Letter of Intent

[Dog2442]

Hello,
I interviewed at a medical school last week and I would like to write a letter of intent. However, I am unsure of how to send it. Should I put it in an email or attached to an email as a word document, or some other way?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deleted480308]

Pdf instead of word document

But in the text of the email is fine

 

[Tenk]

Letter of intent a week after interview is like a marriage proposal after one date with a hottie.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Letter of intent a week after interview is like a marriage proposal after one date with a hottie.

Eh. I sent a letter of intent a few days after my interview with my top choice. I got accepted, so it obviously didn’t hurt. They put most of the people on hold, so it may have even helped.

For the op, I attached mine and pasted it below the email. I said in the body that I did both for their convenience since I wasn’t sure how they added it to the file. For an attachment, I agree with using a pdf.

 

[Dog2442]

Letter of intent a week after interview is like a marriage proposal after one date with a hottie.

The head of admissions recommended it....

 

[Med Ed]

Hello,
I interviewed at a medical school last week and I would like to write a letter of intent. However, I am unsure of how to send it. Should I put it in an email or attached to an email as a word document, or some other way?

Got any other acceptances?

 

[Tenk]

The head of admissions recommended it....

The head of admissions came up to you personally and said I want you to send a letter of recommendation in? That’s a recommendation. If they spoke to the group and said: feel free to send a letter of recommendation in, that’s just smoke and mirrors.

The thing about medical school is that it is a sellers market. For most applicants, sending a letter in saying they will go to that school is redudant as most schools know you would probably do that anyways. This is even more so for ivy leagues and more prestigious schools.

There is one situation where a letter of intent may help. It’s where the applicant is so strong with multiple acceptances and the school is maybe not a top tier school that the school actually thinks the applicant is just using them as a backup. In this case a letter of intent with a strong reason to go to that school could help but in most cases that student would probably have been accepted anyways.

To answer your question: email, mail, doesn’t matter. Email is probably easier. You may not get a response. That’s pretty normal. Good luck but I wouldn’t sweat over this.

 

[Goro]

The head of admissions came up to you personally and said I want you to send a letter of recommendation in? That’s a recommendation. If they spoke to the group and said: feel free to send a letter of recommendation in, that’s just smoke and mirrors.

The thing about medical school is that it is a sellers market. For most applicants, sending a letter in saying they will go to that school is redudant as most schools know you would probably do that anyways. This is even more so for ivy leagues and more prestigious schools.

There is one situation where a letter of intent may help. It’s where the applicant is so strong with multiple acceptances and the school is maybe not a top tier school that the school actually thinks the applicant is just using them as a backup. In this case a letter of intent with a strong reason to go to that school could help but in most cases that student would probably have been accepted anyways.

To answer your question: email, mail, doesn’t matter. Email is probably easier. You may not get a response. That’s pretty normal. Good luck but I wouldn’t sweat over this.

Sounds like one of those needy schools, or that like seeing people grovel.

 

[beeboops]

n = 1, but I sent in a letter of intent to a school after being passed up by them at an earlier acceptance date and having been waitlisted by them twice with no other acceptances at the time. I assume they were attracted to the shine of my desperation, but I would disagree that LOIs are usually useless.

Wait a little bit and send your intent wrapped up in an update letter so it doesn’t seem AS desperate. You may get in without having to even write one.

 

[Goro]

Lol, all the SDNers who have trouble with the concept of cause and effect.
EDIT:
Your logical fallacy is false cause

 

[HomeSkool]

I discourage you from sending an LOI unless you're already holding an acceptance to a very desirable school. An LOI when you have no other acceptances is meaningless: saying "I'll go to your school over all others if you accept me" doesn't mean anything if you don't have any other options anyway. With very few exceptions, an LOI is only valuable if it's something like "Hi Less Prestigious School, I got accepted to Yale but I really want to stay in my home state of Not Connecticut, so please accept me and I'll dump Yale for you." It's a way of telling a school "love me now or lose me forever," and that doesn't work if you have no better alternatives.

