it will tell her what classes she has been given college credit for from high school.
If you have more specific questions don’t hesitate to ask. Many answers to questions are shown on Chapman University Office of Admission Tumblr blog website:
- It states on the website that resident parking permits are limited and first-come, first-served. She's applying now to make sure she gets one. Except she can't apply because the online application isn't working for her. The computer services people have opened three service tickets so far. The first one was completed and fixed part of the problem but not the entire problem. The second was never completed and we were never called. We're waiting to hear back on the third one - will call and leave a message today as no one there answers the phone either.
- We're very happy with her financial aid package, but they are showing that she needs some documentation that we were told was unnecessary. We have been trying to confirm her status. And no, they don't answer the phone, but they did call back yesterday.
- There are some classes she's interested in that are offered "as needed". She was trying to find someone who could explain to her what that meant. No one replied.
This is not my oldest child or my first time around the college merry-go-round. I have found other colleges to be more forthcoming and easier to reach. They really shouldn’t put email links on their website when the emails go unanswered more often than not.
From the Chapman University Office of Admission Tumblr blog website:
Q: What does it mean if a class is “offered as needed”?
A: It just means it’s probably not offered every semester, more like once a year or every other year depending on the need of the students.
I do not want to minimize your feedback, but I do want to share that we have had a completely opposite experience.
We have had a couple bumps in the road and questions we have needed answered that have been easily resolved either via a phone call, e-mail or post on the Admissions Tumbler. I would expect that the school would be a bit in flux over the past month as they close out the school year and prepare for a new class.
I believe the parking permit was automatically part of the bill, and we had to submit a waiver to remove it when my son did not bring a car to school freshman year.
The information we received about registration was that local kids would have an in-person advising appointment while non-locals watched an online orientation. Then a registration date and time was assigned. Did your daughter do the orientation?
Like Planet15, we had no difficulty contacting anyone with questions or issues. The department head was assigned as advisor and the department secretary was available and helpful.
I am sorry that you have had a different experience.
FYI for everyone: I saw that yesterday on the Chapman University Office of Admission Tumblr blog website the following Question (the subject of this discussion thread) was asked and responded to by Admissions:
Q: What do I have to do to get someone down there to answer emails or phone calls? My daughter is attending in the fall, and no one at the parking office or the financial aid office or the computer services office will communicate with us. We have emailed, we have had her email from her Chapman account, we have called and left messages. To quote the Rolling Stones, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” I’m rather trepidacious about the next four years…
A: I’m sorry to hear you’ve not been able to get your needs addressed. We did have a university holiday on Friday in anticipation for the 4th of July. This is also a heavy call/email volume time of year as new students look to get questions answered. I have emailed the respective leads for the departments you listed to see if we can help get your questions addressed. I would also suggest leaning into your daughter’s admission counselor http://www.chapman.edu/admission/undergraduate/contact-us/ to keep them updated on if you’re not able to get answers so we can follow up on your behalf to assist.
I have to say that the Honors Program has been brilliant. She’s been in near-daily contact with her mentor and is very excited about their course offerings. She had no trouble figuring out what classes to register for or how to do it. It’s just the little niggling individual questions that we’re having trouble with.
Computer systems people called back yesterday. They fixed part of the problem (again) but there are still glitches that they’re not figuring out. But at least they’re communicating now. I guess we just need to avoid email in favor of voicemail.
I’m going to chime in that we are having horrendous problems with my D’s chapman account. She cannot get logged into myChapman and they keep telling us that she has to use Firefox because something is broken trying to log in with any other browser.
Then her password got messed up and I had to put through a 3 way phone call because she was studying in France and the only way she can communicate is through iPhone Facetime. I had to hold up her Facetime to my phone because I was not allowed to talk to them (understandable). She could log in for awhile, only on Firefox which is not on her laptop, but then the password expired or something. Yesterday, she was on the phone again trying to reset the password. From that moment on, no access whatsoever. Had to leave a voice mail, they called back one day later and the guy discovered that someone had accidentally deleted her entire account.
It is now a huge mess and we cannot get in to accept Financial Aid (have been trying for 3 weeks) or do anything (or access Panther Mail)
This is for a new transfer - acceptance was not received until late May
yikes! What a pain. I have found that Chrome does not work but IE has been fine.
She should be able to sign a FERPA agreement to allow you to act for her if necessary.
