Terrible dysfunction at UC administration

[Anonymous]

So what are the best T25/T40 schools when it comes to bureaucracy, efficiency, organization and customer service?

[Anonymous]

I find the responses fairly strange. I would expect any college to easily provide you with an accurate invoice and the breakdown of costs.

I mean…they want the money. It’s not really in their interest to screw this up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find the responses fairly strange. I would expect any college to easily provide you with an accurate invoice and the breakdown of costs.

I mean…they want the money. It’s not really in their interest to screw this up.

How many colleges have you put your kids through? I've had three privates take a long time to process the bills correctly and one accidentally sent us a bill $15,000 more than what we had to pay. These are all top 20 universities.

[Anonymous]

To answer your question, OP, no, I don't think quality of professors track with the (in)competence of administrations. So you're safe there.

However, it's very frustrating that your kid and their friends didn't have their roommate requests honored. I'm sorry all the administrative part is causing problems.

My kid chose to attend George Washington U, his safety, after waffling between several others. The admission and on-boarding process is incredibly smooth and well-run. The university communicates really well with parents. I think it must be because it's a rich private uni that's not in the top tier, and therefore it has to work hard to attract families.

But I'm sure your kid will have a great experience at her UC nonetheless! Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what are the best T25/T40 schools when it comes to bureaucracy, efficiency, organization and customer service?

The private schools with less than 20,000 students, this isn’t rocket science.

[Anonymous]

OP! Please listen closely. People on these threads know nothing about the UC system, not a thing. People here are chronically cynical or just incorrect about their assumptions surrounding the best public education system in the US. Now, here's what you need to remember (and this goes for any public university): fight as much as you can and advocate for what you want and always ALWAYS have a receipt or email or some printed text showing that you were given something. This is true of any public institution.

On to the education side of things, it is stellar. The UCs will give your child access to coursework that other parents' kids in this thread will not have access to. It may seem like a lose-lose at the intro level, but once you climb up and especially if your child is interested in DECALs or Graduate-level coursework, the access to top professors and research is fascinating. Berkeley and LA have great outcomes, don't let some online a**holes ruin this for you. I know it's a headache dealing with the admin, but remember how many tens of thousands of undergraduate students alone they're educating. It will get better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proof that rankings are meaningless.

In what way?

Did you read the post? Is that how you expect a top school to operate?

...Yeah. I don't have rose tinted views of academia. Go to Harvard, and you'll see BS like this all the time. It's just a part of bureaucracy.

You are proving my point. Perhaps the rankings have identified the wrong institutions as top universities. Incompetence is never acceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proof that rankings are meaningless.

In what way?

Did you read the post? Is that how you expect a top school to operate?

...Yeah. I don't have rose tinted views of academia. Go to Harvard, and you'll see BS like this all the time. It's just a part of bureaucracy.

You are proving my point. Perhaps the rankings have identified the wrong institutions as top universities. Incompetence is never acceptable.

Have you worked in university administration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proof that rankings are meaningless.

In what way?

Did you read the post? Is that how you expect a top school to operate?

...Yeah. I don't have rose tinted views of academia. Go to Harvard, and you'll see BS like this all the time. It's just a part of bureaucracy.

You are proving my point. Perhaps the rankings have identified the wrong institutions as top universities. Incompetence is never acceptable.

Have you worked in university administration?

State your point

[Anonymous]

Yes. I went to ucla for undergrad. Good deal for in-state. Tougher to accept the bureaucratic bs if paying oos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP! Please listen closely. People on these threads know nothing about the UC system, not a thing. People here are chronically cynical or just incorrect about their assumptions surrounding the best public education system in the US. Now, here's what you need to remember (and this goes for any public university): fight as much as you can and advocate for what you want and always ALWAYS have a receipt or email or some printed text showing that you were given something. This is true of any public institution.

