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Got unfairly rejected from King's College London due to their error. What to do?

On 3rd February Kings college sent me a fee status questionnaire and told me to submit it by one week. I was in Thailand at that time for my mother's treatment so I emailed them asking an extension and they replied back with a deadline of 15th August. On 16th they rejected me stating the reason that I did not complete it within a week I emailed them with the screenshots where they mentioned the deadline 15th August. They replied saying it was their error and they meant 15th February and there is nothing they can do now. Is there any action I can take against this?

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Reply 1
have you tried calling admissions? phone conversations are usually better for getting points across than email or text
Reply 2
I have emailed them twice and two different admissions officers gave the same reply and apologized and said that I should've contacted them if i was in doubt about the deadline. I asked them for an extension and they gave me a date.Why on earth would i be in doubt and contact them about it again? Can't believe a highly ranked university like this can make such errors. Here are the screenshots.
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by samiu12

I have emailed them twice and two different admissions officers gave the same reply and apologized and said that I should've contacted them if i was in doubt about the deadline. I asked them for an extension and they gave me a date.Why on earth would i be in doubt and contact them about it again? Can't believe a highly ranked university like this can make such errors. Here are the screenshots.


I see absolutely no reason why you'd think that they would require this some 6 months later when they had originally given you a 7 day deadline. It's just common sense.

"Unfair", I disagree. If I would have seen that, given that University applications are pretty much wrapped up by May (for competitive Uni's such as KCL), I would have sent a message back querying the date. It was clearly an error.

I think you are going to be straight out of luck with this one.
Original post by samiu12
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What was the exact wording of their extension offer. If they said something like 'we can extend the time you have to reply by 7 days, ie 15th August' then you probably won't be successful in appealing, because the 7 days is clear, and the 15th August is less sensible, so you should have asked for clarity.

However, if they just said 'we can extend your decision until not later than 15 August' then you should consider trying out the appeal process, because a simple statement like that gives you no grounds to be unclear, as one of the emails suggested.
I’m not sure I agree. I assume there’s some text missing in the email thread, but by itself the email doesn’t mention that the deadline is supposed to be a one week extension. It only states 15th August. I don’t think it’s reasonable to argue that the applicant should have realised that the date was wrong when the university should have sent the correct date to begin with and avoided confusion. Surely the burden is on the university to be clear about their requirements. Also, I note the reason why the applicant needed an extension and therefore their priority might not be spotting errors in correspondence...

However, I think realistically it would not be worth pursuing the matter - your energy would be better spent elsewhere. I’m sorry that such an unfortunate thing has happened to you though.
Original post by samiu12
On 3rd February Kings college sent me a fee status questionnaire and told me to submit it by one week. I was in Thailand at that time for my mother's treatment so I emailed them asking an extension and they replied back with a deadline of 15th August. On 16th they rejected me stating the reason that I did not complete it within a week I emailed them with the screenshots where they mentioned the deadline 15th August. They replied saying it was their error and they meant 15th February and there is nothing they can do now. Is there any action I can take against this?


You need to make a formal appeal https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/apply/policies-and-guidance/index.aspx and https://www.kcl.ac.uk/governancezone/Assets/Students/Admissions-Appeal-Procedure.pdf

Fill in the appeal form and submit it to the email address on the form.

They can reverse a rejection - whether they will or not is a different matter but they did reject you for missing a deadline that had not yet been reached.
Original post by DCDCo
I see absolutely no reason why you'd think that they would require this some 6 months later when they had originally given you a 7 day deadline. It's just common sense.

"Unfair", I disagree. If I would have seen that, given that University applications are pretty much wrapped up by May (for competitive Uni's such as KCL), I would have sent a message back querying the date. It was clearly an error.

I think you are going to be straight out of luck with this one.


Logically that may make sense, but the OP was in a different country due to family illness, it’s not unheard of that they’d extend the deadline by more than a few days.

Although I also would have queried the date, it was still an error on behalf of the university, and not silly to think you shouldn’t meet the deadline you’re told you can meet.
Reply 8
Original post by DCDCo
I see absolutely no reason why you'd think that they would require this some 6 months later when they had originally given you a 7 day deadline. It's just common sense.

"Unfair", I disagree. If I would have seen that, given that University applications are pretty much wrapped up by May (for competitive Uni's such as KCL), I would have sent a message back querying the date. It was clearly an error.

I think you are going to be straight out of luck with this one.


I have also applied to other competitive universities like Imperial and UCL and when i asked about my fee status they said I am required to finish a questionnaire after im given a formal offer. That makes sense right? my fee status should no way be a decisive criterion for them to offer me a chance and so I assumed 15th August is the correct date beacuse thats just before admission and the proper time for my fee status to be determined.
Reply 9
Original post by threeportdrift
What was the exact wording of their extension offer. If they said something like 'we can extend the time you have to reply by 7 days, ie 15th August' then you probably won't be successful in appealing, because the 7 days is clear, and the 15th August is less sensible, so you should have asked for clarity.

However, if they just said 'we can extend your decision until not later than 15 August' then you should consider trying out the appeal process, because a simple statement like that gives you no grounds to be unclear, as one of the emails suggested.


