letters of intent / who to talk to?

[drstrangelove]

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Hi all, I have a few questions for the group about the late stage application cycle.

1) Do letters of interest do anything?
2) Does a letter of intent at Harvard or Hopkins even mean anything?
3) If you want to speak about your application, in terms of its status, or how much you want to go to a certain school, or a spoken conversation about a specific aspect of your application, or conduct a dialogue with someone, etc., are there specific contacts you should be speaking to/e-mailing? (I.e., above and beyond the admissions office administration) Who are these people?

 

[priscy921]

this topic has been talked about to death, but my opinion is that LOI's may help on schools where not all acceptees decide to go there, and the school's really want to accept students who will definitely go. but in the case of school's like harvard/hopkins, i don't think they'd do any good, because probably all of the people who applied there would definitely go. so the school's pretty much assume that they're your top choice, and they're usually correct 😉

 

[bigbaubdi]

Originally posted by priscy921
this topic has been talked about to death, but my opinion is that LOI's may help on schools where not all acceptees decide to go there, and the school's really want to accept students who will definitely go. but in the case of school's like harvard/hopkins, i don't think they'd do any good, because probably all of the people who applied there would definitely go. so the school's pretty much assume that they're your top choice, and they're usually correct 😉

LOIs help when you are waitlisted and schools have to pick out the applicants who will definitely say "yes" to them, if accepted.

And this applies to Hopkins, as well. The assistant dean of admissions came to speak at our school after I was waitlisted and he told me that I should send a letter of intent sometime in April, if I were really dead set on going to JHU.

For whatever its worth, they probably lose a few applicants to HMS or UCSF in March and then have a few open spots in late April (in some years, 30 or 40 he said) that they have to make decisions about.

I still have a tough time believing that people would turn down JHU though.

 

[priscy921]

yeah, i would agree with bigbaudi that if the school has a wailist that actually MOVES, then it may be a good idea, but some school's waitlist hardly move at all, like stanford didn't take ONE person off their wailist last year, and i think harvard's hardly moves also. but if your waitlisted at a school with alot of waitlist movement, like he described hopkins having, then i'd send one. what he was saying is pretty similar to what i meant in my earlier post, if the school loses some acceptees, then send one, otherwise it may not mean too much to send one.

 

[drstrangelove]

yeah, i would agree with bigbaudi that if the school has a wailist that actually MOVES, then it may be a good idea, but some school's waitlist hardly move at all,

So you definitely have to be on the waitlist to send a letter of intent? What if you have not interviewed yet?

Also, what about question #3?

 

[priscy921]

no, you don't HAVE to be, it's not like the school's have a rule about it, it was just my suggestion to wait and see if you're waitlisted. i'm not sure about question number 3 though...

 

[LaurieB]

Here's a thread I started on the subject of LOI's - I thought I'd post the link since I got some good advice/info from other folks.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=93695

 

[drstrangelove]

So what it seems like is a letter of INTENT isn't the best idea pre-interview, but might help after an interview.

A letter of INTEREST can never hurt, but may or may not help that much either.

Ok, but about my question 3:--
Suppose I want to send a letter of interest to a school.
Who do I send to?

What if I would like to speak/communicate to someone in more detail about my interest in the school, or if I have questions about the curriculum? Who do I talk to?

 

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[Kashue]

Originally posted by bump
bump

I see you are living up to your name.

Good job

 

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