<p>I think that in general the above letter carries an appropriately respectful yet ticked off emotion without being overly abusive or vulgar. </p>
<p>However, in your logic where you talk about the damage to Harvard’s reputation by not accepting transfer applications, you fail to take into account the damage that Harvard’s reputation would suffer if Harvard had to (very publicly) buy a Hotel (of which there are only three near enough to make it feasible) and convert it into temporary housing. It would scream out to the world that Harvard has a housing crunch, whereas right now, the crunch will be alleviated over the next two years (and hopefully go unnoticed by the world at large) and Harvard will reopen transfer admissions in two years when the student body is back down to a manageable size.</p>
<p>As for your son, I think he would be more than within his rights to call up the admissions office and ask for some references to Harvard physics/engineering labs for the summer (I would wait until after the 31st though). If that falls through, please feel free to PM me and I’ll see if my engineering roommate can ask around for labs that might need a last minute undergrad assistant for the summer.</p>