when to send letter of interest

[calidoctor]

Hi. I'm new to SDN. Happy New Years to everybody. When would be an ideal time to send letter of interest and any other update information such as additional recommendations? I would assume that it should be right about the time they start making decisions. However, there are some people who believe that it should wait until a candidate is placed on the wait-list. What do you guys think. The school that I'm most focused on is Yale and UCLA.

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[slynxy]

bump . . .

Hey . . . would u suggest sending something to the schools pre-interview? . . . a bunch schools haven't said a peep since receiving my completed application, neither rejection or otherwise . . . this silence is drivin me nuts . . . should i send something along the lines of a letter of intent or fall semester grades? . . . or is it safe to assume that if i haven;t heard from them yet that a rejection letter is probably in the mail . . . it's hard to gauge from this forum where in the process the med schools are right now . . . its startin to sound like schools are already in the decision making phase and interviews from this point are just for waitlist . . . is it really that late in the game?

thanx . . . slynxy . . .

good luck to everyone

 

[lola]

i don't think we're that late in the game, so i would go ahead and send update letters to schools if you have anything to add. some may have already rejected you and not told you, but others may have you on hold or may have not gotten around to looking at your apps. by sending the letter, it will force them to get out your file again. unfortunately i don't have much to add as i'm not a student and don't really feel like asking for more lor's. i did take one class in the fall which i guess i could update them on (although i don't really know why they would care what i got in my english class). even if it doesn't help, it most certainly will not hurt (unless you got bad grades or something). for a few schools i'm planning on outlining why i'd really like to attend their school.

 

[Bonds756]

A lot of schools who aren't rolling make decisions in February or March so it isn't late in the game.
If you haven't heard about interviews it may be a good idea to give them an update if there is good stuff to update them with (don't just send a letter to send it). As far as when to send a letter if you already had an interview I don't know really. If you absolutely loved a school, you might want to send them a letter now and let them know. But if you don't know exactly where you want to go, you can wait. That way either they accept you or you are waitlisted and can send it then when it would probably matter most.
Good luck.