American Idle

Dear J-School Applicant,
Thank you for applying to the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. At this time, your application file for Fall 2004 is incomplete.
ALL MISSING APPLICATION MATERIALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2004.
IF YOUR FILE REMAINS INCOMPLETE AFTER THIS DATE, YOUR APPLICATION MAY NOT BE REVIEWED.
Please send all missing items to our office as soon as possible. (Our address is shown below.) Missing items can also be faxed to our office at 510-643-9136.
Please DO NOT CALL OR REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL to check on the receipt of materials or the progress of your application. We will notify you when your application is complete.
We will contact you should we wish to schedule an interview. (Please note: Not all applicants are invited to interview.)
Fellowship applicants must submit all supporting materials by the deadline and should be sure to submit their FAFSA form as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Office of Admissions

I love how they don’t bother to tell me what’s missing. That would constitute common courtesy in my book. That is, if I was actually missing some part of my application. I called the School of Journalism, left a message and got this email response:

Hi Andrew,
I’ve received your voice message, and I apologize for the confusion
that the last email from us has caused. Your application is complete. Your email address was mistakenly put on the list of incomplete applicants.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Virardi
Office of Admissions

Hopefully, Berkeley will take into account the mental anguish that they caused me and grant me immediate acceptance. That’s the policy, isn’t it?