Can 1 person on the admissions team prevent an applicant from getting accepted?

[ilovemedii]

I know of some people who were admitted even with super average stats because they know someone in the admissions committee (or have their PI, who is a part of the admissions committee and/or is close with the people on the committee who wrote a "glowing" LOR, etc). I understand having connections can be pretty beneficial, even if some claim it does not help.

Long story short, and without getting into to much specifics, I was friends with a guy whose parent was a MAJOR figure in the med school. Like, huge. Everywhere I go, I see the mom's name. I did not end up on good terms with him because for some reason, he wanted a new clique and just changed. There was never a nasty fight, just a "i'll never talk to u again" and delete you from everything, which to this day I have no idea why. Fast forward a few years, and I get an interview at the school his mom's (I applied super super late and to little schools, and that coupled with a major update in my stats mid-cycle enabled me to get an interview because I had a pretty huge update. obviously i applied early this current cycle). Anyways, when I interviewed, let's just say that I was directly told that I would be "recommended" to the committee. What happens? I get rejected. A few other people I met said they for sure thought I was in, because they had lower stats than me and they were accepted. I greatly regret even becoming friends with him. If only .

Can someone get rejected because of the decision of 1 person who has a lot of power (again, she has a huge role and has done a lot for the school)? I'm scared to apply to this school again because I'm afraid his mom had a say in my rejection. What should I do? Suck it up and not apply, or go for it? Is there even a point? I'm too afraid to ask why I was rejected, thinking that will make it worse and bring more attention. Plus it's almost August and I already submitted my app yet again.

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[ilovemedii]

If you're worried about this guy, I would just apply to different schools instead.

See but that is so unfair. I love this school and their mission fits my perfect. Is that really what it comes to?

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

Apply, you could have had a bad interview. I had people that were 5 points higher on the mcat get rejected because they couldn't interview while I got accepted.

 

[GiveMeThatMD]

Rejecting over a long lost love feels like a humongous conflict of interest.

 

[ilovemedii]

Apply, you could have had a bad interview. I had people that were 5 points higher on the mcat get rejected because they couldn't interview while I got accepted.

Any suggestions for this cycle on interviewing better? I felt like my interview went good not sure what I should even improve on, some of the interviewers said they would recommend me. But maybe you're right.

 

[NVdisG]

u said moms name in 2nd paragraph and dad in 3rd

TR0000L

 

[ilovemedii]

@NVdisG wtf... you prob saw my old edit just as i was changing stuff for anonymity. and why would i be trolling over this? i wish i was cuz being in this situation sucks.

 

[NVdisG]

im going to ban u

 

[gannicus89]

I think it's possible. I've seen people lose their JOBS over one important person's opinion.

 

[Spector1]

Definitely possible. I wouldnt put it out of possibility.

 

[deleted702880]

Well you can mention this to the adcoms and state that it's a conflict of interest but in the end keep the blame on yourself. What could you have done wrong during the interview? What did you do right? Don't place the fault with others for what could easily be attributed to yourself, regardless of what happened.

 

[Goro]

Yes.

Interviewers are trained to be polite. no one is going to ever tell you to your face ("your interview sucked, you have the personality of a flea".

But give Adcoms a little more credit. if the mom wasn't part of the interview process, then her word would be discounts. If my dep't Chair came into the meeting and said "don't accept this guy, my kid knew him in college and he was an dingus," we'd politely nod and then go and make the decision based upon your file and the interview.

Did you get any feedback from the Admissions dean as to your rejection? maybe you applied late. maybe you didn't have enough Ecs. maybe your were interesting but borderline, and your stats were just too worrisome. Maybe you're a bad interviewee?

You've already gone through one interview cycle and had no luck, so that says something right there.

One last note: most people are very poor judges of how they do at interviews.

I know of some people who were admitted even with super average stats because they know someone in the admissions committee (or have their PI, who is a part of the admissions committee and/or is close with the people on the committee who wrote a "glowing" LOR, etc). I understand having connections can be pretty beneficial, even if some claim it does not help.

Long story short, and without getting into to much specifics, I was friends with a guy whose parent was a MAJOR figure in the med school. Like, huge. Everywhere I go, I see the mom's name. I did not end up on good terms with him because for some reason, he wanted a new clique and just changed. There was never a nasty fight, just a "i'll never talk to u again" and delete you from everything, which to this day I have no idea why. Fast forward a few years, and I get an interview at the school his mom's (I applied super super late and to little schools, and that coupled with a major update in my stats mid-cycle enabled me to get an interview because I had a pretty huge update. obviously i applied early this current cycle). Anyways, when I interviewed, let's just say that I was directly told that I would be "recommended" to the committee. What happens? I get rejected. A few other people I met said they for sure thought I was in, because they had lower stats than me and they were accepted. I greatly regret even becoming friends with him. If only .

Can someone get rejected because of the decision of 1 person who has a lot of power (again, she has a huge role and has done a lot for the school)? I'm scared to apply to this school again because I'm afraid his mom had a say in my rejection. What should I do? Suck it up and not apply, or go for it? Is there even a point? I'm too afraid to ask why I was rejected, thinking that will make it worse and bring more attention. Plus it's almost August and I already submitted my app yet again.

