Photo: TikTok
The student thanked the college for its interest in rejecting them but said they'd see them on campus in the Fall!
By Ethan Cotler — Written on Apr 16, 2023
Receiving a rejection letter from your dream college can be an extremely unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do but move on and apply again for the following semester.
But for colleges like Harvard, which had an acceptance rate of just 3% for Fall 2022, it’s unsurprising when they ding an applicant. However, one student had a clever response to their rejection.
They went back and wrote to Harvard that they should reverse their rejection letter.
A Stanford Student, E. Shin, posts college-related content to the video-sharing app TikTok. In one video, he showed a hilarious response from an anonymous applicant to a Harvard rejection letter.
They write the entire response in a tone and format similar to how colleges write rejection letters, comically calling out their process. Right off the bat, they start the letter off funny. Like colleges during admissions, they thank the prestigious Ivy for its interest!
“Thank you for your interest in giving me a Harvard rejection letter,” the applicant wrote. “I have reviewed your letter and I am impressed with your rejection reasons and other suggestions.”
The tables have turned! They even poke fun at themselves about the numerous rejection letters they’d already received before Harvard’s. “I have received many rejection letters this year. Therefore, after careful consideration, I have decided not to accept your rejection letter,” they wrote.
Harvard is a tough school to get into. It denies thousands of people every year. But this may be one of the few people to deny them. Well, they didn’t deny acceptance, they denied rejection. “Please understand that this is not a negative evaluation of your rejection letter, but rather a reflection of my unique choice criteria,” they wrote.
Hilariously, they call Harvard courageous for rejecting them, which makes sense considering their genius response. On top of that, they wrote that they’d be on campus in the Fall! “Once again, I appreciate your courage to give me a rejection letter and wish you every success in your future rejecting,” they wrote. “I’ll see you all on campus in August.”
After this masterclass of a letter, Harvard should reverse their rejection and give them the acceptance they deserve!
People in the comments think their response showed they’re intelligent enough to get into Harvard.
“Harvard shouldn’t be Harvard if it didn’t work. This is genius and another college could snag him up. I love it!” one person wrote. “If I was in charge and I saw that, I’d honestly let them in,” another added.
As clever as this is, it isn’t the first time someone rejected Harvard’s rejection letter. Over 40 years ago, in 1981, a student named Paul Devlin from North Brunswick, New Jersey, penned a hilarious rejection letter to Harvard.
Following the response, the prestigious Ivy League still didn’t admit him, but he found the process therapeutic after receiving numerous other rejection letters. So, he decided to write back to the rest of the colleges that dinged him.
The New York Times even reprinted his hilarious template letter, which you can use to send to any college after a rejection — all you have to do is change the recipient’s name at the top.
Facing college rejections as a high school student can be difficult. You’re trying to kickstart your future, and you have an administrative mess in your way. Even though writing letters like these will likely not change your outcome, it may be therapeutic, as Devlin found it. It can be nice to laugh during a time as stressful as the college admissions process.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes on entertainment and news.