In my experience, Chapman has been outstanding in their customer service. I called the business office today and got my answers. My daughter emailed the transportation office about parking permits and received a returned email within 5 minutes. In the past, the financial office is usually very busy and it is best to leave a message. They do call back within 24 hours, or at last that is my experience. I also find searching on the Chapman.edu website just by typing in topic will lead me to most answers I need.
This is my second child, second college and I’m very impressed with the attention Chapman gives to the students and families overall.
My D is finally getting access to her account. Her transfer credit matrix finally posted but only 50% are mapped to Chapman classes. Most of the classes have a note “see Dept”. She has no academic advisory assigned. She drove all the way to the school to turn in the Ferpa forms and meet the Registrar to discuss the issues. Noone can tell her who her advisory is because they just changed systems and new one isn’t ready yet. We keep hearing that.
She has no way to register for classes because everything is coming up “prerequisite required”. She called five departments today and kept getting transferred with no answers.
Ugh, coralbrook. What a mess. I do find that there’s a lot of “we don’t know how the new system works” on the tumblr page. It seems to be our fortune to help them break in the new way of doing things.
We did get the parking permit ordered, after three go-rounds with the IT people. We haven’t received it yet (I made sure to print out the confirmation that we ordered it) even though they said they started mailing them July 20, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. She also managed to get most of the classes she needed, despite having the dead-last registration appointment and watching all her classes fill up while she sat helplessly by. She has a lot of AP credit - most of it transferred in okay but there are still a couple wrong things on her advisement report. New system, I suppose. But she just heard from her roommates and is feeling pretty psyched.
Best of luck to you - keep us posted.
My D still does not have an Advisor. Noone can tell her who it is or who it might be, although the kid at the front desk at Registrar said there was one Advisor for all of Dodge. The name and email address she was given does not make any sense… an associate professor in Theatre Department. She has emailed this gentleman twice and received no response.
She is stuck in class registration cycle of h***. System will not let her enroll in any upper division classes because the prerequisites are not showing in her record. Meanwhile, every mandatory class she needs to graduate has now filled up. She cannot get the prerequisites waived and or mapped to her course history because no one can tell her who to talk to. She keeps getting referred back to the Admissions Office. She has emailed the Transfer Admission Advisor over 10 times with no response. She tried to make an appointment to meet with Transfer Advisor when she drove all the way to the school (4 hours round trip), but got no response so she didn’t even bother to go into the office. I’m guessing Transfer Advisor is on vacation?
The worst part is that she can only get 2 classes to stick in her schedule which means she is considered a ‘part time’ student. None of her Chapman grants, merit aid, loans or work study are showing up because she is not ‘full time’. meanwhile, the date for tuition payment has come and gone and I cannot do anything about it because the bill is completely wrong. Just waiting for a ‘penalty notice’ and then I am going to call them and give them a piece of my mind.
Also, we are having big issues with the transcript for her Study Abroad semester. It got lost somewhere in translation. I had to go all the way back to the source and have it resent to Chapman University, but it was sent via email and we do not know if it will be accepted as the correct method. Called Admissions Office and they said they would accept it, but I don’t see any evidence that it has been posted into the ’ new system’.
What a nightmare! Can you try for the Admissions Director or higher? This sounds unacceptable.
I don’t know about Dodge, but I suspect that in the fall, professors will allow students to register in person. I hope this is true for your daughter.
Hi Coralbrook,
On the Dodge College website it states that a student’s advisor is listed in their WebAdvisor.
Is the advisor listed in your daughter’s WebAdvisor the same one that was emailed to her?
Hi again Coralbrook,
I assuming your daughter is a transfer student coming into Chapman U as a junior; is this correct?
On your daughter’s WebAdvisor under her major is it showing one of the nine majors available at Dodge College or is it showing either Theatre, Theatre Performance or Screen Acting which are all in the Theater Department?
If her major is at Dodge College you can find the faculty member whom is Dean at that department and address your questions to that person. If you need help knowing who the Dean is let me know her major and I will look it up for you.
Her MyChapman account page states “No Advisor Assigned” - although she cannot even log into Web Advisor because they transferred to the new My Chapman system. When she went into the Registrar’s Office they kept telling her to look at her account page to find Advisor. She explained and they looked her up in their system. Their only answer was “Well, we are transferring from old system and we don’t know what happened”.
Her major is Creative Producing and that is showing up on her account (nothing related to Theatre). I will tell her to send an email to the Dean of Creative Producing Major to try to get her schedule straightened out.