<p>Ha, ha. Maybe because I’ve been wrangling with the DMV, the bank and the IRS this year, this cycle of applications seemed very easy and very efficient. I have nothing but the nicest things to say about every single school that my son approached. </p>
<p>I was due an easy one though, since I had some rough years . Many times it wasn’t the admission’s office or the school’s fault, but of a random employee that was simply rude or uninformed and couldn’t pass us on to someone who did have knowledge. </p>
<p>The way the school that my son has picked does surprise me in the way accepted students are handled. A lot of snail mail forms with unclear directions and a website that doesn’t have the stuff right there. Had to make 2 separate payments already, with more stuff being billed to the account, and the mandatory orientation is being held on week days only, necessitating the parent to take 2 full days off of work. In my case, as a SAHM, I can do it. It also involves, 2, optimally 3 nights at a hotel with the nearest ones costing $100 a night. For a school that large, I am surprised that some more streamlined procedures are not in place.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it looks like a lot of personal attention is going to be given during that time, so we’ll see. But I’ll have thrown in well over $1000 before S goes off to college after the acceptance, and would have been more than double that without a friend living nearby that is taking us into her home. I can afford it but my cousin whose son is going there too (likely anyways) is really struggling. And this is her home state university! Going away to college is truly an expensive proposition in this case.</p>
<p>if your dad wants the refund, he can call. If they are really going to send it to him, then they will.</p>
<p>Other than that, there is such a different tone in a thread that starts, “Does anybody have any advice on how to get my refund,” and “schools need to get it together.”</p>
<p>Really? Honestly, the minute you decided you wouldn’t attend, you became priority less than zero. If it were my job to run the institution, I would put you on the back burner, too. Why on earth would I care if you were getting what you wanted in what you consider a timely manner when I had to make sure the kids who were attending would get what they needed? Now THAT would be a screwy business model in the extreme.</p>
<p>“UVA has admitted students from the wait list already. Given that, it’s not a simple lack of removal from the mailing list.”</p>
<p>I don’t understand how that makes any difference. Wailtlist admits happen on a rolling basis at every school. And you haven’t addressed the likelihood that your withdrawal from the class didn’t affect the waitlist at all. UVA anticipates X class members getting into other schools off their waitlists during the summer and choosing to attend there. This phenomenon only affects the UVA waitlist if it turns out to total significantly more than X. Top schools are very, very good at determining X in advance.</p>
<p>Welcome packets are likely already printed and have postage attached long before you receive them. So mailing the welcome packet to you is a sunk cost that UVA can’t get back. Why does it make sense for them to spend more time and money paying someone to paw through thousands of welcome packets to find and remove yours?</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re overreacting – I think you’re REacting to a nonexistent issue. UChicago has a great administration, but you should anticipate a lot more “inexcusable” errors in your dealings with that and any other institution.</p>