University applicant sends a rejection letter to Oxford

With the rise in tuition fees students are expecting more from the universities they are applying for and they are using The Student Room to discuss the pros and cons of the service they receive from each institution.

This week Oxford University’s independent newspaper, Cherwell, came across a thread on TSR, which discusses how one applicant sent a letter of rejection to Magdalen College outlining the reasons why she was revoking her application and how they could improve on their application process in the future.

“I very much regret to inform you that I will be withdrawing my application… I encourage you to try again for my LLM, but re-applicants are at a disadvantage and you are unlikely to succeed unless you become a more progressive university.”

Although this is an extreme case it shows that students are taking control of their education and demanding more from the universities that they may be spending up to £9,000 a year to attend.

The discussion about the letter, which appears in the University of Oxford forum has been viewed by over 9,000 people since it was published in December and has received 47 thumbs up from users of The Student Room.

Meanwhile another thread has surfaced with a wholly different tone as members of the site discuss the ‘Nicest response from a university‘ that they’ve received.

“I got a really nice response to an email from Exeter, quite informal/friendly… wasn’t a generic automated response” bexybear

Liverpool, Southampton and UCL were all mentioned highly but the stand out favourite was Sheffield who were applauded on their friendliness, frequent contact and hospitality at open days.

“Definitely Sheffield, the emails were so friendly, I actually felt wanted.” abisolaay

Building relationships with applicants clearly goes a long way to helping them to make a decision, but universities don’t have to wait until the open day or application stage to begin the process.

Many universities have already been using the university profiles and official representative tools on The Student Room to build relationships with applicants from as young as 14, to students an idea of what they might expect to encounter by going to a particular university.

“York have got to be one of the friendliest universities. I’ve had about four letters since I had a pre-application interview in the summer and I’ve gone on to firm them so their friendliness has worked.” patrickD

To find out more about using The Student Room to talk to students call 0800 999 3222