<p>“that EMail” is an indication that the admission officers have read your application. Colleges always send out these sorts of notifications.
Likely letters only come after the AOs have read your application.</p>
<p>If you haven’t gotten “that EMail”, chances are you won’t receive the likely letter any time soon. </p>
<p>If you have gotten “that EMail”, either the likely letter will arrive in a week at most, or you don’t get one. </p>
<p>The email is most likely NOT an indication that your app has been read. And even if it is, it means nothing. There is absolutely no proof of a connection between the email, a likely letter, and admission. Brown has never historically sent out hints or clues to who has gotten in. You can conjecture and panic all you want, and I understand where it is coming from, but my experience has been that Brown does not tell the vast majority of applicants the results until the official day of notification. And very few students get likely letters.</p>
<p>You misunderstood fireandrain but perhaps that’s in part due to the way I phrased it.</p>
<p>If you would read again and this time more carefully, you would realize that I’m not saying that the email is a CLUE, but rather an indication that your application has been read.
Because obviously likely letters are sent only after the application has been read, a corollary to the above is that you will get your likely letter–if you get one–only after you have gotten the indication that they have read your application, i.e., “that EMail”</p>
<p>Simply put, everyone will get “that EMail”, because everyone’s application will be read. Nevertheless, only a subset of the group will receive the likely letter. </p>