Coming from a dad's opinion ... LOAs are "I love you" letters so you dont skip town with Plan B in hand. They want you to know that there is no decisions to wrangle over, etc. You are in IF the 1 (or more) yes/no pieces are satisfied.They have known I needed a waiver for about 3 weeks now. I do not know why I would get an LOA now. From what I have heard, they review the waiver more thoroughly once a candidate gets an LOA. This does not really make sense to me, though, because I thought they already waited to see if the candidate was competitive before REQUESTING an LOA. Idk, I will just have to standby for further information. Definitely encouraging, though because I have been a little worried about the whole waiver thing so it gets my mind off of it.
DS received his LOA in March, waiting on a waiver that was requested months prior. The good news is that you know there is a yes/no that is answered once you get back your waiver decision. You dont have to worry about the "am I competitive enough" part until April or later.