Earlier this month, I received a hand-written thank you note in the mail from an undergraduate at Northwestern University, my alma mater.

That was impressive.

The personally written, but hardly personalized letter from
a Northwestern undergraduate.

Then I read the note – and if it wasn’t a verbatim transcription of a form letter, then I worry for the future of this self-described English major.

How utterly unimpressive.

Why bother with a form of intimate, personal connection when you saddle it with an impersonal form letter? Why go through the motions of making an emotional connection when you handcuff a student to so much sanitized white noise?

C’mon Wildcats: unleash these young adults to communicate from the heart! Or at least save yourself the postage.

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One thought on “Northwestern’s Half-Baked Attempt at Connection: A Ham-Handed, Handwritten Thank-You Note

  1. Elizabeth says:

    As someone who has written these letters for Northwestern… it is brutal. Student groups get paid $1/letter and are sent very strict guidelines on how the letters must appear. After you write 2 of these, to people you don't know for reasons you don't know, you just want to get it over with!

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