Letters of Intent - A Poll

[MedSchoolPlz]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Assuming you actually want to go to the school in question and assuming the school has not stated that they don't want a letter of intent, when would you send your letter of intent?

 

[DendWrite]

Have you been waitlisted at the school or something? If so, I'd send it as soon as I found out about being waitlisted. You could maybe mention in the interview that it's your first choice too. Pre-interview is just weird. You haven't even visited the campus yet. Don't do that. Post-interview but pre-decision...my thinking is that a LOI is not going to change a rejection to an acceptance. So you'll either get accepted (no LOI needed) or waitlisted. If you get waitlisted, send the LOI. If you get rejected, you could petition them and tell them it's your first choice, but I haven't heard of a case of someone being rejected and then accepted solely because of an LOI. Waitlist usually means you are a good enough candidate but they sort of want to see what the field looks like...reject usually means "not fit for this application cycle."

 

[randombetch]

Definitely after the interview... Probably right after the interview, but sending after the waitlist notification would be smart as well. (If they weren't even going to waitlist you, a letter of intent probably wouldn't have made the difference between rejection and acceptance unless they only waitlist a few students each year)

 

[spence]

Writing a letter of intent after you've been rejected would not help anything, they wouldn't all the sudden just reverse their rejection decision. I think after you've been waitlisted would be a good time.

 

[red10]

I'm planning to send one after my interview but before the final pool.
I figure since I'm out of state, if they know I'll for sure go there then maybe it'll either convince them to accept me sooner or potentially move what would have been a waitlist into an acceptance.

Chances are if they planned to reject you then the letter won't be of any help unless you were like one point or place (or however they do it) away from the bottom of the waitlist and they decide to tack you onto the bottom of the list out of pity.🙄

 

[MedSchoolPlz]

I haven't been waitlisted yet, but I am waiting to hear back from a few schools. I've been taking the "wait and see" approach. I don't want to run the risk of appearing to lack genuineness by rifling off a letter of interest the day after the interview. One school in particular explicitly stated not to follow that approach. That said, I don't want to harm my chances of acceptance by not stating my interest within an acceptable time frame. The question for me is, "what is that time frame?"

 

[JJMrK]

Most people send these out if they've been WLed at a school they are particularly interested in. Letting the school know that you are interested might help you get bumped off of the WL, especially if it's unranked. While it probably doesn't hurt to send it at another point, who knows whether or not it's effective.

 

[bannie22]

I wrote ONE letter of intent.
Tried to get it in before my file was looked at after my interview.
Dont know how successful I was with that.

I knew once I left that that school was home.
And my first choice by a zillion light years.

 

[randombetch]

I wrote ONE letter of intent.
Tried to get it in before my file was looked at after my interview.
Dont know how successful I was with that.

I knew once I left that that school was home.
And my first choice by a zillion light years.

Out of curiosity, which one was it? WUSTL?