<p>Not receiving the email is already very rare; not receiving email nor the package is even much more so. I haven’t seen another CC member with either problems, let alone both at the same time. Maybe your S application wasn’t even on file to begin with.</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but Bellport Dad only had posts in this forum, so I’m suspicious that this may all be made up.</p>
<p>“Maybe your S application wasn’t even on file to begin with”. </p>
<p>If that were the case, I’d expect that the Admissions Officer who has sent S three emails this week would have mentioned it. According to Northwestern admissions they are sending the decision email to the correct address and it is not being bounced back, and according to the school that S attends, no emails from Northwestern have been blocked. Thr Admissions Officer’s other emails have no problem gettiing through to S. The only option offered by admissions is for S to provide an alternative email address, which he has done. There is an entire spectrum of alternative methods to communicate the decision which admissions could have offered, but they seem singularly focused on the only way being receipt of their decisions email with the link.</p>
<p>"I hate to say it, but Bellport Dad only had posts in this forum, so I’m suspicious that this may all be made up. "</p>
<p>Another genius heard from. This kind of incompetence cannot be made up.</p>
<p>Bellportdad - so sorry you and your son had to go thru this nonsense.</p>
<p>All I can ask is that if your son is accepted, you will consider NU. It is an excellent school, but apparently really messed up admission notifications this year.</p>
<p>Arbier - I don’t believe they have a portal set up. I think they send you an email and you click on a link inside your email and it brings you to where a letter pops up which states your decision. I’m talking about a portal where you login and see your result.</p>
<p>To me if you are going to email the student - just put the result in the body of the email.</p>
<p>And there is no reason that NU can’t just tell everyone when the decisions are coming out.</p>
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<p>They send out snail-mail at the same time that the electronic decision is posted. Has your S gotten his yet? It sounds like others here have. While I understand your frustration, waiting a few extra days, or a week, in no way alters the decision or the quality of the education the school will provide over 4 years.</p>
<p>It might also help to remember that during this part of the process they are communicating with 32,000 families, not just one, so working the process is actually critical.</p>
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<p>We were EXTREMELY glad they didn’t do this last year, as the e-mail came to my address and we wanted D to be the first to see what the actual decision was. NU’s process was perfect for our family.</p>
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<p>They do publish a decision date. It just happens that sometimes they are able to release decisions earlier. Would you prefer to wait for the published date?</p>
<p>Bellportdad, I am sorry this is happening. The only thing I can say is that one a student is in NW, he does not have to deal with admissions. Also NU is not the only school who has had problems with admissions decisions communications. I think the incompetence, in general,of communicating the decision is appalling. I have seen schools send out incorrect emails accepting kids and reneging. I think every one of these admissions departments making such mistakes should get penalized. Maybe get rid of the admissions directors who have not put together a failsafe system of no mistakes. There are no consequences to them.</p>
<p>Yes, my son got an accept from Michigan, that was then reneged, some years ago. He was deferred instead. I think Cornell pulled a blooper of that sort too. In addition , there are schools fooling around with other sites so that it sends what I call teasers to kids as to whether or not they are accepted. This is all ever so sloppy. Also there are schools who send out acceptances bit by bit, just prolonging the agony of those at the end of the process. It’s ridiculous, and I, for one, wish there were more consequences for this sort of sloppy work… All the judgements these people make on these students and they can’t do their job efficiently, smoothly and as courteously as possible. </p>
<p>So, yes, I am very sorry about this and shame on NU admissions office!</p>
<p>Where did they publish a date. By saying that everyone would have a decision by April.</p>
<p>Every year hundreds of schools are able to say you will get your decision ON a certain date and alot of times at a certain time. Like the ivy decisions tonight at 5PM. The notification has been out there for a long time. There is no reason NU can’t do this as well.</p>
<p>Of course there are numerous ways to let a person know if they are accepted or not.</p>
<p>This year there was a problem with the decisions and now we have a person waiting days for their decision. Can’t they just FAX the darn letter to him. Jeez.</p>
<p>^Are you really sweating over this? At least Northwestern let people know earlier. Many people have already been able to book their Chicago trip by now. Doesn’t seem like you give them any credit. You can go to Ivies and complain “there’s no reason Ivies can’t do this earlier” if you really compare every little thing. </p>
<p>Also, you really don’t know all the facts surrounding this apparently <em>single</em> case. Not even one other person came to CC to complain. I wouldn’t get so worked up at the point and would withhold judgement until you know all the facts if I were you. </p>
<p>
Again, if you are not an expert on IT, there may be things you are not aware of. Clearly, there’s an extra step and it’s reasonable to think it’s there for a reason. I am no expert; it could be related to extra security or additional control against error…etc.</p>
<p>Bellport Dad - I don’t know if your son has still not received his notification but I would suggest that you speak with someone other than whomever answers the phone. I would speak/email the head of admissions and explain your situation. Surely you’ve learned that after one try with the bottom person you go straight to the top. At this point you could even contact Morty via email telephone and I’m sure you’d get a response. Complaining to CC will do you no good.</p>
