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Imperial Admissions Staff are um...Rude

I was speaking to Marie05 about accomodation etc. and we came across the topic of the staff we've spoken to that deal with admissions/accomodation enquiries. Is it just us or are some of them REALLY unhelpful or just plain rude?

For example, in my case, I was sent a letter about my fee status a while back and the last paragaph didnt make sense. I phoned up the admissions office and asked if someone could clarify what I didnt understand and the woman abruptly replied "We're already sent you a letter once, ok?" and I replied "no I just want to clarify the last paragraph". Then I could hear her move the phone away from her ear (and attempt to cover it up) and whisper to her friend and say "he doesnt understand it! its too complicated for him!" I was pretty shocked, you dont really expect that kinda thing :tongue:

Then the other day when I went to Imperial in person, I had no clue where to go so I went to the secretary in the Sir Alexander Fleming building and spent 10 minutes explaining my life story (like how i'd changed addresses and wanted to all my correspondence etc.) and she just stood there and didnt say a word. Then when I'd finished she plainly said "Admissions office for medicine is around the corner."

Then when I finally got to the admissions office there was an asian lady with a stern face who just listened to my story and looked at me like she needed to crap her pants and then proceeded to phone someone else to deal with me!

Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I know that other people have had bad experiences with staff- so if anyone has, please feel free to share your stories with us :p:

Reply 1

Mangaroo

12

sometimes i phone them, and they are really kind and patient..other times, they are a little unfriendly but i guess its probbly because they are busy or have repeated the same thing over and over

rofl about your imperial adventure story =))

Reply 2

Marie05

1

EmberToInferno

Then the other day when I went to Imperial in person, I had no clue where to go so I went to the secretary in the Sir Alexander Fleming building and spent 10 minutes explaining my life story (like how i'd changed addresses and wanted to all my correspondence etc.) and she just stood there and didnt say a word. Then when I'd finished she plainly said "Admissions office for medicine is around the corner."

LOL! ahh find this hilarious! :rofl:

Sorry embertoinferno! :redface:

when i find it sad that i still find this hilarious.. i'll stop laughing!

Then when I finally got to the admissions office there was an asian lady with a stern face who just listened to my story and looked at me like she needed to crap her pants and then proceeded to phone someone else to deal with me!

I went into the accommodation office today and was explaining my situation to that same lady...and oh my! she totally has an attitude problem! its just the look on her face totally pisses me off! As i was talking to her, she just turns round and walks off! and tells another lady to come 'sort' me out..ah the attitude was soo wrong..i was shocked, ended up standing there staring at her in the distance and forgetting why i was there in the first place! :redface:

Reply 3

Kyri

15

EmberToInferno

Then I could hear her move the phone away from her ear (and attempt to cover it up) and whisper to her friend and say "he doesnt understand it! its too complicated for him!" I was pretty shocked, you dont really expect that kinda thing :tongue:

I can't believe they did that. That's so unprofessional.

When I phoned them up on monday I was seriously trying to get through for half an hour and there was no answer. When I finally got through the guy on the other end of the phone sounded so dull. When I finished explaing my situation there was a silence of about 4 or 5 seconds and then he blandly went "uh huh" followed by another few seconds of silence and I thought, "what the hell, were you even listening to me?". After that initial stage the guy was actually fine, but that was a very bad first impression that he gave me.

But of course my story sucks compared to yours. :biggrin:

Reply 4

The Caretaker

5

yes i have also spoken to a certain "lady" who has been a bitch. it was also because of fee status. when i told her my situation she sounded so untrusting as if i was making all of it up just to get cheaper fees.

and then they took ages processing my form. you can understand the results were quite important to me as i couldnt afford the overseas fees which meant this would decide whether i could come to uni or not but they just left me worrying for over 3 weeks.

and when i called them up to ask what my chances of being classed as overseas were based on my situation which i painstaking explained to them over the phone they didnt reassure me at all. they just said "as long as you have gone through the proper channels, your results will be posted to you shortly" wtf? that's not what i asked at all! i just wanted someone saying "dont worry it'll all sort itself out, you should be fine" (like cambridge admissions did) so i wasnt so stressed.

but to be fair there was one guy who i sometimes got through to who was nice. he didnt seem to have a lot of autority though as he had to keep going away to ask his colleagues what to do and kept apologising to me that he couldnt do more to help me out.

ps in the end i got classed as a home student but it was a battle, glad its over now!

