<p>^ .</p>
<p>A likely letter is a very flattering letter sent to applicants that a college really, really wants. It is basically an unofficial way to say "you're in".</p>
<p>Colleges hope that, through flattery, and notifying people early, they will be able to get these highly desirable applicants. The top applicants and athletes (if a school doesn't offer ED or recruits an athlete after ED) are usually the ones.</p>
<p>However, many colleges do not send likely letters. And many people misinterpret getting a lot of mail as "you're in". Likely letters are usually very obvious ("very impressed by your credentials), etc. And the overwhelming majority of applicants who get in (probably greater than 75%) will not get them.</p>
<p>So, if you get one, it will usually be very obvious, and you should be ecstatic.</p>
<p>If you are an academic likely:</p>
<p>@Stanford it means you are one of ~60 applicants shortlisted for admittance
@Duke it means you are one of the top ~350 admitted applicants
@Dartmouth it means you are one of the top ~500 admitted applicants
@Harvard it means you are one of the top ~10 (?) admitted applicants
@Yale it mean (not sure) you are one of the top ~100 admitted applicants</p>
<p>"top" does not mean your credentials are better, it just means that the
officers reading your application thought you were amongst the best
applicants they had seen that year</p>
<p>It's used to market themselves:" We're courting you. Please choose us!" It's strategically aimed at students who also are being heavily courted by other schools (top athletes w/top academics) and may face NCAA imposed deadlines (commit dates). But frankly, if you do a seach, you'll find lots of hits.</p>
<p>I think the amount of discussion is out of scale with the actual no. that go out, however.</p>
<p>The simple answer is you are in if you don't mess up.</p>
<p>colleges are legally bound to announce admission on certain dates so in order to play around that, they send out likely letters. often with a shirt or courtesy mug, something to convince the beloved golden child that they need to seriously consider their school</p>