<p>It doesn’t even really sound like it’s necessarily an error on NU’s part. Maybe your son mis-entered his email address on his application to NU. Maybe it’s an IT glitch at the school (since we can impute incompetence to NU’s staff I don’t see why we’re trusting an unnamed private high school’s IT department).</p>
<p>And bellportdad: This is an internet messageboard. I suggested that a poster (you in this case) may not have been entirely honest as a possible analysis, since the story didn’t make sense with the information that I and others had. Now that has been cleared up. On internet message boards, people lie sometimes. This wasn’t a slight against you, so you need to learn to not take it personally. I AM sorry your son’s had to deal with the stress of the situation, but it sounds like some sort of strange hitch. </p>
<p>On the upside, his physical packet or rejection letter (assuming his application was actually processed at all) should be arriving any day now. </p>
<p>Finally, as an alternative suggestion, contact your chapter of the Alumni Association and complain. Oftentimes this is the exact sort of situation that being a legacy can help with- they can very easily apply pressure to the admissions office to clear this up.</p>
<p>Also AMTC’s point is well taken as well- have you tried to speak to the dean of admissions rather than just the phone people?</p>
<p>Did you speak with NU’s alumni relations office? I think they might be helpful to you.</p>
<p>Office of Alumni Relations and Development · 2020 Ridge Avenue · Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: 800.222.5603 or 847.491.4591 · E-mail: <a href=“mailto:giving@northwestern.edu”>giving@northwestern.edu</a></p>
<p>" Maybe your son mis-entered his email address on his application to NU"</p>
<p>Ahh, he’s received three emails from NU admissions this week, so I think that we can safely say that is not a possibility.</p>
<p>"Maybe it’s an IT glitch at the school (since we can impute incompetence to NU’s staff I don’t see why we’re trusting an unnamed private high school’s IT department).</p>
<p>That is still a viable possibility, which is why S provided them with an alternate email address earlier today but have received nothing at the alternate address. Perhaps they’ve given up too. What has to be kept in mind about this theory is that other emails from NU admissions are being received by S without any problem, so even if it is his private school which is blocking the decision email, it would be because of something in that email that is not in the other emails being received from NU admissions. In other words, NU could never be blameless.</p>
<p>"On the upside, his physical packet or rejection letter (assuming his application was actually processed at all) should be arriving any day now. "</p>
<p>We can only hope.</p>
<p>"This year there was a problem with the decisions and now we have a person waiting days for their decision. Can’t they just FAX the darn letter to him. Jeez. "</p>
<p>Thanks Kleibo, my wife loved your suggestion!</p>
<p>But have you contacted anyone with authority?</p>
<p>"But have you contacted anyone with authority? " </p>
<p>Do emails with the Senior Assistant Director of Admissions count?</p>
<p>My son was accepted to NU as an ED applicant and last year he didn’t receive his email either when the acceptances for ED came out. I believe it was on a Friday. His other emails from NU came just fine but somehow his acceptance email did not come through for some reason. We didn’t really contact them knowing that the package should be delivered in a few days. And it did. He received the actual package via snail mail the Monday after so in less than 2 business days…</p>
<p>I am not sure if people already received their packages yet but hope your son receives his package via snail mail soon… I know it is very frustrating but the important thing is that the decision will not change so you will just have to wait for the package…</p>
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<p>I think I remember that the decision e-mails last year came from a weird address with a lot of numbers in it (possibly what made it custom for each kid?), which MANY systems blocked as SPAM in prior years. I seem to remember someone saying it was found in the SPAM folder at their private boarding school weeks after they finally got the snail-mail acceptance.</p>
<p>Yup… I just went back and found it and last year D’s came from <a href="mailto:northwesternu@c.422x.com">northwesternu@c.422x.com</a>… and I think the “422x” landed it in her SPAM file.</p>
<p>In any case, I hope when you finally get the decision it brings the happy-dance!</p>
<p>I totally agree with MomCares that the strange address used particularly for the decision as opposed to the rest of the emails you’ve received from NU, may have tossed the email into a spam file at your son’s school. However, that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have told you over the phone by now what the decision is. They may not want to tell you as the Dad, but surely your son could provide the requisite identifying information that the Admissions office should tell him. This seems like a very strange sequence.</p>
<p>Is ANYONE else having these problems? It seems odd that you haven’t at least gotten snail-mail yet. Is he at a boarding school or is there any other mailing address in the picture? Our NU envelope was smaller than D’s other acceptances. Could it have gotten stuck in a magazine and inadvertently recycled?</p>
<p>Maybe you already answered this, but did your S ever get an e-mail confirming his application was received, followed by a later one saying it was complete?</p>
<p>It just seems odd that all three lines of communication have broken down for you (e-mail, phone and snail mail).</p>
<p>Congratulations on his other acceptances!</p>
<p>This man is lying. Accepted students should have gotten their decisions by mail by now unless maybe if you’re international.</p>
<p>You’re a dad? Please find something better to do. I understand your son was denied, but it really reflects badly on you to be doing things like this.</p>