Master’s program rejection with no reason. How to appeal? I recently applied for a master’s program and I fulfill all their requirements. In addition, the application fee was around 100 USD that had to be paid in advance. I got the following answer today:


  I would like to thank you for considering XXX for your graduate study. We have very
  carefully reviewed and evaluated your application to the Master of Science in YYY program for the Fall 2020 semester and I regret to inform you that the
  Admission Committee has declined your application for admission.
  We hope that you will pursue all of your other options for continuing your education and
  achieve academic success in another graduate program.
  Best wishes for success in achieving your academic and professional goals.
  Sincerely,


Is this normal that they do not provide at least a very brief explanation on why they refuse my application, since I fulfilled all the requirements?
Now, how to appeal, i.e. I do not know why they refuse me so I do not know what I should tell them.
Yes, that's totally normal. For example, my department typically gets 150-200 applications for the PhD program every spring, but we only accept ~20 students. That is a process that is exceedingly time consuming already as is. It is simply not reasonable to write up an explanation why the other 130-180 students were not accepted.

That's no different than for most job applications: The company you sent your application to will simply say "Sorry, we didn't choose you because we found someone who is better qualified", rather than giving you feedback where exactly they found your application lacking.

As for appeal -- I don't think any university has a process for this, but pretend for a moment that there were: What do you think would happen? The university made a determination that you were not as well qualified as someone else. You can appeal a decision if you think that a process was not followed, e.g., if your application had arrived in time but was rejected because the department (erroneously) claimed that it was late. But your question does not contain any indication that you have any evidence to this effect. On the other hand, you can't appeal a rejection because you weren't as well qualified as some other candidate -- your "appeal" in that case ought to be to get more experience and more education so that on your next try, you are better qualified.