What if you get rejected?
March 20, 2006 11:13 AM Subscribe
Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, MA, has announced that it will do away with traditional acceptance letters and will instead email accepted students a link to an acceptance podcast on iTunes.
Dear prospective student: If you don't have a computer, please consider this a pre-emptive rejection notice. Fucking luddite.
posted by Plutor at 11:18 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by Plutor at 11:18 AM on March 20, 2006
lol dorks! what will the rejection podcast sound like? maybe a little "wah wah wahhhhh!!!" with the trombone?
posted by tweak at 11:18 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by tweak at 11:18 AM on March 20, 2006
A podcast? You can't frame that and put it on the wall.
posted by Pontius Pilate at 11:19 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by Pontius Pilate at 11:19 AM on March 20, 2006
tweak, rejection emails actually link you to a Google search.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 11:26 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 11:26 AM on March 20, 2006
By this time next year, all acceptance letters will be private messages in MySpace.
posted by mathowie at 11:27 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by mathowie at 11:27 AM on March 20, 2006
I think it's nice whenever an institution helps you to avoid wasting your time by stamping a nice, big scarlet letter onto itself.
posted by cribcage at 11:31 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by cribcage at 11:31 AM on March 20, 2006
By this time next year, all acceptance letters will be private messages in MySpace.
Or colleges will have MySpace pages and add accepted students as "friends".
posted by billysumday at 11:31 AM on March 20, 2006
Or colleges will have MySpace pages and add accepted students as "friends".
posted by billysumday at 11:31 AM on March 20, 2006
God, that is stupid.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 11:32 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by Optimus Chyme at 11:32 AM on March 20, 2006
It'll probably have 'My Humps' playing as background music, too. Fuckin' jackasses.
posted by NationalKato at 11:34 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by NationalKato at 11:34 AM on March 20, 2006
Rejection notices will be provided through the use of smoke signals.
posted by Bugbread at 11:38 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by Bugbread at 11:38 AM on March 20, 2006
Or colleges will have MySpace pages and add accepted students as "friends".
People with full-ride scholarships will be in their Top 8.
posted by danb at 11:41 AM on March 20, 2006
People with full-ride scholarships will be in their Top 8.
posted by danb at 11:41 AM on March 20, 2006
Damn! So much for the plan of submitting the homework in calligraphy from the goose quill pens.
posted by rough ashlar at 11:43 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by rough ashlar at 11:43 AM on March 20, 2006
Well, letters take, like, forever to, like, print out and stuff, and, like, put them in an envelope and, like, remember how much postage stamps are and everything...
posted by kozad at 11:43 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by kozad at 11:43 AM on March 20, 2006
A podcast? You can't frame that and put it on the wall.
I'm from Fitchburg, MA and used to live a quarter mile from campus. Trust me, nobody's framing their acceptance letter to FSC.
posted by 27 at 11:49 AM on March 20, 2006
I'm from Fitchburg, MA and used to live a quarter mile from campus. Trust me, nobody's framing their acceptance letter to FSC.
posted by 27 at 11:49 AM on March 20, 2006
Yeah, my cousin went to high school with a kid who pounded out his whole FSC application in the cafeteria during lunch period. He got accepted, I'm not sure if he attended.
posted by parallax7d at 11:57 AM on March 20, 2006
posted by parallax7d at 11:57 AM on March 20, 2006
27: if you live a quarter mile from FSC, I wouldn't admit it. FSC is the only part of the three mile radius around the campus where you can walk without seeing a crack house. Actually, I take that back, I think you can see a few from the leaky library.
FSC has a long history of rolling out technical stuff to students, that really sounds foreward thinking at the time but isn't. They rolled out internet access to all their dorm rooms in 1996 or 1997 (long before most places did), yet in 1995 when I left, they had a sum total of 10 unix boxes in the college.
I don't miss the place or the "city".
posted by inthe80s at 12:07 PM on March 20, 2006
FSC has a long history of rolling out technical stuff to students, that really sounds foreward thinking at the time but isn't. They rolled out internet access to all their dorm rooms in 1996 or 1997 (long before most places did), yet in 1995 when I left, they had a sum total of 10 unix boxes in the college.
I don't miss the place or the "city".
posted by inthe80s at 12:07 PM on March 20, 2006
inthe80s: Key words - "used to" (almost 10 years ago now).
It was bad then, but not as bad as you describe. Glad to hear that all the "neighborhood improvement" effort paid off though.
posted by 27 at 12:18 PM on March 20, 2006
It was bad then, but not as bad as you describe. Glad to hear that all the "neighborhood improvement" effort paid off though.
posted by 27 at 12:18 PM on March 20, 2006
Did podcasts just jump the shark, or was it iTunes?
posted by clearlynuts at 12:22 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by clearlynuts at 12:22 PM on March 20, 2006
Both.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:26 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:26 PM on March 20, 2006
They should just post the damn things on Youtube, then recipients can do a mashup of getting accepted and jumping off a roof into an open fire or something. "Look at me! I'm a colleg...AAAAAAHH!!".
posted by Ohdemah at 12:48 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by Ohdemah at 12:48 PM on March 20, 2006
Or colleges will have MySpace pages and add accepted students as "friends".
