When Paul Devlin was in high school applying for a university place, he noticed a grammatical error in a rejection letter sent to him by Harvard. Hehad no choice but to reject their rejection. The event was so therapeutic that Paul then decided to respond to all universities’ rejections with the following letter, which soon became so popular that it was reprinted in the New York Times in 1981.
Himesh Patel joined us at Letters Live at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2022 to read this letter.
Enjoyed this? Watch Himesh read a brilliant letter to Richard Branson, complaining about Virgin Atlantic”s in-flight meal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8x_44vFO2c
Letter © Paul Devlin
source
I can only hope they understood what genius they rejected and in hindside, made him the honorary recipient of a scholarship.
More power to Paul. Well done.
It would be a pleasure to be rejected by this man if he always does it so cleverly.
Being smart but lazy gets you tons of rejection letters.
That letter of rejection, rejecting their rejection letter, became the basis for that university's reconsideration of their rejection, and subsequent acceptance of Paul's application.
Looks like he went to Michigan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Devlin_(filmmaker)?wprov=sfti1
Honours in Communication, Bachelor of Human Resourcefulness and Associate Diploma of Sticking Rejection to Them 🫵
Read brilliantly, and Hamish wearing the “Choose Love” ❤️badge tops it off.
👏👏💯
This letter sounds like something Ryan Reynolds would write, lol.
If only I had this letter when being rejected boy women…
Fecking Brilliant!
That is brilliant! So cleverly written.