<p>does anyone know if harvard gives out likely letters? anyone get one? i know most of the other ivies have given them out.</p>
<p>What do you mean by a likely letter?</p>
<p>basically they will tell you if you are "likely" to be admitted before december 14th. im pretty sure they only send them to recruited athletes.</p>
<p>definitely.</p>
<p>if they send letters like that out to people, who later are NOT accepted, you are talking about major lawsuits.</p>
<p>Actually last year a few of my friends got likely letters from Dartmouth and Cornell, and neither were recruited athletes ... and no I don't know their stats, before anyone asks. I'm not quite sure who Harvard sends likely letters to.</p>
<p>Yes, Dartmouth and Cornell do send likely letters even if you are not recruited. Michele Hernandez says this in her somewhat outdated book. However, I would think that the HYPs would not send likely letters out because the pool is so competitive that they don't want to be seen as more selective as they already are.</p>
<p>actually im pretty sure yale sent out likely letters as well as princeton.</p>
<p>To NON-athletic recruits?</p>
<p>no, sorry for the confusion, i meant for athletic recruits. I agree with you in that they probably don't send likely letters to non-athletes at the top schools.</p>
<p>I've never heard of an ED likely letter going to anyone but a recruited athlete. RD likely letters, however, go to the top applicants, they say.</p>
<p>If you get a likely letter, you're in. It's not official, of course, and you could do something to mess it up (get charged with a felony, or something), but it's a VERY good sign. I'd imagine Harvard has to have sent out some likely letters, because D1 level football/basketball recruits are facing a lot of pressure to sign right now.</p>
<p>Harvard does send a few to non-recruited athletes. I know an unbelievably qualified non-URM non-athlete heavily-tied with harvard in terms of faculty/administration/legacy from my school who got a likely letter Nov. 30 last year. </p>
<p>If you check the old CC board there are one or two people who got them from Yale or Harvard. Not many, but they exist. I'm guessing they send less than 200 total.</p>
<p>what would be in the contents of the letter?</p>
<p>"while we are not allowed to make a decision at this time, your chances of being offered admission are likely" blah blah blah</p>
<p>Likely letters to athletes are sent because those athletes may be being pressured to sign with non-Ivy league schools (ex. Stanford, Duke). However, if an athlete is not applying to non-Ivy league schools, Admin has no reason to send him/her a Likely letter.</p>
<p>what's the point of a EA likely? They only send em to RD..i think</p>
<p>No, they send them EA too if the athlete is considering signing with a non-Ivy during the early signing period in November.</p>
<p>ALL Ivies send "likely letters" - which were pioneered by Princeton some years ago to tie down restive recruits being offered athletic scholarships elsewhere and being pressured to sign a so-called "letter of intent." Because they weren't technically (wink-wink) offers of admission, the letters were not deemed a violation of the Ivy rule that all admit letters would go out April 1.</p>
<p>Now, "likely letters" have mushroomed, and go to URMs, top scholars, and desirable admits of all kinds.</p>
<p>Dartmouth, Cornell and Yale send HUNDREDS of them, with Harvard trailing at the moment. I'm not sure about the volume at other Ivy addresses.</p>
<p>I expect that this trend will continue to grow, so that the Dec 15 and April 1 notification dates become a mere formality, with most candidates issued what amounts to a semi-binding commitment months earlier. In effect, what we will have (in the Ivies, anyway) will be a form of "rolling admissions."</p>
<p>While a reply is not necessarily required from the prospective admit, the schools do invite inquiry, and the responses no doubt help them to gauge the degree of enthusiasm in those contacted, and may allow more careful "fine-tuning" of the eventual, formal admit list so as to raise the yield rate. </p>
<p>(If you know in advance that X number of admits are likely to matriculate, you don't have to admit as many as would otherwise be necessary to fill the vacant slots.)</p>
<p>go away, byerly, even your quasi-helpful posts are ridiculous
hundreds of likely letters? the deadlines eventually becoming outdated?
no wonder you are such a ridicuous conservative, you make crazy as hell doom and gloom assumptions (if gays are allowed to marry, ppl will want to marry their dogs and their 10 daughters)</p>
<p>You should not offer such firm opinions about things of which you are totally ignorant.</p>
<p>Two of those things are college admissions and my views on gay marriage - a topic I have never addressed online..</p>
<p>As for "likely letters", you might want to read this story from the Dartmouth paper indicating that Dartmouth sent out between 400-500 likely letters last year - ie, to potentially half the freshman class.</p>
<p>Here is a link to a YDN story from several years ago outlining the evolution of "likely letters" at Yale:</p>
<p>See also this story about the launch of the "likely letter" program at Yale in 1995 - limited to athletes at that time:</p>
<p>Heres a YDN story blaming Yales frequent losses to Princeton on the athletic fields to the latter's more extensive use of "likely letters" - and urging Yale to "get with the program":</p>
<p>As for your nasty personal comments, I will ignore them, and chalk them up to your immaturity.</p>