 

[pinnacleadvising]

Can someone get rejected because of the decision of 1 person who has a lot of power.

the short answer to this is yes, absolutely

that being said i would still apply if financially feasible

 

[ChrisMack390]

Can 1 person influence admission this much? Absolutely.

Would a physician in a position as lofty as you describe tell all the adcomm members not to accept you cuz you and her baby boy had a wittle fight? Unlikely.

 

[GrapesofRath]

Couple thoughts
1) Yes it is possible this might have sunk you.

But you know what is probably more possible
2) The people you didn't know you possibly didn't make the strongest impression on that you could have.
3) You didn't get anywhere else last cycle. There is a reason for that.
4) The mom you know might care alot less and knows alot less about the dynamic between you and your friend than you do. It's not uncommon to run into parents who don't realize you and their kid haven't talked in years or got into some argument and them still approaching you like nothing has really changed because they just remember the days of when you both were younger.

I get why you're so focused on this but you shouldn't be. Focus on making your app better for this cycle.

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

Any suggestions for this cycle on interviewing better? I felt like my interview went good not sure what I should even improve on, some of the interviewers said they would recommend me. But maybe you're right.

I practiced with my supervisor and my pre med advisor. What kind of interview was it? MMI? Group or individual ?

 

[wagonwheel23]

I was on a graduate school admissions committee and have also managed hiring processes at two companies. Sometimes a single person can prevent a person's admission/hiring. However, this is very rare (in my experience).

Also, why would your friend's mom care?

Finally, @Goro makes an excellent point about people not being able to assess their ability to interview. I would set up mock interviews with some wise individuals that can assess your performance. I have interviewed many candidates and am typically shocked at the percentage of people that cannot interview well. This skill can be learned, so practice!

 

[avgn]

Yes.

Interviewers are trained to be polite. no one is going to ever tell you to your face ("your interview sucked, you have the personality of a flea".

But give Adcoms a little more credit. if the mom wasn't part of the interview process, then her word would be discounts. If my dep't Chair came into the meeting and said "don't accept this guy, my kid knew him in college and he was an dingus," we'd politely nod and then go and make the decision based upon your file and the interview.

Did you get any feedback from the Admissions dean as to your rejection? maybe you applied late. maybe you didn't have enough Ecs. maybe your were interesting but borderline, and your stats were just too worrisome. Maybe you're a bad interviewee?

You've already gone through one interview cycle and had no luck, so that says something right there.

One last note: most people are very poor judges of how they do at interviews.

Well thats an obvious case but what if the person found other reasons to put down the applicant without revealing true intentions? I would think that would still work out

 

[LizzyM]

In my experience, the times I've seen one person sink an applicant it has been because of egregious behavior on the part of the applicant that was observed and reported by that person. Most often it is an interviewer but it can be member of the office staff or a member of the administration.

I do agree that someone who believes they were blackballed at one institution might have a point if they were admitted to several other schools. If you weren't admitted anywhere, it is less likely that someone shut you down and thus killed your chances and more likely that you weren't a strong (top 40% of the national pool) candidate who applied widely.

 

[Spector1]

I would hope any interviewer who had known you before would recuse themselves. That would be a matter of simple ethics.

 

[genericpremedstudent]

You are paranoid. The likelihood of everything coming together for that to happen is very low. You probably just bombed your interview.

 

[DokterMom]

Can someone get rejected because of the decision of 1 person who has a lot of power (again, she has a huge role and has done a lot for the school)? I'm scared to apply to this school again because I'm afraid his mom had a say in my rejection. What should I do? Suck it up and not apply, or go for it? Is there even a point? I'm too afraid to ask why I was rejected, thinking that will make it worse and bring more attention. Plus it's almost August and I already submitted my app yet again.

Did the son actually say "I'll never talk to you again" or was it more of a cessation of contact that felt abrupt and in hindsight...? If you still have any mutual friends, it might be worth having that friend make a discrete inquiry to see if the 'snubbing' was due to a misunderstanding that could be cleared up and/or how serious the 'animosity' actually is.

While I agree with @Goro that son's hypothetical "OP's a dingus" comment wouldn't be highly influential, a more specific incident report (accurate or not) alleging serious misconduct from a generally trustworthy son would carry more weight.

 

[ilovemedii]

@DokterMom: it was a more of "oh.. you blocked me off of all social media WTF". there was a jealousy factor in there, but I can't really describe it cuz it's too specific.

@avgn: yeah that's what I thought too.. we'll see this cycle

@wagonwheel23: the mom would care because long story short, i ended up doing extremely well and surpassing her son, academically. he cried because of an incident where academically, i did better than him. the mom had said 1 snarky remark about me before during a party (again, this was years ago).
--
and thanks everyone. obviously i had a bad cycle because i applied extremely late, and mid cycle I got a pretty great MCAT score, which gave me that interview invite the week after I updated them with my score. I think my stats are great. Maybe my interview sucked, so I'll brush up on that. But if I get rejected again this cycle, after getting into more than 1 school (which I'm absolutely confident I will, cuz i've already received an II), then I guess I'll know why

 

[resiroth]

Apply, you could have had a bad interview. I had people that were 5 points higher on the mcat get rejected because they couldn't interview while I got accepted.

