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Worst Rejections... EVER


Dontuse

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Here's my only response from my 8 schools. I can't tell if it's trying to be comforting, in a bizarre way, or trying to tell me that my application never stood a chance.

"The Philosophy Department graduate admissions committee decided not to admit you into its graduate program. The competition for admission was keen, and the committee admitted less than 50% of the applicants."

How is "less than 50%" helpful, in any way? It's either the most vague statistic, ever, or a very professionally worded diss.

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I think I got a pretty bad one from Irvine. First and acceptance letter on letterhead via email, then an email from the department secretary letting me know this was a horrible error (oh my, how horrible that i could possibly be accepted) and that i was actually rejected, with a rejection letter attached.

Berkeley's rejection letter was kind of funny too (especially since the Chair's name is Squeaky...literally). It was printed on the cheapest computer paper, but HAND SIGNED! The ink smudged when i moistened it, and the letter was laser printed. Wow, the california budget is lacking.

And UCSD sent the same letter as last year, with last year's date. a lot of laziness if you ask me.

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I think I got a pretty bad one from Irvine. First and acceptance letter on letterhead via email, then an email from the department secretary letting me know this was a horrible error (oh my, how horrible that i could possibly be accepted) and that i was actually rejected, with a rejection letter attached.

Ahhh that's terrible!!

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I think I got a pretty bad one from Irvine. First and acceptance letter on letterhead via email, then an email from the department secretary letting me know this was a horrible error (oh my, how horrible that i could possibly be accepted) and that i was actually rejected, with a rejection letter attached.

Berkeley's rejection letter was kind of funny too (especially since the Chair's name is Squeaky...literally). It was printed on the cheapest computer paper, but HAND SIGNED! The ink smudged when i moistened it, and the letter was laser printed. Wow, the california budget is lacking.

And UCSD sent the same letter as last year, with last year's date. a lot of laziness if you ask me.

NOTHING tops your ordeal my friend, esp the Irvine one. How terrible!

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I think I got a pretty bad one from Irvine. First and acceptance letter on letterhead via email, then an email from the department secretary letting me know this was a horrible error (oh my, how horrible that i could possibly be accepted) and that i was actually rejected, with a rejection letter attached.

Berkeley's rejection letter was kind of funny too (especially since the Chair's name is Squeaky...literally). It was printed on the cheapest computer paper, but HAND SIGNED! The ink smudged when i moistened it, and the letter was laser printed. Wow, the california budget is lacking.

And UCSD sent the same letter as last year, with last year's date. a lot of laziness if you ask me.

You should've set the time back on your computer a few hours, and sent an e-mail accepting their offer. It might not work, but it would be amazing if it did.

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I got a rejection from Johns Hopkins many years ago that read as follows:

Dear applicant:

This year we received many qualified applicants for our MFA program. Unfortunately you were not one of them. I hope you have made other plans for your future.

Sincerely,

X

I kid you not.

Oh my god, that's awful and wonderful all rolled into one. I just laughed so hard. Not at your rejection, of course, which sucks, but that is one astonishingly rude letter. Wow.

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I think I got a pretty bad one from Irvine. First and acceptance letter on letterhead via email, then an email from the department secretary letting me know this was a horrible error (oh my, how horrible that i could possibly be accepted) and that i was actually rejected, with a rejection letter attached.

Berkeley's rejection letter was kind of funny too (especially since the Chair's name is Squeaky...literally). It was printed on the cheapest computer paper, but HAND SIGNED! The ink smudged when i moistened it, and the letter was laser printed. Wow, the california budget is lacking.

And UCSD sent the same letter as last year, with last year's date. a lot of laziness if you ask me.

Yeah the California schools tend to care zero percent. Even the crappier schools get to so many applicants because everyone wants to move to California (grrr) that they think they're hot stuff and feel like they can blow off students. Everyone I know who has applied to more than a couple CA schools (myself included) has horror stories of varying degrees.

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I remember when I was applying for undergrad, I got rejected from Gonzaga and University of Washington. Whatever. But both rejection letters were exactly the same, word-for-word, all three paragraphs or so. The only difference was that the university names had been swapped out. C'mon, seriously? I understand that rejection letters can be very generic. That's fine. Especially for undergrad, I don't need details for why I didn't get in. But REALLY you can't write your own letter or try to distinguish it from a competing university's at all?

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I remember when I was applying for undergrad, I got rejected from Gonzaga and University of Washington. Whatever. But both rejection letters were exactly the same, word-for-word, all three paragraphs or so. The only difference was that the university names had been swapped out. C'mon, seriously? I understand that rejection letters can be very generic. That's fine. Especially for undergrad, I don't need details for why I didn't get in. But REALLY you can't write your own letter or try to distinguish it from a competing university's at all?

