What is everyone's opinion/experience on sending a letter of interest to school's that I haven't heard back from at this stage in the application cycle? Would just be letting them know that I remain interested in their school and would still accept an interview invite if it was given and also include a short update on what I've been doing since applying. I was complete in late Aug at all schools.
Letter of Interest Pre Interview Invite
- Thread starter PLZ46
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Does the school specifically state that they accept updates?
FYI:
“How are LOIs worthless? Do they just hold no weight whatsoever/not get read usually?”
How would you interpret a nonbinding promise from a desperate applicant?
Here’s one Adcom member’s thoughts on the matter:
“We only invite amazing students to interview. It is quite unlikely that further good deeds or achievements will have an effect since only the students who have already wowed us are interviewed.”
“One serious thought for a moment. You want to become a physician, a profession that highly values ethical behavior. Yet even before you start training for this profession, you want take the unethical act of making promises to two different schools that you will attend over any other school?” -gonnif
From the wise Med Ed: [What med schools…] accept and desire are two different things. My institution, for instance, will accept practically anything a given applicant wants to forward along, but only rarely do we consider it a worthwhile addition to the package.
And yes, some of us have gotten a little jaded about LOI's. I could fill a barrel with all the post-interview correspondence I have received that has not translated into a single matriculant. This has all gotten mighty complicated and burdensome for what is essentially a zero sum game.
It's generally not burdensome for an applicant to upload something to the portal, and once in a great while it does tip us off with some useful info. I can think of one individual who had a stellar application, like Harvard/Yale/Stanford-worthy, and a superb interview, who sent us several updates and a LOI. We were somewhat perplexed by this person's tenacious interest in our program. Turns out there were family/geographical reasons behind the whole thing, the applicant just never felt comfortable directly playing that card.
When it comes down to waitlist time I will scan through what folks have uploaded post-interview. The vast majority of times it has no impact. Occasionally I have seen it hurt people's chances. Come to think of it, in my experience this is probably more likely, than such correspondence having a positive impact.
See the following for classic examples of why most Admissions deans treat these as lies.
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/loi-and-interviews.1252832/#post-18849958
I told a school I'd go if accepted, now not so sure
Hi All, So earlier this year I was waitlisted at a school that was my undoubted first choice. My boyfriend (we are applying together) was accepted there a month or so ago, and so we decided that we'd send the admissions staff a letter, basically saying "If you accept Not A Troll, we will both...
forums.studentdoctor.net
And if you still don’t believe me, read these:
HomeSkool's Guide to Letters of Intent
Second letter of intent? Help!
