Northwestern Admissions Fiasco

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
41

<p>Although NU did have major issues with the initial emails – it looks like they did come on CC and try and notify everyone of the issues.</p>

<p>I still think that NU should notify everyone of a date the decisions are coming out. And I believe a portal with a login is a better way of handling the decisions. It’s just my opinion. Obviously others with have a differing opinion.</p>

<p>03-23-2012, 08:52 PM message from Northwestern </p>

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<p>Dear NU Applicants,</p>

<p>We’re sorry for the difficulties you have been experiencing this evening accessing your online decision letter. We have been working with the technical staff managing our online decisions since 5:30 CST on the resolution of this issue. We know you are anxious - please be assured that we are working diligently to get this up and running ASAP. </p>

<p>Please do not keep refreshing your browser or try to access via multiple devices (smartphone, IPad,laptop etc) as it exacerbates the issue - what it does on the technical “back end” is that it increases exponentially the number of connections trying to view online.</p>

<p>Thank you for your patience. The temporary landing page you are getting in accessing your decision letter will be updated periodically as we have updates. We’ll also keep an eye on this thread to see what students are experiencing.</p>

<p>NU Undergraduate Admission </p>

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03-23-2012, 09:05 PM more from NU Staff </p>

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<p>All,</p>

<p>You will all receive the same email regardless of your admission decision - when you click on the link in the email, it will bring up your unique decision letter. </p>

<p>For those who have not received your email and have checked Junk/Spam, it could be a function of the current issue as our provider has taken things offline to work on it. That being said, we also have applicants who “unsubscribe” from emails sent by NU and therefore we cannot send decisions electronically to those students. My advice is to wait until this current issue is resolved and if you do not receive your email, contact <a href=“mailto:ug-admissions@northwestern.edu”>ug-admissions@northwestern.edu</a> and we can investigate.</p>

<p>Hope this information is useful - </p>

<p>Nu Undergraduate Admission </p>

<p>03-23-2012, 09:26 PM status updates </p>

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<p>All,</p>

<p>We unfortunately do not have an estimate on when this will be resolved. We are frustrated as well. We will post here and the page you are seeing when trying to access your decision will be updated when there is new information.</p>

<p>Again, our apologies as we know this is a stressful process for students in the best of circumstances.</p>

<p>Northwestern Undergraduate Admission</p>

<p>03-23-2012, 09:43 PM </p>

<p>We’re hoping it is fixed soon but still don’t have a concrete timeframe - we are hoping for any update from technical staff in the next half hour.</p>

<p>03-23-2012, 10:24 PM update on decision letters </p>

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<p>All,</p>

<p>We just received a technical update. Decisions will be available at 8 AM CST on Saturday morning after the tech staff has time to do the work necessary to address the issues you are experiencing accessing your online letters.</p>

<p>We apologize for the additional stress this has caused for you - please feel free to contact us at <a href=“mailto:ug-admission@northwestern.edu”>ug-admission@northwestern.edu</a> with any questions. We’ll also monitor this thread tomorrow to see if students are continuing to experience problems.</p>

<p>Northwestern Undergraduate Admission </p>

<p>03-23-2012, 10:52 PM another update </p>

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<p>All,</p>

<p>We would like to encourage you all to wait until 8 AM tomorrow. We know you are all anxious but please let the technical staff do their work this evening. Refreshing browsers and continually trying to access decision pages is impeding the work that needs to be done.</p>

<p>Thank you -</p>

<p>Northwestern Undergraduate Admission </p>

<p>03-24-2012, 12:40 PM </p>

<p>All,</p>

<p>If you have not received a decision email, please check your Spam/Junk folder. If it is not there, please email <a href=“mailto:ug-admission@northwestern.edu”>ug-admission@northwestern.edu</a> from the email address used on your application and give us an alternate email address to which we can send your email. Usually it is a problem with a student’s internet service provider, a school’s email server blocking emails from NU or students having unsubscribed from NU emails. We will resend email messages daily only to students who have yet to receive them,starting on Monday.</p>

42

<p>My son’s ED decision email also went to a spam folder, even though other NU email didn’t. I think he was using a yahoo address, and yahoo blocked it. It so happened he checked his spam and found the email.</p>

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<p>POST 39 - Rec’d for the Moody Blues quote…</p>

<p>In other news, I too would either call Morty or the Director of Admissions, and one way or the other my son would read the news today, oh boy.</p>

