Post-interview Rejection Counseling, what should I ask?

[Donald Kimball]

I have a counseling session with the dean of admissions at a school where I was rejected post-interview coming up this week, and I wanted to get input on the types of questions I should ask him.

What do you all recommend?

Here's some that I might ask:

Was there one single aspect of my application that resulted in my rejection?
What aspects of my application should I improve?
Did I interview poorly?
In the eyes of the admissions committee, does my back injury cast doubt on my capability to succeed in medical school and as a physician? (lol like I will get an answer to this)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BrawnsNBrain]

I've never heard of a situation like this, but if I were in the situation I'd do my best to convince the adcom they should reconsider (at least for next year).

I can't give any input to questions you should or should not ask, but it sounds like a great opportunity for you to do what my first sentence said. I'd recommend having good explanations for weakness that don't sound like excuses. Turn their view of a weakness into a 'strength' if possible

 

[pietachok]

I've never heard of a situation like this, but if I were in the situation I'd do my best to convince the adcom they should reconsider (at least for next year).

I can't give any input to questions you should or should not ask, but it sounds like a great opportunity for you to do what my first sentence said. I'd recommend having good explanations for weakness that don't sound like excuses. Turn their view of a weakness into a 'strength' if possible

This is sort of disappointing advice to see given from a supposed med student.
Application post mortems are not invitations to try to persuade them to change the decision on your application, and they typically don't invite a lot of feedback from an applicant about weak points. If the dean were interested in hearing an explanation of the weaknesses, he probably would have solicited these answers during the application season, perhaps by inviting OP for an interview. If OP tries to do this, he risks cutting short the feedback he receives and thus benefiting less from the meeting. It would not be as beneficial to his application for next year as seeming keenly and passionately interested in improving himself for successful reapplication to the school -- it is better to present yourself as someone who is willing to work hard to meet their high bar than as someone who'd rather argue that the bar be lowered for him.

I have a counseling session with the dean of admissions at a school where I was rejected post-interview coming up this week, and I wanted to get input on the types of questions I should ask him.

What do you all recommend?

Here's some that I might ask:

Was there one single aspect of my application that resulted in my rejection?
What aspects of my application should I improve?
Did I interview poorly?
In the eyes of the admissions committee, does my back injury cast doubt on my capability to succeed in medical school and as a physician? (lol like I will get an answer to this)

I think your questions look appropriate. In my limited experience with these post-mortems, the dean will lead the meeting and answer all of the questions you've put forth here (except the last one). If he answers your questions without you asking them, that's ok. Be polite, thankful, and emphatic that you are interested in working hard to prove yourself qualified to be a successful reapplicant to his school.

I think it might be useful to ask whether he thinks any recommended changes could be successfully established for the 2014 application cycle or if in his experience an applicant with your deficiencies (I have no idea what yours are) would tend to benefit more from taking a gap year to make the improvements for a 2015 AMCAS. You can appreciate that there are a lot of potential app weaknesses that are hard to meaningfully address between now and June.

You could ask how this school would advise you to proceed with regards to using your committee letter, if you used one in this cycle. Would they prefer or recommend an app with just LORs in the future. (They may not be willing/able to answer this, but this elicited the most important piece of feedback I got).

If your back injury must be a part of your discussion, I would phrase your questions more along the lines of: "what type of information do you look for to gain reassurance that an applicant with an injury/disability/health concern can successfully meet the requirements of medical school?" rather than put anybody in a position where they feel like they're uncomfortably close to being asked to say you're rejected for something someone would construe as a disability.

 

[QofQuimica]

What aspects of my application should I improve?

This is the million dollar question right here. I would phrase it as, "how can I improve my app?" Because while there's nothing that shouldn't be improved, there are obviously one or more deal breaker things that *need* to be improved.

Beyond that, be prepared to take some constructive criticism, and vow to yourself that you will do what you can to improve on whatever weaknesses the dean identifies prior to your next application attempt.

Best of luck.

 

[BrawnsNBrain]

This is sort of disappointing advice to see given from a supposed med student.
Application post mortems are not invitations to try to persuade them to change the decision on your application, and they typically don't invite a lot of feedback from an applicant about weak points. If the dean were interested in hearing an explanation of the weaknesses, he probably would have solicited these answers during the application season, perhaps by inviting OP for an interview. If OP tries to do this, he risks cutting short the feedback he receives and thus benefiting less from the meeting. It would not be as beneficial to his application for next year as seeming keenly and passionately interested in improving himself for successful reapplication to the school -- it is better to present yourself as someone who is willing to work hard to meet their high bar than as someone who'd rather argue that the bar be lowered for him.



I think your questions look appropriate. In my limited experience with these post-mortems, the dean will lead the meeting and answer all of the questions you've put forth here (except the last one). If he answers your questions without you asking them, that's ok. Be polite, thankful, and emphatic that you are interested in working hard to prove yourself qualified to be a successful reapplicant to his school.

I think it might be useful to ask whether he thinks any recommended changes could be successfully established for the 2014 application cycle or if in his experience an applicant with your deficiencies (I have no idea what yours are) would tend to benefit more from taking a gap year to make the improvements for a 2015 AMCAS. You can appreciate that there are a lot of potential app weaknesses that are hard to meaningfully address between now and June.

You could ask how this school would advise you to proceed with regards to using your committee letter, if you used one in this cycle. Would they prefer or recommend an app with just LORs in the future. (They may not be willing/able to answer this, but this elicited the most important piece of feedback I got).

