<p>Hello. I got such a call the other night, actually. There’s nothing “off” about it. My regional admissions officer called to tell me verbally that I was accepted, and told me that my likely letter would be arriving in the mail shortly. That was Tuesday night (today is Thursday), so I haven’t received the paper likely letter yet, but if you’d like, I’d be happy to let you know when I do. I did receive a follow-up email to the phone call, confirming that I was not just having an auditory hallucination. =]</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what exactly sounds “off” about this? If it’s just that they haven’t yet finished the decision making process, that’s true, but likey letters generally go out before they’ve finished reading applications. That’s kind of the point of a likely letter. I don’t think it’s all that strange that Harvard has decided to add a phone component of early “likely” notification, especially considering the confusion that sometimes surrounds the wording of likely letters. I’ve heard that some students receive them and aren’t quite sure what exactly they mean, so it makes sense that maybe admissions offices have decided to notify them verbally as well, just to clarify the situation.</p>
<p>Please let me know if you have any more questions.</p>