As @Goro said, some schools like to see applicants grovel; a few others, like Mayo, are in barren tundra wastelands and like it when people show specific interest in joining them there. For most of us, though, we assume that you're a) lying and b) desperate unless you give us a compelling reason to believe otherwise. Like, for example, offering to dump Yale for us.

Go to HomeSkool's Guide to Letters of Intent to see this in graphical form!

 

[Master Thinker]

I discourage you from sending an LOI unless you're already holding an acceptance to a very desirable school. An LOI when you have no other acceptances is meaningless: saying "I'll go to your school over all others if you accept me" doesn't mean anything if you don't have any other options anyway. With very few exceptions, an LOI is only valuable if it's something like "Hi Less Prestigious School, I got accepted to Yale but I really want to stay in my home state of Not Connecticut, so please accept me and I'll dump Yale for you." It's a way of telling school "love me now or lose me forever," and that doesn't work if you have no better alternatives.

As @Goro said, some schools like to see applicants grovel; a few others, like Mayo, are in barren tundra wastelands and like it when people show specific interest in joining them there. For most of us, though, we assume that you're a) lying and b) desperate unless you give us a compelling reason to believe otherwise. Like, for example, offering to dump Yale for us.

Go to HomeSkool's Guide to Letters of Intent to see this in graphical form!

Not the OP, but is it necessary to tell our top choice the names of the other places we got accepted at? In my LOI, I just mentioned my number of acceptances.

 

[Goro]

Not the OP, but is it necessary to tell our top choice the names of the other places we got accepted at? In my LOI, I just mentioned my number of acceptances.

Why should Albany care if you got accepted to Drexel, Oakland-B and Netter? You getting into Yale or Case will make you catch. That's why you have to name names.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Lol, all the SDNers who have trouble with the concept of cause and effect.
EDIT:
Your logical fallacy is false cause

Lol. Since I am one of the few people who said it may have helped me, I’m assuming you’re referring to me. I don’t have any issues understanding cause and effect. Your advice is good, but it is not universal. Some schools take LOIs seriously, and if a dean at that school recommended it to him personally, I’d say it’s probably not worthless (or at least less likely to be so).

What’s that quote you like to use about solipsism?

 

[Dog2442]

Got any other acceptances?

no

 

[Goro]

no

Then you're in the same position as the guy who says to the hot chick, "But I'll still respect you in the morning!"

 

[rball]

I know for a fact there are several top schools that care greatly about letters of interest/intent. They are all competing for the same applicants and want students who are likely to matriculate and would be excited to do so. If they mention an LOI/letter of interest to interviewees, they are not lying and they do care about those.

OP if you want to write an LOI, go for it. I’d wait a bit though to show that you are not as desperate and that you’ve thought it through. You could instead write a thank you letter/letter of interest saying why you loved the school, and then if waitlisted write an LOI mentioning another school you were accepted to (assuming the other school has the same or stronger reputaion).

 

[Dhooy7]

Anyone have good resources to write a strong LOI? Or an example that is strong?

 

[Med Ed]

Anyone have good resources to write a strong LOI? Or an example that is strong?

You can't craft a truly strong LOI from some anonymous boilerplate. Write from the heart. Make us feel it.

 

[altblue]

Would it really be necessary for me to cite the other schools? I'm sitting on a WL at a school with lower stats and I just feel like a genuine expression of interest would be alright.

 

[puahate]

Sounds like one of those needy schools, or that like seeing people grovel.

Do you a list of these needy schools? lol

 

[Pharaoh95]

Do you a list of these needy schools? lol

They’ll usually tell you from my experience (cough cough Georgetown cough)

 

[Goro]

They’ll usually tell you from my experience (cough cough Georgetown cough)

Or mayo or Jefferson

 

[puahate]

Or mayo or Jefferson

Mayo that's interesting...