<p>I have emailed to the office becauseI had a few questions. I sent 4 emails over last 2 months and I never have gotten a single reply yet!
The email was something like beahusky@blah blah..
Anyway, I'm wondering if UConn superscores SAT or not.</p>
<p>You mean use the highest section from however many SATs you have taken? Yes they do.</p>
<p>The only success I ever had with them when going through the application process was calling. Try it out. :)</p>
<p>UConn seems to have one befuddled admissions office that was apparently overwhelmed by this year’s applications. D, in-state, applied to UConn as a super safety academically, as a safety financially, and selected theater as a major. She needed to arrange an audition or interview to complete her application, but she totally forgot about it because her other safety accepted her right away with fin aid, and she no longer really cared about UConn. I guess it was too much to expect any communication from them about the status of her application (like she got from every other place else she applied); I can understand that a huge state school may not be able to do that. I any case, I called Admissions after April 1 passed, more out of curiosity than anything else, since D had been accepted at some top choices with good financial aid. I was told her application was in the pending, incomplete file. I realized she had screwed up by not arranging the audition/interview, and I told them she wouldn’t be doing so at that point, but thanks anyway.</p>
<p>Yesterday, D got an acceptance package from UConn, admitting her to some “Exploratory” program, which I assume is for those with no major designated on their application. The kicker is she is only admitted to our local campus, not to Storrs! She’s no genius, but is overqualified for Storrs and very overqualified for any of the satellite campuses. I can only assume her incomplete theater application somehow got converted to a completed no-major application at some point, with no notification to her, much less any authorization, and that by then Storrs was filled.</p>
<p>I realize this was a screw-up by D, but what a strange way for a school to handle things. I would have expected a communication to the effect that her theater app was incomplete, and she would be considered as a general applicant if she so desired. She’s the type of student they should have been eager to embrace/encourage, but apparently their system just doesn’t allow for any personal approach. This certainly confirmed my fear that a large, bureaucratic state school would have been a big mistake for my D.</p>
<p>^ I do hope that you don’t think the admissions office represents the entire school. That would be a crime.</p>
<p>I don’t blame UConn for rejecting your daughter at Storrs… she never completed the application process… If I saw that her app was incomplete, I would have tossed it out… UConn was nice to even give admission to a satellite campus. If you sent in an incomplete app for a job opening, do you honestly think they would call you to figure out why the app was partially completed? Don’t be delusional. By the way, what were her AMAZING stats?</p>
<p>To TTown: Yes, she never completed the application process for her designated major, so I am as puzzled as you are about why she would have been admitted to another program at another location. That’s precisely my point. A notice that part of her application was missing would have made sense. (For all they knew, D could have been waiting for a response to a audition request that went astray on their end. For all they knew she may have actually auditioned, with the information from the department never having made its way to admissions. Stuff happens. That’s why most schools let applicants know when their applications have missing pieces.) An inquiry as to whether she wanted to be considered for another program would have made sense–she’s an attractive candidate, so why not follow up? An outright rejection would have made sense. The route UConn took made no sense at all–even less sense when you consider that her letter arrived two weeks after the May 1 admissions acceptance date that almost all schools use. So when I saw the title to this thread, I thought D’s tale fit in perfectly.</p>
<p>And good grief, I didn’t call her stats “AMAZING”, did I? She was overqualified for Storrs given her stats and her status as a CT resident. Surely you don’t believe that the only CT residents overqualified for Storrs are those with “AMAZING” stats.</p>
<p>To ThePhilospher: I have no idea if the Admissions Office is representative of the entire school. It is, however, the prospective student’s first and primary contact point with UConn–as they say, you only have one chance to make a first impression.</p>
<p>^ Well when you say “This certainly confirmed my fear that a large, bureaucratic state school would have been a big mistake for my D” people assume that you have actually experienced the school, and not just the admissions office. </p>
<p>As for your daughter being accepted to the exploratory program at the branch campus, I think it was nice of UConn to even accept your daughter seeing as how she did not act responsibly.</p>
<p>But to an applicant, the admissions office IS the school. Keep in mind that this thread started with a complaint that the UConn Admissions Office completely ignores email inquiries. As a CT taxpayer, I think my family, and every other CT family, is owed more than that. Seeing how UConn Admissions works is not reassuring and raises suspicions that dealing with the school’s dean, registrar and disability services department could be problematic for a student. And I think it’s dysfunctional rather than “nice” to not inform a student that her application is incomplete, then accept her to a program to which she didn’t apply two weeks too late for it to matter anyway. In any event, D got a large merit scholarship that is allowing her to attend the honors program at a school that is a better fit for her (smaller, in a major urban area, less of a sports/party atmosphere) and is quite happy, so all’s well that ends well.</p>
