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I have two questions about this:

1- E-mailing admission offices of the schools you intend to apply for things you are really curious about and need definitive answers, from their take on international GPA evaluations to financial aid. Good idea or bad idea?
2- If you ever used e-mail to contact admissions offices, how long did you have to wait for the answer?

I've emailed 3 admissions offices so far for application fee waivers. Two of them responded within an hour of my email. The other still hasn't responded, but I only emailed like 4 hours ago. So in my limited experience, the response time has generally been quick.

I e-mailed a school with a specific question about admissions, and they got back to me that day.

I emailed an admissions office and it took them a few days to get back to me. It wasn't a basic question though. This was also about a month ago when I'm sure they were dealing with lots of wait list stuff.

nullisecundus wrote:I have two questions about this:

1- E-mailing admission offices of the schools you intend to apply for things you are really curious about and need definitive answers, from their take on international GPA evaluations to financial aid. Good idea or bad idea?
2- If you ever used e-mail to contact admissions offices, how long did you have to wait for the answer?

1- Yes, absolutely okay. The two issues you brought up (international GPA and fin aid) are things that they will have a lot of knowledge on.
2- Usually a day, sometimes just a few hours.

i emailed South Texas college of law and they didnt really like me emailing questions. They said if I had any further questions, I should just call them and not email.

Just do it. You dont even have to disclose who you are. You could give them a fake name like Mike Hunt or something. Thats pretty logical though.

Just say that youre an interested applicant and that you'd like to clear up some confusion then proceed to ask your questions.

It's generally fine to contact an admissions office directly with any important questions not covered on their FAQs page - so your international GPA question is fine to ask, but make sure your aid question isn't already answered on their website.

Thanks everyone.

Holy redundancy Batman. I asked very specific questions and got a reply containing excerpts from web site. Guess strict requirements are only for students, intelligence challenged people can be employed in admissions offices.

Just this last Sunday I e-mailed about 30 schools with questions to help me winnow my application list to the 10 I will actually apply to.
One shockingly actually answered that evening.
Five of them responded yesterday asking me to call and get the questions answered on the phone.
Four of them answered with totally useless replies--please check our website or please go to this link and fill out a form for us to send you information. As if I didn't get their e-mail address from their website or I hadn't bothered to look through the materials I got at the law school forum.
Three of them actually answered my questions or gave me specific people to contact for the answer to specific questions.
The other few that answered gave a more or less half-hearted attempt not providing much useful information but not overtly stating that I hadn't bothered to look.

That leaves about a dozen or so who didn't respond within a business day.

I will be applying to two of the three who actually answered my questions--the answers were both useful and supplied me with the the information I needed to put them on my application list. The one I won't is because the answers supplied me with the information I needed cross them off my application list. They saved both me and themselves any further wasted time.

shastaca wrote:Just this last Sunday I e-mailed about 30 schools with questions to help me winnow my application list to the 10 I will actually apply to.
One shockingly actually answered that evening.
Five of them responded yesterday asking me to call and get the questions answered on the phone.
Four of them answered with totally useless replies--please check our website or please go to this link and fill out a form for us to send you information. As if I didn't get their e-mail address from their website or I hadn't bothered to look through the materials I got at the law school forum.
Three of them actually answered my questions or gave me specific people to contact for the answer to specific questions.
The other few that answered gave a more or less half-hearted attempt not providing much useful information but not overtly stating that I hadn't bothered to look.

That leaves about a dozen or so who didn't respond within a business day.

I will be applying to two of the three who actually answered my questions--the answers were both useful and supplied me with the the information I needed to put them on my application list. The one I won't is because the answers supplied me with the information I needed cross them off my application list. They saved both me and themselves any further wasted time.

I can understand where you're coming from, but I caution you to rethink this strategy. After you're admitted and you start going to school there, you won't talk to or deal with admissions ever again. Think about admissions for undergrad... did you ever really deal with them after you started school? If one of the workers in their office had treated you poorly and you decided not to attend because of it, wouldn't that have been a REALLY stupid reason not to go?

Don't cut out potentially great fits for you just because some front desk lady in admissions didn't email you back right away.

Also, retake.

gdane5 wrote:Just do it. You dont even have to disclose who you are. You could give them a fake name like Mike Hunt or something. Thats pretty logical though.

Just say that youre an interested applicant and that you'd like to clear up some confusion then proceed to ask your questions.

dean z from umich specifically advised against trying to be anonymous. mostly because it comes off as douchey. just email or call, say who you are, and be nice. chances are they'll be nice back.

romothesavior wrote:Also, retake.

and lol.

romothesavior wrote:

shastaca wrote:Just this last Sunday I e-mailed about 30 schools with questions to help me winnow my application list to the 10 I will actually apply to.
One shockingly actually answered that evening.
Five of them responded yesterday asking me to call and get the questions answered on the phone.
Four of them answered with totally useless replies--please check our website or please go to this link and fill out a form for us to send you information. As if I didn't get their e-mail address from their website or I hadn't bothered to look through the materials I got at the law school forum.
Three of them actually answered my questions or gave me specific people to contact for the answer to specific questions.
The other few that answered gave a more or less half-hearted attempt not providing much useful information but not overtly stating that I hadn't bothered to look.

That leaves about a dozen or so who didn't respond within a business day.

I will be applying to two of the three who actually answered my questions--the answers were both useful and supplied me with the the information I needed to put them on my application list. The one I won't is because the answers supplied me with the information I needed cross them off my application list. They saved both me and themselves any further wasted time.

I can understand where you're coming from, but I caution you to rethink this strategy. After you're admitted and you start going to school there, you won't talk to or deal with admissions ever again. Think about admissions for undergrad... did you ever really deal with them after you started school? If one of the workers in their office had treated you poorly and you decided not to attend because of it, wouldn't that have been a REALLY stupid reason not to go?

Don't cut out potentially great fits for you just because some front desk lady in admissions didn't email you back right away.

Also, retake.

What he said. Basing your decision of where to apply on you interactions with the admissions office is ill-advised and quite ridiculous.