How much weight does a letter of intent hold?

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buckeyegal1129

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Self-explanatory. I'm hearing conflicting statements from my advisor on a daily basis so halp pls
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I think the general consensus is not much. Written well, they likely won't hurt you but since they're non-binding any adcom will take what you say with a grain of salt. In theory, you could send a letter of intent to every school you applied to, and they know that.
 
Go4Doc said:
I think the general consensus is not much. Written well, they likely won't hurt you but since they're non-binding any adcom will take what you say with a grain of salt. In theory, you could send a letter of intent to every school you applied to, and they know that.
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Cool thanks 👍
 
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depends.

If you are accepted to other school(s) similar in ranking then it carries more weight. Otherwise, it can be seen as a desperate attempt at getting admitted.
Also, certain schools are more receptive and encourage letter of intents.
 
Apparently some schools want repeat update/interest letters (I want to say GW? Or georgetown? as an example) but then others don't care, or even tell you not to update/communicate further with them at all.
 
LizzyM said:
They want to protect their yield by only making offers to the applicants who are sure to matriculate.

Yield = offers accepted/offers made.
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Why do they care about their yield? Applicants don't even get to see the number of admits they needed to fill their class, it's not in any rankings. So who are they trying to impress?
 
buckeyegal1129 said:
Self-explanatory. I'm hearing conflicting statements from my advisor on a daily basis so halp pls
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None at all if you are holding no acceptances
Basically none if you are holding an acceptance at a "lesser" school.
It could be helpful if you are holding an acceptance at a much better school and prefer the "lesser" school (and they accept these letters).
 
efle said:
Why do they care about their yield? Applicants don't even get to see the number of admits they needed to fill their class, it's not in any rankings. So who are they trying to impress?
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There is also the inefficiency associated with offering an acceptance to someone who is likely to mull it over for two weeks and then decline.
 
LizzyM said:
They want to protect their yield by only making offers to the applicants who are sure to matriculate.

Yield = offers accepted/offers made.
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But if i send a heartwarming and passionate LOI to those schools and to other schools, will those schools that want LOIs take me seriously? How would they know I sent LOIs to other schools and not just to them?
 
gyngyn said:
There is also the inefficiency associated with offering an acceptance to someone who is likely to mull it over for two weeks and then decline.
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Do waitlist offers go out one at a time like that? Or could they just make their batch of offers bigger to offset lower yield?
 
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efle said:
Do waitlist offers go out one at a time like that? Or could they just make their batch of offers bigger to offset lower yield?
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Offers to applicants on the waitlist do go out one at a time after May 1 if a school has just one or two seats to fill. Making 10 offers would run the risk have having 10 applicants accept the offer and then having a class that is too full!
 
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Lawper said:
? a letter of intent would actually have a higher value and importance for those schools that want repeated update letters and letters of interest.
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These are all non-binding and we know that applicants send them to anyone who might listen.
 
gyngyn said:
These are all non-binding and we know that applicants send them to anyone who might listen.
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but is the distinction between letter of intent and letter of interest truly significant? because to me, a letter of intent is just a special type of letter of interest used by those who got an offer somewhere else but want to attend the school they are waitlisted at.
 
Lawper said:
but is the distinction between letter of intent and letter of interest truly significant? because to me, a letter of intent is just a special type of letter of interest used by those who got an offer somewhere else but want to attend the school they are waitlisted at.
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I don't see much difference. They are different flavors of the same thing.
 
While there are some needy schools that like to see applicants grovel, most admissions deans view LOI (whatever the I stands for) in the same vein as "I'll still respect you in the morning"

Do I have to make it any more clear than: they know you're lying.

Lawper said:
but is the distinction between letter of intent and letter of interest truly significant? because to me, a letter of intent is just a special type of letter of interest used by those who got an offer somewhere else but want to attend the school they are waitlisted at.
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Would you explicitly mention you have an acceptance from a peer school in your letter of intent?
 
gyngyn said:
We will see where waitlisted candidates are accepted on March 15th.
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Is this just for strict "waitlists" or does this include students that have been deferred? I'm assuming it doesn't because they're still technically in the applicant pool
 
buckeyegal1129 said:
Is this just for strict "waitlists" or does this include students that have been deferred? I'm assuming it doesn't because they're still technically in the applicant pool
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A deferred candidate is one whose matriculation has been extended into a future class.
Are you referring to some other situation?
 
