<p>Has anyone received a likely letter yet?</p>
<p>They will probably start in february. Don’t be shaken if you don’t receive a LL as the majority of the admitted class will not receive a likely letter.</p>
<p>What is likely letter ?</p>
<p>^ Likely letters are letters(or emails) which colleges send out to the top 1% of their applicant pool(mostly recruited athletes with stellar stats, Intn’l award winners with stellar stats, etc.). These are sent out in early February, just to get the applicant to be <em>more</em> inclined towards that college/university. They usually say something like “We cannot guarantee anything, but you are a highly qualified applicant and come March - you should receive an acceptance from ----- University. Hope to see you …”.</p>
<p>The phrasing is (or was):</p>
<p>Dear []: Greetings from Dartmouth… My purpose in writing is very simple–we have reviewed your application and think you are an outstanding prospect for Dartmouth… There is no question that when we mail our final decisions at the end of March, you will be offered admission to the college… [Other details omitted].</p>
<p>^ Ya that! </p>
<p>I just tried recollecting it! ~ Had seen it on another post! </p>
<p>Anyway - fact is 95% of admitted students won’t get one!! :p</p>
<p>@AboutTheSame, is that the letter you recieved already this year? Or just a sample one…</p>
<p>risha, your math seems to be off. 
If they were reserved for the “top 1%”–whatever that means–that would mean that 99% would not get them.</p>
<p>It seems likely to me that the order in which apps are read has something to do with it. They send out likelies in a few waves. There have been kids who got likelies here who did not, at least according to the info they gave us, seem more qualified than many others who did not get one. I would assume that they take a look through the special piles first–URMs, for example–and send likelies to the high-statted URMs that all of the top schools are competing to recruit.</p>
<p>@barvoets:</p>
<p>It’s portions of the letter my 13 received in February 2009. Did not read like a form letter, but I doubt the pieces I posted vary much from year to year. It was a very friendly letter that set the tone for a good relationship with the college – for parents and student. It ended (more less) “So, go relax, read a good book, and enjoy your senior year!”</p>
<p>^ @consolation – The two posts were un-related really. I meant to say that ~1% of applicant pool gets likely letters. And that 1% is roughly 5% of the no. of admitted students. So 95% of students who get admitted don’t get likely letters!! (Or 99% of the applicant pool doesn’t get likely letters)
These numbers are rough approximated figures really - not indicative of anything. Didn’t really take much notice of the math!:p</p>
<p>And I agree with the “special files” idea. As I said, it is mostly the athletic recruits or URMs or 2400s/800s/4.0s who seem to get likely letters. In that case ~ the colleges probably sort out applications before looking through them. Just speculation though!</p>
<p>Ah thanks @AboutTheSame!</p>
<p>In the past two years, likely letters were sent out on respectively, the 30th and 31st of January. I wonder what is going on this year.</p>
<p>I doubt they would sent out likely letters to deferred ED candidates right…?</p>
<p>Yeah I dont think they send any to deferred ED applicants.</p>
<p>I feel like this year it might be a bit later, due to the extended deadline from Jan 1 to Jan 15.</p>
<p>That is a very likely scenario. We can’t do anything but wait. The pain of waiting.</p>
<p>I find it really weird why dartmouth would not have send out likely letters by now because they have sent it earlier and earlier in the past two years. WEIRD.</p>
<p>Although I don’t think my chances of getting in are that great, I still have a tiny bit of regrettable hope that I’ll get a likely letter.</p>
<p>Do likely letters involve the university highlighting another sort of program at whatever the uni is? Like a sort of “honours” program where highly qualified students can explore different areas of interest alongside their major… I got one from another university describing a program I hadn’t seen advertised on their site when I went through it a couple times - it did end with something to the effect of;
“I can’t guarantee that you will be accepted, but if you are I would hope that you would be interested in applying for this program.”
It was sent directly from the conductor of the program…</p>
<p>MRU93Raith: Not in our experience. The actual acceptance letter, as I recall, came with oodles of enclosures from various departments and programs (or maybe that was later).</p>