<p>I have received 3 likely letters this year. They were from Fordham, Vanderbilt, and William & Mary. The letters from Vanderbilt and W&M were to invite me to multicultural weekends, so I assume a lot of likely letters are sent to invite you to programs for accepted students.</p>
<p>I’m looking to major in computer science and I received several “likely letters” from Columbia telling me to mark my calendar for admitted student days, and one from Cornell with information on their chapter of society of women engineers. The ones from Columbia are particularly irritating because one said that I can “expect to hear good news when admissions packets are mailed.” These letters are actually stressing me out a little bit, because I got burned by my first choice college ED and it feels like the “likely letters” are toying with you. Any advice? Should I assume this is a good sign?</p>
<p>@Sally: The Ivies have an agreement not to accept people pre-April (short of an early program) so LL are how they get around that.</p>
<p>After having been in the process of college application for this years round (Class of 2014) I feel like I really know how athletic LLs and recruitement work. At least for my sport (rowing) and similar sized sport in academically strong schools like the Ivies and a few others… </p>
<p>First of all it’s all a matter of contact and relation to the coaches. My sport is rowing and since it’s small there are only a hanful of schools dealing with it. </p>
<p>First thing is like I said contact. You have to get on the coaches radar. Recruitement questionairres are the way to go. After they get back to you, you will e-mail, a lot! They ask for transcripts and so on… Then they will give all that a preread. If they like your stats and they think they have a chance to get you in, it’s likely that you will be inivited for a on-campus visit. Altough that doesn’t need to be the case, but often is for US applicants (I’m from Switzerland). </p>
<p>Then they will talk to you in a more serious way. Most likely at the end of the visit. They’ll ask about other colleges and which you intend to apply to and so on… The coach will advertise his school as good as he can. Sometimes they will be clear that they want you, sometimes not so much. Depends on the impression you made and if they still like you…</p>
<p>Later on, if they decided that they want you (if they haven’t yet) they will make it clear that they want you. They will ask you to commit. If you do so, they will get to admissions and do whatever necessary to get you in. If that works out, they will tell you and you can ask for the LL, or they aoutomatically will send it to you.</p>
<p>Now, and only now, you should tell the other coaches, you have been in contact with, that you comitted to an other school. Don’t do it before, even if the coach asks you to do so. This really is important!</p>
<p>In my case I was contacted by the coach of Yale after a visit, to hear that they couln’t get me through admissions. Then I committed to Goergetown and they got me in. I was likely lettered by them. Throughout the process I was in touch with many other coaches from the Ivies. I had a visit in Columbia too. The coaches there were very clear from the beginning that they wanted me and if you would commit they would be able to get me in, no matter what. The funny thing was that some coaches contacted me alot in fall and then stopped for no obvious reasons. After having gotten word from GU, they called again to tell me that they were still very interested in me. That was the case for Brown as well as Cornell. I turned them down and I am very happy to be in GU’s class of 2014.</p>
<p>rugbywingr, I know people who received letters to invite them to multicultural weekends but they didn’t necessarily get accepted. (Most kids did but not all.) I wouldn’t have called those likely letters. Yes, they are good signs but what I am calling a likely letter was much more personal. Then again, you’re an athlete so maybe you didn’t get the run of the mill multicultural weekend invite.</p>
<p>Women’s colleges like Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr send likely letters, I’m not sure about Smith and the others. My daughter got one for MH. It was nice but when the acceptance came with FA, it wasn’t enough, so still a let down of sorts. </p>
<p>I agree, I don’t think they are a great idea and can be confusing for some. Mount Holyoke’s though wasn’t, it was not vague and was just to give you less anxiety on acceptance from at least that college.</p>
<p>“rugbywingr, I know people who received letters to invite them to multicultural weekends but they didn’t necessarily get accepted. (Most kids did but not all.) I wouldn’t have called those likely letters. Yes, they are good signs but what I am calling a likely letter was much more personal. Then again, you’re an athlete so maybe you didn’t get the run of the mill multicultural weekend invite.”</p>
<p>both of the letters specifically said something along the lines of “Your application for admission has been approved, you will receive your official Acceptance letter April 1st”</p>
<p>But then again, not all schools do those weekends the same. The two I happened to be invited to also informed me that I will be accepted as part of the class of 2014.</p>
<p>I got a Likely Letter to UPenn, Columbia, and Dartmouth. I was accepted to MIT, deferred from Yale SCEA. I’m not a recruited athlete, although I’m a Nicaraguan female interested in science.</p>
<p>^As a black female interested in science, I imagine you offered something the school didn’t have. (Which isn’t to say your accomplishments in and of themselves aren’t incredible.)</p>
<p>my friend got it for colby smith and mt. holyoke. she is purely academic and no athelte.</p>
<p>my sister didn’t get a likely letter from Smith, but she was offered merit-aid scholarship with her acceptance letter (about 10% of incoming students receive this scholarship)</p>
<p>I got LL’s from UVA and Duke. I think that they are just meant to keep kids with several options interested in a school.</p>
<p>I received a likely letter from Cornell when I applied as I had been awarded a scholarship from the College of Engineering. I believe it is due to stellar SAT scores (1600), my first-generation college student status, and good GPA, but I have no idea. I also know that Cornell sends letters to cream of the crop female engineering applicants.</p>