I remember, in the early 90s, someone in our department sent out over 500 applications, and got nothing but rejections. He then started putting the rejection letters outside his office. The department chair politely asked him to take them down, so that prospective PhD wouldn't be scared off. :-D
Rejection Letters for a faculty position
41–50 of 84 posts
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#42The college he works at, Olin, is an amazingly innovative institution. It should be used as a model for all modern engineering programs. Unfortunately, it is not.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#43Mark - thanks for posting these. I was the recipient of my own batch of such rejection letters during my faculty search in 2002, so I know the feeling exactly. I ended up going to Harvard (not bad!) but the sting of rejection still hurts, no matter where it's from. These days I take it most universities do everything by email, but back in 2002 it was still almost exclusively done by paper mail. Somehow a paper reject…
Hi Matt -- while we're on the topic of academic applications (and the likely rejections), I wanted to say how insightful I've found your blog posts regarding the general academia vs. industry matter to be, in particular since I need to make a similar decision myself very soon. So thanks! :)
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#44Thats not bad. I did not even get rejection letters for my faculty applications.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#45As the author got the 1 job he wanted out of 30+ applications, I feel this point is appropriate. The college I went to had a pub with the policy that a rejection letter (for a job, post graduate position, etc) could be traded for one free beer. It was a brilliant policy for encouraging people to try. From one perspective 30+ letters of rejection to get what you want is depressing. From my perspective that would have…
Some companies offer an ice cream gift card along the rejection letter. That's kind of nice too.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#46I'm applying for faculty positions at the moment. I haven't even got one rejection letter yet. A few rejection emails, in each case many months after I'd given up all hope of getting the job, is all I've got to show for it. Sigh. Good thing I'm pretty.
I think times have changed. I haven't gotten a rejection letter in years, now.
I remember sending out of 200 resumes during the recession at the end of the 80's. Back then you'd always get a letter back -- even if you didn't get an interview!
Now, it's so much easier for companies to send a rejection -- yet most don't bother. Sigh.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not at all. But then again, I'm not huge into titles. I also didn't defend until June, so it was technically correct.
I find this surprising. Every professor I've ever had insisted, "I did the work, and as such, you will refer to me as Dr."
I suspect I've taken classes with over 50 professors, and only heard that once. And in that case she'd repeatedly asked the students to use her first name, and someone kept calling her "Mrs", and eventually she corrected the student: "Not Mrs. Either or Dr. ".
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#48I applied to Waterloo in Canada knowing I wouldn't get in but figured it couldn't hurt.
As such when I got the rejection letter it didn't ruin my day at all, I really wasn't surprised. What did surprise me was the way it was phrased. It was a while ago so I don't remember verbatim, but it was something like this:
you are not of high enough caliber to be admitted into Waterloo
the word caliber was definitely used. What a cold, cold way to reject someone. I can only imagine having gotten that letter thinking I might have a chance of getting in. Would have been devastating.
Talk about not sugar coating anything :)
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#49Having written a few of these in my time I'd like to pick out the best and the worst. The worst is surely from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I find the prose florid and demeaning. Lowlights include implying that many "well qualified individuals" applied, using a sentence structure that clearly suggests you are not counted amongst them. Yale runs a close second worst, for their brutal and brief suggestion tha…
In case anyone else had trouble:
University of Colorado at Boulder: pg. 19
Yale: pg. 26
Colorado School of Mines: pg. 14
I must agree the Colorado School of Mines struck me as warm as well, from the get-go, before I read your comment.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, he might have been drinking too much to get around to applying for all 30.
Unless he did them in batch mode. Apply to 30 positions in January, go drinking for free 26 times in March-May.
"I am sorry to inform you that we have a strict no-drinking workplace policy and therefore unfortunately the position advertised does not seem to be aligned with your interests. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours."