Can I send letter of intent to more than one school?

[anxiouspremedxxx]

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Hi everyone! So to cut to the chase, I am currently on a WL for my top choice school (school 1) and waiting to hear back from another school (school 2) that I would also love to attend. Both are CA schools. I already sent a LOI back in Dec to school 1. I'm not sure what exactly I should do now. I saw my options as the following:

1. Send LOI to both schools - my concern here is that I'm not sure if the Admissions Offices share details like that since they are both UCs?
2. Send LOI to school 1 - would it even help or just annoy them since I already sent one before lol
3. Send LOI to school 2 - same concern as #1, would they know I had sent LOI to school 1 before?

I'm super grateful to have an A right now, but I really want to go to a CA school, be near family, and serve the population I grew up around. I know the people on SDN are really insightful so I'd really really appreciate any advice that you guys have for me!

 

[gyngyn]

#1 is why these things have no effect.

I can tell you that all the CA Admissions Deans (of the established schools) meet at least twice a year.

 

[anxiouspremedxxx]

#1 is why these things have no effect.

I can tell you that all the CA Admissions Deans (of the established schools) meet at least twice a year.

Thank you for the quick feedback! So potentially, they could say "Applicant XYZ sent LOIs to all the UCs she applied to? This is madness!!" 😂

In this case, what do you think about sending a letter of interest instead to school 2? I really love this school as well (would have been super torn if I got into both school 1 and 2).

 

[gyngyn]

In this case, what do you think about sending a letter of interest instead to school 2? I really love this school as well (would have been super torn if I got into both school 1 and 2).

No one has a problem with a single letter of intent (unless the school does not accept them).

 

[anxiouspremedxxx]

No one has a problem with a single letter of intent (unless the school does not accept them).

Awesome, I think my best option would be sending a letter of interest instead to school 2 and wait to hear back from school 1. I had already sent a thank you note to school 2 and expressed my interest in that note, so do you think it may be seen as being too "desperate" aka ingenuine? I also got a rejection from UC school #3 today haha so I'm not sure if it would especially seem ingenuine in that context.

 

[gyngyn]

Awesome, I think my best option would be sending a letter of interest instead to school 2 and wait to hear back from school 1. I had already sent a thank you note to school 2 and expressed my interest in that note, so do you think it may be seen as being too "desperate" aka ingenuine? I also got a rejection from UC school #3 today haha so I'm not sure if it would especially seem ingenuine in that context.

Once you have made your feelings clear, updates of your continued feelings add nothing (except apparently at GT).

 

[anxiouspremedxxx]

I see, so neither sending a letter of intent to school 1 nor sending a letter of interest to school 2 will significantly help me at this point?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

My advice:

See how much waitlist movement occurs at the school that waitlisted you. WL can sometimes be a soft R so make sure that you aren’t wasting the LOI somewhere that it will have no effect.

If there is movement, go with your top choice. These are mainly to reduce future regret (ie I wish I had done more). I sent one at a school that deferred me and don’t regret it at all (despite having not heard anything since) because I feel like I left the ball on their court and did all that I could.

 

[Goro]

I see, so neither sending a letter of intent to school 1 nor sending a letter of interest to school 2 will significantly help me at this point?

Go ahead and send the letter if it will make you feel better. But as the wise gyngyn has already pointed out, admissions Deans treat these as lies. You have provided evidence as to why.

 

[anxiouspremedxxx]

Go ahead and send the letter if it will make you feel better. But as the wise gyngyn has already pointed out, admissions Deans treat these as lies. You have provided evidence as to why.

Gotcha thanks for the advice. I have a more general follow-up question. As you and gyngyn have both said, Deans treat LOI as lies because they know that they're not binding and applicants can send out multiple ones. Why are LOIs still regarded as standard practice for applicants and pre med advisors?

 

[Goro]

Gotcha thanks for the advice. I have a more general follow-up question. As you and gyngyn have both said, Deans treat LOI as lies because they know that they're not binding and applicants can send out multiple ones. Why are LOIs still regarded as standard practice for applicants and pre med advisors?

Because most pre-med advisors are absolute idiots, and pre-meds are genetically programmed to regurgitate pre-med delusions.

 

[allseasons]

Gotcha thanks for the advice. I have a more general follow-up question. As you and gyngyn have both said, Deans treat LOI as lies because they know that they're not binding and applicants can send out multiple ones. Why are LOIs still regarded as standard practice for applicants and pre med advisors?

Because most pre-med advisors are absolute idiots, and pre-meds are genetically programmed to regurgitate pre-med delusions.

plus there are a few schools (Mayo especially) that actually do put at least a little weight on them. Most probably don't care at all unless you're overqualified and/or provide a very compelling/unique reason beyond just "I love this school so very much because of its x y z programs".

