I was taking my weekly long-haul drive to teach art in town nearly 60 miles away (thank goodness I get paid for mileage too) and heard this story on NPR's Talk of the Nation. There are also samples of rejection letters on WSJ. The program was surprisingly entertaining. Key quotes of rejection letters from the program:
"This letter can't make you very happy, but it could have been worse." (because at least we're not telling you that you have some terminal illness?)
"I received one filled with typos and mis-spelled words that made me feel a lot better about NOT attending that particular college." (and also question why I applied in the first place)
"Denials of admissions are neither negative estimates of potential for the study of law nor absolute assessment of candidate's achievements." (nicely encouraging)
"I didn't feel too bad after getting a rejection letter from Vanderbilt graduate school. However, when I got a second rejection through email from them I felt a little bad about myself. Then almost cried when I received a duplicate rejection email from the same school." (because once wasn't enough. nor is twice. although Vanerbilt later apologized for the multiple rejections)
On preemptive celebrations:
"Colgate sent me a letter that started with the words 'Congratulations!' [the person then put down the letter and went to notify all her family and friends then....] read the rest of the letter [that] said, 'You've been part of the strongest applicant class that Colgate has had in many years! We're sorry we are unable to offer you a position in the class of 2003." (yeah! you are an awesome student! but we don't want you anyway!)
On relatives who are alumni and apparently tend to donate extra money to the school for their child's acceptances:
Sue Shellenbarger (WSJ journalist): "We looked very hard at your application, we know you have family ties but we still rejected you."
NPR host: "Thanks for the new gym!"
(dude, my folks BRIBED you and I STILL didn't get in??)
On electronic rejections letters:
"There's one big university that just flashes on the screen, 'DENIED! DENIED!'" (no words for this one. no words.)
My personal, favorite quote:
"It made me proud that I even applied." (I personally believe all rejections eventually end up making you feel this way - it may take a while though.)
Disclaimer: Because Talk of the Nation is a radio show, I took liberties with the punctuation, which do not necessarily represent the speaker's accurate feelings.
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