Letter of intent?

[lightn7724]

Applying IM. I remember a program saying "not to worry about it" but not clearly saying not to. That makes me think I shouldn't but my advisor is saying to send. I don't want them to think I wasn't listening and judge me negatively. I can't find a policy on their site or anything. Advice on how to find out for sure whether they accept LOI or not?

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[Dr. Anonymouss]

Applying IM. I remember a program saying "not to worry about it" but not clearly saying not to. That makes me think I shouldn't but my advisor is saying to send. I don't want them to think I wasn't listening and judge me negatively. I can't find a policy on their site or anything. Advice on how to find out for sure whether they accept LOI or not?

Unless they said explicitly "do not reach out to us after interview day" then by all means send it. Some programs say "We will not communicate with applicants after interview day" and that is another gray area, but just because they don't plan on responding to applicants does not mean they will not read your letter. I do not see any harm in it and can't ever see a program "black listing" you because you expressed to them that you would like to rank their program number 1. That would be non-sense.

 

[gyngyn]

Applying IM. I remember a program saying "not to worry about it" but not clearly saying not to. That makes me think I shouldn't but my advisor is saying to send. I don't want them to think I wasn't listening and judge me negatively. I can't find a policy on their site or anything. Advice on how to find out for sure whether they accept LOI or not?

Your advisor is right.
The program cannot ask you where you plan to rank them, but you are free to inform your #1 program.

 

[shemer77]

It never hurts to send a letter of intent. Not sure how much PD's weigh it into their decision making anyways :/