<p>i know that people get 'likely' letters during regular applications, but do they send any during early decision?</p>
<p>I’ve heard they are sent mainly to recruited athletes/URMs in the ED round… (but this could be COMPLETELY wrong… it is just what I have heard word of mouth).</p>
<p>oh okay- well i think they would be pretty busy with all 3000 of their applications to send likely letters. hmm…</p>
<p>I think likely letters get used almost entirely in two situations, neither of which will generally result in likely letters being issued to ED applicants after Nov. 1:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Athletes who are being recruited by other (non-Ivy) Division I schools. A likely letter gets them to hold off signing national letters of intent with other colleges, and probably to apply to Penn ED. In most sports, athletic scholarships get allocated long before December 15, so a non-superstar but quality athlete would have a hard time waiting out ED without a likely letter. Or an Ivy-oriented athlete may be coming under pressure to apply to another Ivy or top LAC ED, and a likely letter will let the athlete know that he or she doesn’t need to worry about not getting into Penn. Once he or she applies ED, however, the letter has limited utility (unless the kid is threatening to withdraw the ED app).</p></li>
<li><p>Likely letters get used as a marketing device to a few non-athletes the college decides to target, on the assumption that they will clearly be accepted to numerous colleges – often URMs, but not always. Issuing the likely letter presumably gets the student to focus on Penn, and lets Penn suck up to the student before April 1. This could happen in the fall, but generally seems to happen mainly in February. Once one of these students has applied ED, though, the student has already committed to attend Penn if accepted, and thus doesn’t need to be recruited further.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think likely letters are much more heavily used by Harvard and Princeton, who have no early admission program, than they are by colleges with ED or EA. Obviously Harvard and Princeton have a huge stake in getting their top recruits not to apply ED elsewhere.</p>
<p>What would be the purpose of a likely letter in ED? The purpose of the letter is to let the prized candidate know of a school’s interest before decisions can be mailed out, in order to counter those schools with rolling admission. This is necessary because the schools sending the likely letter know the candidate is not bound to them. They hope the candidate chooses them, but they can’t be sure. In ED, the candidate choose them by sending in the application, and an acceptance will bind the candidate. There is no competition from the school’s perspective. Whether the student comes to the school is up to the school, not the candidate. Likely letters are meaningless in ED.</p>
<p>thanks guys! are you guys nervous about the ED results, i know i am</p>