Does anyone know if you get a likely letter from schools? I’ve heard that this happens in College admissions, but I was wondering if this also applied to Boarding Schools. Thank you all for reading the post and replying if you can.
Also, Did anyone get a letter from their interviewer from Hotchkiss regarding your application after J15?
This happens at some colleges, most notably Ivy League. The vast majority of accepted students at these schools will not receive a Likely Letter.
Aside from recruited athletes applying ED/REA, where the LL developed since Ivies don’t do NLI, the handful of Likely Letters are a marketing tool because the college really wants a certain applicant. And at many schools, they are very targeted; you could be the best overall candidate for Yale, but if you’re not STEM, you’re not getting a Likely.
They do not
I don’t know if this counts as a likely letter, but we received a handrwitten note on Feb. 27, 2025 that said: Dear [Kid], As Director of Admissions, I wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed getting to know you in the admissions process. I really loved [specific reference to kid’s essay about describing yourself]. [School name] is a place [that also fits with subject of essay]. As you await your admission decision, I hope you will reach out with any questions you may have.
We took this as a very positive sign from the school, and my kid was admitted to this school. We did not receive similar notes from other schools where she was admitted. In other words, lack of this type of note doesn’t mean you aren’t getting in. I have no idea how common this type of note is.
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It does not. It’s simply a very nice note. I’ve seen examples of such notes where the student ultimately was not admitted.
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The only examples of early notification that I’ve ever heard of from Boarding Schools are “unlikely letters”, which is a phone call from the Dean of Admissions to either a parent or a Head of School telling them that a child was unlikely to be admitted. This was in cases where students had an unusually close relationship with the school. I imagine that there are also a few examples of “likely” phone calls, but candidates are unlikely to disclose that publicly.
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Yup. That happens.
The TSAO agreement is that notifications aren’t made prior to M10. I’m not naive enough to think there may be a few hush-hush phone calls before then, but those are the very rare exception. And if you need to ask if you’d be the exception, then you’re not.
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Although this is not quite the same thing, it parallels something that happens at some colleges. Apparently Culver contacts finalists for its large merit scholarships in mid-February, and then typically March 1 is their general admissions notification date, when the final scholarship decisions are also released. My impression is being contacted as a scholarship finalist in February is more or less equivalent in import to getting a likely letter.
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I think some schools manage yield in advance by suggesting there is no need to send in multiple applications. One might hear a surprisingly encouraging comment over the phone, such as, “While it is true that we accept only (insert low number here) percent of applicants, we accept 100% of applicants like your child.”
No one will commit this to paper. And I still wouldn’t believe it until March 10 when you have an actual acceptance letter in hand. They can always change their mind. Phone calls really must be taken with a grain of salt.
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I concur that boarding schools do not send likely letters at all. Some schools may offer sneak previews to certain candidates along the way, such as heavily recruited athletes (“We definitely want you”).
Candidates with strong legacy/donor/trustee hooks may also receive prior verbal communication, but never on paper. In most cases, schools will reach out to these families as soon as they conclude that the student is not admissible. This is an effort to manage expectations and to advise the families to start looking elsewhere.
In short, no news is good news for most families until M10. Good luck!
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Given that it was sent just a couple of weeks before admissions decisions - perhaps it wasn’t a “likely letter”, but the school seemed to want to yield your child. A lot of these notes go out after Fall interviews or in the form of a holiday greeting, and they aren’t necessarily a positive sign - but the timing of this was a bit different and appeared to be a portender of good news.
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