How long to wait to send an update letter

[jcwhitts]

At what point does it become okay to send an update letter? I mean, how long should I wait until I send one?

I have no research to date, but I will be researching for my senior year in my organic chemistry professor's lab. When does it become update letter worthy? After I have a grade for my research credit fall semester? Or a few months after I start?

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, but I couldn't find it readily.

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[anfleisch]

A major update can be helpful at several points in my opinion. If it is something your application is largely missing, I would work for a few weeks and then send it early on while interviews are being given out and your initial application is being graded. Once you receive an initial grade, it can be hard to get out of the pile your in. If it is something that will not be a gam changer, you can use it after you have a big update after interviews and before a final decision is made by the ADCOM. The final point in which updates can be helpful is right before waitlists will be decided, but these are less effective since many are pre-ranked.

Basically, try to figure out what updates you will have for the year including grades, activities, and letters and try to space them out. For your specific case, you can hope to get two solid updates from this research work as your own update and also maybe a letter of rec. after fall semester. If that is the case, I would send an update around mid-September when you have a good handle on what you are doing to explain in an email.