I applied RD to Brown and received a likely letter in the mail yesterday. Has anyone else received one in the past or this year, and if so, did you get in? Since I’m taking a similar courseload with similar first semester grades this year, can I safely assume I’m in? Thanks.
Likely letter implies a guaranteed admission unless they find out something that nullifies it between now and the time when they send out the official letters.
Congratulations! Yes it is basically a guarantee unless you screw up. The Ivy’s don’t send out a lot of those types of letters. You must be a very strong applicant.
To non-athletic recruits. I believe to athletic recruits they are rather commonplace. If you aren’t a recruited athlete though, yes, it’s incredibly rare and for all intents and purposes: an acceptance letter. It would take something very drastic for anything other than acceptance to come on March 31st.
The overwhelming majority (90, 95%?) of accepted students (ignoring recruited athletes) will not receive a likely letter.
Until this year I had basically not heard of Brown sending out likely letters to anyone other than athletes, and those are usually part of the fall ED admission cycle. (Well had heard of it but not verified.) I have one student I know who received one and am waiting to see hers. I think there are cases outside of athletes, such as Quest Bridge, or particular students where Brown knows the student may have particular pressures for binding acceptance at another school. (Conservatory schools for example) where apparently they may send out the letter to help that student be able to decide between schools where they need some leading ahead of the formal Brown acceptance letter time. That does not mean that students who don’t get them are not in the running. Almost all accepted students never even hear they exist. I have heard of some rare cases where a student got a likely letter and did not get in. (They got a better placekicker, or the student blew it by letting their grades plummet.)Yes, they do check back with your HS.
I have heard that if a student is not an athlete then that likely letter is indeed incredibly rare. I assumed the OP is not an athlete when I wrote my post.
BrownAlumParent, kids who are not recruited athletes have been reporting likely letters from Brown on these forums for at least 8 years. They are not a new phenomenon?
Yes, I am not a recruited athlete. Thanks for the detailed answers, everyone.
True, but it is still rare. Most accepted students do not receive a LL.
A likely letter is the college’s solemn word to you that you will receive an offer of admission on Ivy Day. This certainty is crucial b/c a LL is the college’s commitment to athletes who are strongly being recruited by other schools. This is how LLs began to be used. If it weren’t inviolate, then the entire school’s reputation would be in jeopardy.
A friend from my daughter’s school just got a likely letter. Not a recruited athlete or URM.
It’s totally anecdotal, but it feels like Brown sends more LLs than HYP (maybe Princeton doesn’t send any?). Just over the past couple of weeks, it seems that almost every day someone posts on here about receiving a likely letter - and they have been coming at different times. I just wonder if that is a new yield strategy for Brown - to send out LLs to a somewhat larger portion of their accepted student pool, as they are accepted.
For the likely letters I’ve seen (non athletes, several schools,) afaic, the wording is not a guarantee or contractual. But the colleges take them seriously, don’t pass them out frivolously. OP, keep your nose clean and you should be fine.
I did too @amy989, just wanted to make sure everything was clear for any other/future readers, particularly ones who might know recruited athletes and wondering why a significant fraction of them are getting LLs and they aren’t. They say that for every poster, there are 9 people who read and don’t post (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/).
I find it hard to believe that LLs are truly “inviolate” but I do imagine it would take something very, very significant (e.g. academic dishonesty or criminal behavior) to go from LL to waitlist/rejection.
I believe the likely letters are also more of an Ivy thing. I think other colleges just send out early acceptances.
^that would make sense. The Ivy League Agreement (https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/apply/fine-print/common-ivy-league-agreement) requires that all Ivies release RD results on one day simultaneously. No other schools to my knowledge have such codified arrangements with other schools. In looking up the agreement, I see that LLs are actually discussed explicitly (I had assumed they were a sort of a backdoor loophole around the shared results date).
Looks like @T26E4 is right in so far as the LL is no more rescindable than a formal acceptance offer.
Interestingly, the agreement specifies that only LLs from the admissions office “count” as acceptances. A coach can talk up an athlete’s chances all he/she wants to the applicant and unlike the formal LL, it can be arbitrarily rescinded for any reason, even if given in writing:
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I seem to recall that Brown, Harvard, and Yale are all in the 300 range, including those sent to athletic recruits, at least it was a few years ago. Princeton only sends LL to recruited athletes and QuestBridge applicants.
@iwannabe_Brown That’s really good information and what I thought
It is true that a coach can give a verbal yes but until you get the LL nothing is binding. That said, IVY coaches generally don’t give a verbal offer unless they have talked to admissions and received an approval and also intend on recruiting the athlete. A coach who doesn’t stick to his word would get a very bad reputation.
^ It does happen. They are juggling several candidates at once and make promises. There are athletic threads with stories about coach promises which did not result in offers.
I’m sure it does but just have not heard of it happening within the IVY. If I’m wrong I stand corrected.