True/false my advisor's advice about late interviews?

Started by stephentyler20
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stephentyler20

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In mid february, I received an interview invite for UIC for the last week of April (this was their first available opening). I recently met with my premed "advisor", who informed me that I am interviewing for a spot on the wait-list ONLY, and that there was no chance of getting an immediate acceptance... only off the wait list, if anything.

Is there any truth to this? I'm well aware that this is a late-in-the-game interview, but am I setting myself up for a spot on the wait list, and nothing more? Needless to say, I was quite discouraged by this bit of news.
 
stephentyler20 said:
In mid february, I received an interview invite for UIC for the last week of April (this was their first available opening). I recently met with my premed "advisor", who informed me that I am interviewing for a spot on the wait-list ONLY, and that there was no chance of getting an immediate acceptance... only off the wait list, if anything.

Is there any truth to this? I'm well aware that this is a late-in-the-game interview, but am I setting myself up for a spot on the wait list, and nothing more? Needless to say, I was quite discouraged by this bit of news.
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i'm not completely sure about that... i got an interview invite for uci for may and so i called admissions and she said that it was not for the waitlist but for the actual class. but then someone said that admissions does not like to tell people that interviews are for the waitlist... but why would admissions lie?? but anyway, assuming admissions was correct, your interview is for the actual class. good luck!:luck::luck::luck:
 
stephentyler20 said:
In mid february, I received an interview invite for UIC for the last week of April (this was their first available opening). I recently met with my premed "advisor", who informed me that I am interviewing for a spot on the wait-list ONLY, and that there was no chance of getting an immediate acceptance... only off the wait list, if anything.

Is there any truth to this? I'm well aware that this is a late-in-the-game interview, but am I setting myself up for a spot on the wait list, and nothing more? Needless to say, I was quite discouraged by this bit of news.
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There's no such thing as definite. There is highly probable. For all we know, you could completely thrill your interviewer and the entire admissions committee by floating in with the cure for cancer in one hand, and the answer to the isreal/palestine issue in the other. I'm not saying that it is NOT for the waitlist. It probably is, but don't let that discourage you too much. And smack that advisor for me, too.👍
 
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I thought that medical schools had to send out their initial offers by March 31st? Anything after that would be considered a waitlist.. Wouldn't it?
 
Kaustikos said:
There's no such thing as definite. There is highly probable. For all we know, you could completely thrill your interviewer and the entire admissions committee by floating in with the cure for cancer in one hand, and the answer to the isreal/palestine issue in the other. I'm not saying that it is NOT for the waitlist. It probably is, but don't let that discourage you too much. And smack that advisor for me, too.👍
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Obviously I won't be walking in there with a cancer cure, but I will do my best regardless. Just to be offered an interview is enough for me to try as hard as I can to do well there.

How incredibly discouraging though to hear that from an advisor. She offered very little consolation.
 
stephentyler20 said:
Obviously I won't be walking in there with a cancer cure, but I will do my best regardless. Just to be offered an interview is enough for me to try as hard as I can to do well there.

How incredibly discouraging though to hear that from an advisor. She offered very little consolation.
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This must be the first time with that advisor? I don't know. The stories vary, but from my own personal experiences, I have come out with a negative attitude towards them. They always seem cynical and completely detracted from actually trying to help pre-meds as more or less wanting to make it seem like they're worthless and that their endeavors aren't obtainable.
I know someone's going to come onto here and post an arguement about how either advisors aren't always like that or it's their job to offer the best/realistic advice. I know that, and it's true. You have to take their advise with a grain of salt.

Honestly, advisors should just hand out Rx's for fluoxetine or sertraline with ever visit.

Don't give in. You got an interview this late, which (to me at least) means they do have an interest in you. Good luck and knock 'em dead.

Also.

may the force be with you


always.
 
