Confusing admission standard of CUHK

I am a full-time MBA candidate for CUHK for the class of 2017. I am here to tell you the truth about the actual CUHK admissions standard as well as how they market themselves falsely to recruit students for profit rather than quality. In fact, during this admission process I am extremely disappointed at how they admitted a student like me with my unqualified standard, at the same time refusing to refund the money even until now when I couldn't fulfill their admission condition written by them. In comparison, other Asian MBA schools (some in HK, some in China) conditionally admitted me first, then refunded me without any issues because I was just simply not qualified with my GMAT score. But CUHK is the only school that is refusing to return my deposit saying that the deposit is not refundable, which could possibly be one of the strategies to rake more money in from other students.

I scored 450 on the GMAT. CUHK did offer an interview and after the interview they gave me a conditional offer saying that I need to get 650 or above in order to be admitted officially. And even before this happened, when I attended CUHK MBA info session the marketing team told me that I should be getting at least 600 to be competitively admitted. (This already confused me because it was 600, then 650).

However, after receiving the conditional offer then getting 450 on the GMAT, I told CUHK Admissions team that I would not be able to accept the offer because I could not be qualified. But they simply said I will be accepted with 450 on the GMAT and that I should rush the deposit to secure the seat. So I had to rush my deposit because I thought I would not be accepted to any other schools with this GMAT. However, this clearly showed the admissions standard of CUHK. Not only they changed the words (all the way from 650 to 450), but also possibly admitting a number of many other students like me to be in a rush paying the deposit (which is a ridiculous $10,000) with incredibly low GMAT scores, resulting the quality of the that year's CUHK intakes and the admissions faculty. To remind you again, other Asian schools did not accept me in the end because of my low GMAT score.

Secondly, after they said I was accepted, they sent me an official letter. But instead of a full offer like they verbally offered, it was a conditional offer which I couldn't understand. It clearly stated that 'the student fees, once paid, will not be refunded except in the sole circumstance that you can provide before the Deadline documentary proof from the institution that you are unable to fulfill the relevant condition'. The circumstances for fulfilling conditions were two things: 1) providing CUHK with a valid student visa, and 2) turn in the official GMAT score before a certain date. I could not submit my GMAT score by the time frame which was the 2nd condition that they requested of me to do. Overall, the school on paper basically put me into the conditional offer pool. This made me think that I was rather not officially accepted by the CUHK team, but later I would be accepted by a loophole created by themselves. Nevertheless, in the official term, I could not meet their requirements for admissions because I couldn't turn in the documentary proof before the deadline so I was clearly eligible to get the refund. However they are still denying to return the deposit.

To sum this up, CUHK was the only Asian MBA school who accepted me verbally with 450 GMAT from its 650 after settling the deposit, and the letter was stated as a conditional offer and I couldn't fulfill one of its conditions, yet they are still refusing to refund the deposit.

After this all happened, I even emailed the Dean and the MBA program director, and their response was again disappointing. They just said 'I am sure admissions team is doing the right thing, you should talk to them and not me'. If the Dean and the MBA director are the ones that do not want to listen to the students and want to rather delegate to subordinates on sensitive issues like this, what is the future of a CUHK MBA? This was another reason that disappointed me along with a confusing admissions standard.

All the MBA prospect candidates looking for MBA's in Asia, please think twice about this school if you got accepted and do not settle a deposit first. Don't expect them to refund or get a thoughtful advice from the Dean or the program director before, during, and after the MBA also. Once you pay the deposit, it's basically theirs for it to keep regardless of your qualification unlike other schools. By accepting unqualified students and falsely giving wrong information define the quality of that year's cohorts and its faculties, which I feel is the most important aspect in choosing the MBA. On a side note, the admissions team even proudly told me that they saw many cases like this and they never refunded even if the condition was not fulfilled because they think that 'refund once paid is not refundable' at any circumstances (in which other schools didn't hesitate one second for refunding me). But they denied to answer my question which was the next line created by themselves 'except in the sole circumstance that you can provide before the Deadline documentary proof from the institution that you are unable to fulfill the relevant condition'.

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