Heard of adcoms calling your undergrad Dean to investigate?

[oOn]

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For example, if the adcom sees a bunch of Ws on your transcript and finds it suspicious for whatever reason, I'm wondering if they might call my undergrad school to ask questions to the Dean or other personnel, even if I didn't list them as references or anything like that on my application!

 

[MedPR]

For example, if the adcom sees a bunch of Ws on your transcript and finds it suspicious for whatever reason, I'm wondering if they might call my undergrad school to ask questions to the Dean or other personnel, even if I didn't list them as references or anything like that on my application!

Their information will likely be in your committee packet. Any IA should be reported by you though so it wouldn't be a problem if they contacted your Dean directly.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

For example, if the adcom sees a bunch of Ws on your transcript and finds it suspicious for whatever reason, I'm wondering if they might call my undergrad school to ask questions to the Dean or other personnel, even if I didn't list them as references or anything like that on my application!

I mean if you have an unusually large amount of Ws you should probably be discussing that somewhere anyway...

 

[oOn]

Thank you for your comments!
Has anyone ever heard of something like this happen, though? 😕
And am I bumping this thread by just writing this? 🙂

 

[deleted303591]

I think they can. I think this is exempt from the FERPA law.

Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):

• School officials with legitimate educational interest;
• Other schools to which a student is transferring;
• Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
• Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
• Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
• Accrediting organizations;
• To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
• Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
• State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law.

 

[mimelim]

If you are a poor/below average applicant, something like that will simply get your application chucked into the rejection pile.

If you are good/above average applicant, it may raise flags. It really depends on who is reading your application. Honestly, you WANT them to call. That means they are otherwise interested in your application. And yes, they will call. It doesn't exactly take that long to figure it out and it answers all of the questions they will have immediately.

 

[notbobtrustme]

More than likely, your application will simply get tossed or shuffled to the bottom. Adcoms don't have time to investigate every potential applicant. It's a buyers market and you ain't buying.