I'm a volunteer for the Cornell admissions office. When a person from this area applies to Cornell they are assigned to a volunteer who then visits the applicant to get an in-person sense of who they are and if the applicant is a good fit for Cornell.
I am in the process of setting up my first applicant meeting. She's using internet speak to communicate with me. Either that or she has pretty poor grammar, which would be surprising. Cornell pretty much only takes kids in the top 10% of their class nowadays so I guess I expect more from an applicant. Maybe I just don't remember what it means to be 17 anymore!
Well, why not get high and mighty? I assume people who apply to Cornell WANT to be at Cornell. You could always play with her a bit -- "I'm so sorry, but I could not understand your email. Are you sure you got into Cornell?"
Heh. She's not in yet - she's trying to get in... maybe she won't with this approach, though.
This reminds me of a job I applied to long, long ago when I was kid. It was a lawyer's office and I showed up in jeans for the interview. The lady there told me that under no circumstance would they even interview me with jeans on and then left the room. Interview over. I got the message.
Maybe you should do the same with her, remind her that Cornell only accepts the top 10% of applicants and under no circumstances will Cornell consider any applicant who cannot write using correct English.
Opilies said exactly what was on my mind.
I'm just curious, but what kind of things do the colleges look for in this type of scenario?
Where I teach, they have to have a certain score on the essay portion of the SAT. I don't know the score, but I DO know it doesn't filter out everyone who can't write.
I got another email from her last night - "c ya soon!" LOL.
That is beyond pathetic. I'm not surprised though, not a bit. I'm betting she'll throw a fit if she's rejected on her poor grammar though... hopefully there's a way to be tested to see if she really can spell, and is just using text speak.
Students often think that because it's email, they can get away with that. They code switch in electronic communication automatically. They don't seem to understand that just as in speech, there's a time when txtspk is appropriate and a time when Standard English rules the day.
I tell mine the first day of class I don't want to see that stuff and I won't respond to it. That's pretty much the last time I have to deal with it. I remind them who I am and what they are there for and voila! It's over.
For me that line is a little blurrier because all my classes are either online or an online/classroom mix. If I'm in chat with them, I will sometimes use abbreviations (like BRB if I have to step out for a minute), but I won't go to full txt mode.
Personally, I think it's ridiculous, and--snob or not--I would definitely count it as a mark against her. Don't people who are applying for anything understand that every step of the process is PART of the process?
Gah. The dumbing down continues.
Jen M.