My son had a couple friends get them last year in early August, but those were based off of summer seminar applications. He was waiting to apply and the actual "real" application didn't come online last year until August. You could go in and put your data in, and his ACT scores showed up, but the different areas of the portal didn't open until the (for things like teacher recs, etc.). I didn't hear of any WP ones here on the boards before about that week, but I suppose it would be possible any time after SLS. The people who got them said they were more of an "LOA of an LOA" - basically saying that if what they'd submitted on their SLS application was true, then they'd get the actual LOA once they sent in their transcripts, verified activity listings, etc. I didn't hear of anyone this past year getting them that early who hadn't gone to SLS (or at least applied for it) though, but I can't say that it doesn't happen - just don't know!