Reply 5

tuppatopbrer

lol all corresspondance with me has been cushty. The emails I send are replied to promptly and they contain all the useful info I need.

Reply 6

Profesh

20

The Caretaker

yes i have also spoken to a certain "lady" who has been a bitch. it was also because of fee status. when i told her my situation she sounded so untrusting as if i was making all of it up just to get cheaper fees.

You're stealing their money, is why.

Reply 7

The Caretaker

5

Profesh

You're stealing their money, is why.

stealing? i think not. my parents pay for it through taxes just like everyone else.

Reply 8

feanor

I chatted with some guy about the delay in me receiving my accommodation details. He was quite polite and sounded sorry that he couldn't tell me anything.

Reply 9

julius caesar

the people at the finances office are rather nice. very polite, sounded interested/bothered about my situation, and actually 'tried' to help me out... that's how it should be done... sadly most of the time it isn't.
oh well.. if it makes you feel better, just think, no matter how bad your day has been... they're having a worse time. and the bastards deserve it!

Reply 10

EmberToInferno

OP

The Caretaker

stealing? i think not. my parents pay for it through taxes just like everyone else.

Haha they're the ones stealing our money :p:

Btw Caretaker how come you had issues with fee status? Haven't you lived in the UK for three years prior to this one? Can you believe I'm still having issues with fee status. Although I haven't lived in the UK for the past 3 years, my dad's been temporarily employed abroad which is the reason why. Apparantly you're still eligible for home fees if thats the case (and you're a British National of course) but Imperial still won't buy it. I've still got one more chance to appeal against their decision of classing me as an overseas student, but if that doesn't work out I doubt i'll be able to come to Imperial. 20 grand for 3 years followed by 30 grand for the last 3 is way to much money :frown:

Reply 11

The Caretaker

5

the tricky bit for me was proving i was ordinarily resident in the uk for the past 3 years because i went to a boarding school and they wanted to make sure i wasnt just here for education. i had to show evidence of where i lived for each of the holidays. lucky for me i did volunteering and stuff in the holidays so i could get my supervisors to write a letter to imperial. twas so much hassle though.

well i hope it goes ok for you in the end. one bit of advice is to end all your correspondence with something along the lines of "and so the above further shows i should be classed as a home student". this is what i did anyway and it sortof puts pressure on them.

Reply 12

cramnotes

EmberToInferno

Haha they're the ones stealing our money :p:

Btw Caretaker how come you had issues with fee status? Haven't you lived in the UK for three years prior to this one? Can you believe I'm still having issues with fee status. Although I haven't lived in the UK for the past 3 years, my dad's been temporarily employed abroad which is the reason why. Apparantly you're still eligible for home fees if thats the case (and you're a British National of course) but Imperial still won't buy it. I've still got one more chance to appeal against their decision of classing me as an overseas student, but if that doesn't work out I doubt i'll be able to come to Imperial. 20 grand for 3 years followed by 30 grand for the last 3 is way to much money :frown:

Hey,
I was in exactly the same position, I got initially classed as overseas, and then my appeal was rejected, and even my second one was, but finally I was able to prove that we were still paying tax, and that we had bank accounts in the UK which were active, and that we regularly flew back. I had a real good reason for staying overseas, but even that wasn't enough. Though they were quite helpful along the way, and in the end, I got home status. I have been living out of the UK since 1997, so I am sure you still have a chance. Good luck.

