PLEASE Put "Graduate Admissions" in Your Addresses!

[zhukora1]

Hello all,
I just want to remind everybody to please put "Graduate Admissions" or some permutation thereof in the addresses of all the application materials you're sending to your schools

Comments

[wee_devil]

Yikes. Thanks for the reminder!

[thickets]

Ah, well, that's the thing though! Not every school is the same. Some want you to send it to the department. Others want you to send it to the graduate college. Some want you to send a copy to both! And some don't even bother to put an address at all on their graduate admissions site, or in their admissions packets or applications.

This is just one of the many crackpot parts of graduate school. There's no uniform way of doing anything. Half the time the department barely knows what's going on. I remember sending out applications to six different schools two years ago and having to keep track of all of the pathetically stupid minutae that went along with each school's application. It's amazing how much time and money goes into the whole endeavor, and how avoidable it might be.

[zhukora1]

It's true that each school does things differently, but typically they all have internal mail systems for correspondence that goes from place to place on-campus, and as long as you have enough address to get your mail into the internal system in the first place, and have the department name and "grad admissions" slapped on the envelope somewhere, your materials will eventually find their way.

The dead ends come when nobody knows where to pass your stuff on to if it does end up in the wrong place, and that's really what you want to avoid.

[sporkgoddess]

[zhukora1]

Don't panic! These are just worst-case scenarios. I've only seen some of these happen once or twice out of all the letters we've gotten, and usually it'll get fixed pretty quick. If your stuff gets misdirected, it may float around for a while, but in all likelihood it will still get there within allowable limits. This is part of the reason why it's recommended elsewhere in the community to follow up by giving your schools a call to make sure your file is complete.

Good luck!

[almbfa2004]

thanks for the reminder!

[eastertheatre]

My schools had exact addresses telling me where to send mine (and they did include "Graduate Admissions!"). Do others not have that?

[zanylikethat]

As another university employee, my wisdom is as such.

Basically all of us do! As to whether or not the applicants bother to read the directions fully/check on the website or in the guidebook or what-have-you... That is another question entirely!

We state in MULTIPLE places on our department website, plus the graduate school admissions website says the same thing several times, that ALL materials go to the graduate admissions office. I have already started receiving materials in my department that have been sent directly to us. We occasionally joke that anyone who can't bother to read the directions correctly should just have their application tossed, but instead I bring everything over to the graduate admissions office with a note that it got sent to the wrong place, please add to file, etc. But, as the OP stated, just because we do it doesn't mean everyone does it.

From a grad program coordinator, I quite sincerely say THANK YOU for finding your addresses. :D

[eastertheatre]

That's what I thought! I figure since I am slaving over making my application materials mind-bogglingly impressive and incredible, I might as well send them to the requested address ;)

[zhukora1]

Seconding what zanylikethat said, and also adding that it's also something that can happen if you don't provide an explicit address to your LOR writers to send their letters to. Some of them might take the time to find out the exact address for Grad Admissions, but a lot of them are busy people and might just use the first address they find, which is more often than not a generic one.

[sporkgoddess]