ARC: Connections: ELMAR: Posting

I read the notice in this mornings posting about candidates applying to schools that are not recruiting. I am sure that this is an important issue and deserves the attention of ELMAR readers but there is a flip side to the issue as well. Over the past year or two, I have applied to a few schools that have posted openings on ELMAR and there have been times when I have not received the courtesy of an acknowledgement of my application nor a response to a direct follow up email asking if my application was in order. There have been two times that I had campus visits and never heard from the school as to the outcome of the search. Obviously, I figured out that I was not the successful candidate. There have been other times where I have had preliminary interviews or phone interviews and never heard that the search or my candidacy had ended. Again, after some time I figured out that I was no longer a serious candidate. It seems wrong to me that some schools feel no obligation to the people who have invested time and effort and responded to their posted invitation.

Do the schools that solicit applications have a responsibility to acknowledge and correspond with all applicants or only those few they find appealing? I think applicants should know what they can expect from the schools to which they apply.

http://www.marketingpower.com/Community/ARC/Pages/Connections/ELMAR/Posting/Anonymity.aspx