<p>Good luck with however this works out for you and your son.</p>

44

<p>“Do emails with the Senior Assistant Director of Admissions count?”</p>

<p>No they don’t, not if you haven’t gotten what you’re looking for. Go straight to the top - call Morty Shapiro, you’ll get his secretary who will deal with this and you will have your answer quickly.</p>

45

<p>I have had a lot of email “blocked” by my home internet provider. This email appears nowhere, not even in a spam box somewhere. From what I could tell, nothing was sent to the sender either. Just blocked. Something to do with the way the mailers servers are set up. They even started blocking my mail from Netflix saying they received my DVD and is mailing another. I could get Netflix to send me email, but the automatic stuff was blocked. That is when I switched to Gmail which sends me pretty much everything. I just forward my ISP accoiunt to the Gmail box in case something gets sent to it. I really don’t know why they do this, but there are “BlackLists” out there and the way servers are set up, they get blocked. I had the same problem with a hotel reservation in London. I could correspond with the Hotel directly, but the automated stuff would not come thru and was nowhere to be found. I am not saying this is what happened, but it sure mimics what has happened to me a lot.</p>

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<p>That’s exactly what happened to my S - he had no issues whatsoever getting / sending emails to NU, and had added whatever those addresses were to his address book, but his ED link came from a different address and went into a spam folder. Indeed, it just so happened he checked his spam folder within a half hour of it being sent.</p>

<p>My S and D got their ED notifications within a few minutes of one another, and honestly I thought D’s school set up was superior - you log into a portal with a specific code that you know ahead of time, compared to receiving the email that takes you to the link for that specific person.</p>

47

<p>wildcatalum: 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>

<p>You’re a Northwestern Alum? I’m sorry to hear that because for the more than 30 years that I have been a Northwestern alum this is the first time that I have seen one alum call another a liar without any basis in fact whatsoever. The only person that “really reflects badly” on is you. There is not a single statement that I made in this thread that was not true. It was not until late on Thursday, March 29 that S received at the alternate address the email containing the decison that his application had been denied. And while the decision was disappointing, it’s a reflection of just how difficult admission into NU has become. I wish everyone whose S or D was admitted the best of luck, and I thank those who tried to assist and otherwise sympathized with our plight.</p>

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<p>@BellportDad – So sorry that it took an extra week just to get a disappointing result! </p>

<p>I think wildcatalum and others were just feeling a bit defense of any implication that a SNAFU in Admissions (which happens at EVERY school) was sufficient reason to write off the school as a whole, as was implied in your OP… “the incompetence that S has been subjected to over the past several days by the Northwestern Admissions Office is unconscionable and may have permanently destroyed my positive feelings for the institution.”</p>

<p>I’m so glad your S has other fantastic alternatives and wish all the best to him!</p>

49

<p>If BellportDad is telling the truth, I feel sorry for him to be attacked like the way he has been. I have noticed some elitism on this board by a select few alums who can find NO fault with NU and they fail to accept or listen to other opinions about other institutions. It does not reflect well on the institution. On the the other hand, I sure hope your son fairs well if you are telling the truth. I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Please let us know where your son ends up.</p>

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<p>I’m not an NU alum, but I’ve generally been EXTREMELY impressed with how objective those here who are seem able to be in their assessments other schools.</p>

<p>I have been surprised, however, by the number of non-NU folk who frequent the NU board apparently looking to stir up controversy. It seems unusual compared to other parts of CC, so I understand why some of the NU folks get suspicious/miffed over time. ;-D</p>

51

<p>I applied, have gotten emails from NU confirming they are reviewing my application, but havent gotten an email with a decision or actual mail yet. Its not in my spam folder either. I’m about to call them.</p>

52

<p>One of the things that I learned from this experience is that NU does not send a hard copy of a rejection letter, the only thing that a rejected student gets is the email. Some schools still send hard copies of the rejection letter, but NU is not one of them.</p>

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<p>I didn’t know this… that makes your extended delay much more understandable! I guess I can also see why Admissions folks are hesitant to deliver bad news over the phone as I suspect that would open them to a world of abuse.</p>

54

<p>Thanks for sharing that bellportdad- I was unaware of that as well. That, unfortunately, does not bode well for qazqay.</p>

55

<p>I recently read that Stanford also adheres to this policy of not sending a denial letter by snail mail in addition to email on the theory that doing so would just be another “slap in the face” to the applicant. I think that makes sense.</p>

56

<p>looks like I didnt get in, which is actually fine with me since I wasnt going there anyway, I still want to know what my admissions decision is though haha</p>

57

<p>@qazqay - I’d call as it sounds like they’ll ask for an alternate email address. </p>

<p>Congrats on whatever school you’ve chosen!</p>