Friday, March 03, 2006

Letter # 2 (Sort of)

Dear M_______________,

I regret to inform you that your application for admission to graduate standing at the University of California, Santa Cruz has not been approved.

The number of well-qualified applicants for admission to graduate study at Santa Cruz far exceeds the number of places available. Although a substantial majority of these applicants will meet every minimal standard an admissions committee might establish, not all will actually be admitted. Admission nearly always depends on, for example, compatibility of the applicant's expressed interests with those of faculty in the program, and balance of disciplinary subfields within the program, as well as other factors. Please direct any further inquiry you might have to the Department to which you applied.

Although it has not proved possible for us to offer you a place, we sincerely appreciate your interest in the Santa Cruz campus of the University of California. I wish you well in your current and future pursuit of advanced studies.

Sincerely,

L. C. S.
Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies


Blah blah blah, blah blah.

So why is this a “sort of” letter? I got this letter in an email from the school. (Pause) AN EMAIL? Hold on wait a minute, the school can’t find the decency to pay for a 39 cent stamp and less than a dollar's worth of paper and ink for a rejection letter? What the f**k is that about? Let’s compare this to the cost of applying to the program, shall we?

Let’s see, I had to take the GRE in order to apply to school, but that was for all the schools, so I’ll let that one slide. However, I had to order my scores for the school at $15 a pop. Then there is my transcripts, 5 schools at an average cost of $4.00 each = $20 in transcripts cost. And they require a writing sample so I had to mail it up there. I think that cost about $5.00 through the U.S. Postal service. And then there is the application fee = $60.00. So all told, I spent a total of at least $100.00 and the school can’t bother to inform me of their decision for under 2 bucks? What ever happened to class?

So I will not become a Banana Slug either. And I guess it is easier for me to fixate on their method of notification and get mad rather than be sad that another opportunity is closed. It is truly not a shocking decision on their part and it doesn’t change my dream. It will be interesting to see how similar all the letters I get will be. I don’t know what I will do if I don’t get into a grad school. There is only so long that family and friends will be able to stand hearing me rant about how much my job sucks.



crap



What now?

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