<p>I agree, Admissions should function better. But again, from your descriptions of UConn, I don’t think you really know what the school or its “atmosphere” is really like. </p>
<p>I wish your daughter the best though.</p>
<p>I do think that the manner in which UConn handled admissions this year was very sub par. I sent 2 email inquiries to UConn which were NEVER answered. ( I would think that ad com offices would prefer an email so that they could look up your info at their leisure instead of having to do it while you are on the phone-many have student workers field routine emails) UConn was the only school that I applied to, (and I applied to 11!) that did not have any type of on line way to check whether materials received, or any type of status, or decision. I’ve wondered if this is the way they treat potential students, trying to give a good impression of the school, what is it like there dealing with the administration on a day to day basis?</p>
<p>I applied to mostly big state public universities, who for the most part all saw an increase in applications due to many factors such as the economy, and the volume of high school seniors. UConn was not alone in having to handle a surge in apps, yet they ranked dead last in communication and responsiveness and ‘applicant-friendliness’ out of all the schools I dealt with. </p>
<p>UConn fortunately was not in my top choices; I applied becuase of cost and distance from home. I’m happy to be going to my #1 (Penn State!!!), who despite also having record applications, answered everyone of my emails within hours, had online status checks, and posted decisions on line as well as by snail mail, all by the Jan 31 deadline for those who applied by their priority deadline.</p>
<p>I don’t know what other schools face, but in addition to the record applications, UConn is facing a hiring freeze. I have friends that work there, many positions are not filled. In general, I think the people there are hard working and do the best they can. The state (and its citizens) fund the university at a certain level, and restrict the university’s ability to raise tuition to cover costs, so it is services that suffer. You get what you pay for.</p>
<p>I think it would be silly to judge UConn based on anecdotal stories about the responsiveness of its admissions office. I am certain that whatever the performance of various schools’ admissions offices, the undergraduate experience at UConn is an awful lot like the undergraduate experience at Penn State, Rutgers, UMass, etc.–big classes, little or no relationship with faculty, impersonal administration. At all of these places, you can get a great education, the resources are tremendous, but you have to make your own way, it’s no surpise that you would have to make your own way with admissions as well. It’s the nature of the beast (big state U’s). It makes no sense to me to pay 10 to 15,000 more to attend an out of state big U when essentially you are getting the same product. I say all of this as a proud and grateful alum of UConn and UConn law. I got a great, but very impersonal, education at a bargain price.</p>
<p>^ My experiences have been nearly the opposite from yours.</p>
<p>I did measure my experience against other big state universities–Penn State, Ohio State,
UDel, UVM, Umass, and some others. UConn ranked last in ‘admission-friendliness’. Admissions IS administration; glad I don’t have to deal with them. Penn State is twice as big, yet the administration already seems much much easier to deal with!</p>
<p>The answer to this is really simple…I’m not sure where the confusion is coming from.</p>
<p>UConn’s admissions office reviews incomplete applications after the main spots are filled, and then they are generous enough to extend offers at their regional campuses to students who didn’t finish their applications but did show promise. I think that, in some ways, that shows how they <em>do</em> try to be less of a bureaucratic agent and more personal in their outreach - they’re trying to include students who possibly got lost in the shuffle. I can’t begin to fathom why someone would feel like UConn made a mistake in admitting an “overqualified” student who didn’t finish her application to a regional campus instead of the main one. It doesn’t matter how qualified you are; if you didn’t finish your application, you’re not entitled to a spot in Storrs.</p>
<p>On top of that, I was unaware that parents felt that colleges are supposed to inform students that their applications are incomplete. As a fellow taxpayer in Connecticut, I really don’t want the admissions office wasting its resources to tell students the obvious. Students know what they’re doing, so if they’re already aware of the fact that their application hasn’t been finished - something they’ve consciously decided to do - why do they need to be told as much?</p>
<p>And regarding how they admitted her to a program to which she didn’t apply…the theatre program doesn’t exist at the regional campuses, so why is it surprising that they put her in ACES? The majority of incoming students, at Storrs or the other campuses, go through ACES, so it’s not like it’s an insult. It just means she’s undeclared. Again, it’s actually quite thoughtful of UConn to have done that.</p>
<p>Again, I also had e-mail problems with them, but they also always took my phone calls right then and there and were very helpful in answering my questions. On top of that, their admissions representatives I met at college fairs actually remembered me by name when I met them on campus for tours and info sessions. I am continually impressed by how <em>small</em> they make things feel there. My experience with UConn Admissions was overall quite good, and I would recommend working with them.</p>
<p>My D had a similar experience with UConn’s office of admissions when she applied several years ago – our emails went unanswered. That lack of responsiveness, coupled with what we perceived upon visiting as UConn-Storrs being a little too impressed with itself (sorry, folks, UConn is a very good school, but it’s no public ivy) turned D off. I think that she made the right choice by declining UConn’s offer of admission.</p>