Grad school response No. 4

Thank you for your interest in Notre Dame's Graduate Program in English. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you admission into our program. We received over 300 applications for eight slots, so the level of competition was very high.

Because we receive so many applications, we are unable to provide comments on individual applications.

Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Grad school response No. 3

This one came in the mail.

Dear Mr. Heaton,

Thank you for the opportunity to consider your application to the [Michigan] Ph.D. program in English Language and Literature. Unfortunately, after giving your application very careful attention, we regret to say we will not be able to make you an offer of admission.

It may be useful for you to know that we received over 375 applications for admission to the Ph.D. program. Our entering class next year will be in the neighborhood of 12 students, which should give you some idea of the odds. What these figures do not convey is the exceptionally high quality of our applicants. In the vast majority of our decisions, we felt that we were choosing among degrees of excellence. It is distressing to us all that we are able to take such a small number of applicants out of this tremendously well-qualified pool.

Please accept our best wishes for your success in future endeavors.