<p>I thought this was funny and needed a laugh. Maybe someone else does. </p>
<p>On another board, the Duke board actually, in the midst of a discussion of likely letters and the prospects of Duke sending one out , Pongo makes the statement:</p>
<p>They should do unlikely letters. I just wanna get it over with.</p>
<p>Ta-dah!! To the rescue rides his buddy and fellow Duke applicant:</p>
<p>Dear Pongo</p>
<p>Every once in a while in the midst of reading hundreds of files, an admissions officer will be so bummed about a student's application that he or she will come to me to ask if we might save the student the agony of waiting for that rejection letter in April. I am writing to inform you that this has happened in your case, and that we are provisionally denying you admission to the Duke Class of 2010. Have a nice life.</p>
<p>Heck, I think it might be a pretty good idea. ;)</p>
<p>Very funny. Or maybe just send that little cartoon that you see all over offices that shows people rolling on the floor with the caption "You want it when?" </p>
<p>"Dear Admissions Committee:
Having reviewed the many rejection letters I have received in the last few weeks, it is with great regret that I must inform you I am unable to accept your rejection at this time.. . ."</p>
<p>Keep smiling and and don't forget to enjoy senior year.</p>
<p>Actually, Wellesley, as part of their Early Evaluation option, <em>does</em> send out Likely, Possible, and Unlikely letters. </p>
<p>All the Likely recipients get in, all the Unlikely don't, and the Possibles have a one in six chance based on historical data. Final decisions still come out roughly April 1. </p>
<p>A most civilized system and I wish more colleges used it. I will always have a small niche in my heart for Wellesley because they took the pressure off of D weeks before Regular Decision.</p>
<p>Well, colleges could do one better than that and be frank with kids prior to applying -- or in the interview process. Might save some kids a few dollars along the way, and also help steer kids who are focused on reaches in the right direction. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I think that a lot of extremely selective colleges would prefer to increase their income from application fees and their rank & reputation for selectivity by attracting all those unlikely applicants.</p>
<p>lol. When I visited dartmouth, the admcom told us that people who lack a certain GPA and SAT score that are not legacies/athletes are thrown into the "no" pile by default. Suprisingly she said the SAT cut-off is around a 1300 so at least I know my application will be read :)</p>
<p>Thedad and calmom, This is one of my pet peeves! I don't think application fees has anything to do with it. I do think application stats has everything to do with it. The elite schools are soooooo proud of their low acceptance rates. The only way to achieve a low acceptance rate is to encourage many many applications. Even the elite wannabe schools manage their acceptance rates and would rather waitlist 1000 applicants than admit > 50% outright (horrors!! 50% is the last cutoff for meeting the definition of selective).</p>
<p>I think all selective schools should have a prescreening process and many applicants could be told to not bother applying. I am very impressed that one school (Welleely) actually does this!</p>
<p>Think about it... if Yale (for instance) only received apps from the admitted students, and say an equal number of apps from equally qualified students, they would still end up with the same high quality admits, they would still reject an equal number of equally qualified applicants, but they would be so humiliated to report a 50% acceptance rate, they might have to withdraw from the Ivy League.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with TheDad about the Early Evaluation option and loved this when we toured Wellesley. Although, they could go a step further, just call it EA2, and let the students know their final decision in February!</p>
<p>Actually, the Ivies claim to sometimes send unlikely and possible letters, but I don't know if they actually do or not.</p>
<p>
[quote]
As determined by each institution, admissions offices may choose to advise applicants of the probability of admission (e.g., likely, possible, unlikely). Institutions may issue such probabilistic communications only in writing, from the office of admissions. Such letters will have the effect of letters of admission, to be confirmed on the common notification date, subject to revocation only on the same terms as letters
of admission.