If your back injury must be a part of your discussion, I would phrase your questions more along the lines of: "what type of information do you look for to gain reassurance that an applicant with an injury/disability/health concern can successfully meet the requirements of medical school?" rather than put anybody in a position where they feel like they're uncomfortably close to being asked to say you're rejected for something someone would construe as a disability.

Explain how my post has anything to do with me being a first year? Did you read the full disclosure I gave in my first sentence where I stated I've never heard of anything like this (despite graduating with tons of premeds). Clearly I offered my advice as to what I would do. It's my own subjective view.

You have some experience with this as you stated so clearly OP should go with your advice more. Clearly your bias and previous exposure to incidents like this lends you to know what is more appropriate. Instead of saying negative things about another poster who openly admitted his own ignorance in the question being asked perhaps you should just post your own advice #lifetip

 

[Mad Jack]

Let the music do the talking.

But really, I would ask what you could do to make your application stronger, what the admission committee felt was your biggest weakness as an applicant, and if you had any red flags.

 

[AndyQC]

I have a counseling session with the dean of admissions at a school where I was rejected post-interview coming up this week, and I wanted to get input on the types of questions I should ask him.

What do you all recommend?

Here's some that I might ask:

Was there one single aspect of my application that resulted in my rejection?
What aspects of my application should I improve?
Did I interview poorly?
In the eyes of the admissions committee, does my back injury cast doubt on my capability to succeed in medical school and as a physician? (lol like I will get an answer to this)

I had one of these last week.

It was difficult to come up with questions to ask before hearing why I was rejected. However, in retrospect, I wish I had asked the following:

- Were there any particular comments from the interview that I should take note of?
- Were my LORs acceptable?
- I have done X, Y, and Z over the past year. Taking these activities into consideration, would I be a stronger candidate next cycle?

My exit interview was a little bit disappointing. The Dean was very nice and easy to talk to, but the reasons he gave for my rejection didn't make a lot of sense (essentially, I was told that 500+ hours of clinical experience was "insufficient."). If I could go back, I would have asked a lot more questions and tried to develop a very clear understanding of what I would need to do to be accepted as a re-applicant.

 

[Goro]

These are good questions. I suggest forgetting about the back question, they wouldn't admit it even if true. Seek feedback, not counseling.

Was there one single aspect of my application that resulted in my rejection?
What aspects of my application should I improve?
Did I interview poorly?

 

[Donald Kimball]

Good points all around guys/gals. I wish I had seen a few more of these before my call with the Dean.

If you haven't stopped by my other thread, this is basically what happened:

I got a call from the Dean of Admissions and he just ran through a handful of comments from both of my interviewers and members of the admissions committee.

Most of the negative feedback revolved around my "unfocused interests" and a lack of service and clinical experience. For example, I mentioned in their supplemental essay and in the interviews that I was considering pediatrics for (tenuous) reasons, but they noticed I had no experience shadowing a pediatrician or any other experience with the specialty aside from my time as a clown several years ago. Some of the adcom were uncertain about my interest and motivation for medicine.

I asked the question about my back, but I wish I would have phrased it like pietachok suggested. Oh well.

Both interviewers remarked that I was "friendly, extroverted, and genuine," and they felt that I would be a "good fit" for the school. They also commented that while I struggled my freshman/sophomore year, I clearly had made a strong recovery.

So, I don't think my interview skills were off, and I don't think my relatively average GPA was a huge deal. My impression is that my lack of experience bled into my interviews, my personal statement, and supplemental essays, and held me back from providing a compelling argument that I have a sincere motivation for medicine.

All in all, I was encouraged by the dean's feedback because my lack of clinical/service experience is something I have been working on extensively since I applied last year. Still, it's disheartening and worrisome to see others get rejected with 500+ hours of such experience and then get told they didn't have enough experience.

Thanks for all of the advice!

I had one of these last week.

It was difficult to come up with questions to ask before hearing why I was rejected. However, in retrospect, I wish I had asked the following:

- Were there any particular comments from the interview that I should take note of?
- Were my LORs acceptable?
- I have done X, Y, and Z over the past year. Taking these activities into consideration, would I be a stronger candidate next cycle?

My exit interview was a little bit disappointing. The Dean was very nice and easy to talk to, but the reasons he gave for my rejection didn't make a lot of sense (essentially, I was told that 500+ hours of clinical experience was "insufficient."). If I could go back, I would have asked a lot more questions and tried to develop a very clear understanding of what I would need to do to be accepted as a re-applicant.

Very good questions! If it makes you feel any better, I asked the second question regarding LORs, but this medical school (all of them?) is bound by the confidentiality agreement associated with LORs, and the dean could tell me nothing about the content of my letters. However, that doesn't mean I won't be carefully screening my letter writers this time around.

 

[AndyQC]

Very good questions! If it makes you feel any better, I asked the second question regarding LORs, but this medical school (all of them?) is bound by the confidentiality agreement associated with LORs, and the dean could tell me nothing about the content of my letters. However, that doesn't mean I won't be carefully screening my letter writers this time around.

Hmm...that's interesting. When I spoke to the Dean, he told me that he couldn't share the specific content of the letters, but noted that overall they were excellent. I guess there's a fine line between breaching confidentiality and offering constructive feedback.

I'll also mention that the comments we received are strikingly similar. Feel free to PM me if you want to compare applications, but I have a hunch that having a lot of shadowing and volunteer experience in a hospital setting is becoming increasingly important.