Funniest letter

[Springsteen]

I definitely have to share this letter

Subject:Wisconsin -- bad news‏

Hi:

This email is to let you know that it is highly unlikely that you will
be admitted to Wisconsin.

As you've probably guessed, you are on a waiting list. There are in fact
two waiting lists, a shorter one and a longer one, and you are on the
longer one.

At this point it looks like we might fill the class without even getting
to the shorter wait list, and the chance of getting to the longer list
seems very remote. The problem (from your point of view) is that the
applicant pool was huge this year, and the quality was very high. The
applications are read by two faculty members (drawn from a committee of
nine) and your application was rated in a category that is normally well
above the line for admission, and indeed on the bubble for financial
support. But this is very far from a normal year.

We had 560 applications. We've admitted 154, expecting that about 25
will accept in the end. There were 25 on the shorter waiting list. That
gives some idea of how strong the applicant pool was.

The vast majority of our applicants have excellent credentials. It is
very difficult to rank the applicants, but we must do so. We recognize
that we make many mistakes in this process, rejecting many people who
will turn out to be fine economists. We can only hope that the mistakes
we make will be corrected in the end by market competition.


Please excuse the impersonal email -- this message is being sent to 52
people, and I didn't have the time to compose individual emails.


sincerely, John

--

John Kennan
Department of Economics
University of Wisconsin
Social Science Building
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

[petecheese]

Yeah, how impersonal. Sigh if only all schools would be this detailed in heir explanations. That is probably the longest rejection/wait list letter i have ever seen.

[Gerter]

"We've admitted 154, expecting that about 25 will accept in the end."

Ouch.

[Caroline_x]

At least they have the decency to let us know...this is surely a weird year! And the letter looks encouraging! I wish all schools could send us something like this instead of cold rejections.
Any way, you got Northwestern and Penn!!! Wisconsin's mistake is surely corrected by market competition in your case

[confusedgrad]

at least it is too "transparent". i wish i also knew how large/long the waitlists i am in...

[future_applicant]

should we start to have a vote on the funniest rejection (or admission, for that matter) letters? just a thought to distract everyone a little bit

[dreck]

I don't know that it's funny, but I really do like the honesty. Most rejections just contain a sentence or two on how many applications were received and how competitive it all was.
Did anyone else get a funny acceptance from Michigan, with a ton of information missing? By the time I got it, I already knew I was in, but...
It started:
"Dear (name),
Congratulations! the PhD program in Economics for the Fall 2010 term.
Required official, final: *Transcript...."

Those are not complete sentences, but they get the point across.

[wobuffet]

I don't know that it's funny, but I really do like the honesty. Most rejections just contain a sentence or two on how many applications were received and how competitive it all was.
Did anyone else get a funny acceptance from Michigan, with a ton of information missing? By the time I got it, I already knew I was in, but...
It started:
"Dear (name),
Congratulations! the PhD program in Economics for the Fall 2010 term.
Required official, final: *Transcript...."

Those are not complete sentences, but they get the point across.

Yeah, I noticed that. Someone really messed up on that one, heh.

[thesparky]

Figures that the school I get accepted to has the nicest rejection letters

[Galoisj]

"We've admitted 154, expecting that about 25
will accept in the end."

matriculation rate sucks

or is it just a normal one?