Exeter offers : incompetent or arrogant?

[TalkinPeace]

DD submitted her form last October
Exeter have still not had the courtesy to send an offer (the other four Unis all have)
when phoned they said

• no offers have been issued (bollocks as DDs friends have theirs)
• offers will be made by end of December (bollocks as its now late march)
• offers will be made right after the UCAS cut off date (bollocks as it was in January)
• offers will be made by the end of March ........

Exeter are arrogant liars
the word needs to go round

That's a good point, Jeanne. It's also possible the people answering the phones will be temp office staff who might think they know what the answer is so don't check with an academic, hence it not matching up with what Talk has been previously told or indeed with reality. It might not be like this (I am used to much smaller scale things, where it could have been) but the more pushed for funding you are the more likely it is you have inexperienced staff doing tasks above their level.

I don't think Jeanne's groupings are correct in most universities.

People who run open days are mostly academic staff/postgrads/undergrads, so indeed not tracking who attends.

The people who keep track of who attends are probably one branch of the admission team, and not necessarily the same branch as that which deals with applications.

However, the people who deal with applications and who respond to admissions enquiries are usually the same. And I don't think in most universities academics who don't teach the course would be involved in the admissions? The academics who are involved with admissions would usually be the same as those who were present on open days, but with large numbers coming through they couldn't possibly know that you didn't attend an open day.

dis - as I say, I'm aware I may be wrong, and I can certainly believe it's the case with that aspect.

Where I have been, applications have mostly been assessed by academic staff, and responses to emails saying 'when is the decision due' would be by admin staff.

Exeters admissions are done by a central admissions team

Cut and paste... From their undergraduates admissions info

The University is committed to providing a professional admissions operation in order to provide the best service to applicants. We operate a centralised admissions process in order to achieve this. Academic departments remain involved in the admissions process, and are responsible for agreeing the entry criteria and selection processes for each of their courses

I'm struggling to see why the fact that Exeter didn't make your DD an offer before the end of March makes it either incompetent or arrogant. It's obviously very arrogant of you to suggest that those are the only two possible alternatives.

Yes, my DD was interviewed for her course at Brighton. However, the fact that she did not go to an open day was mentioned as part of the interview process and it is discriminatory whether a student is interviewed or not!!! I stuggle to see the difference an interview makes. It is part of the selection process whether it is one to one at interview or selection by a committee of academics. Non attendance was used during the interview process. At least it was transparently discriminstory! (Putting the best spin on it).

They selected her for interview based on her portfolio and one would have expected the interiew to concentrate on that and develop her ideas in conjunction with what the course was offering. A question from a prospective student should be taken at face value and not given a retort such as she received. Schools only allow X days off for open days. Universities know not everyone can come to an open day hence the use of You Tube etc.

I did write to Brighton after DD removed them from her UCAS applications on 1st May. She had offers from more pretigious places - thank goodness. Places that actually talked about her work and answered any questions professionally.

Well, the end of the March working hours has now gone, so that is another timescale told to us by the central admission team that was not in fact true.

Its not a massive course so I really do wonder what is taking the time - bearing in mind that the other four Unis are all in regular contact.

Ah, yes, that must be it.

It's all a giant conspiracy they have going on, to lie to you and mislead you. They're not just busy, they're actively telling you things that are not in fact true.

Has it occurred to you that maybe they just don't enjoy the endless free time that you appear to have?

They're mucking with your mind.

Seriously, your daughter has four offers. I think you are taking this too personally.

Was it you who said your daughter was going to reject Oxbridge? Did she end up applying in the end?

another timescale told to us by the central admission team that was not in fact true

Still you persist with the untruths and lies OP. When you're at work and someone promises you a piece of work and then doesn't deliver, do you accuse them of lying? If a friend says she'll drop in at a certain time and then is late or doesn't turn up, do you accuse them of lying? If you order something to arrive by a certain date and it doesn't turn up on time, do you ring up the company concerned and accuse them of lying?

Honestly, can you not just think to yourself that perhaps, just perhaps, there is a passably good reason why Exeter hasn't made its mind up yet about your daughter? Of course, the admissions team might be a bunch of lazy incompetents or have a personal vendetta against you and your daughter. But I doubt it.

Personally, if I worked in admissions and had been on the receiving end of several phone calls from you and picked up on a fraction of the attitude you display on here, I might be sorely tempted to keep slipping your dd's application to the bottom of the pile .... But I'm sure the Exeter Admissions team are too professional for that.

