Receiving a rejection letter from the University of Oxford is common, but one applicant has turned the tables by sending a “rejection letter” to the varsity on the ground that it is not up to the mark.
Interviews for admission to the ancient seat of learning are considered the most challenging. Very few of those who apply make it, while thousands are sent politely worded rejection letters around December every year. But Elly Nowell, 19, who went to a state-funded school rather than an elite private school in Winchester, Hampshire, parodied the admission process and sent her own letter of rejection to the university, which has been widely read. She hopes to enrol at the University College London, instead.
Nowell, who was put off by the admission interview that is seen by many as daunting and intimidating, wrote in her letter: “I have now considered your establishment as a place to read Law (Jurisprudence). I very much regret to inform you that I will be withdrawing my application”.
“I realise you may be disappointed by this decision, but you were in competition with many fantastic universities and following your interview I am afraid you do not quite meet the standard of the universities I will be considering.” Nowell “warned” the university not to “reapply”. “While you may believe your decision to hold interviews in grand formal settings is inspiring, it allows public-school applicants to flourish... And intimidates state-school applicants, distorting the academic potential of both,” she said, criticising the college’s “traditions and rituals” and a perceived gulf between “minorities and white middle-class students”. University spokesman said it received only a few complaints from applicants. He added: “Of the 10,000 interviews that we conduct over the course of the admissions period it is a very low number.”