<p>The tenor of a well-drafted or poorly drafted letter can speak volumes about a school and, intentional or otherwise, can make one feel better about receiving a wait-list offer, rejection or deferral .</p>
<p>expatSon, very intelligent but not the best student, applied to 8 schools EA. 4 have said yes (2 with merit scholarships), 1 said no, 1 offerred to wait-listed him, 1 deferral and 1 TBD (Feb).</p>
<p>College A, a good school but, academically, among the weakest to which expatSon applied, send a wait list letter which effectively said:
you’re not in
we anticipate x,000 applicants
tell us if you want to be on our wait list …
… and we’ll get around to the list sometime between mid-March & mid-May. Classy.</p>
<p>College B, better acadmically but not what I’d characterize as ‘great’ school, sent its rejection letter in the form of an insult, writing that given its demanding curriculum, another school would be more appropriate. (By this time, expatSon had received 4 acceptances to good and very good schools.) This letter, ostensibly from the Dean of Admissions, contained two glaring typos which I caught on my first read-through, and which any spell-checker would also have caught. The letter went on to say that school B would deign to consider expatSon as a transfer student if he did well in college. Reading the letter, I was almost pleased that expatSon hadn’t been admitted.</p>
<p>The deferral from school C, comparable on paper to school B, was laudatory, respectful and tactful, essentially saying “You show potential – please let us see how your year progresses before we make our final decision.” Sure works for me.</p>
<p>My younger son got a rejection letter like your son’s College B. They sent it out over a week after all acceptance/rejection letters were have supposed to have been sent out…it was really late, with no update on the website. It was his ultra safety school, by far the least selective and lowest ranked. And that rejection letter was insulting. While the other rejections he got (some by top schools) were very classy, some encouraging, at the worst-businesslike, this one was just rude.</p>
<p>It lectured him on how his grades were not acceptable by their standards, and maybe if he worked hard for a couple of years, they would consider his transfer application. I don’t think they sent him that personalized rude letter because they realized from his list of applications that they were obviously last choice, but that they didn’t realize that his high school was one of the top college prep schools in the country, with serious grade deflation. I don’t think they were used to kids from these schools applying, and couldn’t figure out the disconnect from a relatively high SAT and grade deflated GPAs (it actually wasn’t that low, but it wasn’t inflated like many schools). I was so tempted to tell him to write back to tell them the top schools that he was accepted or wait listed at, but I figured…why bother.</p>
<p>" This letter, ostensibly from the Dean of Admissions, contained two glaring typos"</p>
<p>You mean like this? “College A, a good school but, academically, among the weakest to which expatSon applied, <em>send</em> a wait list letter…”</p>
<p>The overwhelming majority of rejection letters are usually relatively nice. </p>
<p>When I see the mean ones, I just cringe. It is weird, too, because an admissions office might have several drafts of a letter. Not everyone will get the same letter. </p>
<p>One letter from Duke last year just about broke of of my students into a million pieces. It wasn’t the worst I had seen, but it absolutely haunted this girl. I imagine that, for the rest of her life, anytime she has a failure, she will flash on this letter. </p>
<p>I still remember my only rejection letter. It was bad.</p>
<p>My daughter’s rejection letter was very gracious. I’m still ****ed off and bitter, but I’ll get over it. I know she has! There really isn’t a non-hurtful way to say “you’re not in,” but I’m very surprised by what seems to be the intentional cruelty of some of these letters.</p>
<p>On CC, I’m not representing an institution of higher education – just my dumb self. I certainly proof my business correspondence – messages on chat boards, much less so. </p>
<p>I set the bar higher for colleges & universities – which I think is reasonable to do.</p>
<p>"Which school sent that letter? I will be sure to tread carefully sending kids that way in the future. </p>
<p>if you feel weird about posting name, message me, please!"</p>
<p>Nope, I don’t feel weird at all. It was Loyola Marymount, LMU. I don’t think I’d worry about your kids, since it is a local school for them, I’m sure the university would be familiar with their schools.</p>
<p>“Why parse rejection letters? Throw them in the trash and move on.”</p>