That's kind of sad, but I have seen it happen.... :S there is no creativity left in the admissions process....

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Well While I didn't received this... A bunch of people applying to the same program as I am, received it just yesterday... And it do seems really rude.... I guess it makes sense to post it also in this thread

Dear XXXX:

On behalf of the faculty, I want to thank you for your interest in the YYY Program at our department and for giving us the opportunity to consider your graduate application to this Program.

Your application and supporting documents have been carefully reviewed by the Ph.D. admissions committee in our department. For Fall 2009 we received large numbers of very qualified applicants. After careful review of all the applicants, I am sorry to report that we are unable to admit you this year.

After reviewing your application, the admissions committee concluded that you have insufficient academic qualifications to succeed in the program.

We wish you the best of luck in your future academic endeavors.

The hard copy original of this notification will follow via regular USPS mail.

Sincerely,

Professor and Chair

Department

It is kind of sad coming from one of the most respected universities in our field...

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After reviewing your application, the admissions committee concluded that you have insufficient academic qualifications to succeed in the program.

That looks almost like a mail merge error, especially if a lot of people got the same message. It seems like if that were the real reason, you'd have been weeded out far earlier in the process.

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I remember when I was applying for undergrad, I got rejected from Gonzaga and University of Washington. Whatever. But both rejection letters were exactly the same, word-for-word, all three paragraphs or so.

Ok, I officially hate UW for this reason. Their admissions department is horrid. When I applied to transfer a couple years ago, they took 4 1/2 months for my application to be processed. After numerous calls to find out where I stood [i had already been accepted to way better school at this time], they finally sent me a three line email along the lines that I was rejected, my online account was being de-activated, and that I was not a good fit as a transfer student. Say what? I had a top GPA coming from an East Coast college and had just gotten accepted into an Ivy League school. It made no sense. And they would never tell me the real reason behind why it took so long for my decision and why I was rejected. :x

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Ok, I officially hate UW for this reason. Their admissions department is horrid. When I applied to transfer a couple years ago, they took 4 1/2 months for my application to be processed. After numerous calls to find out where I stood [i had already been accepted to way better school at this time], they finally sent me a three line email along the lines that I was rejected, my online account was being de-activated, and that I was not a good fit as a transfer student. Say what? I had a top GPA coming from an East Coast college and had just gotten accepted into an Ivy League school. It made no sense. And they would never tell me the real reason behind why it took so long for my decision and why I was rejected. :x

Ouch! That's not fun. Yeah having attended their rival university, I've always joked that I wouldn't be surprised if UW were the ones who ripped off Gonzaga's rejection letter.... But that's just friendly ribbing (don't want to offend any Huskies who might be lurking! Haha). But yeah I don't remember having a fabulous time with the application process there, either.

That's a lame situation though especially since you're stuck wondering forever now if they dropped the ball and were like, "oops...oh well, guess we gotta reject this person now."

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Well While I didn't received this... A bunch of people applying to the same program as I am, received it just yesterday... And it do seems really rude.... I guess it makes sense to post it also in this thread

Ok I'll have to take that back... I just received the dreadful "insufficient academic qualifications to succeed in the program." note myself.... so insensitive...

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This year, via email...

The subject line was "University X Program PhD Admissions: Bad News"

The email itself was fairly kind, although it did mention that we'd also get a snail mail letter confirming our rejection because of a redundancy. (There's some irony in that, given that the school in question is a top engineering school.) C'est la vie.

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so i added my most notable 'official rejection' i got on this thread.

& i've read some sincerely terrible posts of rejections here too [Although happy there is a community of us with bad experiences re: rejection letters I regret that there are so many tactless rejection messages being sent out to applicants. but that's another rant for another time]

however, i'd simply like to note another rejection: the silent rejection.

NYU has silently rejected me. The certainty of silence is a killer & ought not be ignored. An update -- any update -- would have been of help in setting a restless applicant's mind to rest. But the non-update method that NYU has (of ignoring messages to the point where even a generic mass email of "Please Refer to our FAQ Page" isn't sent out) is plain old RUDE.

Beleive me when I say, "I get it. You're NYU & have a BOUNTY of applications to sift through." That being said, I call Bullshit on any school that complies with the silent rejection method where you'll be mailed a letter sometime in september officially telling you "FYI: We said No." And this growing list includes you NYU.

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however, i'd simply like to note another rejection: the silent rejection.

I totally wish schools wouldn't do this too, but just wanted to point out it could be a silent waitlist rather than silent rejection.

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so its nothing official, yet, but I called a school today that I STILL have not heard from to ask for an update on my status. The woman told me that I have not been accepted, but not to give up hope because "anything can happen." Anything can happen? Meaning, hell COULD freeze over and we might think you are good enough to come here. Hold out hope, stranger things have happened. Just tell me I am rejected and move on.

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