Kaustikos said:
The stories vary, but from my own personal experiences, I have come out with a negative attitude towards them. They always seem cynical and completely detracted from actually trying to help pre-meds as more or less wanting to make it seem like they're worthless and that their endeavors aren't obtainable.
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That was my experience as well. My advisor never told me I couldn't do it, but she was discouraging and often talked poorly about other individuals in my class who were pre-meds and had poor grades.
 
a
lilnoelle said:
That was my experience as well. My advisor never told me I couldn't do it, but she was discouraging and often talked poorly about other individuals in my class who were pre-meds and had poor grades.
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glad i never dealt with one, though i depended on the constant "sunshine and rainbows" of SDN posters for all my knowledge of the process. not that people weren't encouraging, but everyone "having" a 4.0/40 with publications and the cure to cancer discouraged me a little at first. then i realized that a lot of people lie and that we're dealing with super overachievers. :laugh:

back to the OP, go on the interview if you've got the money. you never know. if you already have an acceptance, it's kinda your call.
 
Some advisors pretend they know more than they do. Most of what my advisors said turned out to be false. I don't even know why they exist.
 
I was in a similar situation two years ago. I'm not sure what UIC's policy is towards late interviews, but an interview is an interview. So just impress the hell out of them and see what happens. I got wait listed at all of my schools that I applied to, but was accepted off the wait list at my top choice.

Point of the story, keep plugging away!
 
lilnoelle said:
That was my experience as well. My advisor never told me I couldn't do it, but she was discouraging and often talked poorly about other individuals in my class who were pre-meds and had poor grades.
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I know the feeling as well...One of my profs basically laughed in my face 2 years ago when I told him that I had decided to pursue medicine. He was very discouraging and told me that signing up for the MCAT was a waste of money since my GPA meant that I obviously didn't have the intelligence to do well on it. I walked out of his office and never went back there.

Luckily, this guy's opinion was tempered by another professor who really believed in me (See signature).
 
Vihsadas said:
I know the feeling as well...One of my profs basically laughed in my face 2 years ago when I told him that I had decided to pursue medicine. He was very discouraging and told me that signing up for the MCAT was a waste of money since my GPA meant that I obviously didn't have the intelligence to do well on it. I walked out of his office and never went back there.

Luckily, this guy's opinion was tempered by another professor who really believed in me (See signature).
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I don't know how updated your mdapps profile is, but if you haven't been accepted yet, good luck with next cycle. If I understood correctly, you didn't get your MCAT score until October? If that is the case, I would expect much more success next cycle if I were you. When you get accepted, you should send that advisor an envelope with nothing inside but a copy of your MCAT score and the acceptance letter.
 
OP: I don't know anything about the school that you're applying to, and your advisor may know a lot about it. That being said I have found the advice of most of the advisors I have talked to to be mostly inaccurate, often condescending, and largely useless. I was a late applicant, but I applied to a few schools that either interview very late into the cycle or don't have rolling admissions. I interviewed at five schools between about February 20 and March 7, and all of them have said that late interviewees are not at a disadvantage at their schools.
Also keep in mind that a significant proportion of each class gets in off the waitlist at almost every medical school. So at the school you're interviewing at, somewhere between 15% and 50% of the future matriculants will be off of the WL, maybe more. Once you get put on the waitlist, your interview date most likely doesn't matter any more. All that matters is where you are on the list and how much the list moves. Waitlists aren't the end of the world.
If I were you I would find out if the school has rolling admissions. If it does, it is likely you're interviewing for a WL. If not, then you're not.
 
I'm not sure about that specific school, so I can only answer based on my experience. I interviewed late in the cycle last year, and got accepted two weeks later without going on the waitlist. So none of the interviews here were for waitlist only. Any given interview had one of three outcomes (whether it was an early or a late one): immediate acceptance, immediate rejection, or the waitlist. So don't stress over it being late.
 
My experience with a college pre-med advisor was very poor. She was unhelpful, and wrong on a number of issues. It was surprising.

I'm a later applicant and I've probably missed out on a few interviews on direct account of how late I am in the cycle. But I've done fine with my average grades and MCAT; I believe the "apply early, interview early" is a decent advice, but significantly oversold.

