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wow that was a fast turn around, i interviewed in September and have still not heard back.
2008-2009 Florida International University (FIU) Secondary Application Thread
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wow that was a fast turn around, i interviewed in September and have still not heard back.
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yea seriouslyy!
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Am I doing too much thinking about what "alternate wait list" means. Is that different from ... just.. waitlisted? Hm. I was able to contact Ms. Rodriguez and she said I'd hear something no later than the end of February if not sooner. Um, can I say that I did not think I would still be waiting to hear back from an October interview? Fingers still crossed I suppose
I'm in the same boat as you are. Got the letter last month...I guess it's going to be just a waiting game.
I wonder how hard it'll be get off the list. Does anyone know how big their waitlist is? Just curious....- Joined
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For those of us with earlyish interviews (October) who have been given the silent treatment (ie no news of being waitlisted yet), do you think that is good news (meaning we are actually still being considered for a spot) or do you think that means we are most likely rejected since it is taking so long for them to notify us?
I think I was one of the first ones to be "waitlisted" and when I got the letter I emailed them to ask about it. I asked if it was a ranked list and how big it was. They sort of didn't respond to either question.
They referred to the waitlist as a pool, but then they told me I was in an excellent position. This makes me think they have pools of people they will review when spots come open.
I am certain that they have interviewed way too many people and will be putting way too many on the waitlist. However, I don't know if I blame them...except that I think they should have imposed a stronger commitment to their school (e.g. a $step-wise non-refundable deposit like most D.O. schools $500+ within a month of acceptance, then more 60 days later, etc., or a signed commitment to practice in FL for X# of years), so people wouldn't just hold spots as a back-up plan. Who knows how many students holding spots right now could back out? or what huge portion of their waitlist will no longer be interested by the time it starts moving...
They referred to the waitlist as a pool, but then they told me I was in an excellent position. This makes me think they have pools of people they will review when spots come open.
I am certain that they have interviewed way too many people and will be putting way too many on the waitlist. However, I don't know if I blame them...except that I think they should have imposed a stronger commitment to their school (e.g. a $step-wise non-refundable deposit like most D.O. schools $500+ within a month of acceptance, then more 60 days later, etc., or a signed commitment to practice in FL for X# of years), so people wouldn't just hold spots as a back-up plan. Who knows how many students holding spots right now could back out? or what huge portion of their waitlist will no longer be interested by the time it starts moving...
I talked to one of the admissions staff about the "waitlist", and she also said being on the list means you're basically in the top 50% of all the people they interviewed. But, considering the class size of 40, I wouldn't want to get my hopes up too much.
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So does that mean they are planning on outright rejecting ~50% of interviewees straightaway? If that is true it seems risky for them, although I don't know how many people they ended up interviewing for those 40 seats.
I don't know for sure, but it sounded like it to me. Even if they reject 50% of the interviewees (From what I know, they interviewed about ~400 people), they're still left with like 200. So there will be a plenty of people to fill in the remaining seats in their class. I talked to other interviewees, and for many of them FIU was their first choice because of the school's unique/innovative curriculum. So I have a feeling it won't be too easy to get off of the waitlist..
..but I hope otherwise
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I'm curious about this as well.
The lack of any post-interview result from FIU at this point is more of a curiosity for me than anything else. I figure at this point I'm done with interviews and I'm pretty set on which school I'm attending, so whatever happens with FIU is more of a "oh that's interesting" type thing nowadays.
But I did drop the cash to fly down to Miami, rent a car, and get a hotel room, so hearing something would be a nice acknolwedgement that I, well, showed up.
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I feel like they have one guy in a room, with thousands of applications laid out on the floor in front of him, and he is just scratching his head trying to figure out how in the world he is ever going to choose 40 people between all of these.
I completely understand your feelings. COMPLETELY. But if you actually wouldn't change your mind regarding where you are going, why don't you do the waitlisted/uninformed applicants who don't have any other offers a favor and withdraw your application...I mean...obviously, eventually everything will settle out in the end, but if you were in their shoes it would be what you would want, right?
It helps the process go quicker if you tell schools to withdraw your application from consideration.
Obviously, if you would consider going to FIU, wait away and keep your fingers crossed, and good luck.
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I am sure most MD schools DONT do this for a reason. it's actually quite simple if you think about it.
As for the huge portion of waitlist not interested, it'll be great for those who genuinely are interested and are still on the waitlist.
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they have an admission committy compose of local doctors and faculty, basically they have 20+ ppl in a room voting on ur file, everyone of these ppl has a copy of ur file. they decide if they want u in or not. From wut i heard it takes about 45 mins or so per person. If you havent heard from then by now and u interviewed really early, most likely it means that they went over ur file once and then they moved you to the final review pool.
