<p>Does anyone have any experience with "likely letters"? What they mean? Good experiences or bad?</p>
<p>If you are asking in general, a likely letter is usually extremely good.</p>
<p>If you get a likely letter, you're going to get in.<br>
A likely letter is something that, after receiving all your materials, the college sends saying one or more of the following, "Hey, we particularly liked your application." (Not to get confused with we received your application; thank you.) "We're looking for people just like you." "Please mark XXX date on your calendar, because we're having a big orientation that weekend for selected applicants." "We hope you choose us." Sometimes they send a letter to your parents as well.</p>
<p>A likely letter means that it is all but certain that you will be admitted at the time of official admission notification. One student whose online postings I have followed for a few years received an academic likely letter from Stanford last year, just after the beginning of the calendar year, and he was indeed admitted to Stanford. (He decided to enroll at MIT.) A likely letter is good news. You still have until the national reply date on May 1st to decide where to enroll.</p>
<p>Our D received a "likely letter" from an Ivy. She was told that the admissions committee holds a special meeting and renders its decision like it would about every other applicant, albeit early. So it means you are admitted, unless you subsequently have academic/behavioral failings in high school.</p>
<p>Last year in the late winter/spring I started to visit CC. Fortunately my D was way too involved to ever check it out. At some point I heard about likely letters and saw what seemed like everyone getting letters from the schools where my D applied. I really started to think the kid wasn't going to get in anywhere! (She had been accepted at our state university -so I knew that she wouldn't be at home in the fall) Honestly, those weeks were the most stressful for me. She was blissfully unaware that something called likely letters existed and she was much better off not knowing. </p>
<p>Anyway - she was accepted at several Ivys (HYP among others) and my point is not to brag, but to tell parents and kids - don't start with the likely letters! If you get one, great, but do not think you will not be accepted if you don't get one. Another piece of advice would be to stay off this board as the time gets closer to when you will hear. When the materials are in and the interviews are over, there is nothing you can do at that point so try to get involved in something else.</p>
<p>^^^^^ Amen!</p>
<p>allright, workinprogress, I'll bite: what made your D so sought after by the Ivies? You hear so much about stellar candidates being turned down - and your D got into HYP? Wow!</p>
<p>I would like to know what made your daughter stand out among all the other applicants to be accepted to HYP. Very few students get accepted at HYP all at the same time. One student here in my town got accepted to all the Ivies and Juliard. I think it is just because she is an accomplished pianist and she was invited to play in some orchestra near Harvard. Her academic was good also but not as challenging as it could have been. She took 3 APs even though her school offers more than 15.</p>
<p>I hate to be the spoiler here, but be very careful about likely letters. D received one that could be taken as a letter indicating a lot of interest ... but she was waitlisted at that school. She was accepted at schools equally difficult to get into. I really think it's important to never assume anything. Fortunately for my D, the school that waitlisted her was one that she decided against before decisions were announced. A young man we know had been all but assured of his admission to a different school the previous year, and he, too, end up on the waitlist of that school. He was very disappointed, because it was his first choice school. Of course, my belief that things happen for a reason comes into play on this one ... he is VERY happy at the excellent school he ended up attending. The moral of the story is: don't get your hopes up too high, and realize that it's not the end of the world if things don't go the way you hoped. A student who is good enough to generate extra interest will end up somewhere wonderful.</p>
<p>The golden likely letters are the ones sent to athletes from top LACs, unis and Ivies. They arrive in October and they request a decision before Nov 15th or so. I know of two girls who got those from H. I know another girl who got two, one from UCB and one from Stanford.</p>
<p>There is no mistaking the intent of those likely letters.</p>
<p>Cheers, out of idle curiousity --- since neither of my kids is much of an athlete! --- are the students you know stellar students? I know two young men who were heavily recruited by a top school (not HYP, but up there) last year (one football, one soccer), and neither would have had a snowball's chance in hell of getting in without the sport. I was pretty surprised that these kids were recruited like that. I don't want to take this off-topic, but I just wondered.</p>
