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Started by LonelyBoi
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LonelyBoi said:
I have been accepted to a couple of medical schools so far, but one of my in-state medical schools has put me on the waitlist, which was surprising. My stats are considerably above the 90th percentile at this school, and they invited me for an early interview. The school has significant waitlist movement, so there still remains a possibility I may be accepted at the end of the day. But considering my stats are high, and I have been accepted to schools ranked higher, did I possibly just bomb the interview at the school? I thought the interview went well, and the interviewer complemented my interviewing skills, so I'm trying to understand where things went south.
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Hard to know. If you're serious about going to this school, letting them know about your desire to stay in-state may lead to getting off the waitlist early. Obviously, only do this if you would pick this school over your other options.
 
Assuming everything went as great as you say, the answer I imagine the local adcoms giving is "yield protection." The school knows you're great, and that other, higher-ranked schools are likely to accept you. Why give you an A when you'll probably just dump it when this inevitably happens (or worse, when April hits)? That being said, if you sent a letter explaining your enduring interest they might be happy to extend one.
 
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LonelyBoi said:
I have been accepted to a couple of medical schools so far, but one of my in-state medical schools has put me on the waitlist, which was surprising. My stats are considerably above the 90th percentile at this school, and they invited me for an early interview. The school has significant waitlist movement, so there still remains a possibility I may be accepted at the end of the day. But considering my stats are high, and I have been accepted to schools ranked higher, did I possibly just bomb the interview at the school? I thought the interview went well, and the interviewer complemented my interviewing skills, so I'm trying to understand where things went south.
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There could be many things. Perhaps their mission doesn’t fit well with yours. Perhaps you bombed the interview despite an interviewer telling you otherwise. If you would absolutely attend this school, it is appropriate to send a letter of intent.
 
Have seen same issue with the state school but with issuing an II, despite excellent success with T20/higher rated schools. In Wedgedog's school list recommendations, state school was always included implying no yield protection and access / shot for the in-state tuition. Pretty suprising as they are quite far along the interview process and have rolling admissing that have begun.
 
LonelyBoi said:
I have been accepted to a couple of medical schools so far, but one of my in-state medical schools has put me on the waitlist, which was surprising. My stats are considerably above the 90th percentile at this school, and they invited me for an early interview. The school has significant waitlist movement, so there still remains a possibility I may be accepted at the end of the day. But considering my stats are high, and I have been accepted to schools ranked higher, did I possibly just bomb the interview at the school? I thought the interview went well, and the interviewer complemented my interviewing skills, so I'm trying to understand where things went south.
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Don’t worry about it. I have blanketed most of T10 interviews but my state school won’t even invite me.
 
Schools will say that they don't yield protect but when they have a limited supply of interviewers/dates for interviews and applicants who will drop them for a full-ride (or even a partial ride) at a top school, they are going to be judicious in making interview invites or risk having empty seats at the end of the cycle.

@LonelyBoi a waitlist after interview may mean that the school is waiting for you to signal that you are willing to beg... They may want to avoid losing you late in the game when one of the other schools makes you a financial aid offer that puts that school's cost close to your state school's cost of attendance.
 
RedTurpentine said:
Assuming everything went as great as you say, the answer I imagine the local adcoms giving is "yield protection." The school knows you're great, and that other, higher-ranked schools are likely to accept you. Why give you an A when you'll probably just dump it when this inevitably happens (or worse, when April hits)? That being said, if you sent a letter explaining your enduring interest they might be happy to extend one.
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Yield protection is more accurately described as resource management.
Once the cost of interviewing someone has been expended there is no value in waitlisting them.
If your theory were correct, the state school would never have interviewed OP.

State public schools are almost always cheaper than OOS. That's why they almost always interview very well qualified IS candidates.
 
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gyngyn said:
Yield protection is more accurately described as resource management.
Once the cost of interviewing someone has been expended there is no value to waitlisting them.
If your theory were correct, the state school would never have interview OP.

