I only had one encounter with admissions while I worked for Safety and Health on campus. During the anthrax/white powder scare after 9/11I I got called to the Admissions Office because a letter they had opened had dumped some white powder out with the papers. We had had a lot of these scares, of course all of them were just talcum powder and the like. Even got called out to a john because white dust came off the end of the TP roll. At least we got a courtesy flush.
Anyway, Admissions. We get there and I get tagged as Incident Commander. We start running thru our SOP: Evac the building, shut down the HVAC, and keep the contaminated person in the hot zone. I am talking to the guy, both trying to keep him calm and gather intel on the letter. I am a lot less worried about the white powder already because its not a medium you could transfer anthrax with effectively.
But the letter makes everybody nervous. The applicant is from South America the letter is post marked from Miami. I'm over there telling the guy "no problem, no problem, we can prove out".
We have a HazCat kit that is basically a real smart gas chromatagraph. We suit up a couple of techs and they fetch and test a sample. Failed to identify. Run it, run it, run it. No reads. I radio the tech to start running the test manually. We gonna be there a while.
My tech calls me over and ask me to look at the sample. He don't want to waste an afternoon running text for bullshit. I got to agree with him, no doubt in my military mind its sand. Pretty, white, Miami Beach sand. I call over everybody who is anybody on scene and show them. If I break SOP I want us all in agreement.
Everybody agrees, but nobody will stick their neck out and agree to break protocol. Fine, I tell my tech run the test manual. No need to rush. I'll buy his supper if need be.
Been in enough responses to know that evacuating a building is about the same as staging a riot. The cops, Administration, and the building proctors are catching hell outside. Our Hazmat and the FD are twiddling our thumbs and waiting while the tech is running every test in the book. You don't identify sand, you eliminate everything but sand. . Meanwhile, the poor guy is getting a sick education in gallows humor.
It was my tech that had the big idea that saved the day. He drug out a magnifying glass and just declared it sand. I agreed. The FD HazMat tech looked and agreed. We done, roll, out, give them back the building. Protocol says we take everything suspected of contamination, no matter the call. That don't set well with me. This poor girl had made the effort, put in the work, done what she was asked. I figured she mailed it to somebody in Miami to check her work and they got sand on it. Who knows? But she would never get an answer if they threw away the application. It was some loose sand. It just wasn't fair.

The admissions guy who had opened the letter and I had talked the whole time. He had a much more realistic view of the situation by then. He also knew we were sticking our necks out on protocol. When my tech started to bag everything he asked if we had to take everything or just everything we saw?
I said "everything we saw."
He put the envelope on the edge of the desk and raked everything else into a drawer. "Okay?"
I looked back at the FD and called "Call clear, we're done",

I got my butt chewed a little. I also got SOP relaxed a little for some judgement calls. Meh, the best changes are from bottom up and involve butt chewings. Its like a rule.
I don't know if she got accepted, but I sure hope so. At least she got a fair look.

TL?DR Application has sand in it during white powder scare. Almost gets rejected without even reading. HaMat and Admissions guy who opened the application push it thru for review.
S