Technical Difficulties with Application Deadline approaching fast

[rufus_bh]

Hi there,

I have been having a lot of trouble with the Stine page. I will spare the details, but effectively I cannot log in order to start my application.

I have contacted the technical support using their contact form, however I fear that they will not reply till next week now, which will be after the application deadline, and so I won't be able to complete my application in time.

What can I do? Is it possible to submit my application after the deadline on the basis of technical problems? Is it possible to sumbit my application through some other way than the STine portal?

Do you have any other advice for me / anyone else I should contact?

This is obviously quite stressful for me so I would really appreciate your assistance.

[Campus-Center-Sandra-Hoffmann]

Dear rufus_bh,

you only receive an answer today because we did not work from Thursday to Monday due to the Easter holidays. We are not aware of any technical problems at the end of the application phase. We have received applications. If you have not submitted an application by March 31, we will not be able to consider you for the selection procedure for the winter semester 2024/25. It is not possible to submit an application at a later date.

Kind regards
Sandra Hoffmann

[rufus_bh]

Dear Sandra,

Thank you very much for your response. I understand what you mean about the deadline being the 31st with the 28th being the last day you are able to assist.

Now I still haven't been able to resolve my technical difficulties (despite hours trying), so obviously I have now missed the deadline to apply, which I am unsurprisingly really gutted about. In my mind it is not really fair that I am denied the chance to apply because of technical difficulties with the application site. Because of this I am still going to try my best to make an appeal, so that I can still submit my application.

Do you have any advice about how I can go about making an appeal / anyone I could contact?

I would deeply appreciate any help.

Best Regards,
Rufus.

[Campus-Center-Sandra-Hoffmann]

Dear Rufus,

it is no longer possible to submit an application at a later date. You had one and a half months to apply: from February 15 to March 31. If you wait until the end of the application phase and then experience technical problems, which we were not responsible for, this is your responsibility.
We could have helped you earlier.

I am sorry, that I do not have a more favorable answer for you.

Kind regards
Sandra Hoffmann

[rufus_bh]

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for getting back to me, although that is tough to hear. I realise now that I should have applied earlier, but to be honest it did not occur to me that I wouldn't be able to apply four days before the deadline. I really thought that this would give me sufficient time. I assumed that a large institution such as hamburg would have a reliable application system in 2024 - I was clearly wrong to assume this. I am fairly sure the technical issues are with the Stine system, as I have never had the same issue logging into anything before - so I'm not sure that's fair to say it's my Responsibility. I have been in contact with the Stine technical support team, and we have still not been able to resolve the logging in issue.

I do understand that there is not much that I can do about this, and perhaps you can't either. Having said that I am still going to contact everyone I can because I really think its unfair that I can't apply because of technical issues with Hamburg's system, and I'm hoping that someone agrees with me!

Regards,
Rufus.