Jessai Flores

For a select group of Yale applicants, the wait is already over. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions began rolling out likely letters to a small pool of regular decision applications to the class of 2029.

While most regular decision applicants will receive notification of their admissions decision by April 1, some Yale hopefuls have already received likely letters — early notification of their admission to the first-year class. Although Yale only releases official offers of admission on early action and regular decision release dates, Mark Dunn ’07, director of outreach and recruitment for the Yale Admissions Office, explained that likely letters allow the admissions office to begin the recruitment process earlier for some students. 

“We know that many high school seniors find the month of April especially overwhelming as they juggle admitted student programs, local receptions, and virtual events leading up to the May 1 reply deadline,” Dunn wrote to the News. “The decision to offer a student a likely letter is grounded in the Admissions Committee’s sense that an applicant would benefit from that extra time to make their decision.”

Jackie Folmar, assistant director of admissions and director of recruitment, explained that likely letters are part of the Admissions Office’s yield strategy. 

Folmar said that likely letter recipients include students designated as Yale Engineering and Science, or YES, Scholars — those with significant high school research experience and a strong interest in undergraduate STEM opportunities. The News previously reported that schools like Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania are two examples of peer institutions that employ similar STEM-specific recruitment programs through early notification of admissions.  

Other likely letter recipients may be invited to join the Directed Studies program, a selective initiative where about 120 first-year students engage in an interdisciplinary exploration of seminal texts from Western and Near Eastern cultures.

“We invest a significant amount of time and program energy in our likely letter recipients, because we believe the efforts increase yield with students who may be less familiar with the distinctive elements of the Yale undergraduate experience,” Folmar wrote to the News. 

Dunn explained that for recruited student athletes, many of Yale’s varsity coaches request that the Admissions Committee consider applications from recruited students on an expedited timeline. Though the student selection process is the same as for other applicants, a likely letter helps the coach and student finalize the recruitment process. 

All eight Ivy League universities send likely letters to compete for top applicants and recruited athletes. 

“Likely letters will have the effect of letters of admission, in that as long as the applicant sustains the academic and personal record reflected in the completed application, the institution will send a formal admission offer on the appropriate notification date,” the Joint Statement for Candidates on Common Ivy League Admission Procedure reads.

Makenzie Griffith, a high school senior from Ray Braswell High School in Aubrey, Texas, received a likely letter notification from her admissions officer on Tuesday afternoon. 

Griffith said that she was overwhelmed with excitement upon receiving her likely letter, admitting she hadn’t expected an acceptance, let alone an early notification. As a first-generation college student, she described the news as a “huge weight” lifted off her chest.

“I come from a school where only one person has ever gone to an Ivy League. Now I know that I’m getting into my dream school and that I have more time to think about financial aid and talk to current students,” Griffith told the News. “If I’d gotten all the decisions around March, it would have been harder to focus on Yale specifically.” 

Yale has already admitted 728 students to the class of 2029 through early action admissions. Yale admitted 66 applicants through the QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship, which connects low-income high school seniors with full scholarships to partner institutions. 

In total, Yale received 50,262 applications to the class of 2029, the third-largest ever in the University’s history. 

Hannah Mendlowitz, senior associate director of admissions, explained on the Yale Admissions Podcast that the letters target students who, due to offers from other peer institutions, “might therefore yield Yale at a lower rate.”

According to the Yale Admissions Podcast, the admissions committee tends to send around 200 likely letters a year out of the around 2,300 total offers of admission, though the office does not set a quota for the number of likely letters distributed. 

“The likely letter is a way to give us a better shot at convincing them that they are a great fit for Yale and that they are going to thrive at Yale, too,” Mendlowitz said.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is located at 38 Hillhouse Ave.