Letter of Cont'd Interest for a school you haven't heard from?

[Mulder2]

Do people think it is a good idea to send a letter of continued interest to a school that you haven't yet heard from (no rejection, acceptance, deferral, or waitlist)?

What if you can assert that the school is your first choice? 

[user_name]

I've wondered about this myself. It seems like this late in the game..a school may think you've gone ahead w/ other plans...

Anyone?

[thesingingbass]

If you haven't heard yet, I'd definitely recommend sending a letter. It's basically like the school deferred you without telling you that's what they did.   

[Will Hunting]

I sent a LOCI to a school I had yet to hear from about a month ago.  I had applied to the school in October and asked them to hold for my December LSAT retake.  Apparently they decided to take it out on me for making them wait.  I went complete at their school in late December and sent my LOCI in March.  I was accepted at this school on April 24th, 9 days after their first deposit deadline.  I think they held my file for an unofficial deferral and the LOCI (since it had been October since I first applied) helped.  It certainly can't hurt to tell them what you've done since applying and to reassure them of your, well, continued interest in their program.  Good luck!

[user_name]

Thanks for your replies.

Do you think it matters if you send the LOCI via email rather than through the postal system?

[katluva33]

That depends.  Some schools don't want you to email attachments, while some encourage it.  I would call and ask.  If they accept it, I would email (since they could make their decision any day now) and follow up with a print copy.

[Will Hunting]

I agree with the post above.  I've sent several LOCIs to my waitlisted schools and have received replies saying, "Thank you. This will be added to your file," as well as, "We no longer open attachments due to threat of virus.  Please send this as the text in an email or mail the document to our admissions office."  I would call and ask.  It appears that sending it as the text of an email is sufficient to even those who do not open the attachments.  However, you may not be able to beautify the document through format and headings. HTH.
 

[gettingoutofwilliamsburg]

Definitely do it, but do it tastefully. I was waiting on Wake and sent one in the day after their deposit deadline via email (I wrote it in Word and then pasted it into the email itself as I had heard that certain places don't open attatchments). I called to make sure that it was received and they told me it had been added to my file and they were cc'ing a copy to the director of admissions. 45 minutes later the director called me on my cell and asked me if i had any suspision as to why she'd called, she went on to congratulate me on my acceptance and informed me that I should be getting some scholarship money when more becomes available. I think you have to be sincere in your LCI and leverage what you can tastefully. If you want to see mine I will PM it to you so you can get an idea of what worked for me. At this late stage in the game, I think its essential to let the school know where they stand with you.

[brdr123]

I did it for USC... I got my waitlist letter about a week later. Dunno if it did anythingn at all, or got me on the waitlist. ;-p
Also, I think my loci got me into ND... cause they called me about a day after my letter was supposed to get there.

[Miles Massey]

I wrote a letter to UCLA, and while I was expecting to WL'ed, they let me in like 2 weeks later. I definitely think it helped me.