I would take the interview if you're the least bit interested in the school. The school would not invest valuable resources by inviting students that don't have a chance. Perhaps, you're more likely to get offered admission later in the summer (aka waitlisted).
 
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My pre-med advisor is fantastic in every way imaginable, and he said the same thing.

If you have a late interview, it's a bad sign. The people with early applications are seen as the ones who are motivated to get to medical school. The people who have late applications are the ones who are seen as either lazy, distracted, or unmotivated. It's possible to get in to medical school with a late application (and therefore a late interview), but it's much harder to do so. My advisor didn't say specifically that one would be competing for a spot on the wait list, but I wouldn't be suprised if that were the case.
 
Tin Man said:
My pre-med advisor is fantastic in every way imaginable, and he said the same thing.

If you have a late interview, it's a bad sign. The people with early applications are seen as the ones who are motivated to get to medical school. The people who have late applications are the ones who are seen as either lazy, distracted, or unmotivated. It's possible to get in to medical school with a late application (and therefore a late interview), but it's much harder to do so. My advisor didn't say specifically that one would be competing for a spot on the wait list, but I wouldn't be suprised if that were the case.
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don't assume that the OP has a late interview simply because of a late app.
There are many people who submitted in June and were just overlooked throughout the cycle until they finally got an interview invite.
 
My premed advisor was wrong on almost everything she said. Basically, if you didn't have a 4.0/40, or take exactly what courses she said (why would I take a Junior-level Nutrition class when Senior-level Physiology was available?), you had zero chance of getting into medical school. I turned down induction into Alpha Epsilon Delta solely because she was advisor and there were mandatory meetings. I couldn't stand to be near her.

She nearly cost me my Honors medallion, as well. I submitted my Senior year schedule of classes for approval, as she had to approve it, and it was greenlit as enough to finish with the medal. Yet, two weeks later, I got a panicky call from one of my classmates- apparently, the advisor had double-counted a class for everyone. We ALL had to sign up for an extra class, two weeks into the semester.

She said straight-up that I had no chance of getting into medical school. Yet another thing she was wrong about! 🙂
 
Thanks for all the tips everyone. UIC is indeed one of my top choices, and like all things in life, if I'm going to do it I'm going to do it right. I'm hoping for the best. I'm also interviewing at a top choice DO school very soon, so we'll see how this works out.

As far as the advisor thing goes... This particular one bothers me in a way that I can't express on this forum, because its a fairly serious accusation without real evidence. Otherwise, I am generally unhappy with her way of doing things, her level of involvement, advice, etc.

And that one story reminds me. I too had a couple undergrad advisors tell me, essentially, "the world needs CNA's too". I can't wait to send them a copy of my acceptance letter!j
 
TIN MAN: I also have a wonderful advisor... but I've known him since frosh year and I've taken two of his classes. He also wrote me an awesome LOR, which I am completely grateful for. And the weird thing is that he gets more out of us premeds than doing any lab work which is amazing. He's also very passionate about helping us out, and yet he doesn't sugar coat the info.

It's a shame that you guys have had such bad experiences with you're pre-med advisors, just wanted to let you know they aren't all horrid.

OP: I'm not sure, but that interview is kind of late. But my theory is, if they didn't want you, then why offer the interview? If they wanted you for the waitlist why put you through the expense of traveling. If you rock the interview completely there is a chance that you might get an acceptance, but since it is so late in the game there is a high probability that you will get waitlisted. It is a chance you have to take with the school or any other school for that matter. IMO you should go, because you'll never know, and you don't want to be stuck asking "what if"?

Good luck

c.s.
 
there is a good chance that it is for wait list BUT this is not the end of the world.... Wake Forest gets 35% off wait list.... March 30 AAMC ask all schools to give them a list of all acceptances to fill the class... so if a school class is 200 then they have to give out 200 acceptances.. this doesn't take in account to those who have multi acceptances.... so there is a lot of movement. esp those private schools or those with higher tution. Many of the Calif students apply to all the Calif schools and get accepted to multi so I believe there is a lot of movement..

