LOI Etiquette

[boolfish21]

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Hello Fellow SDNers and Adcoms,

I am wondering about some of the etiquettes for writing and sending letters of intent to schools. Here is my current predicament: I have written and sent a letter of intent post-interview, pre-decision to one of the schools I interviewed at. This school said that they would get back to me on a decision BY March 30th, but gave no set date other than that. However, I am also on the waitlist at two different schools that I am also greatly interested in and would love to continue to show my interest to help my chances of being accepted off the waitlist.

TLDR: should I wait to write LOI's to schools that I am waitlisted at until I hear back from the school I have sent my original LOI to?

 

[deleted972488]

Inb4 this is why they aren't taken seriously.

I know it's hard, but be patient. At least wait until you get a decision from your top choice.

 

[Goro]

Hello Fellow SDNers and Adcoms,

I am wondering about some of the etiquettes for writing and sending letters of intent to schools. Here is my current predicament: I have written and sent a letter of intent post-interview, pre-decision to one of the schools I interviewed at. This school said that they would get back to me on a decision BY March 30th, but gave no set date other than that. However, I am also on the waitlist at two different schools that I am also greatly interested in and would love to continue to show my interest to help my chances of being accepted off the waitlist.

TLDR: should I wait to write LOI's to schools that I am waitlisted at until I hear back from the school I have sent my original LOI to?

The very fact that you're going to send multiples of these letters illustrare yet again why Admissions Deans treat them as lies from desperate candidates. The only exceptions are those needy schools that specifically state they welcome updates and LOIs.

Read this, while you're at it:
“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.

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!

 

[Rachapkis]

A letter of intent is a non-binding document that specifically states that you will accept an offer of admission if you get accepted. Writing an LOI to more than one school, therefore, would unethical. Because they are non-binding and because many med students do not stick to their word, LOIs are not worth the paper they are written on.