Update letters?

[2050vlsb]

Hey everyone,

I had a few questions regarding update letters .. I looked through some of the older threads, but it doesn't seem like anything's been asked at least recently.

Like (hopefully) some others, I've finished up secondaries am still waiting (again, hopefully) for some interview invites. I'm taking a year off, and so don't really have new grades or anything. However, I do have a few new activities as well as updates on activities I listed on my AMCAS (greater role and stuff).

What's the general procedure for sending update letters out? Are they generally just sent in electronically or by snail mail?

Can they be combined with aspects of letters of interests .. i.e. they update new activities and also reiterate your interest in a school?

Some schools asked for activities that you'll be doing in the next year, or what you're doing if you're not in school for the next year. Is it okay to still send these schools the updates?

Answers to any of these questions and/or any other info on update letters would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance all!

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[bagelbird]

Can they be combined with aspects of letters of interests .. i.e. they update new activities and also reiterate your interest in a school?

Hi there! I was just going to make a post about something similar, so I'd like to piggyback on this post if you don't mind.

My question is... is it okay to send one of these letters of interest/updates after you have already had an interview and are waiting to hear back from them? If the admissions committee saw that you took the time to write this letter, would it help them look more favorably on your application when they are sitting around to make a decision? Or should you wait until you have been waitlisted so then you can use this letter as ammunition to get off the waitlist?

Many thanks. And 2050vlsb, it's still very early in the process and I'm sure you will do great. According to my source who is a student interviewer at a med school, we should send update letters via email.

 

[Musclemass]

There are many different views on this, here's mine.

Did your research just get published, or did you just receive a SIGNIFICANT award? Or would you be writing to say that you found a new surgeon to shadow?.

It's September. Between your app and secondaries, the schools have more than enough info to understand who you are and what you've done. In writing an update, you're saying that there has been a change so earthshaking that it warrants the extra effort and their attention.

It's very likely that such is not the case, and the recipient will find your action to be quite annoying and a waste of their time. Wanna take that risk?

Letters of intent, etc, to move off wait lists much later in the cycle are a different story.

 

[glasshalfMD]

I agree with most of what musclemass has said.

I sent an update letter/in-the-area notification to one school already in order to hopefully elicit an interview. However, this particular school has a section on their secondary website for purposes of uploading new stuff to your application, which makes it seem like they're open to this sort of thing (so I selected 'update letter' and sent a PDF with a letter and three abstracts that I recently had accepted to a national conference).

Additionally, I have already sent an update/letter of intent to my first choice school, at which I have already interviewed. I sent it the day before the ADCOM was starting to review applications to make decisions, so it was an opportune time, in my opinion.

I think it's definitely situation dependent. I agree, you should definitely have something concrete and impressive to show them in an update letter, especially if it's pre-interview. If it's post-interview, and you feel like you were judged poorly for lacking something in your app, and you happen to start an activity that fulfills that aspect, by all means update them.

Bagelbird, I think you can do it either way with regard to interest letters. If you send it in before you hear about a decision, make sure you send it before the committee convenes, because chances are they won't look at anything else after that point. Generally, you can email someone in the admissions office and they'll tell you when that is. If you're sending it post-waitlist, check with the school first and ask if they re-review during their waitlist process. If not, it probably isn't worth it to send a letter as no one will look at it.

That's just my $0.02 and experience. I'm not sure if I'm right or wrong in what I did, but it's in the past. I'll see if my LOI got me some good reviews when I get a decision two weeks from tomorrow!