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I know
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Has anyone been accepted since the new year? For those with any news whatsoever (accepted, waitlisted, or rejected), how were you notified? E-mail followed by postal mail? Postal mail only?
It's getting down to the time they told us for hearing back (late February), so I want to brace myself for the impending news! Either I'll be stalking my inbox or bugging the mailman over the next several days.
It's getting down to the time they told us for hearing back (late February), so I want to brace myself for the impending news! Either I'll be stalking my inbox or bugging the mailman over the next several days.
I interviewed in October and got waitlisted on 2/10, by email. They follow the email up with an official letter by post. I was under the impression that they had replied to everyone who interviewed at this point but I guess not! They are not very forthcoming with information about the waitlist, but my premed advisor from undergrad said they have just sent out a lot of rejections so getting onto the waitlist was a "good thing". We'll see!!
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Interviewed in september and was notified in october/november via email then letter. Then given until mid-dec to decide.
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I interviewed in October and got waitlisted on 2/10, by email. They follow the email up with an official letter by post. I was under the impression that they had replied to everyone who interviewed at this point but I guess not! They are not very forthcoming with information about the waitlist, but my premed advisor from undergrad said they have just sent out a lot of rejections so getting onto the waitlist was a "good thing". We'll see!!
I interviewed on October as well and have heard nothing at all. Would it be worth my time to give them a call, or would that just be a pain? I recently changed my name, so perhaps I could give them a call to make sure they got that update from AMCAS and hopefully they'll give me an update?
It certainly couldn't hurt. After waiting 4 months to hear a result I don't think it's unreasonable at all to call. I think they should have made their decisions by now so maybe there was a mistake in the email/post address and you just missed it. Good luck- I hope it turns out well for you!
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My sister interview at FIU in Oct and was put on alternate waitlist in January12. At that time she was told there were still openings for spots. Feb 18 she got a letter inviting her to second look and saying that she was now put on admit waitlist. That they gave otu 40 spots, they have a signed letter of intent from those accepting the 40 spots but since som ehave multiple acceptances, it was very likely that openings would become available after may15th..also at second look they were going to talk about thisnew admit waitlist and what it meant ...Lucky for my sister, she has an a definite acceptance so she isnt as stressed out as she would of been if she didnt have this.
I also got one of those letters, today 2/21/09 (it had to make it to NY). It doesn't say they are going to discuss what the "Admit waitlist" is, it says they are going to re-discuss the whole admissions process...I gather that it from the amount of feedback they got regarding the lack of, err... transparency... there has been. I had already gotten a letter back in december to tell me I was "alternate waitlisted"
1) Did people who were not previously waitlisted get invited to this 2nd look date?
2) Did anybody who was previously waitlisted not get this invitation, which ambiguously may be making a distinction between a general waitlist (possibly a pool) and "admit waitlist" (more seemingly ranked)?
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I got "alternate-waitlisted" the first week of January. Then got "admit-waitlisted" yesterday.... the letter says that the admit wait list is "the prioritized list that they will use to offer positions". This is followed by "We will be prepared to discuss the Admit Wait List in greater detail during the second visit."
Hope this helps
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interviewed in sept. still have heard nothing
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I interviewed in aug, in the very first group, nothing yet.interviewed in sept. still have heard nothing
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Yeah interviewed in Sept here and still haven't heard back, I wonder what this entails for us. If they have a ranked waitlist all set up and they're doing second visits I can't imagine the committee is still meeting to decide on files that haven't heard decisions yet.The question is then, whats the hold up on mailing out the decision?
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cue the jeopardy theme....do do do do, do do doooooo, do do do do, do..do do do do do.....
but seriously, if we haven't heard back yet, what does that mean? clearly we aren't high priority for the waitlist, are they just sitting on rejections?
but seriously, if we haven't heard back yet, what does that mean? clearly we aren't high priority for the waitlist, are they just sitting on rejections?
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Did anyone who was accepted or even waitlisted get those letters inviting you to different things at FIU? I got some for dates for these hour long info sessions on leadership and one coming up this Friday on Organophosphorus Cholinesterase Inhibitors (I think that's pesticide poisoning). I also got one for next month where we get to meet the Deans/faculty and get tours of the Jackson North facility as well as the Gordon Center for whatever at UM. Anyone else attending?
Also, I got a letter from FIU giving me a 10k/yr for four years scholarship, even though I haven't filed my fafsa yet. Anyone else got this as well?
Also, I got a letter from FIU giving me a 10k/yr for four years scholarship, even though I haven't filed my fafsa yet. Anyone else got this as well?