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gyngyn said:
A deferred candidate is one whose matriculation has been extending into a future class.
Are you referring to some other situation?
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Sorry I meant an applicant whose decision status has been deferred until a later date in the cycle
 
I think this is where my personal experience with friends and family members in medicine differs most with SDN and the adcoms here (@LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn @gonniff) and I don't understand it.

Out of the 15 interviews I attended, like 9 of them said "If you want to come here, PLEASE keep us informed and tell us, especially if you're waitlisted." Most of my friends who got off any sort of waitlist sent a Letter of Intent or sent multiple updates/interest letters. When interviewing at different schools both the clinical faculty AND the student interviews repeatedly told me if you're waitlisted PLEASE contact us. Like 10 friends and students I spoke to sent Letters of Intent and got accepted within DAYS. So unless you think clinical faculty and students at those respective schools were lying to me, I don't understand the doom and gloom about LOI on SDN.

And the notion that a letter of intent could actually hurt you as @Goro states sometimes is just ludicrous. How could a letter saying "if you accept me, I will matriculate" hurt you? Maybe DO schools are wildly different than MDs in that regard as I only applied MD, but with mine, my friend's experiences, and my family's I think LOI's can only help and if you're waitlisted at your top choice it'd be incredibly stupid of you NOT to contact them. Why you automatically assume waitlisted applicants are LYING about a LOI is sad and honestly kind of weird.

I understand that LOI don't mean that you'll get automatically accepted or anything, nor am I trying to imply that. It's just my experiences in real life on this one issue could not be more dramatically different than your advice. But that's how it goes-- you're 4 random adcoms at incredibly different schools and it isn't shocking that you could have dramatically different opinions that other faculty (which I think is indeed the case).
 
I'm at a top 20 that waitlists at least 3 applicants for every seat and admits far more applicants than it has seats so tons of applicants have to decline the offer before even one waitlist spot opens up. Some of the people who are on the waitlist have no offers and the Dean of Admissions knows this because he can see where people are holding offers. Does a LOInterest or LOIntent from such a person really matter? Don't we assume if you haven't withdrawn and you are on the waitlist and holding no offers that you will say yes if asked to matriculate? A flood of LOIs when we don't have any open seats, doesn't help anyone and just drains staff time.

Where it might get interesting is when someone is holding an offer from a highly desirable school and on is our waitlist. I would suggest that such an applicant can't be hurt by sending a letter to state what would not be intuitive, that you'd drop a top 5 school or a relatively cheap instate school where you have an offer for us. Of course, we also get LOIntents and when push comes to shove, the applicant is just blowing smoke. Having been burnt by those applicants, our Dean considers most LOIntent to be works of fiction.
 
LizzyM said:
I'm at a top 20 that waitlists at least 3 applicants for every seat and admits far more applicants than it has seats so tons of applicants have to decline the offer before even one waitlist spot opens up. Some of the people who are on the waitlist have no offers and the Dean of Admissions knows this because he can see where people are holding offers. Does a LOInterest or LOIntent from such a person really matter? Don't we assume if you haven't withdrawn and you are on the waitlist and holding no offers that you will say yes if asked to matriculate? A flood of LOIs when we don't have any open seats, doesn't help anyone and just drains staff time.

Where it might get interesting is when someone is holding an offer from a highly desirable school and on is our waitlist. I would suggest that such an applicant can't be hurt by sending a letter to state what would not be intuitive, that you'd drop a top 5 school or a relatively cheap instate school where you have an offer for us. Of course, we also get LOIntents and when push comes to shove, the applicant is just blowing smoke. Having been burnt by those applicants, our Dean considers most LOIntent to be works of fiction.
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And I totally get that and why I didn't accuse any of you of lying. You're just talking about your personal experience and everyone here appreciates it! Your school does what your school does. all I'm saying is that in my experience there are many, many schools that do take it seriously and the blanket advice that these letters are useless on SDN is wrong. If you said "at my school it's horse**** but at other schools it may help" I wouldn't say anything. But @Goro literally said all adcoms know that applicants are lying which is just rude haha.

