Questions/Rant about Admissions at UC BERKELEY

<p>This is my first time on one of these forums. I felt I had to rant about and ask questions about my admissions experience because it was/is rather horrible. I'm a transfer student and I was admitted to UC BERKELEY for Spring 2014.</p>

<p>Firstly...is it common for admissions officers to be RUDE? The moment since I received my acceptance letter in March 2013 until now, every experience I've had when speaking to anyone about my admissions has been bad. Whenever I asked any of them questions, it seems like they're always responding in an incredibly rude manner. I know working in administration at a school is different from actual customer service, but some of these people didn't learn manners from their parents or something.
I had maybe 4 different admissions officers since my acceptance (even though I'm sure you're only supposed to be assigned ONE admissions officer until your term begins) and my file has been tossed around the whole office probably more than once. Every time I get a new admissions officer, whenever I need to ask them a question, I would have to explain my whole situation all over again.</p>

<p>My latest admissions officer seems like she does her job right, but she is by far the rudest, most condescending person I have ever spoken to. From the first day I spoke with her, her rudeness was just ebbing through the phone. As a transfer student, I felt that I knew more information going in than most other transfers because I do my research. The questions I would ask her are just to clarify information that I already knew, because I am the type of person who is very thorough. She basically shot down all of my questions with "No duh" answers and inferred that I didn't check my "conditions of admissions" frequently enough...even though I read through that thing more than once a day! </p>

<p>A week ago, I checked my status on bearfacts, and it said that I had a registration block. I emailed her asking what the reason was, and she didn't respond to my email. Getting more nervous as the days went by, I went on google and searched everything I could about registration blocks at UC Berkeley, and found out that I need to contact the Undergrad Admissions Office to figure out the problem. Unfortunately, they were closed on Monday, so I called them on Tuesday (yesterday). The person I spoke with on the phone told me that I have to contact my admissions officer directly to figure out the issue. I told her that the reason why I was contacting them was because my admissions officer wasn't responding. Then it seemed like she was talking to someone next to her, and then she comes back on the phone and asks my name. When I tell her, she tells me "Your admissions officer was just about to call you. Please wait for her call."
When she calls me back, she gives me a lecture about how she was working on my case, and the reason why she hasn't responded was because she didn't know why I had a block. My PREVIOUS admissions officer was the one who placed the block, and apparently he's supposed to call me in the next couple of days.
She then follows up with "Don't call around the other phone numbers in this office because you are impatient. I was trying to figure out your case for you. But the other admissions officer will call you back because He's the only one who can take your block off for you."</p>

<p>I don't feel like I did anything that deserved this kind of treatment. I'm sure every other transfer/newly admitted freshman would do the same thing in my situation.
I was wondering if anyone knew of something I could do in this situation?
Is there anyone I could speak to so that this process could be sped up?
What if she never calls me back?
And is there anyone I can complain to about the rudeness of the staff without jeopardizing MY admissions into Berkeley?</p>

<p>That sounds frustrating. </p>

<p>What I would suggest, rather than complaining however, is that you try to step back and let it GO at least for now. Don’t automatically go into each coversation with an attitude/preconception that your AO sucks, that the AOffice stinks and has poor service, that you are smarter and they are treating you poorly. You don’t know what is going on there, perhaps your first AO was beaten to a pulp by her ex-h and the whole office is traumatized, and this AO got all her cases, perhaps they all got norovirus and are terribly behind and stressed about it, or their boss’s kid has cancer and they are all disctracted. OR MAYBE they do stink…but you still get more bees with honey than vinegar. </p>

<p>IF, in a few months, you still feel this way write a letter.</p>