Letter of Intent question

[FutchaDocta111]

Hello everyone,

I got wait-listed at my 1st choice med school which is near my house. Its located in a city where I grew up. My support system including my friends, family, etc all live here. Lets call this school X. I also got accepted to school Y which is a good school of equal rank located a few states away. I am more than happy to attend school y, however with it being so far away, I do not prefer to go there. Let me also mention that school x is going to cost me about 25k per year (tuition +living) and school y will cost me 70k per year (tuition + living) . Now when I write my letter of intent to school x, should I mention by name that I got accepted to school y or should I leave that part out? Im probably just being neurotic but I am worried school x may let school y know of my letter of intent lol. I guess my main question is will this letter of intent harm my acceptance to school y? Will it cause any negative feelings for school y toward me? Again, I am blessed to be accepted to school y and I'll be happy if I go there, Its just not my 1st choice.

edit: before anyone tells me a letter of intent is not worth it, school x mentioned that I should write a letter of intent in their email to me. I just want to make it clear to them that they are my 1st choice.

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[Goro]

Hello everyone,

I got wait-listed at my 1st choice med school which is near my house. Its located in a city where I grew up. My support system including my friends, family, etc all live here. Lets call this school X. I also got accepted to school Y which is a good school of equal rank located a few states away. I am more than happy to attend school y, however with it being so far away, I do not prefer to go there. Let me also mention that school x is going to cost me about 25k per year (tuition +living) and school y will cost me 70k per year (tuition + living) . Now when I write my letter of intent to school x, should I mention by name that I got accepted to school y or should I leave that part out? Im probably just being neurotic but I am worried school x may let school y know of my letter of intent lol. I guess my main question is will this letter of intent harm my acceptance to school y? Will it cause any negative feelings for school y toward me? Again, I am blessed to be accepted to school y and I'll be happy if I go there, Its just not my 1st choice.

edit: before anyone tells me a letter of intent is not worth it, school x mentioned that I should write a letter of intent in their email to me. I just want to make it clear to them that they are my 1st choice.

Go ahead and write the letter. Name the other school, and enumerate the reasons why you want school X.

Please let us know how this all works out.

 

[KnightDoc]

Hello everyone,

I got wait-listed at my 1st choice med school which is near my house. Its located in a city where I grew up. My support system including my friends, family, etc all live here. Lets call this school X. I also got accepted to school Y which is a good school of equal rank located a few states away. I am more than happy to attend school y, however with it being so far away, I do not prefer to go there. Let me also mention that school x is going to cost me about 25k per year (tuition +living) and school y will cost me 70k per year (tuition + living) . Now when I write my letter of intent to school x, should I mention by name that I got accepted to school y or should I leave that part out? Im probably just being neurotic but I am worried school x may let school y know of my letter of intent lol. I guess my main question is will this letter of intent harm my acceptance to school y? Will it cause any negative feelings for school y toward me? Again, I am blessed to be accepted to school y and I'll be happy if I go there, Its just not my 1st choice.

edit: before anyone tells me a letter of intent is not worth it, school x mentioned that I should write a letter of intent in their email to me. I just want to make it clear to them that they are my 1st choice.

Congratulations, and good luck!!

You are definitely overthinking this. School X is asking for the letter in order to gauge your interest as part of their yield management in making selections off the WL, not to screw you over with School Y! School Y will never know you sent it. It would extremely unprofessional for anyone at School X to ever share it with anyone at School Y, or with anyone outside the admission process at School X.

 

[deleted859689]

You have an acceptance to work with. Others that have posted this type of thread did not - go for it.

 

[994904]

Similar situation to OP. Would it be advisable or inadvisable to list personal reasons (such as close proximity to support system and cheaper tuition/cost of attendance) in addition to professional reasons for wanting to attend a particular school in a letter of intent? Thanks!

 

[KnightDoc]

Similar situation to OP. Would it be advisable or inadvisable to list personal reasons (such as close proximity to support system and cheaper tuition/cost of attendance) in addition to professional reasons for wanting to attend a particular school in a letter of intent? Thanks!

Of course! I'm pretty sure what they are trying to do is gauge your level of interest and sincerity rather than critically evaluate your reasons, so you should list anything that does not reflect negatively on you. Financial considerations and proximity to anything that will help you perform better certainly seem legitimate to me. Good luck!!

 

[Pepe18]

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[994904]

Of course! I'm pretty sure what they are trying to do is gauge your level of interest and sincerity rather than critically evaluate your reasons, so you should list anything that does not reflect negatively on you. Financial considerations and proximity to anything that will help you perform better certainly seem legitimate to me. Good luck!!

