Share your experience with MFE application process this year

Andy Nguyen · 4/18/11

Given that many people applied to a handful of programs this year, we all encountered something we wish were better.
From reading the hundred of comments the past few months, my observation is that the lack of communication about one's status is essentially #1 complaint.

1) Was there a program that you had an especially bad experience with their process? (no response to email/call, terrible application system, etc)?
2) Was there a program that everything went as smooth as you ever hoped?
3) What is your #1 complaint about the whole process?

Forza · 4/18/11

Cool, I will start us off -

1) I applied to BU MSMF and Columbia MSOR, and both were great. Both very responsive to e-mails/calls (Columbia had a harder time with phone calls later on, but they were interviewing at the same time, so it didn't bother me much). I thought both systems were fine, they accomplished their objectives.
2) BU was smoother compared to CU. Everything was set up perfectly, and I thought the ambassador program they have in place is a good idea. Class visit, then sit down with a student to have coffee and chat about the program.
3) Not much to really complaint about. Compared to my MBA application experience back in the day and recent (well a year or so ago) experience with Boston College MSF program, both CU and BU were fine.

Andy Nguyen · 4/18/11

I'm trying to see a trend of whether they use the same application system (Embark/ApplyU/whatever). My understand is that these systems are not very sophisticated and when the school update your status, you don't get an Alert or Email, like on Quantnet

What features on those systems that you wish they have?

Forza · 4/18/11

Ah ok, got ya. I know the systems used by CU and BU are totally different, but don't know if they have an actual application name (someone else might be able to fill this in) since I didn't see them.

It is true that they are not very sophisticated. Right off the bat, maybe the following nice-to-haves -

- e-mail alert you mentioned, so you don't have to login to the website just to check status
- maybe an input area for admission staff members so they can provide up-to-date status on your particular application (ex. currently being reviewed by committee, approx time 2 days). Would have been handy for CU MSFE to MSOR folks since it seem like there was a period no one knew where their application was (rejected? referred?)
- having the ability to e-mail admissions within the website would be nice, since you can keep track of the conversations within one site

SagaG · 4/19/11

I agree with Forza on the point about the CU MSOR, it would be nice to know what is happening to our application materials.

I will complete this post by giving my experience of the application for UK programs (LSE and IC):

- both these schools use Embark for their online application
- it is possible to track the progress of your application trough an online platform specific to the schools. The one for the LSE allows you to see in real time the data of the database recording your application. It is quite helpful but...
- ... it would be nice to receive an e-mail whenever your application has been received, is under review, etc. It is indeed hard on the mind to have to log everyday on the websites to see what is happening to your application
- the schools notify you whenever a referee writes a reference letter online though, that is quite handy

Other points might come to mind later

Andy Nguyen · 4/19/11

It boggles the mind to think of this day and age, they can't do such a simple thing as getting a text msg, email when your application is updated. You then can log in the system to see full detail.
Since Embark is the 900 pound gorilla in the industry, if there is no competition, I can't see how they will do anything about it. I'm hoping someone will write a new app system to take them head on.

SagaG · 4/19/11

It is sad indeed ! During all my years of study (which are basically all my years of life until now

), I have never been confronted to a proactive application/report system. It has always been the job of the applicant/the test taker to go and look for results which can lead to situations where your friends are aware before you of your results when said results are available to everyone (happened to me, hopefully it was for a good result

)

Andy Nguyen · 4/25/11

Did anyone have experience with emailing the programs but never got an answer?
Did anyone email to ask info about placement stats but got a rude answer, or refusal to give useful info?

I hear anecdotes here and there.

kuberkhan · 4/25/11

If they do not put student profiles on their websites, it's OK. If they do not give contact details to every applicant it's still OK. But refusing information to offer holders shows sloppy behaviour or eagerness to force someone to join. I do not want to name the program, but I did experience this with a school in the US. I applied to another UK school and they put me in touch with an alumni who was contacted first and then cc'ed to my mail address. They even extended the deadline upon request.

Andy Nguyen · 4/25/11

@kuberkhan
Sorry to hear that. With the popularity of Facebook and LinkedIn these days, it just does not make sense for schools to put a wall up, for whatever reason. If you want, you can certainly find some students/alum there but the fact that schools do not want to give you uncensored source of info is sad.
I would be very upset if I pay the same amount of money as the top programs but receive lower quality services.

Andy Nguyen · 5/14/11

I've been looking at the Tracker and see many instances of people having a long period of inactivity in their timelines. When I pull up the Notes field and some of them noted that "GRE is missing", "transcript not received", "no letter of recommendation received".

These things should be very easy to fix in this time and day. I believe a lot of people got robbed of their fare chance because of some bureaucratic mistakes like this.

kuberkhan · 5/16/11

Andy Nguyen said:
I've been looking at the Tracker and see many instances of people having a long period of inactivity in their timelines. When I pull up the Notes field and some of them noted that "GRE is missing", "transcript not received", "no letter of recommendation received".

These things should be very easy to fix in this time and day. I believe a lot of people got robbed of their fare chance because of some bureaucratic mistakes like this.

At least Rutgers MSMF and Georgia Tech QCF in my case