What To Write In Your Letter Of Continued Interest To Colleges When You Have No Major Updates

By Christopher Rim | Apr 09, 2026, 03:26pm EDT

Every spring, thousands of highly qualified applicants find themselves in the disappointing position of being waitlisted at their dream school. Most students know that one of the most important steps to take after a waitlist notification is to write a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI), a brief note that enthusiastically reaffirms a student’s interest in a school and provides relevant updates on their candidacy since the application deadline, such as a new award, an updated GPA, published research, or a recent leadership role.

While this may seem like a simple form of communication in theory, many students sit down to write only to face a blank document and wonder what they’re supposed to say when nothing significant has changed since they submitted their application. The good news is that a lack of major updates doesn’t prevent a student from writing a compelling LOCI. In fact, some of the most effective letters are written by students who had nothing groundbreaking to announce but approached the process with authenticity and creativity.

Here are three things students should keep in mind as they tackle the LOCI, whether they have important updates to provide or not:

1. Authentic Enthusiasm Is Better than Generic Interest

The first mistake students often make when they have nothing new to report is padding their letter with an overabundance of generalizations and platitudes to communicate their continued interest in the school. Phrases such as “I want you to know that [X University] remains my first choice” or “I have dreamed of attending since I was a kid” quickly blend into the crowd and fail to tell the admissions committee anything meaningful about a student’s interest.

Even if the months since the application deadline haven’t yielded new awards or updates, they have almost certainly offered time for self-reflection and perspective. One of the ways that students can distinguish their declarations of interest is by describing how their attitude toward the school has evolved as they have gone through the application process and awaited decisions. Perhaps an applicant revisited the notes they took during the campus tour and realized how meaningful their conversations on campus were; perhaps they followed up with an alumnus they met during admissions interviews and gained a new perspective on the campus culture; perhaps they didn’t realize how much they genuinely cared about the school until they received the waitlist notification. Observations such as these showcase introspection and personal investment that will distinguish a student’s letter from more generic expressions the admissions officers frequently hear.

2. Updates Don’t Have to be Official to Be Meaningful

Many students assume that the only updates admissions officers care about should be flashy and demonstrable—an official award, a published piece of writing, a noticeable change in one’s GPA. But admissions officers care less about the “wow factor” of a student’s updates and more about what those updates reveal about who a student is when they are no longer performing for the sake of college admission. They want to know that applicants are driven and curious, continuously thinking, questioning, learning, and evolving in ways that are relevant to the work they will pursue in college.

With this in mind, there are a wide range of activities and experiences that can illustrate these qualities if students frame them intentionally. Maybe an applicant has been reading about the field they want to study and found their thinking deepening. Maybe a class discussion challenged an assumption they held when they wrote their essays. Maybe they have been working on a project diligently since the application deadline and expanding its scope in small but meaningful ways. These updates are not headline-grabbing, but they tell the admissions committee a lot about who a student is and what they value.

Finally, students should connect these reflections to their fit with the particular school. Rather than simply narrating changes in their perspective or thinking, students should clearly connect these updates to their intentions for the next phase of their educational journey.

3. Creativity Should Be Paired with Authenticity

Admissions officers read hundreds of Letters of Continued Interest each spring, which means a letter that feels formulaic or interchangeable is unlikely to catch their yes. Students are right to think creatively about how to make their LOCI stand out, but creativity without authenticity can easily read as performative and inauthentic.

A LOCI that tries too hard to be clever or unconventional often becomes gimmicky, and admissions officers can tell the difference between a student whose personality naturally comes through on the page and one who is performing quirkiness in order to be memorable. The goal should never be to do something unexpected for its own sake, but instead to write a letter that genuinely reflects a student’s voice, values, and genuine reasons for wanting to be at this school.

The most memorable LOCIs, with or without significant updates, share one thing in common: they feel like they could only have been written by one specific student about one specific school. That level of particularity isn’t achieved through tricks or formulas. It comes from a student who has done the honest work of understanding what they want in their college experience, why they want it, and what they have to offer their future college campus.

Originally published on Forbes on April 9, 2026