I know this is a pretty East Coast leaning thread so this won't apply to most however, I wanted to share my experience with U of Arizona thus far.
I applied to their online MPH program (health promotion track) back in November when I was submitting the rest of my applications even through their deadline is not until June or July. After I received my acceptance from UC Irvine I started to get antsy waiting to hear back from other schools. My deadline to accept UCI's offer is April 15th and as I scoured U of A's website for any sort of information on when I would hear back I saw that it stated decisions were sent out about 2 weeks after the deadline. Obviously, I'm not going to turn down UCI for a possible rejection so I emailed U of A to see if there was a possibility of getting a decision sooner. The email was first responded to by an automated message saying the admission counselor was on vacation and would return the following week. When she finally got back to me she stated that they would review the application once all materials were received and that if I let her know when that was done she would keep an eye out for my decision. This freaked me out and I double checked everything - transcripts, GRE scores, SOPHAS app, supplemental app, LOR's - all were submitted by Nov. 29th. I let her know that and then she never responded to my email (about two weeks ago)
Then today I received a call from another admissions counselor, Jeanine, who left me a kind of off putting voicemail asking me to call her back because she needed to know when my Bachelors would be complete. (I'm in my final semester of undergrad now, graduating in May.) I called her back to let her know and was asked numerous other questions including; what's your GPA, what is your major, what were your GRE scores, do you have work experience, etc. all things that are listed on my application in one form or another. Then she started to ask what other schools I applied to, what my top choice school was, and how likely I was to accept an admission offer from U of A should they offer me admission, all of which I found very odd.
She asked me if I had any questions for her and I told her about my email interaction with the other advisor and if she could give me a timeline on when I would receive a decision. She said, well you haven't completed your BA yet.... I was kind of dumbfounded by this. She then asked me if I expected a decision prior to graduation to which, still in shock, I responded yes, unless you don't offer conditional admission like all other schools.
The conversation ended with her letting me know that now that I talked to her and told her I was graduating in May she could pass my application along to the department to review and I should hear back in about a week. However, she said that the department can only recommend me to the Graduate Division and that they would not be reviewing my application for a formal offer until after I send them proof of my degree.
Soooo basically Arizona is off my list as I am thoroughly annoyed with them and could not imagine dealing with that for the entirety of a masters program.
Sorry for the super long post but it was just such an odd exchange that has been bothering me all day.
