Sad emails...

[j4]

... say so much, about hopes and dreams and education and privilege and the uselessness of what I do for a living. Emails like this are probably the most depressing thing to fall into the webmaster inbox:

Dear : sir
Im so pleased for corresponding you , I hope to having your consideration , I appreciate your effort ... time as to help me . Really will be so kind if I have excelent opportunityat your standard academic . So Iog on the web site and again asked for scholarship , therefore Isubmitted before this an application under term ( MT 2005 .. No xxxxxxxx .... ID No xxxxxxxxx .... under course MA in Applied Linguistic ) . But unfortunately I held back , for too much competition , Could you please considering me .
According to my knoweldge your University is intersted in education , which encourage me to write to you .So I change my course to ( MA in Communication & Negotiation ) .
Excuse me to intrduce my self ; Im from Darfour State ... El Fasher City ; I graduated and I have BA in English Language & Litrature .Thereby , for current position my country side is badly needs of interaction learners ; becuse to foucs on peace and a ccomplished communication . Even through African country ; with consultants ...awerness proposition .Could you please reply my situation ... I need fully
thankyou for your time ...... Miss K------

And all I can do is point her at the relevant clauses in the Graduate Studies Prospectus and, if I really want to drive the point home, end the email with our standard boilerplate "Thank you for your interest in the University of Cambridge." Sorry, but we've just shattered your dreams. Have a nice day.

Comments

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Oh I get a load of those through being our 'webmaster' as well haha, I'm afraid I am far less sympathetic and I dump them as spam as they're often cc-ed to other made up addresses eg angel@ucl.com seems to be quite popular; baffling.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

ditto. Well except without binning them. I have to reply going oh poor baby or something but I just can't have sympathy for people using emotional blackmail in order to get what they want. Someone once told me I had no heart. You'd think being a doctor he would have realised...

[j4.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not as if all the emotional blackmail in the world will get her a place at Cambridge. I can't help feeling sorry for people who believe that emails like that will help ... not to mention people who believe that coming to Cambridge will somehow solve their problems. I mean, it'd cost her tens of thousands of pounds to come here, you'd think there'd be better things she could do to help her country's education with that money if that is what she wants to do, and OH I DON'T KNOW.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Ah, if they're cc'd to EVERY WEBMASTER IN THE UNIVERSE (as some of them are) then they do get ditched as spam, but this one seems to have actually applied to Cambridge & been rejected. Which is probably fair enough, given that she's applying for an MA in English and can't spell "literature", but it's still depressing that she's going to all that effort to help her country's education system while I get paid nearly 20K to sit on my arse saying "Sorry m8, can't help you there" in a variety of different ways with different weblinks. I mean, obv she could just have invented a sob-story to try to get a place, but then I feel depressed about all those Nigerian chaps with all that money to get rid of too NOT REALLY. Oh, I don't know, it just makes me feel sad and a bit hopeless sometimes.