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<h2 id="org2452c07">Appeal Regarding Rejection for Computer Science MSc Programmes at IP Paris</h2>
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<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org2452c07">
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<p>
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Dear esteemed President of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris,
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</p>
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<p>
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I hope this email finds you well; I have addressed this to you since the rejection notice I have received directs me to address my appeal auprès du chef de l’établissement concerné and because it is your name that appears there, but in the plausible case that this email is addressed wrongly I would like to kindly request the secretariat forward it to the correct location.
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</p>
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<p>
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I am writing to you today regarding my application to two Computer Science Master’s degree programmes taught at IP Paris – namely, your <i>M1 Foundations of Computer Science</i> and <i>M1 Parallel and Distributed Systems</i> programmes – which I applied for in the supplementary application period, and for which I was rejected; the rejection appears to me to be based primarily on my academic transcripts.
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</p>
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<p>
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As it happens I am a recent immigrant from the Netherlands to France and holder of a Dutch BSc in Computing Science. I believe my situation as such creates some unique considerations that I wish to ensure are carefully taken into consideration in the context of my application; consider this email to be thus the “informal appeal” that is mentioned in the rejection notice.
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</p>
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<p>
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My primary matter of concern is the Dutch academic system, which is structured quite differently from the French system, reflecting differing cultural attitudes. Giving an overview:
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</p>
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<ul class="org-ul">
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<li>Here in France, most Master’s programmes are selective and applications may be denied; in the Netherlands such selective programmes are a rarity, and my Bachelor’s degree would grant me automatic entry to the overwhelming majority of Computer Science MSc programmes;</li>
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<li>In France you know such a concept as “failing a year” and having to retake it at the university level; in the Netherlands this is not the case – students are free to take and retake courses until they’ve passed all of them at which point they are awarded their degree. According to official statistics only about ⅓ of students completes their BSc in the statutory three years, and only ⅔ of students do so in four; a slower pace through one’s education is seen as reflecting a momentary difference in personal priorities and not as a stain on one’s academic career or a mark of incompetence;</li>
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<li>In general, France bestows great prestige on academic excellence in the form of high grades, honors distinctions, and a complex prestige hierarchy of institutions. Dutch culture, on the other hand, does not value these things nearly as much, and instead prioritizes accessibility and takes innovation, independence and real-world results as the basis of prestige.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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It is in this context that I believe my academic record should be evaluated. It is admittedly true that I took a relatively long time to finish my undergraduate degree, and ultimately graduated with a mediocre grade-point average. However, I strongly feel that when my entire career is reduced to just these metrics, which until now (commensurate with prevailing cultural attitudes in my homeland) I had never considered to be of significant import, the picture that is painted is not at all representative of my abilities. Since I began my undergraduate degree almost eight years ago I co-founded a company, had a brief but very lucrative contracting and consultancy career, worked on a variety of interesting research prototypes of which my bachelor’s thesis is one example, and of course found love, immigrated, and matured a whole lot.
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<p>
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I am aware that your programmes are considered to be rather elite, about which I will say two things. First, I will reaffirm my commitment and personal faith in my ability to complete the programme to a high standard; in fact, in this stage of my life I find the high standard to be rather inspiring.
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</p>
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<p>
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Second, I must unfortunately appeal to your sympathy; between me having missed the initial application in all the commotion surrounding my immigration, and the dearth of English language programmes (another surprise coming from my home country where already many undergraduate programmes in this field are taught in English, my own included; and this certainly being the case for Master’s programmes), I have not gotten accepted into any of the programmes I applied to, and have nowhere else to turn to.
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</p>
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<p>
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The rejection notice I received hints at an appeal procedure to a board of education that according to my research would guarantee placement in at least some Master’s programme in my field, but unfortunately it seems that this applies only to those who received their undergraduate education in France, and thus not to me. As someone with an accredited foreign European Bachelor’s degree it saddens and confuses me that the same right is not extended to me, but as this is a matter beyond my control I am now at serious risk of being unable to continue my education here in France, which would be to my immense regret.
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</p>
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<p>
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I would like to kindly request you re-evaluate my application in light of the context I have provided in this email, and hopefully find a place for me at one of your programmes. If you cannot find a place for me at the mentioned programmes, but can place me in a different programme within the same field, or can perhaps recommend me to a programme at a different institution, I would also be very thankful for that. I do strongly prefer a programme taught in English as my mastery of French is unfortunately still rather meager, but should a French-language programme be the only option available I am also willing to undertake that additional challenge.
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I have faith that you are willing to look past cultural differences and shallow statistics and fairly evaluate my fitness for your institution, regardless of what your expert judgement ultimately is to be. I have once again attached my CV and academic references to this email, as well as a copy of my Bachelor’s thesis, which (graded as 8.5/10) I believe more accurately represents my abilities than my grade point average. If there is any more information you may wish for me to provide to you, or any way in which I can prove my abilities to you, I would also be eager to do so.
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</p>
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<p>
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Thank you kindly for your attention throughout this long email.
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</p>
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<p>
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Dearest regards,
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<p>
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akk0
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<div id='footer'><div id='modified-date'>Last modified: 2025-10-03</div><hr>
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If you have any comments about this page, you can email me at: <br>
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<b>akk0</b> <i>{at}</i> <b>webbieweb</b> <i>{dot}</i> <b>org</b><br>
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