READ: 4 MIN
With nervous high school seniors waiting for Ivy Day results tomorrow (delayed due to the Covid-related application increases), we wanted to refute some bad advice we’ve seen offered up on the Reddit forums and elsewhere regarding Letters of Continued Interest (LOCIs) at schools that have already released their acceptances.
For those who don’t know, the LOCI is a written response that deferred or waitlisted students send to the schools they still want to attend, despite being on the waitlist. As waitlist activity has grown this year, due to colleges wanting to cover themselves in case their yield estimates are off, more and more kids are experiencing a waitlist status. For most it’s a bit of false hope, or a confirmation of the odds they knew they were facing at elite colleges. But for others it triggers the need to “do more” - to send the perfect Letter of Continued Interest and get off the waitlist. We’ll do a separate post later about what you should include in your LOCI. But for now, let’s dispel a myth about timing.
...every college wants to be your number one choice. They don’t care what your other options are, or how you are going about making your decision...
One school of thought with regards to LOCIs is that you should wait until you’ve received all of your admissions decisions before reaching out with a plea to get off of the waitlist at any one college. We’ve heard well-meaning counselors tell students that schools will appreciate that you’ve considered all of your options before letting a college you’ve been waitlisted at know that you really still want to go to their school. This makes sense in one regard - how do I know if I want to stay on a waitlist if I don’t know my results from other colleges?
Well, we’re here to tell you that this school of thought is absolutely wrong. Why? Because every college wants to be your number one choice. They don’t care what your other options are, or how you are going about making your decision. Even though they waitlisted you, they still expect you to love them. If you wait to let them know about your waitlist status, for example, until after Ivy Day, they know you’ve been hoping for an acceptance to an Ivy, rather than to their school. This is a totally reasonable response by the student - after all, the college who waitlisted them didn’t fully want them either. But colleges that pull kids off a waitlist want to know, absolutely clearly, that you want to go there above anywhere else. With or without a decision yet from other schools.
So, the correct school of thought is that you should send a LOCI to every college you’ve been waitlisted for, even before you’ve heard from other colleges. In fact, you should do it immediately after getting a waitlist notice, even if you are stinging from the waitlist offer. This shows colleges that it doesn’t matter who is yet to render a decision on you, you still want to attend their college as a first choice. Consider the University of Chicago, which released regular admissions decisions on March 12th. For the many they’ve waitlisted, do you think they want to hear from them with a LOCI before or after Ivy Day? They know when the Ivies release their decisions and they want to know you still want to go to their school no matter the outcome of Ivy Day!
Finally, it doesn’t matter how many LOCIs you send. If you are on multiple waitlists and would attend any of these schools over the schools you have gained acceptance to, then write them all LOCIs. They are all of your first choices as far as the colleges are concerned!
