Sending Letters of Interest/Intent to WLed Schools

[MooseAndMe99]

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[KnightDoc]

You are being too cute by half. Implying you will drop EVERYTHING and come by saying you will drop one specific thing and would love to come (while leaving out that there is yet another school you would choose over them in a heartbeat) is disingenuous, and will create the exact same problems for you if you later don't show up as if you just sent the letter of intent in the first place.

The way to stay out of trouble is to tell the one school you will drop everything and come, and leave that language out of the letter to the other school. Just tell them how much you love them and would love to receive an A. Don't imply you are definitely going to come if you are only going to come if the letter of intent school doesn't come through for you. It's not difficult, and there is no ethical way make them think it's a letter of intent when it isn't. It's binary -- you're either dropping everything and committing, or you're not.

By the way, all this word parsing is exactly why the SDN adcoms hate them so much, and why they are generally ineffective. Adcoms that do value them want to know that you will drop everything and come. Our natural instinct to want to hedge our bets by sending multiple letters out because we have no idea which, if any, school will be responsive is precisely what destroys their value. After an adcom gets burned a few times, which will inevitably happen as we each act in our own best interest and break promises when a better opportunity comes along, they will stop placing any value on the letters, to the extent they haven't already.

 

[KnightDoc]

Is there any way I can say I will pick it over the current school I got into without implying I’ll definitely go there if I get in? What would be a good way to phrase that?

No, because they don't care about what's going on in your head, your internal rankings, and your choices. If they care at all, they care that if they offer you the seat that you will enroll. Period. Unfortunately, when they are pulling from a WL in May and classes begin in July or August, that's all they care about. They are not interested in getting involved in our mental gymnastics as our preferences change along with our options.

It sucks that you didn't receive an A between October and March, and have all the time in the world to consider it along with all your other possibilities, but this is where you find yourself. Many of us are in exactly the same boat and, unfortunately, because so many adcoms have been lied to so many times in the past, these letters have little to no weight, depending on the school.

I'm not quite there yet myself because I'm still waiting for a few decisions. I'm hoping one of them comes through, because then I won't really care about any of my WLs anymore. 🙂

Otherwise, I'm a little paranoid about getting called out in a lie, so I'm not going to go there, but I'm in EXACTLY your position insofar as I have multiple WLs where I'd love any of them, and have no way to know which, if any, would actually respond to a LOI with an A.

I'm not doing anything yet because, as I said, I'm still waiting for a few decisions and because it really, really, really is too early to be gaming out WL strategy in February, two full months before most schools actually focus on their WLs. If nothing changes for me and I just have a bunch of WLs, all of which I prefer more than my As, I'll either send strong letters of interest to each, and let the chips fall where they may, or randomly pick one to send a letter of intent to.

OTOH, if I don't want to make it so random, an interesting question will be whether to send a letter of intent to the school I'd really prefer, assuming I had As from all of them, or to the school I think is most likely to respond to the letter with an A? I honestly don't know yet! What would you do?

 

[MooseAndMe99]

You’re right, I can tell them I’d love to attend their school and just label the letter as letter of interest so they know it is a letter of interest not letter of intent. I’d honestly go with the one you really like (unless the school is known to have like barely any waitlist movement) because you would regret not going to your top choice school if you get off the waitlist for that program and can’t go there because of your intent letter to another school.

 

[KnightDoc]

You’re right, I can tell them I’d love to attend their school and just label the letter as letter of interest so they know it is a letter of interest not letter of intent. I’d honestly go with the one you really like (unless the school is known to have like barely any waitlist movement) because you would regret not going to your top choice school if you get off the waitlist for that program and can’t go there because of your intent letter to another school.

Good points, but I'd honestly never know, since I'd withdraw, as promised, as soon as I received the A. The risk would be always wondering whether I could have received an A from the top choice, if only I had sent them a letter of intent!

 

[Goro]

Hi everyone,

I know that letters of intent should be sent to one school. However, I am on the waitlist for two schools and would take an acceptance from either one over the one I got into. There is one that I really like though that tops everything so I would write my letter of intent to that school. For the other school I really like though, how can I get across that I would love to attend their school too? Should I just send another letter of interest saying I have an acceptance to this other school but if I come off the waitlist, I would "love" to come to your school and would decline my acceptance at this school. I thought in this case, if I am not saying will, it is not binding in case I get off the waitlist for the other school but it shows that I am heavily interested in the other school and would pick it over the one I got into. The one I got into though is close to the same caliber as the ones I got waitlisted for, I just prefer the locations of the other schools better. Does it show that I really do like their school a lot if I am willing to give up an acceptance for a similarly ranked school to attend their school?

They all know you're interested because you sent them apps.

LOIs aren't legally binding, either, so go ahead an make yourself feel better and send LO Intent. Admissions Deans treat them as lies anyway.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I’m pretty sure if you sent two and one school was irritated enough, It would be grounds to file a complaint with amcas

 

[KnightDoc]

I’m pretty sure if you sent two and one school was irritated enough, It would be grounds to file a complaint with amcas

AMCAS or AAMC totally won't care at all. People keep thinking that they are some sort of enforcement team. They totally extricated themselves from the process when they discontinued the MAR.

They run an application platform. Nothing more. They couldn't possibly be more clear about this in their applicant and adcom protocols, where they say nothing is required and we all need to follow whatever rules and requirements are established by each of our schools.

The problems would begin if the pissed off school reached out to the other school, whereupon professionalism and codes of conduct would start to come into play. It seems far fetched, but one active adcom has said that he has made such calls in the past, since he is a bit of stickler with respect to ethics and professionalism. It just seems like a crazy risk to take for something that most adcoms say they don't put a lot of weight on in the first place.

 

[CoopKid]

They all know you're interested because you sent them apps.

LOIs aren't legally binding, either, so go ahead an make yourself feel better and send LO Intent. Admissions Deans treat them as lies anyway.

You have a bot for this question I swear.

Generally agree with @KnightDoc here. It's a very small (but substantially weighted) risk for a very small (and short-weighted according to adcom's like @Goro ) reward. Why?