<p>"A prospective likely-letter recipient could be attractive to admissions offers for any number of reasons, Brenzel said, from extraordinary accomplishments in the sciences to having overcome unusual situations of disadvantage. But all likely-letter recipients must meet three criteria: They must be such strong candidates that they are virtually certain to have applied to other competitive schools, it must be virtually certain that the most competitive schools will accept them, and last, Yale officers must be virtually certain that they will admit the applicant, even without seeing the entire applicant pool. "</p>
<p>Thanks for the link...that is a great discussion of likely letters.
I thought it was interesting that Williams tends to send them only to applicants who are the sole candidate from their school.</p>
<p>st. louis...well, its nice to see people from my area of the midwest get accepted</p>
<p>(although im guessing she either went to Metro Academic and Classical High school or she wasnt actually from the city, but lived in St. Louis County)-i have a feeling no one here actually cares about that though....sorry about my little tangent</p>
<p>Applicants should know that the large majority of eventual admitees DO NOT receive likely letters. Don't add another thing atop your pile of things to worry about. I PROMISE you that this discussion will erupt in late Jan and Feb, asking the same questions over again. Just feel free to ignore it. If you receive one, great. Congrats. If you don't, don't sweat it.</p>