Sending letter of interest after letter of intent?

[IceDuchess]

Hello everyone,

I have been waitlisted at a medical school since January. I submitted a letter of intent to this school 1 month ago and just wrote a letter of interest draft. I would like to get your thoughts on whether or not I should send this letter.

In one of my updates, I mentioned that I recently started a job as a medical scribe. However, I did not add any details on how my perspective changed since starting this position. The letter of interest focuses on how I have had a chance to work directly with underserved populations for the very first time and how it has affected me. Scribing has helped me determine that I would really like to work with these types of communities in the future.

Since the medical school was built to address the physician shortage and they emphasize taking care of underserved communities, I am thinking it would be good to send this letter since my goals directly overlap with their goals.

What are your thoughts? Help is greatly appreciated!

-ID-

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[Goro]

You sent them an app. That told them you were interested.

How would you interpret a nonbinding contest from a desperate candidate??????

 

[IceDuchess]

You sent them an app. That told them you were interested.

How would you interpret a nonbinding contest from a desperate candidate??????

I am sorry, I did not mean to come across as a desperate candidate if my post seemed that way. I have only been sending updates every few months. I understand how busy the admissions committee is and I am only reaching out when I have a significant update.

Given that many applicants are making final decisions on what schools to attend, wouldn't it be good to express that I am still interested in them over other schools?

Aside from that, my scribing experience is something that I did not mention in my primary/secondary applications. If I was working as a scribe back then, I absolutely would have talked about how it formed my career goals.

 

[Goro]

I am sorry, I did not mean to come across as a desperate candidate if my post seemed that way. I have only been sending updates every few months. I understand how busy the admissions committee is and I am only reaching out when I have a significant update.

Given that many applicants are making final decisions on what schools to attend, wouldn't it be good to express that I am still interested in them over other schools?

Aside from that, my scribing experience is something that I did not mention in my primary/secondary applications. If I was working as a scribe back then, I absolutely would have talked about how it formed my career goals.

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.”

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.

And if you still don’t believe me, read these:

HomeSkool's Guide to Letters of Intent

Second letter of intent? Help!

 

[boogiecousins94]

I understand why you would want to send one, but sending something after a letter of intent, especially after you updated them multiple times, seems like overkill and excess.

Although I may be biased to my personal experiences, I think updates are only good if you have publications, national/international abstracts, semesters of grades (if its something amazing like 4.0 and you have a 3.3), or if you've done a lot of other things and haven't sent an update in like 6+ months. You can tack on additional volunteering hours, job stuff etc. but that should not be the chunk of it, in my humble opinion.

All of the update(s) I sent in had a publication or abstract as the main thing and I added hours/grades as a secondary addition

 

[IceDuchess]

Got it, thanks so much for your feedback, Goro and boogie! I won't be sending the letter.

I have one more question: how do med schools view receiving additional LORs (from employers)?