A Better Email

I was very happy to find the following in my inbox yesterday:

From: Ryerson
To: Me
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 8:07 PM 
Subject: Eligibility to Graduate 

Dear Christine: 

On behalf of the Ryerson Community, we are pleased to extend our congratulations on your successful completion of all courses required to graduate with a Master of Arts - Literature of Modernity at the Spring 2012 Convocation. 

An official letter which includes your Convocation tickets has been sent to your mailing address. After you receive the official letter of eligibility and your Convocation tickets, you must confirm whether or not you will be attending the convocation ceremony by going to the RSVP website.
 
Again, congratulations on your success and we look forward to seeing you at convocation. 
The Office of Curriculum Advising, Ryerson University

This is MUCH better than the one I got 8 months ago in September. I knew early in September that my thesis was not finished and I would need to stay on at Ryerson for another semester to continue to work on it, however I had applied to graduate min-summer so they still reviewed the file. Even though I knew that I wasn't going to be graduating with the rest of my class in October, it was still pretty rough to read this email:

From: Ryerson 
To: Me
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 2:18 PM 
Subject: Application to Graduate 

Dear Christine: 

Your academic record has been carefully reviewed by the Office of Curriculum Advising. 

We regret to inform you that you did not meet Ryerson's graduation requirements as set out by Senate. You are therefore not eligible to graduate with a Master of Arts - Literature of Modernity at the Fall 2011 Convocation. 

 A formal copy of this email message has been mailed to your address. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your eligibility to graduate, please contact us immediately. We would like to assure you that your application was given every consideration, but recognize that we may have been unaware of all the factors concerning your academic record. 
 
We wish you every success in fulfilling the outstanding requirements. Please also remember that in order to be considered for graduation at the Spring 2012 Convocation, you must submit a new application to graduate between November 1st, 2011 and February 27th, 2012. 

The Office of Curriculum Advising, Ryerson University 

I am so glad to be finished with my Masters. It was a pretty awful year and a half for me; I barely made it through alive (literally). One of the many embarrassing things about taking an extra semester is that I am graduating when  NO ONE ELSE in my program is. I had assumed that I would have convocation with the following year's class, this coming October. However, I will be alone at the June ceremony, which means people from my department have to come to 'hood me'. I'm sure this is a pain for them, but I am very glad to be going through this final process to be completely done!