<p>My Smith acceptance letter was awesome because they sent it a week ahead of online decisions!</p>
<p>Plus, it was sooo nice! You could tell they really wanted the kids to come</p>
<p>I absolutely ADORED my Tulane waitlist e-mail. It was heartwarming and actually somewhat inspiring. Instead of being disappointed about my status at my dream school, I was relaxed, I felt like they WANTED to admit me, and I felt like there was hope I would be accepted. And even if I wasn’t? Everything would still be okay.</p>
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</p>
<p>Other than that, BC had an awesome rejection letter. I knew that I wouldn’t be accepted, so seeing it i the mail wasn’t difficult, but reading it would certainly lessen the blow for anyone who would have been hurt by receiving it.</p>
<p>I haven’t gotten any overly awesome acceptance letters. Marist and SUNY New Paltz had good packets in folders (New Paltz even came with a certificate of acceptance). The nicest worded letter came from Binghamton (although the photocopied signature irked me a little). I also received a personal e-mail from my admissions counselor, which I’ve heard of only one other admitted student receiving, so that was nice.</p>
<p>I learned that I was accepted to Pratt when they sent me a 2-sentence email that started with “Once again, congratulations!” Then they gave me an ID number. …I guess I got in?</p>
<p>strangeley I havent been rejected anywhere YET but I have been waitlisted.
First I was deferred ED from Columbia and their deferral letter online made me more upset once I had finished reading it than I had been when I realized I was deferred. They kept talking about how this must be a huge dissappointment for me and my family and how upset I must be. I was excited not to be rejected.</p>
<p>Northwestern’s waitlist letter was pretty typical until the last line where they say that with my impressive academic and personal achievements they know that I am destined for success or something like that. Physically the letter itself wasn’t very attractive, I liked U. of Chicago’s waitlist letter better. </p>
<p>Barnard’s acceptance packet was pretty classy; it was matt black and bright yellow. They had the colors checkered like a taxi cab type thing (seems appropriatte considering their location)</p>
<p>Pitzer’s acceptance envelope was bright orange and had congratulations all over it. I don’t really like orange though. So i guess I am not going there.</p>
<p>barnard’s also came with this cute little pocket map of new york</p>
<p>I didn’t really read Yale’s rejection letter. In all honesty, I just saw the “no” (in reality, “cannot offer you a place…”) and closed the window. :)</p>
<p>^I did the same thing with Wesleyan’s rejection letter. :D</p>
<p>^^I did that with university of chicago because it said some bs like “we are unable to offer you a place” so I just assumed I was rejected but it turned out that at the end of the first paragraph it said I was waitlisted :)</p>
<p>columbia’s rejection letter was so snooty but brown’s was actually kind of nice</p>
<p>I may be biased, but I thought Claremont McKenna’s acceptance letter was the best ever. The little note they write is a great personal touch. </p>
<p>Rice’s rejection letter was pretty cold, and I probably would’ve been upset if I had cared much about getting in!</p>
<p>What I got from University of Washington Package:
- One Information Booklet
- Three or Four sheets that I have to fill out for enrollment
- Two Envelopes for me to mail the above sheets back
I felt a chill wind blowing on me when I opened the package
But I was glad that I got in ^_^</p>
<p>Rice’s acceptance letter makes other school’s rejection letters look good</p>
<p>Penn’s rejection sucked:</p>
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</p>
<p>For Harvard. I actually think Stanford >>>> Harvard in terms of rejection letters this year. </p>
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</p>
<p>Georgetown’s rejection told me, “We were disappointed not to offer you admission in light of your family’s connection with Georgetown.” Basically, we gave you special consideration and you STILL sucked. </p>
<p>BC’s acceptance was really nice, I got a handwritten note from my admissions representative saying “Congratulations [name]!”
Northwestern acceptance was also nice, a large purple folder that says in cursive “You are” and then NORTHWESTERN. </p>
<p>William & Mary waitlist letter surprised me. I always thought their admissions committee was the most down-to-earth of any college I’d seen, so the fact that the letter was a little cold was disappointing.</p>
<p>I believe, Colgate’s was the best I got.
