***2015-2016 MD/PhD General Discussion***

[neurotroph]

How bad would it be to withdraw from a place 3 days before revisit, especially since I just got my faculty interview schedule and travel reimbursement today? I'm close to making a decision after my second revisit this past weekend, and I no longer have the desire or energy to do the third. I figure going and depriving another student the chance to go in my place would be worse than cancelling (relatively) last minute?

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[shady_bb]

How bad would it be to withdraw from a place 3 days before revisit, especially since I just got my faculty interview schedule and travel reimbursement today? I'm close to making a decision after my second revisit this past weekend, and I no longer have the desire or energy to do the third. I figure going and depriving another student the chance to go in my place would be worse than cancelling (relatively) last minute?

What are the chances at this point that another student could attend in your place with only 3 days to spare? I doubt that they would extend that chance simply for practical reasons. Just go and enjoy it and have an open mind. I don't think you should have any guilt since you're genuinely trying to make the best decision and they genuinely want you there. Plus, it's still a great opportunity to network and meet researchers in your field of interest.

 

[Fencer]

You can withdraw at any point during this process. The program hosting a visit can cancel at least hotel and save some other expenses. To give you a perspective, there are over 400 MD/PhD accepted applicants with multiple other acceptances (MD/PhD or MD) as per the records. I am certain that many of them have reduced their choice to one or two programs, although I did see 3 applicants with > 9 acceptances. Over the next 20 days, we will get multiple rejections. As soon as you make a decision, communicate it. There is no reason to wait. Only around 270 applicants currently hold a single MD/PhD decision and no other acceptances. Perhaps, it takes a week to update applicants' records in some programs. The point is there are many people trimming their lists. By the end of the cycle, about 120 applicants withdraw after acceptance; currently, only 20 have done it. That is why the waitlist isn't moving as fast as some people would want.

 

[ImmunoLove]

"Based on our data, any amount of "W"s result in no acceptances. Please reselect before continuing."

Or, "Number of friends:" 0 or 1?

Yeah, I got the same thing.

Except: I have 7+ Ws
And I got into 5+ "top 20" schools
(Exact numbers aren't needed here to make the point.)

Is this tool supposed to be useful/reasonable or just for fun (aka it's not a real endeavor and just SDN's neurotic version of a joke)? I ask seriously, and I don't base it on my own anecdotal experience, as I am aware one might consider me an outlier in several facets.

But really, is this "parody" or "bad science"?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[ImmunoLove]

How bad would it be to withdraw from a place 3 days before revisit, especially since I just got my faculty interview schedule and travel reimbursement today? I'm close to making a decision after my second revisit this past weekend, and I no longer have the desire or energy to do the third. I figure going and depriving another student the chance to go in my place would be worse than cancelling (relatively) last minute?

You can go if you like, and keep an open mind. I personally would withdraw (but I tend to be comfortable pulling the trigger). If it's in good faith, I don't think your conscience should suffer one way or another.


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[neurotroph]

You can go if you like, and keep an open mind. I personally would withdraw (but I tend to be comfortable pulling the trigger). If it's in good faith, I don't think your conscience should suffer one way or another.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Yeah I withdrew. It felt bad but I figured it'd feel worse being there knowing I was wasting people's time and money. Thanks for the advice, everyone!

 

[smiley buckeye]

Yeah, I got the same thing.

Except: I have 7+ Ws
And I got into 5+ "top 20" schools
(Exact numbers aren't needed here to make the point.)

Is this tool supposed to be useful/reasonable or just for fun (aka it's not a real endeavor and just SDN's neurotic version of a joke)? I ask seriously, and I don't base it on my own anecdotal experience, as I am aware one might consider me an outlier in several facets.

But really, is this "parody" or "bad science"?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Definitely a parody lol

 

[Argle Bargle]

Yeah, I got the same thing.

Except: I have 7+ Ws
And I got into 5+ "top 20" schools
(Exact numbers aren't needed here to make the point.)

Is this tool supposed to be useful/reasonable or just for fun (aka it's not a real endeavor and just SDN's neurotic version of a joke)? I ask seriously, and I don't base it on my own anecdotal experience, as I am aware one might consider me an outlier in several facets.

But really, is this "parody" or "bad science"?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Yep--it was an April fools joke, I assume intended partly to make fun of how neurotic SDN users often are. I also had a "W," and I stressed out about it, which is part of the reason I thought the joke--on people like me--was funny.

Did you happen to get any useful information from it? My impression was that it couldn't actually provide any.

 

[Penguin33]

Yep--it was an April fools joke, I assume intended partly to make fun of how neurotic SDN users often are. I also had a "W," and I stressed out about it, which is part of the reason I thought the joke--on people like me--was funny.

Did you happen to get any useful information from it? My impression was that it couldn't actually provide any.