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They better not be just sitting on rejections. people who have interviewed after me have received rejections and I have called them twice since my interview with updates, so they could have mentioned it then if I was rejected.
In all honesty, this has been a disastrous admissions process with unreasonable wait times. If they were going to run the admissions cycle like this they perhaps should have done this first few years on a non-rolling basis.
I got the "Admit Wait List" letter in the mail today. For everyone who has gotten one of these, are they having us all go on the same day? (Mine is March 30). If they are, I'd expect that they're not handing these out to everyone who was on the "Alternate Wait List." It's hard to tell whether our chances have changed that much at all though. The letter is SO ambiguously written.
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My letter says March 30th too.
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That's freakin awesome congrats. Did you already file your fafsa? I only got a half scholarship but haven't done mine yet.
I'm surprised by people's hostility regarding the admissions process. Yes, waiting stinks. It stinks for me, too. But, I'd rather have not heard than have gotten a rejection.
From what they explained, until you've heard otherwise, I'd assume you're in the pile for reconsideration and they will go back to that pile if they go through the admits and then the waitlist and still don't fill the class. It's a brand new school--how do you want them to predict the percentage of people they offer seats to who will actually enroll come fall? Would you be happier if they rejected everybody in that "reconsider" pool and then had empty seats, if that came to be?
Use the mdapplicants link and look at who has been accepted and/or waitlisted...there are people with other acceptance from some good schools. I am confused what you expected from a brand new school. Commonwealth interviewed ridiculous amounts of people, too...it's the nature of a new school. Waiting is the nature of not being the top pick of the applicant pool <sigh>.
From what they explained, until you've heard otherwise, I'd assume you're in the pile for reconsideration and they will go back to that pile if they go through the admits and then the waitlist and still don't fill the class. It's a brand new school--how do you want them to predict the percentage of people they offer seats to who will actually enroll come fall? Would you be happier if they rejected everybody in that "reconsider" pool and then had empty seats, if that came to be?
Use the mdapplicants link and look at who has been accepted and/or waitlisted...there are people with other acceptance from some good schools. I am confused what you expected from a brand new school. Commonwealth interviewed ridiculous amounts of people, too...it's the nature of a new school. Waiting is the nature of not being the top pick of the applicant pool <sigh>.
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It is just frustrating when they give out dates to hear by, say before Christmas, then you call and ask half way into Jan and they still have no news.
I didn't mean to sound overly harsh, but I think it would have been a wise choice on the school's behalf to do the first few classes on a non-rolling basis. This would have alleviated a significant amount of pressure on the schools adcom to rush into things and make decisions (which I think they did a bit of, esp. with the interview invitations).
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That is awesome, do I wish I were in your shoes! Are you definitely going to attend?
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Thanks guys! I am a Florida resident but go to school out of state. I'm gonna sleep on it. Unfortunately, they're giving me only a couple weeks to accept it and I would need to withdraw from all the other schools at which I'm holding offers. Financial aid for those schools don't come out until mid-April, at the earliest.
Oh, I understand better, now. I was never told any dates...hence I had far less expectations.
i just got the same letter... i get the feeling a tonnn of people have been put on this "admit waitlist" and i don't think it's worth paying to go all the way to miami again if there aren't good chances of actually getting a spot...
FIU is one of my top choices, but from what I understand, the 2nd visit on March 30 will be a mere tour/Q&A's, not another personal interview. Also, considering the class size of 40, I doubt there will be too many spots open even after May 15. As an OOS, I'm not sure if it's worth flying all the way over there (besides...spring break=not the best time to fly around...)...still debating
)...still debatingTake the FIU acceptance with the full scholarship and run. Don't even think about waiting for other schools financial aid offers. Nowhere will have such a sweet deal as this.
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I called the office today to give an update, they said that the Adcom continues to meet and plans to have all interviewed applicants reviewed by the close of February.
Other than that they were not very forthcoming with any info. I guess we just keep waiting
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i am gonna go to all of the events. hope to see u there, put in parenthesis ur SDN user name to recognize u!
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The offer letter says a written response and withdrawal from other schools by 5:00pm, March 16th.
It's going to be hard to do (without all the necessary financial info) but I am actually thinking about turning it down for my top choice as of now. I called that school earlier in the week to estimate my financial aid and although they could not give me an exact amount, said that based on my finances I would be getting at least some grant money.
I think that if I do turn the scholarship down, I would go ahead and decline my spot as well so that someone who loves FIU can hear some good news. I'll let you guys know what I decide to do.
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I called the office today to give an update, they said that the Adcom continues to meet and plans to have all interviewed applicants reviewed by the close of February.
Other than that they were not very forthcoming with any info. I guess we just keep waiting
February ends on Saturday....I wonder if they're aware of that.
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