So sad, but true. US News criticized a school a while back (I think maybe it was Bryn Mawr) that had a 60-70% admit rate, which horrified the adcoms. Solution was to send out hundreds of propaganda letters to lure unsuspecting applicants. They got rejected, and the admit rate went down.</p>
<p>Quilt, I think Wellesley might call it EA2 except that they want to hold their options about the 1/6 of the Possibles that they ultimately admit. Given those odds, the Possibles should really be called Probably Nots.</p>
<p>CalMom, for all that app fees add up for the applicants, I don't think they're a profit center for the colleges, given all the handling, overhead costs, etc.</p>
<p>Wellesley is to be commended for a very civilized and in the end courteous approach to helping families assess "chances" and fit issues before allowing S or D to get wrapped up in the competition for a spot. It is a good thing to learn to deal with rejection and to still stay in the game of life, but it is also a good thing to give out clear messages and information to prospective students and their parents.</p>
<p>Fully agreed about the US News/admit rate aspect of all this. </p>
<p>At the professional school level, you'll even find that schools will presumptively waitlist a lot of people - then ask if you are "still interested" in the spot. Some schools will wait for a phone call to admit you - essentially ensuring that they only admit students who will come. </p>
<p>Of course, this all brings about more of a mess, as students begin to apply to more schools and the process becomes more random. </p>
<p>Ultimate solution is for USNews to stop using admit rate as a criterion, given how very unreliable an indicator of school quality it is. Obviously, a low admit rate can be the result of admitting a lot of students via early decision; of encouraging applications from students it knows it will reject; from over-advertising the school; from sending out free applications. Yield is buried in admit rate (yield = # students in class/admit rate), so that is being measured as well. What you can't find out is if the admitted-but-not-enrolling students are going to Harvard or going to Podunk. My alma mater loses most of th ABNE students to the Ivies or huge merit scholarships elsewhere; obviously, that's better than losing those kids to second-tier schools, but no such distinction is made. Eh.</p>
<p>"Ultimate solution is for USNews to stop using admit rate as a criterion, given how very unreliable an indicator of school quality it is."</p>
<p>Yes, indeed, let's get rid of a verifiable criterion and replace it with yet another highly questionable criterion such as ... half of what is used to establish the ranking. Isn't enough to have a ranking dominated by blatant geographical cronysm and abject gamesmanship? </p>
<p>Oh well, before I jump off my little soapbox, let me simply remind eberyone that the admission ratio counts for a whopping 1.5% !!! and that yield is NO LONGER measured -buried or not!</p>
<p>As far as the early notice or lack thereof, I do not see why Wellesley should be commended for using this stratagem. We already have ED or EDII, and other "notices" for athletes ... so why the need for additional communication, especially a non-official and non-binding one? Why is it helpful to know in Mid February as opposed to April 1? Closure? Time to file more applications? Would be expect Harvard to mail 19,000 unlikely letters to 95% of its RD applicants on February 1? Come on! </p>
<p>I'd rather see the admission offices use every second until April 1 to make sure they compose the ideal class. </p>
<p>Everyone plays its little game and Wellesley is no different.</p>
<p>Last winter Wild Child applied for a very selective summer program at Penn (LBW). It is, supposedly, rolling admissions, and he didn't get his application in early in January, due to some logistical issues with transcripts, references etc. As time went by and he didn't hear anything, he decided to throw an application in to another very selective program (also Wharton) called M&T. Well, he finally got rejected from the first one and shortly after we received a letter SENDING US BACK the application fee for the second program. I was glad to see the check come back, but it was a LITTLE disconcerting. Were they saying, "You are so bad that we won't even take your money?" :)</p>
<p>The fact that Wellesley's use of EE helps the college as well as the student does not mean the practice of EE should be scorned. The Possibly pile gives the the leeway for making the adjustments on how they balance things in the Final class. Indeed I think that, for colleges short of HYPSM, a panel of three experienced parents on this board could do a sort of apps into Yes/No/Maybe stacks with little training or effort. The Possiblys are just as stuck as they normally would be, with perhaps the odds indicating that they should be prepared to Move On. But the Likelies can exhale in relief and the Unlikelies can start moving on immediately.</p>
<p>"Dear whatever your name is (we can't bother to scan it in) -</p>
<p>Thanks for the money. $70 can still buy a pretty nice dinner around here, though I'm sure the developmental admit's uncle will pay for the Dom Perignon. Seriously, or as serious as I can be, I spent about 90 seconds with your application, which is pretty good pay, if you ask me, except that what I saw made me want to puke. </p>
<p>Enough of that. Next time you try to get into a place like this, I think you'd be wise to put a larger check in the envelope. (I guess no one bothered to tell you, but seventy bucks is the MINIMUM application fee.) In your case, much larger.</p>