The fake Harvard rejection letter that took over the Internet - Toronto Star

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A high school senior’s proficiency in “dank memes” may not get her into Harvard University, but it has already gotten her Internet fame.

Molly McGaan, 18, penned a fake admissions letter from Harvard for Citizen Poke, her high school’s humour magazine, which she founded while a freshman.

The letter, purportedly sent by an exasperated admissions officer, oscillates between bureaucratic politeness and brutal honesty:

Dear Ms. McGaan,

After careful consideration of your application, I am sorry to inform you that we are unable to offer you a place in the class of 2019. This year’s application pool was the strongest in the college’s history, and we are unable to offer admission to every student, regardless of their proficiency in “dank memes,” or their level of “$wagg moneyyyy.”

The banal tone of officialdom in the fake Harvard letter contrasts with that of the colourful Ms. McGaan in her fictional college application letter, which purportedly included a mix tape of animal noises in lieu of the traditional essay and lists bad-boy rapper Chief Keef as a reference.

The real McGaan goes to a private alternative school in Chicago called Francis W. Parker School, where she and her classmates are in the middle of college application season and facing real-life rejection letters every day.

“What better way to use this than to make fun of something that’s really hurting a lot of people,” she said.

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McGaan, who hopes to one day be a comedy writer and actress for a TV show, loves Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon and has taken classes and performed at Second City in Chicago as part of a teen ensemble.

She was accepted earlier at her dream campus, the University of Michigan, but is still waiting to hear back from a few more, Harvard among them.

“I did apply to Harvard, although unfortunately I didn’t send in a mix tape,” she said.

McGaan insists she did not create the fake letter with the intention of boosting her admissions — she just used its name because it is a university everyone’s heard of.

That’s not to say she wouldn’t like to attend it: McGaan remembers how her father would read to her as a child from the Harvard Lampoon, the university’s comedy magazine.

“It has been radio silence on their end. I can’t decide if that’s a good or horrifying thing,” she said. “I’m waiting with baited breath to see if this does anything.”

Although a person working in the Harvard admissions office was not aware of her letter Friday afternoon, an online article in the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, called her out: “Keep your head up, Molly, you sound like you’d fit right in!”

McGaan said she’s just happy people get the joke.

“I know it’s an Internet thing and it will blow over by Monday at the latest, but it really is very flattering,” she said. “It just totally blows my mind how big it’s gotten.”