<p>After waiting so long to receive my acceptance letters, I was hoping that a bunch of them would come saying something special they noticed about my essays or academics that allowed me to get accepted. However, not even my reach schools(which are top tier) showed any difference between the letters my friends and I received after getting accepted. Only thing different is the date. Why is that?</p>
<p>It’s because they don’t have the time to do this. It takes them plenty of time just to evaluate all of the applicants. Some schools do send out letters with personalized sections, though.</p>
<p>Colleges probably just finished finalizing a majority of their acceptances a week before the letters go out. Further, they have a few thousand students to send letters to. For each admissions officer to dig through the applications again and find something special about you would waste dozens of hours on something that just isn’t especially important.</p>
<p>uh… maybe because top tier schools get thousands of applicants per year and only a couple of months to make decisions and mail out letters?<br>
if you got into top tier schools, just be happy you were accepted!</p>
<p>LACs do personalize their acceptance letters.</p>
<p>@Erin’s Dad</p>
<p>LAC = Liberal Arts College? Nope. My 5 Privates were Liberal Arts. The highest one on the LAC ranking which I got accepted to didn’t send a personalized letter, and it’s a small college.</p>
<p>Besides that they can’t spend the time personalizing thousands of lettters, there is also the fact, if you think about, that most students really don’t need to be told anything to make them happy out of their minds other that they are in.</p>
<p>Some colleges do send out personalized letters for EA students, since there are fewer of them than there are of RD accepted students. UChicago and Georgetown send out Holiday and Christmas cards, respectively, with a personal message to each EA accepted student.</p>
<p>Some people get contacted based on their major. My prospective major is pretty small everywhere, so I’ve gotten two congratulations/do you have any questions/come talk to us if you’re visiting from professors at one school and one from another school. </p>
<p>If your application really, really impresses an adcom, it’s possible to get contacted too, depending on the school I guess. I only know one school that does.</p>
<p>As far as LACs, since that’s where you applied, I got an Early Write from my only LAC, indicating that I was, I suppose, a “top” applicant or somehow desirable, but no special message. On my official acceptance letter that came a few weeks after my EW, there was a little handwritten “Congratulations!” My sister said that it was probably on everyone’s letter, but it made me feel special.</p>
<p>I mean, getting in is pretty great. Most colleges figure you’ll be happy with that.</p>
<p>That’s just not possible with the thousands of applicants colleges deal with. </p>
<p>I think personalized messages are reserved for the truly exceptional applicants and, in some instances, for likely letter recipiants. My friend got an early write from Williams with a few handwritten sentences about specific seminars he may be interested in.</p>
<p>Lower tier schools do sometimes send out personalized letters. I got personalized letters from UNH and Juniata College.</p>
<p>They do! My son received a very nice compliment about his overall application from one LAC. In another, his essay was mentioned, as well as his ECs. He also got an email from a top-20 university’s ad rep specifically about his essay.</p>
<p>Mine was a tier-one LAC with a nice note from the dean of admissions scribbled on it. </p>
<p><em>shrugs</em> Some do, some don’t.</p>
<p>Yeah I know some do, but all small ones should. Especially since they divide the acceptances based on regions so that would mean each region representative has about 50 or so letters to write. That’s not bad if they start the acceptance process early.</p>
<p>They don’t have to. I don’t think they should either. A school accepts far more than their actual expected class. Some impressionable applicants will get a note, some won’t. They have too much other work to do to do it for everyone.</p>
<p>Efforts: imagine your being in charge of the machinations of an admissions office. Can you imagine the different demands on yours and your staff’s time. </p>
<p>Personalized acceptance letters for your thousands of acceptees? Seems rather superfluous to me. Maybe you’ve never worked in an office or department…</p>