A standard rejection letter for a university programme reads something along the following lines:
‘We regret to inform you that we will be unable to offer you a position. We were impressed with your credentials, unfortunately we have limited seats and cannot accommodate all the talented candidates that have applied. We are sure that given your background, you will have great success in the future.’
A more honest rejection letter would read something along the following lines:
‘We loved your application and thought you are a good fit for our programme. However this year, we received far too many good applications and are only able to offer a seat to 20% of that accomplished pool. We used a lottery to decide who gets in and unfortunately, you were not lucky enough to be selected.’
If you applied to your dream university, which rejection letter would you prefer?
Fortune plays a bigger role than we like to admit with both our success as well as our failure. Being more honest about that could make the world a better place.
Inspriration: Seth Godin
Observations 