Update Letters?

Sillyshoes said:

Do many of you plan on sending update letters to your schools of interest?
I know some schools encourage sending updates, but is it ok if I send them to schools that do not even ask for them?

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What do you mean update letters? To catch the school up on what you've been doing since you submitted? I think an update letter is only necessary if you have had some sort of drastic change or experience. If you submitted in June, it's only been like 3 months, not much could have happened to you. I would wait a little bit longer if you can.

Also, I've heard that if you get waitlisted at a school, an update letter can really help you get accepted, so if you send a letter now, then you wont have anything for later.

When people write update letters, do you guys write it like you guys would write AMCAS application?

Like write 1325 characters (that's AMCAS character limit)?

EDIT: Or do you guys just use one-liner

Hey actually I'm writing update letters right now to certain schools that I haven't heard from for like couple months now so ya as long as everything fits on a standard one-page with three to four paragraphs, I say you're good to go. Format should be almost like a cover letter. Hope this helps!

Hey guys,

dunno what you guys have heard, but i just spoke to my pre-med advisor today cuz I was unsure about letters of interest/update letters.

He works closely with someone on the adcom for a top med school and he said that update letters work like this:
You only send something when you hear something from the med school (that you are on hold/waitlist) it works like a game, they make a move then you make a move.

If you haven't heard anything by January, you THEN send an update letter only about stuff that has changed (new grades, a publication, accomplishment) and why you are interested in their med school... which works differently than a letter of intent --> b/c obviously everyone says they will go to X SOM if they get accepted rite?

I hope this helps... I was pondering if I should send stuff or not after I heard some friends tell me that the stuff they sent in didn't really help/might have even hurt their app. I'm guessing if you keep sending stuff adcoms get annoyed, imagine how many people are waiting at one school to hear something back. If everyone sent something they'd be EVEN MORE swamped than they already are.

Just wait, be patient, and stay positive buddies!!

Ah well, I just sent one anyways...it was to a school I'm pretty sure is trying to fill their class relatively soon though, so I didn't want to wait until the New Year. Plus, I think I'm a little reckless at the moment - feeling like I have nothing to lose

Good luck with keeping the patience everyone!

I actually used point form

like

activity, location
duration, 2 sentence descriptiion....

PinkIvy08 said:

Ah well, I just sent one anyways...it was to a school I'm pretty sure is trying to fill their class relatively soon though, so I didn't want to wait until the New Year. Plus, I think I'm a little reckless at the moment - feeling like I have nothing to lose

Good luck with keeping the patience everyone!

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Yea honestly I think you have to take everyone's advice on here with a grain of salt... everyone has a different app and the adcoms have varying reasons to reject/hold every app... so I guess your update letter has to strike a chord with them in order for it to be effective. Especially if you are on the fence it might be more effective to send one.

Obviously there are so many things we don't know cuz we just blindly send in apps and accept the response we get. So in that sense I totally understand PinkIvy... the reckless feeling justifies sending in something.

I think I'm actually going to send in an update letter myself (despite the post I submitted a few days ago ). I want to be in control of this processs... don't want it to control me!

They can't really hurt, right? Worst case you get told the school doesn't accept updates or they silently toss your letter... I sent an update to all schools that didn't have an explicit "we don't accept updates" policy but I had significant updates.

What is it on this website with everyone using the "grain of salt" expression?

I recently started a new job and got a pub so I figured what the hell, might as well let them know... I don't have any interviews so it's not like it's going to hurt me.