I think they think that living in the ME means we are all out having a good time, and are just taking advantage of the UK education system, which is not true. I can't wait to leave, and will definately be staying in the UK for the forseeable future, and I know my mum is going to go back to the UK in a years time, cause of them replacing people with locals.

Reply 13

Rofl

8

To be honest, once we get there, they're all gonna get a sacking. I wonder if they'll like a formal complaint via. the Rector :rolleyes:

Reply 14

EmberToInferno

OP

Caretaker> Yeah, its one big pain in the ass from what I've experienced :rolleyes:

Good for you that you got home status though!

Cramnotes> Hey I'm in EXACTLY the same position you were in, so i'd really appreciate it if you could help me out! Here's what happened with me:

At first they told me they were unsure about my fee classification and they needed documentation to prove that my dad's job in the Middle East was temporary before they could come to a conclusion. So we managed to get a copy of my dad's contract with the full terms etc. and sent it to Imperial.

Afterwards I got an e-mail saying: "based on what you have sent us, it is not evident that your father has been temporary employed overseas and if this was not the case you would have been oridnarily residnet in the UK. Therefore currently you are classified as an international student unless you can provide more evidence."

So we had to appeal and I spent ages making a 70 page booklet with possible EVERY bit of evidence we could gather (bank account information- like yourself, we have bank accounts active in the UK) I even gave them copies of airline tickets to show that we had been returning every year as well as copies of UK driving licences. After all that they said "sorry your appeal has been denied on the basis of insufficient evidence to show that your father has been temporarily employed overseas and if it wasn't for that employment you would have been ordinarily resident in the UK." So you can imagine how pissed off I was after that...:s

However, at the end of the letter it said "If you and your family were to move back to the UK before 1st September (which we have) and provide us with relevant documentation, the panel would be happy to reconsider your case." So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and gathering letters from the City Council etc. to show that i've moved back.

How did you manage to get home status without going through most of the crap I've gone through? :confused:

Reply 15

beehappychicken

EmberToInferno, that's b******s dude, i think they're just being stupid. hope you get home status ASAP, cos it sucks having to wait til reg week.. good luck..

Reply 16

EmberToInferno

OP

Thanks dude, its been such a hassle! The stress never ends, first with trying to get in! Then when Id recieved an offer it was the stress of meeting it...and now that I've got my results I'm still waiting on my fee status to determine whether or not I'm going....

Reply 17

beehappychicken

i know how you feel, i've been exactly through the same thing with the guys at Euston (you know who these are). we were gone for probably a year also because of my parents' employment overseas, and had appealed twice and still got turned down. good thing they were just my insurance offer.. i don't know if this should help but miracles do happen quite often.. :smile:

Reply 18

//Mike

I have had similar, but with the student loans company - my father works in Kuwait and as such is not obliged to disclose his income, which we were going to try and use to my advantage and get me a maintainance grant. However, they started kicking up a fuss, asking for our passports, history of where we have lived, why we moved abroad for x number of years, why we returned etc. In the end we decided it wasn't worth the hassle... however it doesn't look like I am going to get my scholarship.

Slightly different with you guys though as the sum of money involved is significantly greater. I hope you all get it sorted soon.

Reply 19

cramnotes

@EmberToInferno It wasnt easy, it took me 4 months from the time of my offer to the time of getting home status. I had the same hastles as you, but they are the ones that gave me what they needed as proof, though only right at the end, from the committee, all I sent was those three things: tickets, bank accounts, and tax returns. I think they were a bit lenient with me, because the reason for me staying overseas for the last three years is because my father passed away, and to move at such an emotionally pivotal time, away from my friends etc. wouldn't have been good for me. Though the original reason for being overseas was cause of employment. I also sent them copies of relevant employment laws showing that you can only ever be employed here (UAE) on a temp. basis, and it is not possible to become a national, and that we would have to return eventually.

Good luck again, I am sure you will get it.

Imperial Admissions Staff are um...Rude

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