The Dean of Admissions wrote a personal message; which made me feel all nice and welcomed.</p>
<p>but, Barnard’s was pretty cold. After the whole “we regret to inform you part” they snuck in a ‘don’t appeal’ (paraphrased).</p>
<p>Now for the analysis.</p>
<p>I received four rejections this year: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia. Of these, I thought Stanford’s–despite the weird FAQ paragraph–was by far the warmest. Columbia’s was mixed, Yale’s meh, and Harvard’s downright cold. </p>
<p>Yesterday, rather than mope about my rejections, I took to wondering: what exactly is it that makes a good rejection letter? Why is it that Stanford’s letter gave me the warm fuzzies while Harvard’s made me roll my eyes? Where does the magic come from? I had a vague inclination that Stanford’s seemed more direct than the others. I also remembered reading that when giving compliments, you should use “you” sentences rather than “I” sentences, because it makes the other person feel singled out and more valued. So I ran all four of my rejection letters through a word frequency counter, searching for instances of “you” and “your.” (There were no instances of “yours,” I don’t think.) And the results:</p>
<p>Harvard: 4 + 1 = 5 instances
Yale: 4 + 4 = 8 instances
Columbia: 6 + 4 = 10 instances
Stanford: 18 + 8 = 26 instances</p>
<p>I think that speaks for itself. Stanford’s letter felt more personal because it addressed you, the applicant. For example, we all know every college has to have a line in its rejection letter about how the competition was so intense, blah blah blah, so you shouldn’t feel like a total failure. Let’s look at how the different schools handled this line.</p>
<p>Harvard:
</p>
<p>Yale:
</p>
<p>Columbia:
</p>
<p>Stanford:
</p>
<p>Harvard always speaks in the abstract. Most applicants were qualified and talented–that’s great. But it doesn’t say anything about YOU. For all you know, the Harvard admissions committee passed around your application for a good laugh. Yale is a little better in referring to the applicant directly, but they can’t seem to come up with anything more positive to say than “we aren’t passing judgment on your abilities.” Columbia is a more confident, implying that they believe that you can achieve success, but it’s still a “well, we don’t not believe.” Stanford switches that negative and makes it affirmative. They’re humbled; they’re impressed. They believe in you! It makes you feel happy inside :></p>
<p>This is a constant theme throughout the letter. Stanford says things like:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Compare this with a similar passage from Yale:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Two things to note. First, yet again Stanford addresses the applicant directly, letting them know that they, personally, were impressive, and that their app wasn’t actually laughed out of the office. Yale confines itself to the third person, talking about some hypothetical “candidates.” Second, Stanford takes the time to acknowledge that a lot (not all–but almost certainly most serious applicants) of the kids they are rejecting spent a great deal of time on their app, slaving over the essays for days, checking and rechecking every detail–and not only that, they let the applicant know that that time and attention was appreciated. Neither Yale or Columbia has anything like this. Harvard does say something about how they “understand how difficult the college application process can be for students and their families,” but do they care? We don’t know! They don’t say. :P</p>
<p>Lastly, I want to take a look at the closing line, because I feel Stanford does it very well:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Compare to Harvard:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yale:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Columbia:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Stanford addresses the applicant directly. That adds a lot to the tone. It makes the letter feel more personal, more genuine, even if you know it’s all just code. Again they thank the applicant for the effort they put into the app and their interest, and isn’t “thank you” so much nicer than “we appreciate…”? Yale doesn’t even say “we appreciate your interest”; they barely acknowledge it. And as for Harvard, that last sentence is the wrong way to go about it, I feel. Saying “we hope you will accept our best wishes” puts the focus on them and the obligation on the applicant, both of which are backwards. It isn’t about the admissions committee or the college here–the object of the rejection letter is to make the applicant feel a little better about it. The way it’s worded now gives it a sort of “now, be reasonable” air.</p>
<p>So in conclusion, to write a good rejection letter, speak directly to the applicant, say nice things, and remember that (for now) it’s about them, not you.</p>
<p>–I can’t believe I bothered to type that up. If you’ve actually read this far you get a cookie.</p>
<p>^ Thank you very much for that insightful post. It was a great read and I’m sure many express my sentiments.</p>
<p>That entire post was awesome.</p>
<p>Where’s my cookie?</p>
<p>That was an amazing post and YOU have proven that all four schools were a bit foolish to reject you since you’ve already begun your master’s thesis! What a great job you’ve done, not only coping with disappointment but with bringing great insight to a difficult and chaotic process. Congrats!!!</p>
<p>That was by far the best analysis of rejection letters I have ever read. I agree with greenwich. You have already definitely proven that they were wrong in rejecting you. Your post has it all - critical thinking, analysis, and clearness. </p>
<p>I suggest someone reposts that often in this thread, so that no one will forget it. :)</p>