Honest rejection letters

[mr_anxious]

We very rarely get this - an honest, point by point analysis of why they don't want us. But, do we reallyyyy want the honest (obnoxious) truth? May be this fictional piece will change your mind: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-honest-college-rejection-letter

 

If you have received blatantly honest rejections, post them here.

[MathCat]

Not a rejection letter, but somebody posted this rejection on the results search:

University Of Victoria Linguistics, PhD (F14) Rejected via E-mail on 28 Mar 2014 I 29 Mar 2014

• "We regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission for the following reason: The Department of Linguistics has reviewed your file and judged your application to be not competitive with other applicants to the program." How nice!

[TheMercySeat]

Ha!

I got an honest response of "not being as familiar with faculty work" and "not having enough experimental work." Naturally, I was competing against current UGs at this program, so there's no way I can know professors better than their students who see them daily. I had to get a job after graduating (the perils of not being independently wealthy), and most paid research jobs (at least the ones I've seen in my field) are applied gigs. Applied gigs with real-world consequences present little opportunity for pure experimental work because of those pesky ethics

[brown_eyed_girl]

Hahaha, love the McSweeny's piece. I laughed out loud at "we combat past discrimination by discriminating in the present."

 

My own rejection letters were pretty standard, sadly. I didn't give them much thought since I thankfully got into a great program, but in those cases where people get across the board rejections a little constructive feedback seems welcome... 

[mandarin.orange]

You'll find some good stuff

 

The person who received coded reasons as to why (s)he wasn't offered the position -- and they enclosed a key -- was my favorite.

[Crucial BBQ]

My rejection letters were all run-of-mill however in contacting adcomms, POIs, and program directors, I did get honest feedback on why I was not accepted.