If you have WL from school A while holding an acceptance from school B, any letter of intent that you write should absolutely include any family/geographic ties to the school or area . These ties should have be made absolutely clear in your secondaries. BTW, for those who would have liked to have done so in secondaries, but no question allowed for it, I say FIND A WAY! Schools are trying to accept qualified students who are likely to matriculate. Having close family or geographic ties to the area or school is one of the stronger correlations to matriculation

Thank you for your response. I will definitely include those things in the letter. On another note, I know it's kind of taboo to mention partners in these kinds of things. But I have been with my partner for over 5 years and his industry requires him to stay in the city where we currently live and where my first choice med school is. We have talked about getting married but plans are up in the air since I still don't know where I'll be moving to. I am older and at the age where I'm thinking about when to start a family, buy a house, etc. Do people mention these kinds of things in their LOIs too, or overall is it inappropriate to mention relationships? Thanks in advance!

 

[KnightDoc]

Thank you for your response. I will definitely include those things in the letter. On another note, I know it's kind of taboo to mention partners in these kinds of things. But I have been with my partner for over 5 years and his industry requires him to stay in the city where we currently live and where my first choice med school is. We have talked about getting married but plans are up in the air since I still don't know where I'll be moving to. I am older and at the age where I'm thinking about when to start a family, buy a house, etc. Do people mention these kinds of things in their LOIs too, or overall is it inappropriate to mention relationships? Thanks in advance!

Ehh -- I'm really not an expert, but that sounds like it might be bordering on TMI. In the end, I don't think they are going to make admission decisions based on this level of personal detail. I think you can convey the same idea by referring to your support system without going into those details. On the other hand, some people report applying as a couple and making it a package deal, with varying degrees of success (either the same city or the same school), so anything is possible.

Nothing is inappropriate or taboo. To me, it's more a matter of whether you think it is relevant, and then, whether you think it will be likely to move the needle with the adcom. I think you can talk about what's great about the school and the city and how your support system is already in place without getting into marriage, kids and home ownership.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

 

[Pepe18]

Thank you for your response. I will definitely include those things in the letter. On another note, I know it's kind of taboo to mention partners in these kinds of things. But I have been with my partner for over 5 years and his industry requires him to stay in the city where we currently live and where my first choice med school is. We have talked about getting married but plans are up in the air since I still don't know where I'll be moving to. I am older and at the age where I'm thinking about when to start a family, buy a house, etc. Do people mention these kinds of things in their LOIs too, or overall is it inappropriate to mention relationships? Thanks in advance!

Yes mention it. If they waitlisted you, you are qualified to be there and they liked you. They just don't have available spaces at the moment. Admissions people are human and if you said your fiancé or life partner is tied to the city by a job, they would sympathize.

Edit: But don't have it as your only reason. It just a reason that makes it very clear that you are serious about committing to them

 

[994904]

Ehh -- I'm really not an expert, but that sounds like it might be bordering on TMI. In the end, I don't think they are going to make admission decisions based on this level of personal detail. I think you can convey the same idea by referring to your support system without going into those details. On the other hand, some people report applying as a couple and making it a package deal, with varying degrees of success (either the same city or the same school), so anything is possible.

Nothing is inappropriate or taboo. To me, it's more a matter of whether you think it is relevant, and then, whether you think it will be likely to move the needle with the adcom. I think you can talk about what's great about the school and the city and how your support system is already in place without getting into marriage, kids and home ownership.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

Oh no, I wasn't gonna write that much detail in the letter. I agree that it could be too much. Just giving context to the situation. Thanks so much for your thoughts!

 

[KnightDoc]

Oh no, I wasn't gonna write that much detail in the letter. I agree that it could be too much. Just giving context to the situation. Thanks so much for your thoughts!

In that case, your issues and concerns are totally legit, and are similar to why many people want to be in one place or another. As said above, adcoms are people too, and to the extent they are receptive to LOIs, this is exactly the kind of info they are looking for in order to try to ascertain motivation and sincerity of interest.

 

[Talldoctor96]

If you have a long term SO with strong reasons/ties such as career, I would include it

Yeah i don't agree with knightdoc thats not tmi in anyway...

 

[deleted994889]

What about the reverse? An applicant who was accepted to School A and has strong ties (family/friends/IS) to that area but feels School B (waitlisted, OSS) is the better fit despite. Does that strengthen a LOI to School B? Just curious.

 

[Talldoctor96]

What about the reverse? An applicant who was accepted to School A and has strong ties (family/friends/IS) to that area but feels School B (waitlisted, OSS) is the best fit. Does that strengthen a LOI to School B? Just curious.

The true answer is Letters of intent have limited impact except at few schools like Georgetown and Loyola. MAYBE? Thats what sucks about this process is that you never truly find out what helped you/ what didn't.