John Elliott Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 4:41 PM
Reply-To: journalism@theihs.org
To:
Dear (applicant),

Thank you for applying to the IHS Journalism Internship program. Unfortunately, your application was not selected as a finalist. We had 650 applications this year and only 18 internships. The competition was very tough. I encourage you to apply again next year and to continue to apply to other IHS programs that might be valuable to you.

In particular, you might be interested in applying for the 'Journalism & the Free Society' summer seminar, June 6-12, 2009. This workshop will examine both nuts-and-bolts issues about media operations as well as broader philosophical inquiries into the role of communication, information, and media. The application deadline is March 31.
www.TheIHS.org/freesociety

Sincerely,

John Elliott
Journalism Program Director
Institute for Humane Studies



You've got to love any rejection letter that tries to further shill its product long after showing an applicant the door. That's about as classy as it gets.
[Update: Turns out the seminars are free, except for the cost of travel. Still, not a great rejection letter.]