Letter of Interest??

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streetdoc

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I was wondering about intrest letters.

What needs to be included in these letters?
should they be short and sweet?
who do you send them to? the admissions committee?
can it be sent as a thankyou note with a few lines about how much i want to attend the school?
and when do they get sent? be fore the ad com meets, i'm assuming...
thanks for any help with this, i'm sure i'm stressing too much...
streetdoc

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bump....i'm trying to figure this out too.
I know when the adcom of my first choice is supposed to meet. Do I send the interest letter before they meet? or is it just used when one is trying to get off a waitlist?
 
anyone know anything????
thanks,
streetdoc
 
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When I went to my Emory interview, the admissions lady that ran the day emphasized multiple times how important it was to show a school that you are interested in them IF YOU TRULY ARE VERY INTERESTED. She said that this goes for Emory and most other schools.

I have written thank you notes to the three schools that I am very interested in, and I mentioned how interested I was in the school. The last school that I interviewed at has become my first choice now. I sent my interviewer a thank you note in the mail with a few mentions of how much I loved the school. In the week following that, I figured out that this school was my number one choice, so I sent a quick email to my interviewer saying that I couldn't make final decisions until financial aid, but that if I could choose any school I would go to that one. It was short and sweet, because I didn't want to sound too pushy.

I think that, if sincere, these letters are a good idea. Just be very careful to make it a letter of interest rather than intent.
 
Originally posted by streetdoc
I was wondering about intrest letters.

What needs to be included in these letters?
should they be short and sweet?
who do you send them to? the admissions committee?
can it be sent as a thankyou note with a few lines about how much i want to attend the school?
and when do they get sent? be fore the ad com meets, i'm assuming...
thanks for any help with this, i'm sure i'm stressing too much...
streetdoc

I think anything about how much you love the school will be largely ignored if put in a normal thank you note. If you really want to let them know that you love the school, I think a professional-looking letter, hand signed, and mailed (as in USPS, not email) letter will carry much more weight. Just make clear that it is a letter of *interest* and not *intent*.
 
i try to make one or two points about what i liked about the school in each thank you note (i've written one to almost every interviewer). i feel like this is fair game even if the school is not a top choice, because i am just pointing out what i liked about the school, and not saying "i want to go here."

for washu, though, which is my current and likely final top choice, i sent a letter saying something along the lines of "i loved the school, i loved the students, and at this point in time wash u is my top choice, and here's why." then the caveat, "although i have plans to visit a few addit. schools, i think it unlikely that i would prefer these schools to wash u." i felt that this allowed me to bail if i did happen to fall in love with another school.
then in the next paragraph i gave them a brief update of what i've been up to since amcas (i.e. two publications accepted and another two submitted).

now that i'm thinking about it, though, i'm not sure i remembered to sign the final draft of the letter. hope that doesn't make it look like a form letter i'm sending off to every school. oops - c'est la vie.
 
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