<p>I am posing this experience as a cautionary note to anyone who is interested in Towson. I am also looking to hear from others who have applied to Towson this fall to see if their experience has been similar or different.</p>
<p>This is the first year that Towson has accepted the Common Application. We decided to take advantage of that and S2 applied to Towson using the CA in early August. More than 2 months have elapsed and we have not heard one word from Towson Admissions - either confirming receipt of his application or verifying that his file is complete. By contrast - every other college that he applied to sent an email confirmation confirming receipt of his application within 24 hours and has also confirmed that his file was complete by early October.</p>
<p>I called Towson in early September and was told that they had not started downloading from the CA website yet and would start doing so by early October. This begs the question - why start accepting the CA - knowing that students will apply in August - if you are not going to touch it for 2 months? I did log into my son's CA account at the end of September and was able to see that Towson had finally downloaded his app on 9/21.</p>
<p>The next issue is that we are in-state. The CA supplement did not have a section to answer the questions to confirm in-state residency. I called Towson admissions in August with this question and at first they did not believe me that the supplement lacked this section - then they told me to print out the pdf of the Towson application from their website - have my son fill out the section on Maryland residency by hand - and mail that to Towson! Really - could they find a more convoluted and inefficient way to handle this? Thought it was absurd - but we did so.</p>
<p>Now we are in early October - and still no communication from Towson. I called again this past week and was told they are still "creating files" and that my son should hear something "soon". I find it hard to comprehend how Towson is unable to do what the other universities have done by now - confirm receipt of the application and confirm that his file is complete. This experience with Towson has been annoying at best and while Towson was not at the top of my son's list anyway - it really sours me on the school. Plus I feel like I threw $50 out the window.</p>
<p>So - has anyone else applied to Towson? Did you use the CA or Towson's own application? What has your experience been so far?</p>
<p>If you are interested in applying to Towson and have not done so yet - I strongly recommend that you use their own application - which ties right into their online status checker - rather than the CA. I was told at one point that applicants who applied using the CA would receive instructions on how to use the online status checker in September - obviously that has not happened.</p>
<p>Just want to add a note that if you are applying to the Honors College at Towson - you should use the Towson app - the CA does not have the Honors Colleges section - you will have to submit that by using the Towson paper application anyway - so you might as well just use the Towson app for everything.</p>
<p>I received a very thorough, cordial and helpful response to my email from Towson admissions and want to share a few points.</p>
<p>First - they acknowledge growing pains this year due to switching to both the Common Application and to a digital imaging system.</p>
<p>Second - my son should have received a link with the status checker link and password - since he did not - they re-sent it and we are now able to see what is in and what is missing.</p>
<p>Third - they have changed their time frame and will now begin releasing decisions in early December. The days where they started giving decisions in October/November are gone - hence - they are not rushing to process applications submitted in August.</p>
<p>So - I was happy with the response and will now be patient!</p>
<p>We have had the same exact experience as rockville mom! It has been almost 6 weeks since submitting common app and have not received an acknowledgement or status checker id. I have called 3 times and no one has any answers for me. We are disappointed and starting to feel concerned that this may be an indication of how disorganized and difficult that the next 4 years will be. This is my daughter’s first choice school and she has repeatedly gotten emails from the other 11 schools she’s applied to, and about a dozen other schools she hasn’t applied to seem to want her at their schools. She is an excellent and well rounded student and it would be a loss for Towson if she decides this experience has soured her and goes to James Madison, Univ of Delaware, or UMBC instead.</p>
<p>I suggest communicating with your regional rep. This person will be able to send you the status checker link and give you more information than calling in and speaking with any random person who answers the phone in admissions. That was the solution for us - hopefully it will work for you as well.</p>
<p>xSteven - are you a Towson student or recent grad? Would you care to elaborate? I doubt my son will end up at Towson - it is more of an academic and financial safety school - but you never know. I’d be interested to hear your point of view.</p>
<p>Going back to my concerns with at least the admissions office - he got an email from Towson this week with a link to Section 11 of their own app - in pdf form - which is the section for in-state residency. The idea being to print out these two pages - complete them - fax/email to Towson.</p>
<p>My son already did this - in August. Furthermore - by just extracting those 2 pages from the pdf - there is no first page with the student’s name and contact info. There is a place for the student’s address - but that’s it. Hopefully most Maryland students will realize this - and just write their name and Towson ID at the top of each page - but I wouldn’t be surprised if the geniuses at Towson receive a lot of completed Section 11s with no name on them!</p>
<p>We also had to resend In-State residency form; however, once that problem was fixed – Towson’s communications were great. We get lots of emails; invites for open houses; a personal letter from the head of the Physics Department; a phone call in response to their 3/2 program. Our experience was fanatastic. I was also very happy with the merit aid that was offered. No financial aid package information was sent yet. All-in-all – found Towson to be charming. PS: Their tour was the best tour we have ever been on at any college. Despite all these great things – my son won’t be attending (got a better offer elsewhere).</p>
I summited an application for my daughter as a transfer from CCBC she has a 3.85 GPA and will be graduating this spring with an AFA. The status checker says waiting for CCBC’s transcripts. It’s been over a month since CCBC say’s they sent them. We called towson and they said the were working on the spring applications and haven’t bygone working on the fall applications. I don’t understand why updating the status checker with college transcripts would not be done immediately upon receipt.