silly ? about mailing a grad school application

[HappyNurse2005, RN]

Probably a silly question, but i'd rather look silly to the anonymous masses than calling the school and looking foolish.

I am going to be mailing an application packet to a grad school-large manila envelope, since it has the application, transcript, references, etc.

The application front page has the school's address as 123 main st po box 333 any city, usa 12345. the school website application instructions say "print, fill out, and mail" without the address of where to specifically mail it to.

the bottom of the webpage lists the address as po box 333 123 main st any city, usa.

my stupid question-

do you address it to

123 main st anycity, usa or po box 333 any city, usa?

im not a post office expert by any means, but putting the street address and the po box seems repetetive and possibly resulting in my envelope getting sent back to me.

so which would you send it to? street address or po box?

lol, thanks, sorry for dumb question

[Moogie]

Not a silly question at all. Send it to the address as it's listed, even if it seems redundant.

Many schools are going to online applications only, which can have their own inherent, ahem, challenges.

[katie w.]

I would mail it to the school's address. Make sure you write admissions dept. or School of Nursing or something on it... it will get to the right place.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Not a silly question at all. Send it to the address as it's listed, even if it seems redundant.

Many schools are going to online applications only, which can have their own inherent, ahem, challenges.

Boy do I know that problem....My app is on hold for a CC transcript that has 2 prereqs for my nursing license.....

[Moogie]

For some odd reason, I was thinking about you when I wrote my response...

I have heard other, ahem, stories about the school that shall go unnamed at the present. Good school, an application process reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine.

[TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP]

You could, ya know, call the school and ask them.

[us2uk4u]

You can, as the previous post stated, call the school. But more often the PO BOX isn't necessarily a PO BOX at the post office. Sometimes this indicates to the university mailroom what department or building in the university the mail should go to. It just makes sorting mail easy when you get thousands a day.

[elkpark]

I would address the envelope using the exact address the university lists (POB and street address), regardless of whether it "seems repetitive." As us2uk4u notes, the box may well be an on-campus box and that may be an important part of making sure your application ends up where it needs to be.

It's probably safe to assume that the nursing program knows its correct mailing address. :)

[meluhn]

You could, ya know, call the school and ask them.

That is what I would do. They aren't even going to know your name if you call.

This is too important to have it floating around in limbo at the college.

[Moogie]

That is what I would do. They aren't even going to know your name if you call.

This is too important to have it floating around in limbo at the college.

I agree. But do understand that even the application is done online, even if the student has followed all of the instructions given by either the graduate school itself or the college of nursing, an application can get stuck in academic limbo for months. That's exactly what happened to me, that's what is happening to a friend, that's what happened to another friend, and all because of inaccurate information given by someone in either the grad office or the SON.

My advice to ANY prospective graduate student is to call and check about a week after submitting the application to the correct place. (At my school, it had to be sent to the graduate office and completed before it could be sent to the college of nursing.) If they don't have your application, call again in a few days. Get a contact person at the school, someone you can call who can keep you abreast of the process. KEEP CALLING until you are CERTAIN that the application is in the appropriate hands. My school has a website that allegedly will keep a prospective student informed of the status of his/her application. I received communication from the school that all my references were in (they weren't; the school lost one) and that all my transcripts were in (they weren't; I had to supply a transcript for a class I took THIRTY YEARS AGO that successfully transferred to my BSN program. I was not informed of this missing transcript until it was almost too late to register for the semester.)

If you live close enough to the school to arrange a personal visit with someone from the graduate office and/or the school of nursing, do so. I am not sure I could have waded through the hassle of my application without feeling that I had an advocate in the school of nursing who could keep me posted, on nursing's end, what was happening with my application. I also appreciated getting to talk to someone in person because otherwise the hassle of going through the application process would have soured me completely on going to this school. Again, I think this is a great school but the application process is akin to academic purgatory.

Also, apply well in advance of the deadline. I applied to my program in July and did not complete the process until December. Took care of financial aid Started classes in January but there is a delay in my getting my GI Bill benefits, not on the school's side, but because of backlogs in the VA system. Had I been able to complete the application process in a more timely fashion, I might have been able to avoid the delay in the GI Bill benefits.

No, I would rather not say on a public forum which school this is. I would definitely recommend the school to someone but, based not only on the hassles I had but on my friends' negative experiences as well, I would say to tread carefully during the application process.

And then I wonder why I feel that my stress level is over the top...

[caliotter3]

Moogie's story makes me think in the back of my mind, somewhere, vaguely, about a school I am familiar with, very familiar, which shall also go nameless.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

for TOS reasons it shall remain nameless....