Anyways just know that for many applicants we only send these letters to one school and it does mean something. I hope you're not so jaded from some bad apples as to disregard them all-- but oh well. I'm used to having no power in the admissions game and this is my way of speaking my mind lol.

You all also told me to shave and I disregarded that advice completely. I'm just staying consistent 😉
 
GrumpyGus said:
You all also told me to shave and I disregarded that advice completely. I'm just staying consistent 😉
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Did I really?? I don't recall that. I did have this exchange with Reckoner in December 2013:
↑
LizzyM,
Should I keep my beard or start 2014 clean-shaven?
Reckoner
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Ask the Weegie board ... or your significant other. Leave me out of it. Unless you look like a member of the Boston Red Sox team in which case you should shave it off today!
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gonnif said:
You have 5 types of overlapping letters to that can be sent to a medical admission committee

Updates: new info you want to make the committee aware of. The information should be worthwhile and significant. Some schools encourage these buy many schools discourage or list policies not accepting updates.
Thank you: after interview
Letter of Interest: Typically, a post-interview but pre-decision letter that can reiterate and reinforce the school would be a good fit, usually with information you learned from your interview. This usually does not include a promise to attend if selected.
Letter of Intent: Typically written by applicants who have been accepted by one school but are on WL at another preferred school, outlining the reasons why you prefer it. There is little to scant evidence that these are particularly effective. It should be noted these are thought to have even less impact for those who are just on WL.

I will add one other type that is rarely used any more, the Reconsideration Letter: This is an applicant rejected pre-interview who has a large anomaly in their academic background that can be viewed through mitigating circumstances and asks to be reconsidered. With the non-screened/minimally pre-screened secondaries, there are plenty of opportunities for an applicant to express these circumstances.
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Right, so letters of intent are a special type of letter of interest and not a separate category?
 
LizzyM said:
Did I really?? I don't recall that. I did have this exchange with Reckoner in December 2013:
↑
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Haha I mean just generally everyone on SDN told me to shave. I don't remember if you specifically said that.

Also how do you remember that from 2013? That's just impressive
 
Hi ive been reading this thread and I have a question. Ive been waitlisted @ 4 schools with zero accepts. I sent a letter of interest to each, and ended with a line that "I would accept a seat if offered". Now im regretting this because 1) is it dishonest? while i dont think ill get 2 acceptances, what if i do? 2) Do all schools call each other to find out if an applicant also sent a letter of intent to their school - and although they dont know where I applied, they could easily assume that i applied to my local school?
 
gyngyn said:
We would never see this.
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Hi ive been reading this thread and I have a question. Ive been waitlisted @ 4 schools with zero accepts. I sent a letter of interest to each, and ended with a line that "I would accept a seat if offered". Now im regretting this because 1) is it dishonest? while i dont think ill get 2 acceptances, what if i do? 2) Do all schools call each other to find out if an applicant also sent a letter of intent to their school - and although they dont know where I applied, they could easily assume that i applied to my local school?
 
Jeff4 said:
Hi ive been reading this thread and I have a question. Ive been waitlisted @ 4 schools with zero accepts. I sent a letter of interest to each, and ended with a line that "I would accept a seat if offered". Now im regretting this because 1) is it dishonest? while i dont think ill get 2 acceptances, what if i do? 2) Do all schools call each other to find out if an applicant also sent a letter of intent to their school - and although they dont know where I applied, they could easily assume that i applied to my local school?
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...and this is why schools assign no value to these letters.
 
Jeff4 said:
Hi ive been reading this thread and I have a question. Ive been waitlisted @ 4 schools with zero accepts. I sent a letter of interest to each, and ended with a line that "I would accept a seat if offered". Now im regretting this because 1) is it dishonest? while i dont think ill get 2 acceptances, what if i do? 2) Do all schools call each other to find out if an applicant also sent a letter of intent to their school - and although they dont know where I applied, they could easily assume that i applied to my local school?
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We are aware that everyone does this. That's why they have no value.
 
Jeff4 said:
yes I know, it was a mistake. but now Im wondering if its gonna hurt my chances at all...
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Did the schools you wrote to actually accept letters and updates? Because if not, that WILL hurt your chances.

The Admissions deans know you're lying. Only needy schools that like to see people grovel want LOI.
 
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