How do you write a great Letter of Continued Interest (also called LOCI) after a waitlist or deferral? 

A great Letter of continued interest (LOCI) serves as another update to your dream school. Keep it professional, but also make sure to have your unique voice and personality show. 

Below, we have some LOCI best practices, and more importantly, and awesome Letter of Continued Interest Example. 

Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI): Best Practices

Are you worried that your letter of continued interest or LOCI will be a bit… lame… because you have NOTHING to update colleges on?

No need to stress about the LOCI. I’m CERTAIN you have something to share. You probably don’t think it’s “good enough.”

First, revisit your submitted application. Ask yourself: What have you NOT shared with the college since you last applied?

It can be extracurriculars or personal stories that you share in your LOCI. The Letter of Continued Interest example below will give you ideas, but just know this: Top schools like UPenn or even NYU want to see the personal sides of you. In other words, you don’t always have to flex your extracurriculars.

Here are a few best practices: 

• Thank the admissions for another opportunity to showcase yourself in this letter. 
• Express your LOVE and EXCITEMENT for the school. In order to do that, TALK about something specific about the school that captivates you.
• Showcase your GROWTH throughout the college admissions process and reflect on that in your letter.
• Keep it to one page.

LOCI Best Practice: Showcase your growth

If you do the college application process effectively, you should have a better understanding of who you are, what makes you unique, and what you hope to gain from a college experience. 

In the Letter of Continued Interest or LOCI, reflect on the growth that you have had over the past few months. Here are some questions for you:

• How do you think you have personally grown through writing about yourself 100+ times?
• If you were 1.0 version of yourself BEFORE college apps, who are you now (You 2.0) from doing all this self reflection?

Write about your growth from the experience!

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Best practice for LOCI: Showcase your love for the school

Here’s another awesome hack: Showcase demonstrated interest in your LOCI. Basically, that means you’ve done a lot of research into the school and know EXACTLY why you want to go there and how you will contribute to the school community. 

The LOCI example touches on this very well. You’ll see that below. But for now, here are a few ideas:

• Have you done an interview? If so, what did you learn about the school that made you want to go, even more?
• Did you get a chance to go to another virtual information session or even on-campus visit? If so, what did you learn about the school that made you want to go?
• Were you able to talk to a current student/alum of the school? Did they have an experience that you can write in your LOCI about why you’re even MORE excited about the school?

Example of Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI)

Below is the LOCI or Letter of Continued Interest example. Obviously, please do not plagiarize 😅

LOCI Example Below: 

Dear XXXX Admissions,

I hope this letter finds you well! I am grateful for the opportunity to be considered again for admission, and I’m very excited to tell you about what I’ve been up to since November!

While writing my college essays, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the last few years of high school so far. I started out at [Name of high school] feeling extremely overwhelmed; it seemed like everyone knew what they wanted to be when they “grew up.” To try to answer this question, I threw myself into everything, from backpacking in Yosemite for 5 days (I decided this wasn’t for me) to performing for a poetry slam. Therefore, since the first semester of senior year, I have been continuing to push myself to get out of my comfort zone, alongside maintaining all As in my classes. 

I have a poster on my wall that says, “Seek Discomfort”. Since November, I led my team for [nonprofit organization] to start our first ever race, where we donated over 40 pairs of shoes to students in [location], and helped them train by running 10-15 miles a week alongside the Pacific coast. We purposely woke up at 5:30am for these sunrise runs, and we purposely pushed each runner’s limits a little further each week. We even ran into the icy cold ocean at the end of one session simply to underline the fact that being uncomfortable is the first stage in personal growth. Currently we have 8-14 students that join us consistently each week on the beach runs. We aim to grow it and have another eager underclassmen from my track and field team to take over this community so it continues to flourish even after we graduate high school.

As the older sibling to my 10-year-old step sister, I have also been spending more time babysitting her since submitting my application, because my mom is working more than ever before. Recently, my sister began to express interest in coding. As an aspiring psychology major, I have little experience, but we have been taking online classes through [Program], and we are in the process of coding a motion sensor security camera for her room using a Raspberry Pi. This is outside of my comfort zone, but we are learning and teaching each other on the weekends. It has been extremely rewarding to spend quality time with her while learning a new skill. Creating our own personal project has made me more interested in exploring how computer science (CS) can be utilized to help diagnose mental health issues and ways to offer more personalized support for those suffering. At [college name], I hope to explore the myriad of ways that CS intersects with the humanities and social sciences to create solutions that help others.

I recently had the amazing opportunity to speak to [name of alum], a graduate of [school name], to learn more about the school. His experiences in [a personal anecdote] extremely excite me, as I aspire to do the same; I’d love to pursue [a particular program at the school] by contributing back to the city of [name]. Through our meeting, I realized that students at [school name] are go-getters; they want to grow as individuals, and they continuously seek discomfort to do so. This is exactly the type of environment that I would love to contribute to. I believe that people with a growth mindset continuously push each other in a community to achieve their best selves. I’ve witnessed this power of a true, growth-oriented community through my running career and mentoring underserved youth through [nonprofit x]. Should I be admitted, I will absolutely attend and I will push my peers to be the best versions of themselves that they can be to elevate themselves, the greater community, and [school name] spirit.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter.

Warm Regards,

Name