State public schools are almost always cheaper than OOS. That's why they almost always interview very well qualified IS candidates.
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Agree. Hence no II at my state school.
 
gyngyn said:
Yield protection is more accurately described as resource management.
Once the cost of interviewing someone has been expended there is no value to waitlisting them.
If your theory were correct, the state school would never have interviewed OP.

State public schools are almost always cheaper than OOS. That's why they almost always interview very well qualified IS candidates.
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Could the school not both have sustained interest in OP but choose to waitlist them, hoping for a letter of interest to ensure the A wouldn't go to waste? State school aid doesn't compete with what some of the T20's are starting to provide, so it'd be right for the school to assume, lacking a love letter, that it's not at the top of OP's list. But maybe it's silly to expect an adcom to "game" a particular applicant like that?
 
RedTurpentine said:
Could the school not both have sustained interest in OP but choose to waitlist them, hoping for a letter of interest to ensure the A wouldn't go to waste? State school aid doesn't compete with what some of the T20's are starting to provide, so it'd be right for the school to assume, lacking a love letter, that it's not at the top of OP's list. But maybe it's silly to expect an adcom to "game" a particular applicant like that?
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No one invests the cost of an interview with the intent of waitlisting. It makes no economic sense.
No one with any sense believes LOI's.
 
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gyngyn said:
No one invests the cost of an interview with the intent of waitlisting. It makes no economic sense.
No one with any sense believes LOI's.
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Any point in sending an LOI then if the school will re-review my application periodically (every two weeks according to the email)
 
LonelyBoi said:
Any point in sending an LOI then if the school will re-review my application periodically (every two weeks according to the email)
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“How are LOIs worthless? Do they just hold no weight whatsoever/not get read usually?”

How would you interpret a nonbinding promise from a desperate applicant?

Here’s one Adcom member’s thoughts on the matter:

“We only invite amazing students to interview. It is quite unlikely that further good deeds or achievements will have an effect since only the students who have already wowed us are interviewed.”

From the wise Med Ed: [What med schools…] accept and desire are two different things. My institution, for instance, will accept practically anything a given applicant wants to forward along, but only rarely do we consider it a worthwhile addition to the package.

And yes, some of us have gotten a little jaded about LOI's. I could fill a barrel with all the post-interview correspondence I have received that has not translated into a single matriculant. This has all gotten mighty complicated and burdensome for what is essentially a zero sum game.

It's generally not burdensome for an applicant to upload something to the portal, and once in a great while it does tip us off with some useful info. I can think of one individual who had a stellar application, like Harvard/Yale/Stanford-worthy, and a superb interview, who sent us several updates and a LOI. We were somewhat perplexed by this person's tenacious interest in our program. Turns out there were family/geographical reasons behind the whole thing, the applicant just never felt comfortable directly playing that card.

When it comes down to waitlist time I will scan through what folks have uploaded post-interview. The vast majority of times it has no impact. Occasionally I have seen it hurt people's chances. Come to think of it, in my experience this is probably more likely, than such correspondence having a positive impact.

See the following for classic examples of why most Admissions deans treat these as lies.

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/loi-and-interviews.1252832/#post-18849958

forums.studentdoctor.net

I told a school I'd go if accepted, now not so sure

Hi All, So earlier this year I was waitlisted at a school that was my undoubted first choice. My boyfriend (we are applying together) was accepted there a month or so ago, and so we decided that we'd send the admissions staff a letter, basically saying "If you accept Not A Troll, we will both...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net

And if you still don’t believe me, read these:

HomeSkool's Guide to Letters of Intent

Second letter of intent? Help!

So I got an interview to a school back in January and was waitlisted in February. I loved the school and sent a letter of intent because of all the schools I had interviewed at, it was definitely my first choice. BUT, then I received an II from my absolute favorite school that was a reach and I...
forums.studentdoctor.net
 
LonelyBoi said:
I’ll just wait it out until April where I will get FA package offers from my accepted schools before I initiate action
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Is that the earliest (april 30) school can send out financial aid packages? or can they do it anytime after fasfa and acceptance?
 
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