<p>I have got to vent ... I've held it in long enough ...</p>
<p>We have had the worst problems with communications from Rice undergrad admissions and financial aid. In their defense, my son does need to submit a bunch of extra stuff for FA -- a non-custodial parent issue. Equals extra work for them, and extra communication required. But other than that ... really ... are there any good excuses?</p>
<p>Poor communication. No response via email or phone. No human beings to answer phones. Always with the voicemail messages (never to be returned) and automated email responses (sometimes followed up by emails that don't answer what was asked; other times, no follow-up). </p>
<p>No other school, with two other children, has ever been this bad at this game.</p>
<p>Venting, venting ... </p>
<p>Hmmm. Don't feel any better after venting ... ?</p>
<p>I haven’t had it near as bad as you, but the few times I needed to contact them, they were pretty unresponsive/unhelpful.</p>
<p>One thing that I really hate, though, is the February and March financial aid deadlines (a problem everywhere). Even though tax returns aren’t due until April 15th, if my parents don’t get them done in freakin’ January, I get screwed.</p>
<p>Simplelife: Yes, we’ve had very similar issues. Of all the schools DS has applied to, we’ve been least impressed with certain aspects of Rice’s admissions office. I particularly agree with the communications problem. Son was routed to voice mail quite a bit.</p>
<p>There was a thread back in the fall about this, primarily having to do with the interview scheduling process. My son had problems with this as well in spite of getting his request in on time. He followed the instructions Rice sent him regarding how to follow up if he wasn’t contacted for an interview (this was requested in our home town.) Left lots of voice mails. It went on for a while and then he gave up and lost interest.</p>
<p>Lo and behold, an alum called about three weeks ago and asked DS to meet him for an informal interview at Starbucks. Told him to “dress down” and come with all his questions. It turned out to be a great visit, and DS is extremely excited about Rice again. It is now his first choice.</p>
<p>It is amazing what a difference a positive person can make. Maybe Rice’s admissions office is just understaffed.</p>
<p>At this time of year, most admissions counselors are at home reading files. We have huge events on campus (Vision, Explore Rice, Owl Days) going on right now, and the limited staff that’s in admissions is kind of taxed at the moment. Have some patience; Rice Fin-Aid were absolutely the most accommodating of any I had to work with in my admissions process.</p>
<p>Have to admit, our communications with admissions and FA have been poor as well. </p>
<p>Most all students seem to be very pleased once they are in, but Rice is dead-last of the half dozen that we have had direct (verbal) communication with. Seems to be a rather bureaucratic style of communication. </p>
<p>Given their size, they should be able to do better. Maybe it’s better on the admitted side of the fence.</p>
<p>We have been very impressed with everything about Rice, including their Admissions and Financial Aid offices. We had a sign-in glitch, wrote a late night email last night, and by 6:29 our time (CA) this morning we had a response. They followed up 2 hours later, and the problem was solved. All before 9 am. Also, my husband called the Financial Aid Office this morning and a very pleasant man answered on the very first ring. Everyone at Rice has been extremely helpful and considerate.</p>
<p>I probably mentioned this on some other thread, but we found Admissions to be excellent when my son applied last year. At one point we were trying to get his art portfolio into the right format for emailing. Someone in Admissions actually called at least once to tell us that we had made a mistake and to try to send it again. Without that call we would have had no idea that the file wasn’t received.</p>
<p>And of course, we applaud them for having the wisdom to make the right decision concerning my son’s application</p>
<p>A million years ago, we had terrible experiences with Rice admissions. They were not friendly!!! In spite of that, both my kids attended Rice. DS will graduate this May with a job in his field. DD graduated 3 years ago, and works overseas. Both had an incredible experience at Rice, and tell me often how glad they are that they were able to attend.
Shake your head, wonder how the he** a great school like Rice can have such a miserable admissions department, and then apply anyway. That’s MHadvice! ;)</p>
<p>^I have heard many times that once you’re on the other side of the admissions process, Rice rocks. Over the years that I’ve been reading CC, I do recall people complaining about their process – the relative lack of communication, the inability to contact a human, but it is true that people always say things run very, very smoothly “on the other side!” Which is great news. And which is what keeps my kids applying. :)</p>
<p>Interesting that some might assume the problem was due to a lack of patience on our end. Won’t go into the specifics, but we were calling this time of year to respond to their communications with us.</p>
<p>They made several mistakes. Emails they sent said things were missing that were not missing, and one email said they had received something that they did not receive. Meanwhile, we were trying to comply with their requests by sending and re-sending stuff that wasn’t making any difference – because, unbeknownst to us, the previous communications from them were wrong.</p>
<p>We began trying to resolve these things in January. Most everything was resolved three days ago. The last piece of the puzzle fell into place today. Five weeks of effort to resolve stuff with them? Not a patience problem on my part.</p>
<p>The communication was poor – until I finally gave up and went outside of the normal admissions and financial aid channels as the final deadlines approached. At that point, the Rice staff resolved everything VERY kindly, politely, apologetically, and professionally. That part was impressive. I’m a “satisfied-enough customer” now. But it wasn’t easy by any stretch. I stick by what I said – they have been the worst, in terms of communication, of any school my family has encountered.</p>