Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI)

When to send one

A Letter of Continued Interest is the one admissions action you can still take after receiving bad news. It's appropriate in exactly two situations:

1. After a December deferral from Early Decision or Early Action. Your application has been moved to the Regular Decision pool, and you want to signal to the admissions committee that this school is still your top choice.
2. After an April waitlist offer. You've been placed on the waitlist, and the school will make summer admit decisions based partly on which waitlisted students seem most committed to enrolling.

Don't send a LOCI after a flat rejection — there's nothing to reconsider, and it just looks desperate.

What to include

A good LOCI has three parts in one page:

1. Reaffirmation (1 short paragraph): state clearly that this school is your first choice and that if admitted, you will enroll.
2. New information (main body): updated grades from the fall semester, new awards, completed activities, additional testing scores, new project results. The goal is "here is new evidence that I'm a stronger candidate now than when you read my application."
3. Specifics about the school (1 paragraph): 2–3 concrete reasons this school is your fit — a specific professor, program, class, student organization you've been following. This is where you prove your interest isn't generic.

Avoid: flowery language, repeating information from your original application, complaining about the deferral, or telling the committee how much you've been crying.

For Korean students

Korean families often don't know LOCIs exist, so this is a genuine gap most Korean applicants don't fill. If your ED school defers you or your Regular Decision school waitlists you, writing a competent LOCI within 1–2 weeks is the best single action you can take. Have your counselor or a native English speaker review it before sending — a LOCI with awkward English undermines its own argument.