Medical When should I worry about awaiting interview invites?

[Goro]

I scored a 522 on the MCAT and have a 3.98 BCPM and overall GPA from a state school. I finished all of my secondaries towards the end of July and still haven't gotten any interview invites (was put on hold by one school). I'm starting to wonder if there's something on my application that is a red flag. Should I be worried? Relatively speaking I have great research, clinical, teaching, and volunteer experience. I'm a double major about to graduate with a degree in the humanities and hard sciences. I feel like I'm on the right track and have set myself up well, but I'm scared that other people are getting interview invites and I haven't heard anything. When should I start worrying and making back-up plans?

With all due respect, patience is a virtue and the need for instant gratification is not.

Medical schools do not process applications in a chronological order.

If you don't get any invites by Thanksgiving or, in this age of covid-19 December, then yeah something is wrong. That's when you should start working on your plan B.

And in reality you're rejected until you get that acceptance email in your inbox.

How many hours do you have of the following:
research

Shadowing

Clinical exposure, either volunteering or employment

Non-clinical volunteering what was your school list? You might have apply to too few or too low and thus resource protect it out. If you aim too high, and not have any safety schools, then you would just have the bad luck of competing in a very very competitive environment.

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[TheBoneDoctah]

With those scores, as long as:

A) you have adequate ECs
B) you don't have any letter writers that wrote something bad about you
C) you applied smart and broadly and didn't top-load your school list

...you SHOULD be in good shape and interviews SHOULD start rolling in.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Metrics aren't the only things we look at when we screen applications. Holistic review processes charge us to make sure we look at how the essays resonate with us in thinking about your future as one of our students. As easy as it is to compare, you can't and shouldn't. There are no "fairness rules" when it comes to admissions, and your application doesn't deserve favor just because your metrics or academic accomplishments are stellar. Be patient and don't give us screeners and AdCom members any reason to doubt your fit with our program.

 

[Goro]

400 hours research, 100 hours shadowing, 140 hours community service, 400 hours paid clinical experience, 100 hours unpaid clinical experience

Schools: harvard, yale, chicago pritzker, northwestern, stanford, emory, NYU, johns hopkins, vanderbilt, mayo, georgetown, wash u, u penn, brown, creighton, duke, colorado boulder, kansas, boston university, iowa, washington state

I suspect that you have aimed a bit too high.

If you are not a resident of Washington state, WSU was a donation. Ditto if you are not a Kansas native and for U Kansas. Georgetown will figure that you are more likely to go elsewhere. Hello from historic Norms that candidates with steps like yours actually do so., as will Creighton.

 

[Goro]

How do I find the balance between aiming too high and applying to schools that "will figure that you are more likely to go elsewhere?"

Avoid Drexel/Albany class schools. Use MSAR ONline and pay careful attention to the IS/OOS ratios for apps vs II's vs matriculants.

Some schools to consider are
U VM
EMORY
U MIAMI
CASE
ROCHESTER
OH STATE
U CINCY
UCSF
KECK
BROWN
TUFTS
U WI
U CO
HOFSTRA
EINSTEIN

get in more service to others less fortunate than yourself.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

You should have no problem getting into KU with those scores