Ashley,
I just read your blog and wanted you to know I had a similar experience. I am 2009 semi.
I got the same three emails and wrote to Greg Beal for an accounting. It’s a monumental screw-up that slammed 84 other semi-finalists. First of all, they’re not the most gracious folks over there… except if you’re a fellow.
With that said, the response you got on the phone was just plain rude and inconsiderate.
When I mentioned to Greg that perhaps one monumental computer error might also indicate another…as in the calculation of semi-finalist script scores. He quickly wrote back saying he was sorry I felt a fraud had been perpetrated upon me. I never used the word fraud. I was however implying incompetence.
He quickly shifted blame to an unnamed database supplier.
The response of course was inadequate for what happened to all of us. Beal and staff were last week scrambling to cover their butts. I’m sure they’re still working extra hard to hide this mess.
Hang in there. I feel your pain.
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I’ll not post their name, as I’ve no permission to do so.
It’s frustrating, I was shocked at the phone call, especially because Greg Beal seems so open and on top of things. He is always gracious in e-mails. I don’t know who the woman was but I was, well, embarrassed for them that they’d hired someone so clearly unable to manage the phone calls the mistake was getting them.
I don’t feel like I was mistreated intentionally, and I think that’s important. I do think that these hiccups do happen when an organization makes the switch to a computerized system, though it’s shocking it took them til 2009 to do so. I got an apology, and while that isn’t quite satisfactory, I’m trying to be understanding and just accept it as a mistake that affected a whole lot of people, myself included. I’ll still apply to the Nicholl next year, if I’m still eligible. So I guess that speaks volumes.