February/March Update Letter: Will it help or too late?

[JIMMYJOHNivy]

Currently applying this cycle while working a gap year research job. I've been extremely productive thus far and am anticipating at least half a dozen publications (very likely even more). Thing is, these pubs won't be accepted until February at the earliest. I'm currently applying to T20s as a research-heavy applicant. My question is: will these pubs help next Spring when it comes to post-II acceptances/waitlists or will it be too late by then? Could I potentially use them to leverage scholarship money or will they likely not make a difference? I have quite a few big research accomplishments on my primary but very few pubs.

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[Moko]

Many people get pulled off waitlists from March til June, and some get offers even in July, so publication(s) updates in March can definitely still influence waitlist decisions.

However, keep in mind that the process of getting a paper accepted for publication can be very drawn out, especially if the publication needs to go through multiple journals before getting accepted. Unless you're about to submit your research for publication, a February acceptance date might be overly optimistic. Though if you can accomplish this, more power to you.