lettere of intent/interest

[gbu730]

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so after u attend interviews, some schools say that u might not hear from them till march or may......wt do u guys do in between? just wait patiently or do u send in some sort of letter of interest/ intent? are these letters helpful at all?

 

[bd4727]

so after u attend interviews, some schools say that u might not hear from them till march or may......wt do u guys do in between? just wait patiently or do u send in some sort of letter of interest/ intent? are these letters helpful at all?

99% of people just wait. Sending a letter certainly couldn't hurt you, but I don't think in most cases it will make a difference. If you are genuinely interested in a program, sure go ahead and send one. I would strongly encourage you to not send a disingenuous letter.

On a related note, don't keep calling the office to find out of they made a decision, they will get back to you when the process is over.

 

[URHere]

If you have an absolute favorite school, I see no reason why you shouldn't send them a letter of intent. Worst case scenario, they ignore it and you know that you did everything you could.

In some cases (like mine) I really do believe it helps. I sent my school a letter of intent shortly after being waitlisted, and although I didn't get an immediate acceptance out of it, the program director called me the next week, and called me several times over the following weeks just to let me know where I stood with the program (when accepted students declined offers, when committees were meeting, etc). I don't think that would have happened for me without the letter, and those phone calls really helped me deal with the whole waiting period (and they reinforced how much I liked the program and the people there).

Yes, this is an anecdote. Yes, anecdotal evidence is patchy, blah, blah, blah. But, this particular case is close to my heart, so I'm cool with it.

 

[achamess]

I'm in the application process right now, so I can't speak to the efficacy of the letter of intent, but I can say that I will definitely send one to my top school and only to that school.

If the adcoms are on the fence about you, sending a succinct letter stating your enthusiasm for the school and your reasons for wanting to go there could have an effect. A small one perhaps, but an effect still.

Some anecdotal evidence. I was getting antsy waiting for an interview from my top school a few weeks back, so I sent a 'letter of interest'. In this letter I concisely stated my specific reasons for the interest in that school and even named a researcher with whom I'd love to work. I have no way of proving whether this letter did anything for me, but the outcome is suggestive: I got an interview invite a week later 🙂 Might that have happened otherwise? Maybe, I'll never know. But I don't think this letter could have hurt, and at best, it might have prompted the invite.

As for the letter of intent after the interview, I think if in combination with an update letter (mentioning a recent publication, or new activities, etc) could be powerful, and I'll likely do it.

With that said, if any MSTP students here have any suggestions, we (applicants) are all ears 😀

 

[alacast]

At the moment, I have a top two. I've interviewed at one, and am going to interview at another in the future. Once I've interviewed at both and felt out both programs, I plan on sending an email to the director of my top choice saying "If you accept me, I will come here." Of course, that's assuming that I will actually feel that way about one of them, which I imagine is going to be true.

So, here's another applicant who's going to try it

 

[OpalOnyx]

is it too early now to send letter of intent to a school, post-interview?

 

[Neuronix]

Letters of intent certainly help at my program, though we get a lot of those letters so they can't help everyone. It can easily push you from top of the waitlist to accepted in the acceptance batch, or when waitlisted it can push you off the waitlist in front of someone else.

You should send the "I will come to your program for sure if accepted" letter whenever you're sure of that fact. I wouldn't necessarily wait until you're waitlisted, but it's silly to send such a letter before you've interviewed everywhere.

I disagree with bd's assertion that 99% of applicants just wait. Some years the MD program here gets LOIs from something like 33% of their applicants 😱 Big name programs tend to draw that kind of attention. That doesn't make the letters necessary for acceptance though, nor does it make them worthless. Programs know there's competition for the top applicants, and they don't want to go that far down their waitlist to fill their classes...

 

[gbu730]

In my case, this is the only MD/PhD interview invite....got some more MD interviews to go, but should I still send in the letter? I like the MD/PhD program that I interviewed at a lot, but there's still a few more schools that I haven't heard from.

 

[Neuronix]

I like the MD/PhD program that I interviewed at a lot, but there's still a few more schools that I haven't heard from.

What's the rush?

 

[Remuneration]

The fear of getting in nowhere because you "held out" for other schools?

 

[Neuronix]

The fear of getting in nowhere because you "held out" for other schools?

You'll have interviewed everywhere far before April 30th. Many spots don't become available until then when students drop their many acceptances down to one school.

 

[Remuneration]

Recognition of the absurdity of such a fear does little to ameliorate it in a time of such high anxiety.

Do programs tend to prefer a proper paper letter, an e-mail, or is either acceptable? An e-mail is tempting due to speed, convenience, ease of distribution, etc, but feels (to me) decidedly less formal than a letter proper.

 

[DendWrite]

I would think that a paper letter would be better since it would have to go in your file, and people other than the recipient would be likely to see it. However, I'd wait to see what Neuronix has to say because it sounds like he's got some "inside knowledge" on the process.

 

[Neuronix]

Do programs tend to prefer a proper paper letter, an e-mail, or is either acceptable? An e-mail is tempting due to speed, convenience, ease of distribution, etc, but feels (to me) decidedly less formal than a letter proper.

Programs vary. I think paper letter is best. Include the phrase "I will attend your school if accepted" or something else similar and with the same meaning. Obviously you only get one such letter.