Seriously Concerned

[quelastima]

Hey everyone, new to SDN. Here's the deal: it is November 3rd and I'm sitting on 2 invites, many times more rejections, and mounting anxiety. The real slap in the face? Rejected by both of my aways after the PDs told me how impressed they were, etc. What gives? Is it the fact that I'm not at Harvard? Do I have bad breath? Did they find out I peed in the pool a few times when I was six?

AOA, top 5% of an upper-mid tier school, above the vaunted 240, a few papers, his mom thinks he's a pretty nice young man, etc. I do not feel entitled to anything but I have close to nothing and it looks like most invites are out.

Am I screwed? Is it time for a second look at the car wash?

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[mpdoc2]

Hey everyone, new to SDN. Here's the deal: it is November 3rd and I'm sitting on 2 invites, many times more rejections, and mounting anxiety. The real slap in the face? Rejected by both of my aways after the PDs told me how impressed they were, etc. What gives? Is it the fact that I'm not at Harvard? Do I have bad breath? Did they find out I peed in the pool a few times when I was six?

AOA, top 5% of an upper-mid tier school, above the vaunted 240, a few papers, his mom thinks he's a pretty nice young man, etc. I do not feel entitled to anything but I have close to nothing and it looks like most invites are out.

Am I screwed? Is it time for a second look at the car wash?

Did you rub someone the wrong way at your aways? Either that or where they top 10 places? You should email the pd and ask why to get some insight on any possible personality flaw.

 

[quelastima]

Did you rub someone the wrong way at your aways? Either that or where they top 10 places? You should email the pd and ask why to get some insight on any possible personality flaw.

I mean one of them told me, to my face, that everyone really liked me. And yes, top 10ish I suppose.

 

[Lamount]

Hey everyone, new to SDN. Here's the deal: it is November 3rd and I'm sitting on 2 invites, many times more rejections, and mounting anxiety. The real slap in the face? Rejected by both of my aways after the PDs told me how impressed they were, etc. What gives? Is it the fact that I'm not at Harvard? Do I have bad breath? Did they find out I peed in the pool a few times when I was six?

AOA, top 5% of an upper-mid tier school, above the vaunted 240, a few papers, his mom thinks he's a pretty nice young man, etc. I do not feel entitled to anything but I have close to nothing and it looks like most invites are out.

Am I screwed? Is it time for a second look at the car wash?

I was in almost this exact situation two years ago. I had a very similar application. I even had the same experience with one of my aways. I got the bulk of my interviews in late November/Early December. It all turned out just fine. I got more than enough interviews and ended up matching at a great program. I wasn't many's first choice, but I was someone's last... which is really all that matters.

 

[baculum1]

Take a look at the "Swap" section. Those are openings waiting to open up. I look at them with incredible thirst because i know some of these lurkers are double booked. stay thirsty. Salud.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jUSXHJRQlGQ/UjUTANMC5sI/AAAAAAAABKM/VaJk9kxw28Y/s400/peter-pan-croc.jpg

 

[quelastima]

Thanks for the encouraging words guys. I hope things start to brighten this month. And yes, I don't always interview, but when I do, it's to match. Wakkawakkawakka

 

[kristofer]

Did you rub someone the wrong way at your aways? Either that or where they top 10 places? You should email the pd and ask why to get some insight on any possible personality flaw.

It's highly unlikely a PD is going to respond to an email asking for honest feedback about what subjective factors played into their decision not to interview you. The best you could hope for is a generic email saying that there were many qualified candidates and that this season was unusually competitive. Most likely, in my experience, they won't respond at all, because if they were to honestly reveal that they didn't interview you because they found you annoying or didn't like the fact you were couples matching or something, that opens up potential lines of dialogue they don't want to go get involved in and exposes them to potential liability depending on the nature of the subjective decision. If you did not request an LOR from the program, that may have played into the decision as I did not get a LOR from one of my aways and the PD told me (during the interview) this was a negative factor in my application. If you did get an LOR, I don't think it's unreasonable to send a very careful and gentle email stating your disappointment and somehow ask what the biggest objective aspect lacking in your application was (not enough research, board scores, LORs, etc.). Just don't expect much of a response.

Your best resource for feedback about what may have gone wrong is usually going to be the PD at your home program.