<p>I have always envisioned Americas finest schools to be institutions run with competence and consideration. However, my recent interaction with the Williams admission office has altered my way of thinking. </p>
<p>I applied this year as a transfer student, turned in my application on time, and submitted all of my application materials. Months later, I received letter after letter from other colleges I applied to notifying me of whether I was admitted or not, but never heard one word from Williams. I then received an acceptance letter from a top 5 school I really wanted to attend, and the only school that could have potentially made me second-guess attending was Williams. I held off on sending in my admission deposit to this school until I heard from Williams, but still heard nothing. I finally had to send in my admissions deposit, but if Williams ended up accepting me, I would have been willing to consider foregoing the $400.00 deposit to attend Williams. </p>
<p>Finally, once the deadline for sending in my deposit had arrived, I thought I would try giving Williams a call to see if they could give me their admission decision over the phone. I called, and when I gave them my information, they directed me to a woman who told me that for whatever reason, the admissions board never even downloaded my application. They received it on time with all the materials, but somewhere along the line, they missed downloading it. The woman proceeded to blame me for the situation, saying that I should have called sooner. She went on to say this at least 5 times during our conversation, never once apologizing in any way. She then mentioned that they had already made their decisions, but she would see what she could do, and she just reiterated that I should have called sooner. When I explained to her that I didnt want to bother the admissions office, she countered that most students call to confirm that their application was received and downloaded.</p>
<p>To my disappointment, what this conversation showed me was that the Williams College admissions office is very unprofessional, sloppy, and inconsiderate, especially for what is supposed to be such an elite college. I applied to over 10 schools, and not one other school had difficulty in downloading my application. I thought that paying a high application fee was supposed to ensure that the most elementary step of downloading my application occurred. I understand that students may call after a certain point to see if they were accepted or not, but I didnt think it was necessary to call the admissions office and supervise them to ensure that they perform the most basic task of downloading my application. Actually, at many of the schools that I applied to, they discouraged the applicants from calling the admissions office during the major time when applications were being accepted. Yet, rather than apologizing, or attempting to accommodate me in the aftermath of their error (such as promising to give my application the same consideration as everybody elses, or offering me a refund of my fee), Williams proceeded to blame me for their oversight. </p>
<p>Right before I hung up on the phone with the admissions officer, she told me I would hear from them sometime the following week. It has now been well over a week, and I have heard nothing from the admissions office. I am thankful that this happened, because I now know without a doubt that I made the right choice in accepting the offer from the school I am now enrolled in (arguably better than Williams anyway); I would in no way want to attend a school so inconsiderate, inefficient, and unwilling to admit an error, and I would caution other potential applicants to be prepared to babysit your application if you decide to submit one to Williams.</p>
Good luck in the fall at your new, hopefully more organized university!</p>