I played around with it a few times, it's definitely not meant to give any proper feedback. It just has a lot of hidden options to insult people/make fun of the whole process. (At the end if you say that you have ginger hair, it suggests that you may need empathy and gives you a link to a wikipedia article on exorcism... if you say you're blond, it tells you to reselect because most applicants don't.) If you select that you have a nobel prize, it asks you how many times you won it; apparently winning it 2500 times didn't help my application prediction.

It's fun to send to pre-meds though, I sent it to one friend who freaked out because their school was listed as "middle tier" and then spent 10 minutes on the pattern recognition part to try and get it right.

 

[ImmunoLove]

Yep--it was an April fools joke, I assume intended partly to make fun of how neurotic SDN users often are. I also had a "W," and I stressed out about it, which is part of the reason I thought the joke--on people like me--was funny.

Did you happen to get any useful information from it? My impression was that it couldn't actually provide any.

Nope. Saw the thing about Ws, laughed, and realized even if it was intend to be, the tool was a joke. I didn't bother with the rest of it. Good to know it was intended for a laugh--you never know these days!


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[jellocube]

I contacted the UW-Madison MSTP today with a post-interview update. I received a kind, but apologetic, response indicating that they had over-accepted (11/10) and would not be making any more offers this year.

Is it safe to take this is an official rejection, or is there still hope for some post-May 2 movement?

 

[Sreltraln]

I contacted the UW-Madison MSTP today with a post-interview update. I received a kind, but apologetic, response indicating that they had over-accepted (11/10) and would not be making any more offers this year.

Is it safe to take this is an official rejection, or is there still hope for some post-May 2 movement?

So, in my experience, UW-Madison was the most clear and communicative about their waitlist and acceptances out of all of the programs I interacted with. I was waitlisted after my interview but they basically said they will likely make more offers. That time came like two weeks ago. They never told me what they told you... I can't say for sure that it is a rejection but I wouldn't too hopeful if they are telling you they won't be making more offers. Best of luck!!

 

[Argle Bargle]

I contacted the UW-Madison MSTP today with a post-interview update. I received a kind, but apologetic, response indicating that they had over-accepted (11/10) and would not be making any more offers this year.

Is it safe to take this is an official rejection, or is there still hope for some post-May 2 movement?

Do you need to pick one or the other at this point, or can you plan for the rejection while still keeping your name on the wait list "just in case?"

 

[jellocube]

Thank you for your responses everyone.

I guess it's not really up to me unless I withdraw, but it looks like they don't have any expectation of slots opening up later. They even ended the email by wishing me well on my other applications.

I'll probably chalk this up as a rejection, with a minuscule chance of an 11th hour acceptance.

 

[darthaxolotl]

@Fencer - Can we see a final breakdown of statistics for this cycle?

 

[starfun21]

Hi friends! I promised earlier that if I eventually was accepted somewhere, I'd make an MDapps account to hopefully help out other underdogs. I have done so, and I wanted to provide the link here for next year's applicants. I've been working on it for a while and just now hooked it up with my SDN username. I tried to be as detailed and honest as possible, and I really hope it is useful: http://mdapplicants.com/profile.php?id=31593

Also, did we ever do anything with the MD/PhD application guide that @fiesta started as a Google doc? I would be thrilled to help with any part of it and would love to see this move forward for this cycle!

GOOD LUCK to everyone applying in the next few days! My fingers are already super crossed for you. I miss all of my friends on here so much!

 

[Fencer]

Sorry, I was not able to be here...

Update on 2016 MD/PhD cycle, this is the best placement for MD/PhD applicants:

........................................... from 06/02/16
Total MD/PhD Applicants - 1894
Withdrew before acceptance (WB) - 14
Currently rejected (RJ, PW, PR, NA) - 1085
Alternate List (AL) - 3
Total MD/PhD Acceptances - 789 (at least one MD/PhD acceptance)
Withdrew after acceptance (WA) - 93
Defer to future year (DF) - 17
Rescinded acceptance (RA) - 2
Current MD/PhD class (AC, MA) - 677

The MD/PhD class starting in 2016 is the largest ever! The success rate (789/1894) for at least one MD/PhD acceptance was 41.7%.

 

[Fencer]

Update on 2016 MD/PhD cycle, this is the best placement for MD/PhD applicants:

........................................... from 08/27/16
Total MD/PhD Applicants - 1902
Withdrew before acceptance (WB) - 10
Currently rejected (RJ, PW, PR, NA) - 1108
Alternate List (AL) - 0
Total MD/PhD Acceptances - 784 (at least one MD/PhD acceptance)
Withdrew after acceptance (WA) - 112
Defer to future year (DF) - 24
Rescinded acceptance (RA) - 2
Matriculated MD/PhD class (MA) - 586
Pending matriculation (AC) - 60
Total potential matriculating MD/PhD class - 646

The MD/PhD class starting in 2016 is the largest ever! The success rate (784/1902) for at least one MD/PhD acceptance was 41.2%.