Eh. Interviews are a notoriously bad metric for examining applicants. People do it because it feels right, even if inter-rater reliability is low.

I had terrible interview and great interviews, of which all but one (which I screwed up) I think were essentially determined by who was interviewing me. Not to say I bombed the bad interviews, but you just can't connect with everyone, and sometimes your interviewer just got out of surgery and simply doesn't care. I wish I had more MMIs since those seemed more reliable, and less prone to the whims of the nebulous interview feedback.

PS: I'm currently matriculating to the medical school I was positive I interviewed worst at, essentially bombing it, while I was rejected from a school I would have liked (medium desire) despite my interviewers basically begging me to come to their school/writing letters to the committee on my behalf.

PPS: I wrote a total of 0 letters to the school I'm matriculating to, and I even forgot to write thank you letters.

TLDR: prolly not interview, those things are random as heck, and certainly don't mean you interviewed better if you got in or worse if you didn't. They're looking for a particular applicant. I was turned down at Penn while some people with MCATs a full 10 points lower than mine got in. Was that because they interviewed that much better or was it because they were looking for what that other applicant had that I didn't as an overall package?

 

[NickNaylor]

Eh. Interviews are a notoriously bad metric for examining applicants. People do it because it feels right, even if inter-rater reliability is low.

I had terrible interview and great interviews, of which all but one (which I screwed up) I think were essentially determined by who was interviewing me. Not to say I bombed the bad interviews, but you just can't connect with everyone, and sometimes your interviewer just got out of surgery and simply doesn't care. I wish I had more MMIs since those seemed more reliable, and less prone to the whims of the nebulous interview feedback.

PS: I'm currently matriculating to the medical school I was positive I interviewed worst at, essentially bombing it, while I was rejected from a school I would have liked (medium desire) despite my interviewers basically begging me to come to their school/writing letters to the committee on my behalf.

PPS: I wrote a total of 0 letters to the school I'm matriculating to, and I even forgot to write thank you letters.

TLDR: prolly not interview, those things are random as heck, and certainly don't mean you interviewed better if you got in or worse if you didn't. They're looking for a particular applicant. I was turned down at Penn while some people with MCATs a full 10 points lower than mine got in. Was that because they interviewed that much better or was it because they were looking for what that other applicant had that I didn't as an overall package?

Inter-rater reliability may be low, but this is typically why you are given multiple interviews - exactly because you may connect with some people but not others. However, unless one interview is particularly egregious I doubt that that in and of itself would be sufficient for you to get rejected. There is also the problem of applicants themselves being poor raters of how they do in interviews. Your own anecdote makes this clear.

In terms of the OP's question, I highly doubt it will matter. Is this person a student or something? Unless they have particular reasons for thinking you would be a problem at a school - e.g., a track record of questionable behavior - even if the person did say something (how would they even know unless you told them you were applying there?) I doubt it would have much of an impact if they aren't on the admissions committee. Depending on a school's rating system, one interview or one person's opinion on the admissions committee can sink you, but in my opinion it was somewhat rare. We scored applicants prior to even meeting for the committee, and on a scale of 1-10 most applicants were scored within a range of +/- 2 points, so the initial "opinions" of people were pretty similar to begin with. Even if someone had something particularly negative to say about an applicant, other committee members might lower their score by a point or two as a result.

 

[DokterMom]

" the mom would care because long story short, i ended up doing extremely well and surpassing her son, academically. he cried because of an incident where academically, i did better than him. the mom had said 1 snarky remark about me before during a party (again, this was years ago).
--
and thanks everyone. obviously i had a bad cycle because i applied [I]extremely[/I] late, and mid cycle I got a pretty great MCAT score, which gave me that interview invite the week after I updated them with my score. I think my stats are great. Maybe my interview sucked, so I'll brush up on that. But if I get rejected again this cycle, after getting into more than 1 school (which I'm absolutely confident I will, cuz i've already received an II), then I guess I'll know why ;)[/QUOTE]"



If the Mom made a snarky comment at a party after you academically one-upped her son, it's possible that she's a bit petty and vindictive -- enough for her to say "[I]I know ILoveMedii personally and he's kind of a jerk[/I]" - which would probably be enough to sink your ap [I]at her school[/I]. But it's extraordinarily unlikely that she would have sufficient animosity towards you to make phone calls to other schools and black-ball you, if that's what you're suggesting. That takes [I]much[/I] more time and effort than this particular level of annoyance would merit.

Good luck on your cycle --

 

[Biochemistry2014]

It is never a bad idea to call an admissions committee after a rejection to figure out their reasons for rejecting you. You'll get a better answer from them than you could get from anyone here as to why you were not accepted.

 

[doc05]

1. it's possible.
2. it doesn't sound likely in this case. she's probably not as important as you think.
3. in any event who cares? there are about 100 other medical schools.