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I recently saw a post on another forum where an applicant mentioned in passing that a couple of schools didn't consider her application because of issues regarding a name change and a perceived incompleteness of her application. I recently experienced this as well and just wanted to give some words of advice if this pertains to you:
- Do NOT let ETS charge you double for your score reports if you have them in 2 names. I took the psych test years ago under my maiden name and more recently the general test under my married name. I was originally told that they would need to charge double because their system couldn't account for this and they needed to send them to schools as 2 separate reports (what!?). I later found out this wasn't true. Well, they did send 2 reports but were able to waive the charge for the second set. Just make sure they actually send both reports- it took about 4 calls. You'd think they would deal with this all the time, but were rather inept about the whole thing.
- Be on the paranoid side about making sure you put both names on EVERYTHING you send with your application. Unfortunately, just because the application itself has a space to indicate your maiden name does not mean they will take the time to match up all of your materials (sad, but true). Having transcripts under my maiden name resulted in half of my application ending up in the Psych Dept and the other half at the Graduate School, in a couple instances. I was never notified that my application wasn't "complete." For one program, I even made a phone call to verify that everything was complete due to the name change. The Grad School said it was so I assumed all was well, but apparently this didn't hold true for the Psych Dept, who couldn't put it all together. I would suggest checking and rechecking at both places.
Anyway, sorry for the long post! I hope this can help at least one person.
- Do NOT let ETS charge you double for your score reports if you have them in 2 names. I took the psych test years ago under my maiden name and more recently the general test under my married name. I was originally told that they would need to charge double because their system couldn't account for this and they needed to send them to schools as 2 separate reports (what!?). I later found out this wasn't true. Well, they did send 2 reports but were able to waive the charge for the second set. Just make sure they actually send both reports- it took about 4 calls. You'd think they would deal with this all the time, but were rather inept about the whole thing.
- Be on the paranoid side about making sure you put both names on EVERYTHING you send with your application. Unfortunately, just because the application itself has a space to indicate your maiden name does not mean they will take the time to match up all of your materials (sad, but true). Having transcripts under my maiden name resulted in half of my application ending up in the Psych Dept and the other half at the Graduate School, in a couple instances. I was never notified that my application wasn't "complete." For one program, I even made a phone call to verify that everything was complete due to the name change. The Grad School said it was so I assumed all was well, but apparently this didn't hold true for the Psych Dept, who couldn't put it all together. I would suggest checking and rechecking at both places.
Anyway, sorry for the long post! I hope this can help at least one person.