My adviser has been my mom. She has been right on. She have been researching all the schools... I applied to 22 schools and got 10 acceptances, she even proof read all my essays. She has taken a lot of pressure off me so I could work on my grades. I think she should do it for a business after I am gone. my school advisors were really bad if I listened to them I would have been applying again next year. many of my class mates only got 1 interview or less. They followed the school pre-med advisor.
 
Don't confuse correlation with causation. How were your grades and MCAT score compared to your friends? Did you apply earlier than them? Did you cast a wider net? Do you have more volunteering and clinical experience than them? Are you a better writer? Did you do research?

These qualities are things that you did, not your mother. An adviser can only point you in the right direction---which in itself can be immensely helpful---but you're on your own to come up with a killer application.
 
mdgator said:
I don't know how updated your mdapps profile is, but if you haven't been accepted yet, good luck with next cycle. If I understood correctly, you didn't get your MCAT score until October? If that is the case, I would expect much more success next cycle if I were you. When you get accepted, you should send that advisor an envelope with nothing inside but a copy of your MCAT score and the acceptance letter.
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I think i'll be doing the same (assuming i get accepted somewhere!). My advisor kept me in his office for an hour and a half and blasted me the whole time. All he knew was my GPA, and he didn't even ask what my MCAT score was or what else I do in life.... But i realized that i didn't agree with a word that came out of his mouth, and that maybe he was just bitter because he didn't get into med school... He told me how doctors are idiots and that computers would do a much better job...😱 😕
 
Kaustikos said:
Honestly, advisors should just hand out Rx's for fluoxetine or sertraline with ever visit.
Click to expand...

I wish. I'd go just for that and say the hell with talking about anything about that whole "medical school" idea.
 
stephentyler20 said:
In mid february, I received an interview invite for UIC for the last week of April (this was their first available opening). I recently met with my premed "advisor", who informed me that I am interviewing for a spot on the wait-list ONLY, and that there was no chance of getting an immediate acceptance... only off the wait list, if anything.

Is there any truth to this? I'm well aware that this is a late-in-the-game interview, but am I setting myself up for a spot on the wait list, and nothing more? Needless to say, I was quite discouraged by this bit of news.
Click to expand...

Unless you are sitting on an acceptance, does it matter?

An interview is an interview.

That being said, unless your interviewer has an inside track to UIC, I wouldn't assume anything.
 
My pre-med advisor was great (I still drop in and say hello periodically), but Vihsadas story reminds me of a tool of a professor I had. He had marked down my exam because he misinterpreted a clearly labeled diagram and then refused to give me more points for it. He then said that I should know these things for the MCAT. This was my last semester in college, and I'd taken the MCAT after my sophomore year, so I told him I knew, I'd already taken it. As I was getting ready to leave, he asked me if I was going to re-take the MCAT. I was like "Uh, actually no. I did quite well and have already been accepted to two medical schools, but thanks."

There went all my interest in caring about his class.
 
Wow some fascinating stories here... I just want to be totally clear that I am absolutely, 100% for certain interviewing. I don't care if its August 20th, I'm interviewing!

My whole concern was basically so I know what to expect after the interview is over.
 
Bottom line: no one knows. just go for it. if you get in you'll never have any regrets about going on the interview! :luck:
 
I educated myself. And when I was done educating myself, I knew twice as much about the process of applying to med school as any professor at my college. No joke. They should hire me to be the premed advisor, but I can't, I am in med school.
 
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I didn't do much besides read SDN for a couple of months. Lots of crude posts out there but a few gems made it worthwhile. It's really hard to find a good advisor about the actual process itself. Some may know what a good PS should look like, others may focus on interview skills or maybe even bitch at what's wrong with your application so you can go fix it really quickly.

It's unlikely one person will fit all those roles. Just know who you can go to for help. And ask upperclassmen if you know any. I know I'll probably be helping out a few of my friends to apply once the app season starts kicking around again in May.
 
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