Update Letter

[sylvia123]

Hey everyone!
I am writing an update letter/letter of intent to a school I am waitlisted at and wanted to update them about my senior design project I'm currently working on. We are developing a molding system for skeletal muscle regeneration and I wrote ~1/2 page about the project. I was just wondering if it would be weird to include a picture of the mold that we developed within the letter. It is pretty simple and not too fancy or anything, but it is a little hard to describe in words.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I don't want to do anything wrong, because this is my top choice school. Thanks for the help!!

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[Swagster]

I've never sent an update letter, so I don't know firsthand. To me it sounds a bit weird to include a picture.

 

[rhcarolina]

I think it would be something interesting to send with an update letter, especially if it your senior project. I remember the Dean of Admissions at a medical school mentioning that waitlisted applicants had sent theses and even works of art with update letters in previous years. You may want to check with the school itself, but I think showing your work and interest in a school could only help. Good luck !

 

[Anonymous01]

I don't think there's anything wrong with including the picture. It really can't hurt, and it seems like it can only help.

The bigger question is whether or not you have permission to take a picture and make it available to anyone else. Labs are notorious for withholding data, figures, pictures, etc. until they receive publications in order to avoid having other labs try to recreate and publish the experiments before the original lab produces something useful with it. If your lab is fine with you taking a picture and letting you send it to a medical school (I would ask the PI), then I would go for it.

 

[sylvia123]

Ok thanks everyone for the input. Anonymous01, I thought about that but I thought it should be ok since all seniors' project reports (which include all our data, pictures, results, etc...) are all put on our school's website and available to anyone on the internet by April or May. I also checked with my advisor today after reading your post to make sure and he said that since it's just going to the admissions committee and not the public in general, it is fine. Thanks again!