<p>Because we talk about everything in this forum. And since rejection letters are tough enough to get, it is particularly memorable when one is written specifically in a rude way. Not something the kids or parents forget. Most rejection letters are pretty classy or at least non-specific, but the few that are intentionally rude really catch your eye. I’m sure if one of your kids had gotten one, you would understand what people mean. I say if a kid is going to spend many hours writing essays, filling out the applications and sending the check—at least read their application and be polite in their rejection letter. It’s just basic manners.</p>
<p>The waitlist letter I got from BU when I applied for my MPH was pretty rude/crappy. I said I wanted to be on the waitlist and was eventually accepted but it left a poor taste in my mouth. </p>
<p>On another forum, people with similar stats/experience to mine were WL’ed and others with lower stats were accepted. Rumor was that they wanted to protect their yield. </p>
<p>I’ve never gotten a rejection letter- just that WL letter- but I agree that it speaks volumes. Not necessarily the typos (which I tend to not notice) but just in how they treat their applicants.</p>
<p>Busdriver, I have so many students who have had issues there while applying. I prefer not to post them here, but it might be one of the most disorganized admissions offices I have run across. Ever. </p>
<p>Great school, but admissions and fin aid have major, major issues.</p>
<p>Yeah, samurai, I had read a little about that online. It was kind of weird that they didn’t even bother to send out all the rejection letters until way past the deadline. Kind of like they just didn’t care anymore…or maybe they were taking extra time to personalize the rejection! Oh well, it didn’t matter, he got into the schools he wanted to…but I can’t even imagine if it was someone’s top school, how they would feel.</p>
<p>Funny, my son graduated from his 5 year program last year and I still remember one of his 2 outright rejection letters. One letter was your basic, (paraphrase) “We have so many qualified applicants we simply can’t accept them all” while the other letter, from a school that isn’t nearly as good as they think they are, stated (again, paraphrased), “not everyone is good enough for our school, and you simply aren’t good enough.” I checked, and while the previous year 7 students from my son’s hs were admitted to this college, in my son’s class there were no acceptances. I was convinced someone had done something to offend the admissions office and this was payback, but our hs counselors were oblivious.</p>
<p>My S got some rejection letters but don’t think he gave more than the most cursory glance. He also discarded schools which didn’t offer significant merit aid. </p>
<p>S didn’t apply to LMU or USF because when we visited those Us, we were basically told NO merit if you’re not in the top 10% of your HS class, no matter whether you’re a NMF or anything else. </p>
<p>Don’t understand why any rejection needs to be cruel. It is enough to say, we wish we could have fit you into our entering class but alas not enough space at this time or similar. </p>
<p>Thankfully, D only applied to one U and only got an acceptance!</p>
<p>“Odd, LMU does not consider “level of applicant’s interest”, according to Loyola Marymount University Admissions Information - CollegeData College Profile . It does list “academic GPA” as the most important criterion, so a student attending a grade-deflated high school should think twice about considering it to be a safety if his/her GPA is deflated.”</p>
<p>Most good schools are aware that getting a lower GPA in challenging classes at a top school is more meaningful than a high GPA taking PE and Home Economics at a poor one. That’s why there are generally kids accepted at very good schools that don’t have 4.0 GPAs. LMU considers as “important”, rigor of secondary education, standardized tests, essays, talent and ability, and character and person qualities.</p>
<p>But the point that you seemed to have missed, ucbalumus, was not that my kid got a rejection. Kids get rejected from schools for all sorts of reasons, some you can guess, and some you can’t, and that’s just the way it is. The point is that a rejection doesn’t have to be rude. Get it?</p>
<p>My sister is 71 years old. She has always been an excellent student – not run of the mill excellent, but exceptional. She was rejected from Wellesley back in the day, and received a letter that mentioned something about how “the Admissions Office has determined that you would not be able to handle the rigorous curriculum at our college.” </p>
<p>She was admitted to Stanford and graduated first in her class with many, many honors. So there, Wellesley!!</p>
<p>Great story. Suggests to me both how capricious and arbitrary the admissions process can be, and how a rejection letter might be remembered for many moons.</p>
<p>Does your school assert that the various admissions officers “know” your school and “understand” the value of a B+ average or an A- average there being equivalent to a higher average at other schools. I have a local hs that does that and I’ve always thought that they were full of baloney.</p>