<p>I've seen the term used a few times but what exactly are they and which of these schools send them?
JHU, UChicago, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, The College Of New Jersey, University of South Florida</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing; which schools send them?</p>
<p>The Ivies usually send these out, but other "top tier" colleges use them too. Basically, it's a letter sent to you in either February or March (if you're RD) talking about how excited they were to read your application, that you're special, et cetera. It hints at the fact that it's very LIKELY that you will be accepted.</p>
<p>I know a girl who now goes to MIT--they gave her a Valentine's Day card, pie-shaped with all the digits of Pi in it. Clever, eh?</p>
<p>Likely Letters, as far as i know, are used mostly only by Ivy League that do not have early acceptance (i guess any college that only has a RD deadline can use them)</p>
<p>The letter is basically a letter saying that as long as you maintain your current level of achievement you will recieve a formal letter of amittance when they send them out. I know for the Ivy schools that dont have EA it is a way of letting athletes know if they will be accepted. It is important to the athlete becuase of other colleges recruited and financial situtaions.</p>
<p>They do send them out to non athletes but it is just really rare</p>
<p>That's so cool. But, if they say 'likely' does that mean that even after getting that letter one could end up not being accepted? Has that ever happened and isn't that kind of cruel?</p>
<p>It's happened--but it's usually only after an applicant suddenly fails all of their classes, has a run-in with the law, et cetera. A pretty rare ocurrence, for the most part.</p>
<p>Wellesley has a specific program called Early Evaluation where they send you a "likely", "possible", or "unlikely" letter in February. Likely is essentially an acceptance.</p>
<p>how frequent are these letters? Are they just sent to the absolute elite?</p>
<p>The are sent mostly to athletes who, according to NCAA rules, must entertain signing letters of intent with other colleges. Imagine if you're the Yale track coach and a stellar sprinter has applied. You know she's being courted heavily by other non-Ivies and top tier schools as well. Because the non-Ivies are not bound to sending acceptances in April (like Yale and other Ivies), she's already been accepted and piles of perks are being waved in front of her. What do you have to offer? You can offer her this "likely" acceptance to Yale and hope that it keeps her accepting another offer.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, it seems that some academic super stars have gotten them recently too. However, don't fret about these as the vast majority of admitees don't receive them.</p>