As the graduate coordinator of XX University’s economics program, I am pleased to welcome you to XX! I am very impressed with your application and credentials and am confident that you would be an excellent fit for our master’s program. This email is not an official notification, but I am sending the paperwork along to the XX College of Graduate Studies with my recommendation for your admittance and you should hear from them in due time with what I hope will be good news. Your GPA is a bit lower than what we usually require at the graduate college, but they generally go by my recommendation and I feel you have much to offer that offsets your low GPA—your letters of recommendation are outstanding and your GRE quantitative score is very good.
By the way, how would you say you generally ranked within your classes? Top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, top 40%, top 50%, top 60%, etc.?
At this point I cannot promise financial aid for the fall—the committee will meet in one month to make those decisions. I’ll be honest, your low GPA will hurt your chances but I do think that you have a decent chance. It will depend up the overall size and quality of the applicant pool as well as how much aid we have available.
One more question—I see that you are in the United States right now. Are you taking classes or just working? Please respond to confirm that you received this email and feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions.