<p>Hey, I've been reading up on the background behind likely letters and what they mean, and there's overwhelming evidence that these early approval letters from yale/stanford/columbia etc do mean that the recipients are going to receive acceptance letters by the time april rolls around...maybe I'm just paranoid, but somehow the word "likely" still rings a false bell in my head and keeps me on the edge wondering if there were any likelys in the past that ended up getting deferred or rejected? I really hope this isn't the case, since that would've meant I got my hopes up for the stanford early approval for nothing =/ lol, thanks everyone for your input =)</p>
<p>I guess if you get arrested for murder before April 1, they might reject you after all...</p>
<p>Well they can't not put the word "likely" in there, otherwise its a legally binding acceptance. Before other acceptances are sent.</p>
<p>Actually Stanford doesn't say "likely". The first sentence, "It gives me great pleasure to inform you that initial reviews of your application indicate that you will be offered admission to Stanford."</p>
<p>hmmm, nowhere does the word "likely" appear on my Stanford letter which
actually says I am "admitted".</p>
<p>....so I am not sure what the OP is talking about....?</p>
<p>I don't think the OP was talking about the usage of the word likely. I think he was just generally speaking about likely letters.</p>
<p>haha yea sorry for the misunderstanding, I was talking about "likely" letters in general--I do believe the Stanford early approval letters indicate that we have been given admission to the school already as it clearly said "we will hold a spot for you in the freshman class and send you a formal announcement in late march), but I was just wondering in general are there any chances of a deferral/rejection after receiving a likely letter besides flunking and/or crimes (according to messages and past instances it's close to 0% though =P)</p>
<p>I didn't even know these existed - if I didn't get one, should I assume that's a bad sign?</p>
<p>^From what I heard, they've only sent 120 of them total, 60 for URMs and 60 for extremely qualified students. Don't worry if you didn't get one.</p>
<p>To hoonose: where did you get this statistics?</p>
<p>Admit</a> yield increases by 2 percent - The Stanford Daily Online</p>
<p>Based on two years ago, but should still be somewhat relevant.</p>