<p>I know the academic record of one of the H girls and yes, she was also a NMSF and a superb student in an elite private hs. The other girl came from a top NE boarding school and I assume her academic record was also beyond reproach. Top universities prefer to maintain the scattergram histories at feeder schools, IMO.</p>
<p>The third girl was recruited from overseas from an international sporting event. She was a great student and was invited to fly to visit the schools at their expense. They asked her to take the SATs, which she did without any prep. She scored 700+ in both Math and CR.</p>
<p>All three girls had/have Olympic potential.</p>
<p>Are Ivy League schools and of similar caliber pretty much the only ones to send these out?</p>
<p>Or do lesser tier schools also do so?</p>
<p>here is an article about likely letters. Hope this helps</p>
<p>Thanks for article link. With the shifti away from ED/EA of the Ivies, it will be interesting to see if likelies go away, become more aggressive from schools without early options, etc. If my D gets one, I'll let you know! Hope others will too. I know it adds stress to try and follow these trends, but sharing information is good.....</p>
<p>Backing up what was said above, some likely letters (especially those earliest in the admission cycle, aimed at athletes) may not be tantamount to a lock on admission. That is because they are issued before a student's admission file is complete (not to mention before all the other applicants are known to the admission committee) and thus there might be some subsequent basis for making a decision other than offering admission to that student. Don't ever take anything for granted, but generally a likely letter is a good first step in the process, and all the more reason to take care to complete the admission file with enthusiasm. (A recent book on college admission gives some occasional examples of likely letters that were NOT followed by offers of admission.) </p>
<p>As also noted above, a lot of students who are eventually admitted will not receive likely letters beforehand. Likely letters are rare, especially for nonathletes, but every college has to fill its class each year, so don't worry overly much if you've applied somewhere reachy but haven't received a likely letter. You just might be pleasantly surprised when admission decisions are announced.</p>
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As also noted above, a lot of students who are eventually admitted will not receive likely letters beforehand. Likely letters are rare, especially for nonathletes, but every college has to fill its class each year, so don't worry overly much if you've applied somewhere reachy but haven't received a likely letter. You just might be pleasantly surprised when admission decisions are announced.
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<p>Tokenadult, you are right. I do have mixed feelings about likely letters. Dartmouth sends out approximately 500 likely letters but it admits a class of ~ 2100 students (including ED). The majority of the students admitted will not receive a likely letter. While yes, it does alleviate some of the stress if you receive one (my D recieved on in february), it can sometimes make the process even more stressful when you think that everyone but you is receiving a letter and you just have to wait things out until April.</p>
<p>I think the likely letters are necessary because of the short time between official acceptance and when final decisions are due. If the school would like to have the accepted students out for a information day, or weekend, they get better response if they tell them in advance so they can make travel arrangements. At NYU one of the accepted students days for college of Letters and Science was the day after acceptance letters were received.</p>
<p>I was reluctant to post about my daughter’s acceptances, but I wanted to make the point that even kids with great outcomes sometimes don’t get likely letters. Thank heavens I didn’t even know about likely letters until sometime after ED. I think it may have been around February that I first started seeing them mentioned on this board and as I said – I started getting stressed out. I kept checking the mail each day and she got nothing, while it seemed that every kid on CC was getting one. Well, that’s how it seemed. </p>
<p>Katliamom, in answer to your question, I don’t really know for sure. DD had great stats and EC’s, her interviews went well, etc. Our school is a large public high school that has an abysmal record of getting kids into the Ivies so that wasn’t a plus. I think what made a difference was that she served as a Page in DC and was able to maintain the same grades while living away from home (in a dorm with other Pages) and working as a Page. I think it would have helped having letters of recommendation from two different schools.</p>
<p>In the end – we’re just guessing. DD is a really modest, unassuming kid who did not expect this to happen. We are well aware of kids with great credentials who did not have the same outcome. She is grateful for her good fortune and is the first to say it could have turned out differently, depending on who was reading her application. </p>
<p>Anyway - what is most important - Don't get focused on the darn likely letters!</p>