| The original post triggered some fond memories for me. Approximately 30 years ago my Dad wrote a successful appeal letter, althought that is not what he intended it to be. Coincidentally, the school involved was Fordham University, although it was the Law School, not the undergrad. Let me explain.
I attended Fordham undergrad and did very well, graduating summa cum laude in the honors program. However, my law school application was rejected. I knew I had messed up on the LSATs and refused to take them again. Whatever school was willing to overlook that mess up and focus on the four years of good work was the right school for me. That school was going to be William & Mary. Over the summer, my parents got a congratulatory letter from Fordham which presumably was sent to all summa cum laude graduates. The letter was signed by some very high University official, who happened to be a member of the Jesuit order, and happened to share my family's last name. He hand wrote a nice note to my father, something to the effect of "from one [last name deleted] to another [last name deleted], you must be very proud of your son." My father was livid. He had been unable to understand how a university could allow its law school to reject someone who has done so well in its undergraduate program. The note sent my mild mannered, even tempered dad over the edge. He wrote a scathing response explaining what had happened to his son, and he asserted that the law school was sending the wrong message about the quality of the undergraduate eductaion, for which my father had worked so hard to pay. Several weeks later, I received a call that I had been selected from the waitlist, which I was not even on (having been rejected). I accepted the offer of admission, graduated three years later, and have been a practicing lawyer ever since. I never confirmed the correlation between the two events but it had to be the reason I got in. I did just as well in the law school as I had in the undergrad, proving my Dad's point.
My Dad died several months after I graduated. I know he was proud of what I had accomplished but I wish he had lived long enough to see me in court.
Now I am on this site because my daughter, who is far more brillaint than I ever could hope to be, has been waitlisted from her dream school. I won't be writing any letters on her behalf. I am leaving that for her to do (although I will be chirping in the backgound with lots of ideas). But I do wish you luck in whatever strategy you employ. Things are so different in today's ultra-competitive application environment that I am not sure my story has any relevance. I do hope you can take some encouragement from it, but I think I had to write it more to express my appreciation for what my Dad did for me thirty years ago. |