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I would actually wager that most LOIs/update letters don’t get read

 

[Goro]

plus there are a few schools (Mayo especially) that actually do put at least a little weight on them. Most probably don't care at all unless you're overqualified and/or provide a very compelling/unique reason beyond just "I love this school so very much because of its x y z programs".

Yes, there are a handful of schools that are either needy or like seeing applicants grovel.

They're in the minority and I'm not going to modify my posts for an asterisk.

 

[Shunsui]

@Goro @gyngyn Say if a student sends a LOI and subsequently gets accepted off the WL but then declines the A for another school. Will this have any effect when that student tries to match residency at their program? I figure program directors can pull up one's file and see a student sent a LOI but went back on their word. I imagine it doesn't matter but I've always wondered since that would look pretty bad on the student.

 

[gyngyn]

@Goro @gyngyn Say if a student sends a LOI and subsequently gets accepted off the WL but then declines the A for another school. Will this have any effect when that student tries to match residency at their program? I figure program directors can pull up one's file and see a student sent a LOI but went back on their word. I imagine it doesn't matter but I've always wondered since that would look pretty bad on the student.

PD's don't often have access to this information.
Hopefully, the applicant matures in the 4 intervening years.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

PD's don't often have access to this information.
Hopefully, the applicant matures in the 4 intervening years.

Wouldn’t it probably be grounds for the school to tell the amcas (ethics violation of sorts), possibly leading to rescinding of all As?

 

[gyngyn]

Wouldn’t it probably be grounds for the school to tell the amcas (ethics violation of sorts), possibly leading to rescinding of all As?

I've reported far worse things that AMCAS told me was out of their jurisdiction.

 

[deleted1106140]

Could it hurt to say you have another acceptance in your LOI, since the school may think, oh this student already has an acceptance at a good school, which has higher rank than ours. Though they like our school the most, perhaps we can give our A to another student who may not have an A yet?

 

[gyngyn]

Could it hurt to say you have another acceptance in your LOI, since the school may think, oh this student already has an acceptance at a good school, which has higher rank than ours. Though they like our school the most, perhaps we can give our A to another student who may not have an A yet?

Overthinking.

 

[applesauce14]

Overthinking.

So is the answer yes or no? I am planning to send a LOI soon. Should I mention the names of other schools I have been accepted to?

 

[wysdoc]

So is the answer yes or no? I am planning to send a LOI soon. Should I mention the names of other schools I have been accepted to?

no. You have sent one letter of intent and others will be superfluous or insincere.

 

[LizzyM]

You are asking about Letters of Intent according to the title of this thread. This is saying that if you are offered admission, you intend to accept the offer and matriculate.

Could you make proposals of marriage to two people at the same time? Granted, if one potential spouse is still considering your proposal and might turn you down, is it really fair to propose your intention to another potential partner??

Do you see the analogy? If both take you at your word, you could end up with two offers from two schools that you told that you intended to attend if offered admission.

Be honest. If you want to send a letter of intent to School 2, send a letter to School 1 saying that the school is no longer your first choice and you can no longer promise to attend if offered admission although you are still very interested in attending if offered admission.

 

[anxiouspremedxxx]

You are asking about Letters of Intent according to the title of this thread. This is saying that if you are offered admission, you intend to accept the offer and matriculate.

Could you make proposals of marriage to two people at the same time? Granted, if one potential spouse is still considering your proposal and might turn you down, is it really fair to propose your intention to another potential partner??

Do you see the analogy? If both take you at your word, you could end up with two offers from two schools that you told that you intended to attend if offered admission.

Be honest. If you want to send a letter of intent to School 2, send a letter to School 1 saying that the school is no longer your first choice and you can no longer promise to attend if offered admission although you are still very interested in attending if offered admission.

Thank you for the advice! If I send a letter of intent to school 2, should I also mention the fact that I sent a letter to school 1 saying that the school is no longer my first choice?

 

[Med Ed]

Thank you for the advice! If I send a letter of intent to school 2, should I also mention the fact that I sent a letter to school 1 saying that the school is no longer my first choice?

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you for the advice! If I send a letter of intent to school 2, should I also mention the fact that I sent a letter to school 1 saying that the school is no longer my first choice?

Dear School 2: you are my first choice. If you admit me, I will matriculate.
Dear School 1: you were my first choice and if you admit me, I am very likely to matriculate but you should know that you are no longer my first choice despite that declaration in my letter of [date]. I know how disappointing this may be to you and it is not a reflection on your fine campus, innovative curriculum and your inspiring faculty but rather that I am only one student and given the opportunities before me, I am not able to attend every school that admits me. However, I do hope that you will admit me so I will have the challenge of deciding whether or not to accept the offer. P.S. throwing a lot of scholarship money at me will help me decide!