This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Mihr13

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2016
Messages
11
Reaction score
22
Recently, I wrote a letter of interest to one of the schools I'm applying to. I haven't received an email about it in weeks. When I called the admissions office, the girl who answered sounded annoyed and unenthusiastic. She then informed me that it would be added to the file but I still haven't received any email of confirmation. It's been a while now... doubt it was added into my file.

Should I resend that letter to the associate dean? :eek:

Members don't see this ad.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Seems totally reasonable to follow up to ask someone to put hands on your file and make sure its in there... cause it's a tad more of a strong statement than a LOCI
 
I'm curious, what you really looking for?

Recently, I wrote a letter of interest to one of the schools I'm applying to. I haven't received an email about it in weeks. When I called the admissions office, the girl who answered sounded annoyed and unenthusiastic. She then informed me that it would be added to the file but I still haven't received any email of confirmation. It's been a while now... doubt it was added into my file.

Should I resend that letter to the associate dean? :eek:
 
I'm curious, what you really looking for?
The magic words obviously; "Oh miss X, apparently there's been a mix up, you've already been accepted!" Oh wait that's me :whistle:
 
"We completely feel your interest towards our school and would love to have you!" This.

I think you should relax OP, I know the application process is stressful but if you call/email anymore about it, you might end up being labeled as an annoyance, and that couldn't possibly help.

Only scenario where I'd say you need to be thorough about ensuring your LOI is received is at a school like Georgetown. I heard they expect an LOI in order to get off the wait list. Thats the only school that I have heard is like this though so unless it's Georgetown, I'd say chill.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Yea, I'd pull your foot off the gas OP.

Med School admissions isn't like regular job hunting where persistence can put you at the front of the pack. Instead, it can have the opposite effect.

The logistics of your application is handled by some Admissions Coordinator, who may only have one peer to assist him or her. These two people are responsible for thousands upon thousands of apps, syncing input from reviewers, handling the phone, answering general email queries, greeting people who enter the office, and many more.

Now imagime how easy it is for this person to get jaded by one person incessantly contacting them about an update.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Recently, I wrote a letter of interest to one of the schools I'm applying to. I haven't received an email about it in weeks. When I called the admissions office, the girl who answered sounded annoyed and unenthusiastic. She then informed me that it would be added to the file but I still haven't received any email of confirmation. It's been a while now... doubt it was added into my file.

Should I resend that letter to the associate dean? :eek:
"We completely feel your interest towards our school and would love to have you!" This.

Between the thousands of people who apply to one school and the hundreds who are interviewed at that school, the admissions office fields A TON of calls every day. Not saying that it was okay for the person on the phone to be annoyed at you, but it's somewhat understandable to be unenthusiastic when it's the 15th call that day about update letters, after getting 25 calls about waitlist position, 20 calls about if there are any interview invites left, etc. The person answering the phone also has zero bearing on your acceptance and it would be disingenuous to get someone's hopes up by saying "we'd love to have you!" when that person has zero bearing on that acceptance. Kind of like match violations when you get to applying to residencies...programs can't even send you a holiday card anymore because it sends "the wrong message."
 
On a similar note: does it make any sense to send multiple letters of interest to one school? I sent a "combined" update + interest letter to one of mine back in December and am about to send another update. Would it be redundant to reiterate my interest in there (even if the reasons are different)?
 
On a similar note: does it make any sense to send multiple letters of interest to one school? I sent a "combined" update + interest letter to one of mine back in December and am about to send another update. Would it be redundant to reiterate my interest in there (even if the reasons are different)?

Obviously, I'm not in any way part of admissions but I would look unfavorably at someone sending two letters within that short a time period, regardless of content. I agree with Goro's philosophy on letters, outside of very specific circumstances I can't imagine a letter will do anything for an applicant.
 
Only scenario where I'd say you need to be thorough about ensuring your LOI is received is at a school like Georgetown. I heard they expect an LOI in order to get off the wait list. Thats the only school that I have heard is like this though so unless it's Georgetown, I'd say chill.

Out of curiosity, does this mean Georgetown requires a LOI for acceptance--otherwise you're destined for the wait list? Or do you mean if you find yourself on Georgetown's wait list, you need to send a LOI to get off of it?

If the latter, many schools will appreciate a LOI from applicants on wait lists--and it may indeed help your prognosis.

If the former, that's weird.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Out of curiosity, does this mean Georgetown requires a LOI for acceptance--otherwise you're destined for the wait list? Or do you mean if you find yourself on Georgetown's wait list, you need to send a LOI to get off of it?

If the latter, many schools will appreciate a LOI from applicants on wait lists--and it may indeed help your prognosis.

If the former, that's weird.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Just an addition: one of the speakers at Georgetown's interview day said that thank you letters are used during applicant review, and not doing one will almost surely yield a waitlist at the minimum. Just advice for future applicants there. It was a long and insightful talk, but I was lucky to catch this part. Most of the other people interviewing had glazed looks on their faces by this point. Worked well in my case.


Most schools will allow a thank you letter to tip the scales. Georgetown is the ONLY school that makes it a requirement. As they told me over the phone:

We are Georgetown University. There are thousands of applicants just like you who would take a spot here.


Hearing stories like what you posted shows me that their attitude towards applicants just being numbers hasn't changed in the past 14 years.

You can start writing your letter of intent now. They still admit people based on if they write those or not.

Got these from the thread that's titled "worst admissions staff in the country" it's a pretty famous thread that's been on here for a long time but these posts are pretty recent from within the past 1-2 years. Im not sure whether you need it to just get off the waitlist though, or if everyone has to do it, I'd read through that thread and maybe PM some users who know for sure, I only know about the whole LOI thing with Georgetown cause it's a hilarious thread and I read through when it pops up. Contact some people in there who actually applied and interviewed, they should be able to answer your question.
 
Georgetown appears to be one of the few excessively needy med schools. Now, if you had a boy/girlfriend who acted like that, you'd dump them in a heartbeat, right?


Out of curiosity, does this mean Georgetown requires a LOI for acceptance--otherwise you're destined for the wait list? Or do you mean if you find yourself on Georgetown's wait list, you need to send a LOI to get off of it?

If the latter, many schools will appreciate a LOI from applicants on wait lists--and it may indeed help your prognosis.

If the former, that's weird.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Georgetown appears to be one of the few excessively needy med schools. Now, if you had a boy/girlfriend who acted like that, you'd dump them in a heartbeat, right?
But there are only 141 boys/girls in your community. More than half are in a committed In-state relationship. 15 are out of your league. A few only date applicants of certain race/ethnicities. Some only date Texans. That only leaves a few to hope to find something in common with. So neediness isn't the disqualify it should be, unfortunately.
 
You're being too picky. I know of another 30 or so kids.


But there are only 141 boys/girls in your community. More than half are in a committed In-state relationship. 15 are out of your league. A few only date applicants of certain race/ethnicities. Some only date Texans. That only leaves a few to hope to find something in common with. So neediness isn't the disqualify it should be, unfortunately.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Top