<p>what is the point of likely letters? do they GUARANTEE admissions for sure? why doesn't the adcom just send out acceptance letters to ppl they want to admit and save $$ by not sending out another batch of letters?</p>
<p>just wonderin'...</p>
<p>Money isn't an issue. Sending out the number of likely letters that exist is insignificant compared to how much money the school has. </p>
<p>They do not guarantee admission. I think it's basically the adcoms trying to be nice to certain people. Also, most likely letters go to athletes, and recruited athletes have been in quite extensive contact with their schools for a period of time.</p>
<p>Actually, they DO GUARANTEE admissions. That is the point of the likely letter. However, the colleges that send out likelies are binded by this thing that says you can't send out official acceptances until a certain date. With the likely letters the colleges are trying to gain the affectations of the applicant (the applicants first acceptance will be something truly special, yada yada yada.)</p>
<p>I am almost positive they do not guarantee admission. Although almost everyone who gets a likely letter is accepted, if a student is not accepted after getting one there is no legal recourse that can be taken or anything of the sort. I may be wrong, but I highly doubt they guarantee admission.</p>
<p>They do-there's only a small number sent out to the best or most desirable applicants.</p>
<p>It wouldn't make any sense to send them out if they didn't guarantee admission.</p>
<p>Yes. THEY DO GURANTEE ADMISSION. 100% NO IF'S AND'S OR BUT'S.</p>
<p>As a practical matter, they certainly DO guarantee admission. To be sure, a letter of admission itself is no "guarantee", as it may itself be revolked without appeal. (Remember Ms. Hornstine?)</p>
<p>The "likely letter" was originally devised to allow the Ivies to hold onto recruited athletes who were being asked, months before the nominal April 1 date for admissions, to sign "commitment" letters with athletic-scholarship-granting schools.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a school welching on a "likely letter". If word got out, there would be hell to pay and the school would suffer severe loss of credibilty.</p>
<p>Now, of course the rationale for likelies offered to athletes has been virtually forgotten, and some schools are sending out hundreds and hundreds of them to virtually every category of desirable admit. </p>
<p>Dartmouth has admitted to sending out as many as 600 - meaning that at this school there are nearly as many early admits and "likely" recipients as there are seats in the freshman class!</p>
<p>Although no other school is as candid about how many "likelies" are sent, I'm fairly sure many of them are beginning to approach Dartmouth's profligacy.</p>
<p>I don't think the letter specifically says you're guaranteed admission.</p>
<p>Of course not! Because that would directly violate the agreement to send admissions letter on April 1!</p>
<p>So its all done with a wink and a nod.</p>
<p>The fact is, at most elites who have gone in for the "likelies" - and this is most elites, large and small - the April 1 date has essentially become obsolete. </p>
<p>What we are seeing is a form of "rolling admissions" emerging.</p>
<p>"Dartmouth has admitted to sending out as many as 600 - meaning that at this school there are nearly as many early admits and "likely" recipients as there are seats in the freshman class!"</p>
<p>What does that mean for RD applicants who do not receive likely letters? As in, how many get in without recieving them?</p>
<p>Obviously a number of "ordinary" RD applicants are also admitted, since Dartmouth's 50% or-a-little-under yield rate means that there are 2,000 admits for the roughly 1,000 slots. Since there are roughly 400 ED admits and 600 "likelies", this means 1,000 "ordinary" RD admits.</p>
<p>Has anyone ever gotten a likely letter, then be rejected? And if you don't get a letter, can you be fairly certain that you won't be admitted?</p>
<p>thanks byerly</p>
<p>While likely letters almost certainly mean you're in, not getting a letter doesn't mean anything. Only a very few accepted students get likely letters, and I believe they're not used at all in the EA round.</p>
<p>yea at harvard likelies are so rare it really isnt anything to get worried about.</p>