I don't know anyone in admissions at Exeter but it's possible they're just not around right now.

I work (and am only paid for) term time hours. Becoming increasingly common now in universities.

coconutty Nope. Biosciences

stonecircle Why do you think I let the attitude drip on here (where nobody actually gives a toss) rather than in real life ?

FWIW if people I worked with misled me about deadlines and timescales in the way that this University have, they would have HMRC breathing down their necks.
The deadlines I work to are set in legislation so I'm not overly forgiving of wishy washy approaches.
You miss by one day, you get fined, in my line of work.

And communication - in these days of email - costs nothing.

But you can't judge one industry standard by another talkin.

I used to be a lawyer and was initially appalled by the flexible and glacial time involved in publishing.

And I still can't get my head around how many meetings there are at university. Yap, yap, yap.

Horses for courses innit?

Exeter's deadlines are also set - that deadline is the 9 May.... Out of interest what were her other offers? (Also considering Bioscience here..)

I suppose the problem comes when someone in house promises to get an offer/rejection out earlier.

talkin what did they actually say when you called? Was it a 'we're aiming to be done by end of March?'

Communication costs nothing?

You really want an automated weekly message?

01/03/16: 'As yet, we have made no decision, as you can tell by our lack of other communication'

08/03/16: 'And again ...'

15/03/16: 'The University of Exeter has still not fallen into the abyss, stand by for further news ...'

If you want more than an automated message, yes, of course it costs something.

It isn't your industry. And even in your industry, I am sure there are things that are low priority to respond to - which is what this is. I get that your DD is stressed and to her it is a big deal, but in the scheme of things, all that's happening is she's waiting for news, which she still stands to get in plenty of time to respond.

Jeanne

Don't exaggerate, the OP hasn't given any indication she wants a weekly update

I know the OPs OP is a wee bit OTT but I dont think she is being the least bit unreasonable to want some updates from Exeter. If Exeter has issues with sending emails then they could always update their website with up to date information for hopeful applicants.

Bitchy it's bleeding obvious that a university hasn't made a decision if nothing has come through either by e-mail direct from the uni or on Track. I can't see the point of any 'update' since it will only say no decision has yet been made. Even if the highly likely reality is that the applicant is on a waiting list pending a department's preferred applicants declining their offer, no uni is likely to say that explicitly and so you'll just get something bland at best.

Molio. Obviously if you haven't been contacted by the University it's because they haven't made a decision but I don't think it's unreasonable for the University to update students that have been waiting for OVER 5 MONTHS. Even if it's a bland update at least it's something. A simple apology for the delay and a promise that they will respond as soon as they can would afford some reassurance. You've had six kids go through this process, surely you can understand why most Universities like to keep applicants updated.

I'm with BitchyComment here. Any decent admissions software package will have the facility to send a message to a designated group. All it needs to be is a quick email saying 'We expect to finalise our decisions by x date. You should hear from us within one week from that date. If you don't receive that email, please call or email [contact details].. It will not be possible to provide any further information before x date, as we are waiting for all applications to be in and all queries resolved before making our offers/final offers. Accordingly, please do not contact Admissions to ask for an update on the outcome of your application until one week after x date.' How hard is that?

I am not the world's most patient person [understatement of the year] and it drove me nuts waiting for Warwick to decide what to do with my son's application, as mentioned way upthread. It didn't affect his application for accommodation, as it happened, but it might have done if things had dragged on any longer than they did. Don't people who accept an offer as their firm get first preference for accommodation? And as mentioned many times here, you can't accept firm or insurance until all five applications have been processed. Intensely frustrating.

Bitchy yes but across the six of them we've had this situation three times as far as I can remember and it never occurred to me or the DC to phone up the university in question and badger. No news meant no decision and no phone call or e-mail was going to make any difference indeed my thinking would always be that it might piss the admissions guys off. In the case of DS1 he was interviewed on October 21st and only got an offer on March 31st but he never felt it appropriate to chase it up. In fact I think he quite enjoyed declining them on April 1st, so it all worked out.

Molio - I wasn't talking about whether it's a good idea or not to contact the admissions department to chase up an application I was talking about how unreasonable it is for a University not to provide updates to applicants that have been waiting over 5 months to receive an offer.

I guess your DS wasn't too bothered waiting as he already had an Oxford offer. Other students may be hoping to firm Exeter and might be feeling a lot more anxious and impatient.