Hey, Harvard! Thanks for the add!
posted by Spatch at 12:58 PM on March 20, 2006
Hey, Harvard! Thanks for the add!
posted by Spatch at 12:58 PM on March 20, 2006
email acceptance: convienent and polite (because you get the news quicker)
email acceptance to an itunes podcast: uberlame.
posted by delmoi at 1:18 PM on March 20, 2006
email acceptance to an itunes podcast: uberlame.
posted by delmoi at 1:18 PM on March 20, 2006
e-mail acceptance: flawed because the USPS is more reliable than spam filtering, random mail server (either end or routes in between) issues, etc.
:-(
We just had a good laugh about this in the office. What's the next evolution of this, tuition payments through the iTMS after you download the acceptance podcast? Redeem gift certificates for credit hours or 30,000 winning Pepsi caps for four years!
NO WAY THIS CAN FAIL. GO TEAM INTERNET.
posted by secret about box at 1:22 PM on March 20, 2006
:-(
We just had a good laugh about this in the office. What's the next evolution of this, tuition payments through the iTMS after you download the acceptance podcast? Redeem gift certificates for credit hours or 30,000 winning Pepsi caps for four years!
NO WAY THIS CAN FAIL. GO TEAM INTERNET.
posted by secret about box at 1:22 PM on March 20, 2006
k, I can see sending an email saying you where accepted, as long as it had a physical letter to follow as well as the email. I could even see sending a link to a NON proprietary standard format video congratulating you on getting accepted, all of these things being an enhancement of current systems rather than a replacement of them.
posted by edgeways at 1:28 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by edgeways at 1:28 PM on March 20, 2006
Their registrars office will be staffed by nigerians and will require an upfront tuition deposit.
posted by srboisvert at 2:59 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by srboisvert at 2:59 PM on March 20, 2006
Students will be frisked and searched for a stylish iPod case. If none is found, you may directly report to the nearest community college for a public humiliation ceremony. G'day.
posted by cellphone at 3:12 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by cellphone at 3:12 PM on March 20, 2006
No, I think Fitchburg just jumped the shark.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 3:22 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 3:22 PM on March 20, 2006
I hear Bridgewater St. is now delivering their acceptance letters via escaped mental patient...
posted by SweetJesus at 3:33 PM on March 20, 2006
posted by SweetJesus at 3:33 PM on March 20, 2006
All coursework is downloaded to your 'pod and you immediately receive credit if your account is active. You
graduate within weeks and your parents are e-mailed a picture of you in graduation robes with your head photoshopped into a generic, public domain graduation photo.
The crap part is they still charge you for robe rental.
posted by longsleeves at 6:07 PM on March 20, 2006
graduate within weeks and your parents are e-mailed a picture of you in graduation robes with your head photoshopped into a generic, public domain graduation photo.
The crap part is they still charge you for robe rental.
posted by longsleeves at 6:07 PM on March 20, 2006
Assuming an audio acceptance is, um, a good idea: why a podcast? Are they going to send you weekly podcasts about next fall? Or is this just using "podcasting" as a clumsy synonym for "audio over the internets"?
I'd make a snarky Linux users go home/iTunes comment. But they seem to actually have a MS in computer science program. But its GRE requirement is "50th percentile and above." So, I just laugh.
posted by oxonium at 6:40 PM on March 20, 2006
I'd make a snarky Linux users go home/iTunes comment. But they seem to actually have a MS in computer science program. But its GRE requirement is "50th percentile and above." So, I just laugh.
posted by oxonium at 6:40 PM on March 20, 2006
The only reason I know of Fitchburg is because my old indie rock band played at a metal bar there a few years ago. The Dennys was nice.
This however, is a bad idea.
posted by drezdn at 7:07 PM on March 20, 2006
This however, is a bad idea.
posted by drezdn at 7:07 PM on March 20, 2006
Why is everyone so negative? Maybe a lot of their applicants are illiterate.
posted by Skwirl at 9:43 AM on March 21, 2006
posted by Skwirl at 9:43 AM on March 21, 2006
« Older Two or Three Things About David Cronenberg | Conversation Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
only it is to a certain degree. So, you have to have itunes to be accepted? Kind of arrogant to assume everyone you accept is set up that way, even if they can afford it. I would assume that thee is an opt-in/opt-out for this. (or at least hope so)
posted by edgeways at 11:18 AM on March 20, 2006