Loyal readers know that I am beginning the process to pursue my PhD in Literature. To apply to CUNY, I need 2 letters of recommendation and an official transcript. These must include a signed form, and be signed again across the sealed flap of the official CUNY envelope. I then send all of these plus my application in one big packet to CUNY. I included all this when I mailed my requests out to Davis. I even stamped and addressed the CUNY envelope so all they had to do was sign it and pop it in the mail.
Yesterday I got the transcript from UCDavis. Guess what? It’s not in the official CUNY envelope, and I highly doubt that they included the signed form. However, I can’t check, because instead of a signature across the envelope’s seal, there are the words “UNOFFICIAL IF SEAL IS BROKEN.” So great. Thanks, UCD. I probably had a good shot at being accepted into the PhD program, but your robot stupidity has ruined my chances. I’m not going to try again, because they’ll just do the same thing: throw out the materials I sent them, not read the Official UCD Transcript Request with the big fat note on it saying “PLEASE USE ENCLOSED MATERIALS,” and charge me more money for the whole screw-up.
I haven’t gotten my letters of rec back yet (though I know one is on its way) but I am fairly confident that my ex-professors will have completed the simple task of using the enclosed S.A.S.E. CUNY envelope.
This makes perfect sense to me because throughout my time at UCD, it was never the professors* that made the mistakes; always the administration. Like the time they “lost” my financial aid information. You know, that full scholarship I was on? No record of it. Then that other time they lost the same info. Signing the form was a once-a-year process. I was at UCD for 4 years. They lost my records twice. That’s 50%. A wonderful, exemplary, stellar performance by the school. And that’s just one example.
The day I graduated from UCD was one of the happiest days of my life, because I thought I would be done with their fumbungling forever. Nervermind that we had to sit outside in the sun in 115-degree weather wearing polyester black graduation robes while the un-air conditioned Rec Hall filled up with guests, and then sit in the same un-air conditioned Rec Hall for over 4 hours on uncomfortable metal bleachers while people I’d never heard of droned on and on about nothing (and I read a novel). Oh, and my bday was the next day.
Lesson? Don’t send your kids to UCDavis. They might get a fine public-school education, but it will only be headache after headache. They will never be able to continue their education, because UCD doesn’t believe in “rules” set by other schools.
It rhymes, so it must be true.
Ps – I’ve emailed the admissions officer at CUNY to explain that UCD is retarded (I may have used different words) so hopefully there’s a way for me to still get my PhD there.
* One time a TA failed me in a class because, in his words, “he never showed up to class and did not take the final or the midterm.” He? You must be right that I never showed up to class because you know exactly who I am, even right down to the tiny details like my gender. Oh and those tests I never took? The midterm “magically was found” after I raised a fuss, but miraculously I had an exactly average score. There was probably not any forging of documents by the TA there. The final never showed up, even though I knew I got an A on it. But nobody would investigate the disparities in my vs. the TA’s stories because “the TA is in charge and is in control of the situation.” Clearly. As my disappearing-male-alter ego could testify to, if he had ever shown up to class to take tests.
**UPDATE**
I got this email.
Hello Desiree,
The envelopes and transcript request forms are provided for your convenience but are not required. You may submit the sealed official transcript as is. It will not be a problem. We look forward to receiving your application materials.
Sincerely,
Office of Admissions
The Graduate Center
Can we say "des overreacts?" But I still hate UCDavis.
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7 comments:
wow. I don't think you overreacted-that kind of stuff is stressful.
I feel justified. They made it seem like it was life or death, then later they play it off. Don't they know that potential students are freaked out about enough?!?
I know the feeling...
That reminds me -- I had a prof. at CSUS who gave me an F because he didn't have ANY of my work, when I had seen his gradebook the week before the end of class, and I had turned in every assignment. After a couple calls, somehow he found it and I got an A. Odd enough, but the EXACT SAME thing happened to two of my friends in the same class. I always wondered what happened to the students who didn't bother to call...
I called, and the econ department contacted the professor and the professor contacted the TA and the TA said all that stuff.
you are completely justified. UCD does suck.
Yes, I agree with everyone else. I would have gone ballistic also. I am so glad that CUNY does not mind what envelope it arrives in. :)
As for you TA, that is the type of incident that would make him my lifelong enemy and I would wait and wait until I had a chance to sabatoge that fuck's life. What an asshole.
Once I was suprised by a grade I received in a class at NYU on women and literature. It wasn't that it was even bad (it was a B) but I thought I got a B+ or even A- based on my papers. So I called the professor to ask if I did poorly on my final or whatever, and she realized that when she entered the grades into the system, she skipped a line in her book. I assume that meant that other people may have had received grade adjustments, perhaps less happily than I did. (I think I got an A-, which rocked)
flutter - that seems to be the general consensus among grads.
suz - I don't even remember the TA's name. He was Chinese. (What? a Chinese economist?) but if I ever meet him and he says "I was that TA" then I will kick him in the shins, among other things. I can hold a damn grudge.
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