On to the education side of things, it is stellar. The UCs will give your child access to coursework that other parents' kids in this thread will not have access to. It may seem like a lose-lose at the intro level, but once you climb up and especially if your child is interested in DECALs or Graduate-level coursework, the access to top professors and research is fascinating. Berkeley and LA have great outcomes, don't let some online a**holes ruin this for you. I know it's a headache dealing with the admin, but remember how many tens of thousands of undergraduate students alone they're educating. It will get better.

If you kid can get into those classes, and even the major they want, the most popular ones are all impacted. UCs are a good deal for in state, not so clear for oos paying over $70,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proof that rankings are meaningless.

In what way?

Did you read the post? Is that how you expect a top school to operate?

...Yeah. I don't have rose tinted views of academia. Go to Harvard, and you'll see BS like this all the time. It's just a part of bureaucracy.

You are proving my point. Perhaps the rankings have identified the wrong institutions as top universities. Incompetence is never acceptable.

Have you worked in university administration?

State your point

Now I don't really want to respond, because you want to be combative, but anyway....These are pretty universal complaints that happen to some, don't to others. I'll say something that parents will jump in with different opinions on-I hated putting DC1 through UVA, because the university was so incompetent at every little step from Housing, to course registration, to billing me. At the end of the day, I understand that these are all different wings of the university, and it is difficult to process information for thousands of people and working with government agencies intermittently and get nothing wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP! Please listen closely. People on these threads know nothing about the UC system, not a thing. People here are chronically cynical or just incorrect about their assumptions surrounding the best public education system in the US. Now, here's what you need to remember (and this goes for any public university): fight as much as you can and advocate for what you want and always ALWAYS have a receipt or email or some printed text showing that you were given something. This is true of any public institution.

On to the education side of things, it is stellar. The UCs will give your child access to coursework that other parents' kids in this thread will not have access to. It may seem like a lose-lose at the intro level, but once you climb up and especially if your child is interested in DECALs or Graduate-level coursework, the access to top professors and research is fascinating. Berkeley and LA have great outcomes, don't let some online a**holes ruin this for you. I know it's a headache dealing with the admin, but remember how many tens of thousands of undergraduate students alone they're educating. It will get better.

If you kid can get into those classes, and even the major they want, the most popular ones are all impacted. UCs are a good deal for in state, not so clear for oos paying over $70,000.

For freshman. You can get into Berkeley (where most people complain about not getting into classes) courses relatively easy after intro courses and major declaration. You'd know this, well, if you actually had experience with Berkeley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find the responses fairly strange. I would expect any college to easily provide you with an accurate invoice and the breakdown of costs.

I mean…they want the money. It’s not really in their interest to screw this up.

How many colleges have you put your kids through? I've had three privates take a long time to process the bills correctly and one accidentally sent us a bill $15,000 more than what we had to pay. These are all top 20 universities.

Have two kids at privates…they never messed up the bill. No FA which I could see causing some problems.

I’m not doubting you, but one would think this is one area a college would get right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP! Please listen closely. People on these threads know nothing about the UC system, not a thing. People here are chronically cynical or just incorrect about their assumptions surrounding the best public education system in the US. Now, here's what you need to remember (and this goes for any public university): fight as much as you can and advocate for what you want and always ALWAYS have a receipt or email or some printed text showing that you were given something. This is true of any public institution.

On to the education side of things, it is stellar. The UCs will give your child access to coursework that other parents' kids in this thread will not have access to. It may seem like a lose-lose at the intro level, but once you climb up and especially if your child is interested in DECALs or Graduate-level coursework, the access to top professors and research is fascinating. Berkeley and LA have great outcomes, don't let some online a**holes ruin this for you. I know it's a headache dealing with the admin, but remember how many tens of thousands of undergraduate students alone they're educating. It will get better.

If you kid can get into those classes, and even the major they want, the most popular ones are all impacted. UCs are a good deal for in state, not so clear for oos paying over $70,000.

For freshman. You can get into Berkeley (where most people complain about not getting into classes) courses relatively easy after intro courses and major declaration. You'd know this, well, if you actually had experience with Berkeley.

As long as you don’t change your mind about major and want to switch to computer science, psych, economics, poly sci, or seven other common majors.