I'm waiting for an OOS school that will release all acceptances at the beginning of March. Should I send a LOI now or wait till I'm potentially on the waitlist, assuming I'm waitlisted?
When do I actually send a Letter of Intent?
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Waitlisted, with other accepts
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Wait until you are WL. After all, they might accept you without it, and, if they don't want you (R or low on the WL), your "intent" is not going to change their mind.
It only matters if you are WL and in a position where they might take you, so that's the only time it has even a possibility to make a difference. Consequently, as difficult as it is to wait, you really do have to wait until you know whether or not you are WL.
@KnightDoc @Goro Lo and behold, WL haha! Quick Questions:
1) WL movement starts after April 30. Is there a tactical time to send a letter? Maybe a week before April 30?
2) I have an A at one T20, but I also have a WL at another T20, should I mention that in my LOI or just mention my accepts?
1) WL movement starts after April 30. Is there a tactical time to send a letter? Maybe a week before April 30?
2) I have an A at one T20, but I also have a WL at another T20, should I mention that in my LOI or just mention my accepts?
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Definitely yes on #2. Letters of intent have marginal impact, but mentioning higher ranked or peer schools that accepted is one of the best ways to make it have a slightly larger impact. See social desirability bias
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Depends -- do you mean intent or interest? The "tactical" time is when they care enough to look at them and before they start making decisions. Of course, that varies somewhat from school to school. It's not this early, but I'm not sure I'd hold off until the week of 4/25.
I guess it depends what you are trying to get out of it. Would you really dump one T20 for another, no questions asked? If so, then let them know. If not, and you just want the additional A to have another choice, then you're send a letter of interest, which will have minimal if any impact, and it really doesn't matter when you send it.
@Goro is just going to tell you such letters are treated as lies that are widely ignored, so good luck with him! 😎
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An outright acceptance is actually fairly distant from not coming off the WL at all. A LOI is not going to close that gap.
We get letters all the time, few of them turn out to be worth the paper they're written on. Your candidacy will be judged based on what is in AMCAS: years of work and your ability to articulate the narrative of your desire to become a physician. The only thing a LOI really tells us is that you took the time to write and send it. This may play a role in WL decisions, or it may not.
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Here's why Admissions Deans treat them as lies:
How would you interpret a nonbinding promise from a desperate applicant?
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.”
“One serious thought for a moment. You want to become a physician, a profession that highly values ethical behavior. Yet even before you start training for this profession, you want take the unethical act of making promises to two different schools that you will attend over any other school?” -gonnif
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.
See the following for classic examples
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/loi-and-interviews.1252832/#post-18849958
I told a school I'd go if accepted, now not so sure
Hi All, So earlier this year I was waitlisted at a school that was my undoubted first choice. My boyfriend (we are applying together) was accepted there a month or so ago, and so we decided that we'd send the admissions staff a letter, basically saying "If you accept Not A Troll, we will both...
forums.studentdoctor.net
And if you still don’t believe me, read these:
HomeSkool's Guide to Letters of Intent
Second letter of intent? Help!
