Post-II Pre-Decision LOI?

[Cynicalcatlady]

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So I interviewed at a school in mid-January and it has become my top choice program. I was wondering if sending a letter of intent before my interview decision came back was a good idea?

I am banking a lot of decisions on getting accepted into this program- I'm starting to look at houses with my SO who is a resident in the same city and if I have to move away it's going to be pretty awful- one of the many reasons why I want to go to this school! I even brought my family to look at it when they came to town to visit me last week.

On one hand I think it can't hurt because it will show I am serious about the school and that if they do accept me I will go there. On the other hand I don't want to annoy them or seem impatient. I felt good about my interview but it is a large-ish program that receives a huge amount of applications and I believe sends out a large number of interview invitations as well.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing this and would like to hear other opinions before I make my decision! Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[Allergic to Toradol]

The time to convey this would have been during the interview, not in a letter formulated very soon after having the chance to express your interest in person. I can just see @Goro cringing right now at the thought of an applicant doing something like this. You just have to trust the process OP.

 

[aalamruad]

yes it's totally fine to send a LOI post-II before decisions come out, especially since you have other acceptances that you can tell them you're willing to drop

 

[aalamruad]

It's not totally fine.
First off, some schools don't want any updates or LOI.
Other schools will merely put your letter in your file, where it will be ignored.
They know you're interested in them because you sent them an app.
Your fate has already been determined. If you're on the wait list, they're not going to bump you up right now because of a love letter.
Most schools will consider your LOi a lie. They get tons of these things.

There are, based upon the filter of SDN respondents (an imperfect sampling, I admit), a handful of schools that like seeing applicants grovel, like Gtown.

And other accepts (which OP doesn't state they have), mean nothing unless they at better schools. Drexel is not going to care if you got accepted to Albany or Temple.

And OP, always have a Plan B. People are terrible judges of their own interview performance. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

And Wallobi, avoid the sin of solipsism.

I'll take these one by one:

Obviously it's a given that people should only send updates/LOI's to schools that accept updates/LOI's, that's just common sense.

If the school puts the LOI in a file and ignores it, no harm was done and it was worth a shot.

They know you're interested in them, but they don't know how interested you are in them relative to other schools, and schools typically want to matriculate applicants who are passionate about going to their school.

You have no idea if OP's fate has already been determined, s/he only interviewed 2-3 weeks ago so it's possible that the admissions committee hasn't met yet (and it's even possible that this particular school is non-rolling).

You consider LOI's to be lies, not everyone does, and again, if they don't believe it, it'll be ignored with no harm done and it was worth a shot.

And OP's signature does indeed say s/he is holding other acceptances at the moment.

 

[Cynicalcatlady]

The time to convey this would have been during the interview, not in a letter formulated very soon after having the chance to express your interest in person. I can just see @Goro cringing right now at the thought of an applicant doing something like this. You just have to trust the process OP.

Thank you for your input! 🙂 I definitely did convey during the interview that I loved the program. However, I did not have a chance to say that it was my top choice or that I had a special interest in staying in this particular location. That is the only reason I would like to let them know that information now, before they have reviewed my application again. I definitely will consider waiting until I find out their decision to send a letter of interest.

It's not totally fine.
First off, some schools don't want any updates or LOI.
Other schools will merely put your letter in your file, where it will be ignored.
They know you're interested in them because you sent them an app.
Your fate has already been determined. If you're on the wait list, they're not going to bump you up right now because of a love letter.
Most schools will consider your LOi a lie. They get tons of these things.

There are, based upon the filter of SDN respondents (an imperfect sampling, I admit), a handful of schools that like seeing applicants grovel, like Gtown.

And other accepts (which OP doesn't state they have), mean nothing unless they at better schools. Drexel is not going to care if you got accepted to Albany or Temple.

And OP, always have a Plan B. People are terrible judges of their own interview performance. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

And Wallobi, avoid the sin of solipsism.

Thank you for your response, Goro. 🙂 I am fairly certain that my fate has not yet been decided as of yet- they estimated I would hear a response by mid-end of March, which leads me to believe they are still considering me. This is why I think this could be the best time to send a LOI if I am going to do so at all. I definitely appreciate your perspective and will take what you said into consideration.

If I do send one I will do my best to make it extremely personal so they will hopefully get that I am genuine. I understand that it can seem inauthentic to some schools and that would be a risk I would have to take. If it does end up sitting in my file and ignored, that would not exactly hurt me, would it? Is there any risk of a LOI hurting my application? The school states on their website that they permit updates, so would that also imply they permit/are receptive to LOI?

By the way, I do have acceptances but they are not at schools that are better so that would not give me leverage.

I'll take these one by one:

Obviously it's a given that people should only send updates/LOI's to schools that accept updates/LOI's, that's just common sense.

If the school puts the LOI in a file and ignores it, no harm was done and it was worth a shot.

They know you're interested in them, but they don't know how interested you are in them relative to other schools, and schools typically want to matriculate applicants who are passionate about going to their school.

You have no idea if OP's fate has already been determined, s/he only interviewed 2-3 weeks ago so it's possible that the admissions committee hasn't met yet (and it's even possible that this particular school is non-rolling).

You consider LOI's to be lies, not everyone does, and again, if they don't believe it, it'll be ignored with no harm done and it was worth a shot.

And OP's signature does indeed say s/he is holding other acceptances at the moment.

Thank you for this, I definitely agree with your second two points and hope that it is not too idealistic to believe so! Your perspective and Goro's perspective basically vocalize my mind's discussion on deciding whether or not do to this. I definitely don't want to hurt my application but I don't mind wasting my time if it is worth a shot! 🙂

 

[Goro]

A clarification is needed. Yes, you won't find out about the school's decision until March, but their decision as already been made. Interviewers typically send in their scores/vote/commentary within an hour. Adcoms meet anywhere from every 1-3 weeks to determine accepts/wail-list/reject fates.

IF this was a needy school, then an LOI might be factored into the decision to pull you off of a wait list, but there are a lot of other variables in play for this.

I am crossing fingers for you.

I don't think that updates are the same thing as an LOI.

Thank you for your response, Goro. 🙂 I am fairly certain that my fate has not yet been decided as of yet- they estimated I would hear a response by mid-end of March, which leads me to believe they are still considering me. This is why I think this could be the best time to send a LOI if I am going to do so at all. I definitely appreciate your perspective and will take what you said into consideration.

If I do send one I will do my best to make it extremely personal so they will hopefully get that I am genuine. I understand that it can seem inauthentic to some schools and that would be a risk I would have to take. If it does end up sitting in my file and ignored, that would not exactly hurt me, would it? Is there any risk of a LOI hurting my application? The school states on their website that they permit updates, so would that also imply they permit/are receptive to LOI?

 

[Medic741]

I sent one to my top choice post-interview to re-iterate what was said during the interview... hearing back by Friday... can't come soon enough . Dean made it clear that it was important to them to keep their offer n : matriculated n ratio low, so that factored into the decision to send it pre-decision as they had asked where I had been accepted/interviewed at... that question seems quite inappropriate.

Just don't be a scumbag -- be ready to follow through with your LOI if you decide to send one.

 

[aalamruad]

Worst case scenario: they ignore the LOI
Best case scenario: the LOI helps you gain admission to your dream school

No risk, potentially huge reward. Seems like an easy decision to me

 

[Cynicalcatlady]

Thanks everyone! I have some thinking to do!