I asked for one week extra and they replied exactly "We are able to extend this deadline upto 15th August". The wording seems clear right that they are able to give me a deadline beyond what I asked for.
Reply 10
Original post by PQ
You need to make a formal appeal https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/apply/policies-and-guidance/index.aspx and https://www.kcl.ac.uk/governancezone/Assets/Students/Admissions-Appeal-Procedure.pdf

Fill in the appeal form and submit it to the email address on the form.

They can reverse a rejection - whether they will or not is a different matter but they did reject you for missing a deadline that had not yet been reached.


I already submitted one but after seeing the admission officers' replies I'm not very hopeful as it was clearly their error and they are just saying they apologize. Well their apology won't allow me to add another UCAS choice and this type of errors are really unexpected from a highly ranked university like them.
Original post by samiu12
I already submitted one but after seeing the admission officers' replies I'm not very hopeful as it was clearly their error and they are just saying they apologize. Well their apology won't allow me to add another UCAS choice and this type of errors are really unexpected from a highly ranked university like them.


Admissions officers will cover their backs - they are not the people who will make a decision on an appeal - that will be their manager or higher.

There's no way to substitute a choice if you're rejected. The only option is for them to change their mind and reverse their decision and make an offer.
Original post by samiu12
I asked for one week extra and they replied exactly "We are able to extend this deadline upto 15th August". The wording seems clear right that they are able to give me a deadline beyond what I asked for.


If you asked for an extension of a week then it wouldn't have been unreasonable to question why they'd given a six month extension. It also seems reasonable that they give you another extension as it was their mistake, but the problem may be that they've already decided who they will make offers to.
Reply 13
Original post by PQ
Admissions officers will cover their backs - they are not the people who will make a decision on an appeal - that will be their manager or higher.

There's no way to substitute a choice if you're rejected. The only option is for them to change their mind and reverse their decision and make an offer.


yeah. Keeping fingers crossed
Reply 14
Original post by CurlyBen
If you asked for an extension of a week then it wouldn't have been unreasonable to question why they'd given a six month extension. It also seems reasonable that they give you another extension as it was their mistake, but the problem may be that they've already decided who they will make offers to.


yeah probably the positions are filled but none the less it's for their error that I lost a valuable UCAS choice. Also, the reason I though they were able to give me a huge amount of time was because my reason for extension is sort of a sensitive matter and also the other universities I applied to like Imperial and UCL gave me deadlines to submit fee status questionnaires by August after I get a formal offer because that is right before admission where it's supposed to be required and fee status shouldn't be considered to decide whether I get an offer or not.
Do you have it completed and ready to submit now. I agree with what threeport said about clarification as going from seven days to August seems out of place. PQ [wont let me rep] has shewn you the appeal method so, just put one in. I think youd have a reasonable chance of having some common sense applied. What other unis do isnt really relevant.
i think they're in the wrong. I hope you stated in your appeal that they didn't mention the "7 day extension" in their email and only stated the date in august. Also mention that you're in a very difficult position being in a foreign country with family illness and that , as the user said above, "your priority might not be spotting errors in correspondence..."
Reply 17
Original post by 999tigger
Do you have it completed and ready to submit now. I agree with what threeport said about clarification as going from seven days to August seems out of place. PQ [wont let me rep] has shewn you the appeal method so, just put one in. I think youd have a reasonable chance of having some common sense applied. What other unis do isnt really relevant.


Yes I completed it except a few documents like bank statements which the banks haven't sent me yet. If I had known they meant 15th February I would've sent them the rest of the information asking a bit more time for the documents I haven't received yet. I also emailed them that I was ready to send them the questionnaire at that very moment but they still won't consider. The extension mail came from the central admission officer so really I didn't think there was a mistake because family illness is a sensitive case after all.
Reply 18
Original post by NeverGrowUp.
i think they're in the wrong. I hope you stated in your appeal that they didn't mention the "7 day extension" in their email and only stated the date in august. Also mention that you're in a very difficult position being in a foreign country with family illness and that , as the user said above, "your priority might not be spotting errors in correspondence..."


No they actually mentioned 7 days in the first email but also said to let them know if I needed more time and i emailed them back with my reason and they gave me another deadline. Seriously I didn't think there's any confusion because its pretty much straight forward emails and i did mention my reason in the appeal and they should've understood that most of the personal documents that they asked like utility bills, bank statements etc. is near impossible to gather when you're in a foreign country that too for family sickness.
Original post by samiu12
Yes I completed it except a few documents like bank statements which the banks haven't sent me yet. If I had known they meant 15th February I would've sent them the rest of the information asking a bit more time for the documents I haven't received yet. I also emailed them that I was ready to send them the questionnaire at that very moment but they still won't consider. The extension mail came from the central admission officer so really I didn't think there was a mistake because family illness is a sensitive case after all.


As I said I would have agreed with threeports interpretation and checked. the appeals officer has the power to reverse it. If it was just fee status then have you even been made an offer yet. If you have appealed, then just wait and see.

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