Was I ripped off by the graduate school admissions committee at a top 10 university?
Given the statements from the director of admissions, and the fact that no notice was given, it sounds very much like someone completely dropped the ball. The director of admissions made that statement on a Sunday, because the OP contacted him the Friday before classes started. The director of admissions presumably wanted to get back to him before Monday, since the OP seems to have been under the impression that he might be starting the program on Monday. Academic programs get hundreds of applications. Directors of admissions don’t store those files in their homes. He was going from memory, and he misremembered. That doesn’t mean that the committee failed to consider the application in the first place. It makes more sense, though, that this was a professional program. In my experience, departments often treat those like cash cows and treat the students pretty shoddily. I agree with people above who say that the OP should consider this a bullet dodged.
I had still not received any sort of answer from the school (mail, email, or otherwise) the weekend before the term (I had applied for) began. This means you were rejected, and they screwed up and did not send you your rejection promptly. I assure you that if they had expected you to show up on Monday, you would have received a tuition bill long before–even if you had been awarded a full fellowship, you would have been billed for “student activities fees” and what-not. I called the program that Friday, but nobody answered. I emailed three different addresses; only one person answered, the director of the program. He emailed me on Sunday morning, the day before the term started. His email said that my application was rejected because I haven’t had any math since high school Yeah, this just means that the director of the program misspoke in his email, or perhaps confused you with another rejected applicant. It really doesn’t mean that they didn’t consider your transcripts correctly duri
