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Again, was she saying pre-decision or post-WL?I will say Dean Ratts specifically said they do seriously consider letters of intent and do take notice of them and consider them in their decision during my interview day. I also know LOIs are important to WUSM… so some may see at as desperation, but washu doesn’t seem like one of those schools.
These things really really vary by school, so I wouldn’t discourage individuals from sending them (especially since they almost never hurt someone’s app — if the school doesn’t care about them, they normally just don’t look at it, like JHU).
I ask because, if they are taking it into account before making decisions, people are lying their butts off, since a 33% yield is pretty bad for a T10 school. If only 1 out of 3 accepted candidates are actually enrolling, those expressions of intent are truly worthless, since their yield couldn't possibly be much lower if they limited themselves to people who didn't send them! Post-WL, it's a different story, and a lot of schools take it into account because they don't want to have to make multiple calls to fill a single seat in May.
Pre-decision, schools that care about yield tend to do more resource protecting when deciding who to interview. T10 schools, not so much, other than Mayo, which is notorious for demanding signs of devotion before issuing precious As. Penn is rumored to do this as well. Mayo has a 60% yield to show for its efforts. Penn's yield is closer to 65%. If WashU is doing the same things, they are not doing a very good job, since their yield is only a little better than half those other schools.
As you said, though, it's never going to hurt, unless the schools tells you not to send them, so there is no reason not to if it makes you feel better. I prefer to send updates, and reaffirm my interest at the same time. I just can't bring to express intent to anyone so early in the cycle, given what I think I know about how they are perceived pre-II, or pre-decision.
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