<p>One of my son's top choice universities said they did not receive two official transcripts. Has this happened to anyone? My son lost interest and feels something is amiss with the administration of the university.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s not a big deal, just ask your school to send them again. You never know where the mistake was made - it could be the high school, it could be the post office and it could of course be the university. It’s easy for a handful of transcripts to get put in the wrong folder when thousands are arriving. We had things go missing at Caltech - which I know from experience has a great administration.</p>
<p>Does your high school send electonically? If so they can tell you who opened the email, date and time. It is all very exact these days.</p>
<p>First transcript was sent in a sealed envelope by the registrar. The University said it was never received. The registrar sent a second official transcript with a cover letter by FAX.
The University received it but said it was not official because they want it in a sealed envelope. My son thinks this is being picky and now doesn’t feel comfortable with the university’s bueracracy. Is “electronic” the same as FAX?</p>
<p>This is a shot in the dark…</p>
<p>Maybe you can get the school and/or school board to send it out the old fashioned way via vis certified mail. </p>
<p>I went through a bit of a mega hassle from hades a while back with my very own high school transcripts (long story) and the fellow who is now the superintendent of schools is going to be sending out something similar to a high school transcript via vis certified mail. </p>
<p>All you need is the proper full legal name of whoever runs the offices of admissions and then just e mail them and tell them to be on the look out for them and all.</p>
<p>well, at this point, so close to when colleges release their decisions for Freshman applicants, I think your son is probably correct. </p>
<p>Unless he is applying to transfer in? [ I may be reading too much into the word “registrar”, but I’ve never heard is used when referring to having a HS transcript sent out]
Then there still is time and he needs to take it up a notch , by getting a hold of a senior official in the admissions office of the college he’s trying to get into. Often deans don’t have any idea what some paper pushers working for them are telling people. Have his registrar scan a copy of his transcript to the admissions office as well as him, and he can email it to the head of admissions, with a subject line saying " Transfer applicant transcript lost in mail- please forward this scanned copy to ad mins]. Its worth a try…</p>
<p>Sending something by fax is the same thing as sending it electronically. When you fax something, the fax machine breaks down the information into digital signals to send through the telephone line to the other fax machine. It’s an electronic transmission. </p>
<p>All universities have bureaucracies that are difficult. If you are fortunate, you can avoid dealing with most of them, but when you have to deal with them, just focus on the end goal and get through it. The bureaucracy is completely a side issue to a great school. You should just ask your son’s registrar office to send the transcript again, in a sealed envelope.</p>
<p>mdcissp, the same thing happened to my daughter. She had no reason to believe that anything was amiss, until she received a letter (sent out on the same date as the accept/reject letters) that said essentially, “We just wanted to let you know that we closed your file because we never received your high school transcript.” Of course, it had been sent months earlier, and when the high school called with evidence of that, the college said (I’m paraphrasing), “Isn’t that a shame. We can waitlist you if you want.” We were at fault in that we didn’t check to make sure that all materials had been received—a rookie error that won’t happen with my next child. Fortunately, it was not my daughter’s first choice, so “no harm, no foul,” as they say, but as with your son, it made her think less of the institution. (Sorry there’s no helpful advice in this post…I’m just commiserating with you. :))</p>
<p>Not at all uncommon for something to be missing from an applicant’s file and, as Mary13 learned, this is the reason to check (online or by phone if the process is “low tech” at a given school) that all parts of every application have been received.</p>
<p>In my experience, the style and caliber of an Admissions Office bureaucracy does not necessarily reflect how the rest of the University administration operates. So if this is truly one of your S’s “top choices,” I think he should get over it, or you could “get over it” for him, lol, and make sure the transcript gets there somehow some way.</p>
<p>Rice University has some minor cc fame for being a great place with too many stories of a poorly run/non-helpful (for many years) Admissions office. I’m sure there are others.</p>
<p>Conversely, a super-nice super-cool super-organized Admissions Office does not mean the University will be the best choice for a given student.</p>
<p>We ran into a couple great schools with terrible problems in admissions. I wouldn’t rule out a school because of that.</p>