2008-2009 University of Pittsburgh Secondary Application Thread

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Myuu, if you'd care to know, I was waitlisted today... best of luck!!
 
seriously tho, they are dbags. this is not fair. why do they keep sending us these F*CKING emails. 😡
 
No decision and no email, so who knows!

Maybe just people who haven't had a decision made on their file and also have good research experience? This is getting too complicated, who knows
 
seriously tho, they are dbags. this is not fair. why do they keep sending us these F*CKING emails. 😡

haha be careful what you post...it's not at all likely anyone will find out who you are, but come on--dbags?

i'm offended 😛
 
haha be careful what you post...it's not at all likely anyone will find out who you are, but come on--dbags?

i'm offended 😛

Okay... How about:

I love Pitt
I 😍 Pitt
I love Pitt
I 😍 Pitt
I love Pitt
I 😍 Pitt
 
Okay... How about:

I love Pitt
I 😍 Pitt
I love Pitt
I 😍 Pitt
I love Pitt
I 😍 Pitt

much, much better!

and by the way, i do highly recommend sending updates and letters expressing how much you love pitt. when i interview people, i look for those who really want to come to pitt, not just get into medical school. so the more you can convince the admissions committee that pitt is the ONLY place you could possibly be happy, the better your chances 🙂
 
much, much better!

and by the way, i do highly recommend sending updates and letters expressing how much you love pitt. when i interview people, i look for those who really want to come to pitt, not just get into medical school. so the more you can convince the admissions committee that pitt is the ONLY place you could possibly be happy, the better your chances 🙂

I tried to do that for my interview... I tried to focus what I liked, and why I felt Pitt had the best program for it... I guess we will see in a few weeks if I was convincing enough.:xf::luck::xf::luck:
 
much, much better!

and by the way, i do highly recommend sending updates and letters expressing how much you love pitt. when i interview people, i look for those who really want to come to pitt, not just get into medical school. so the more you can convince the admissions committee that pitt is the ONLY place you could possibly be happy, the better your chances 🙂
Erina,

would you suggest doing this before a decision has been reached on your file? I interviewed about two weeks ago & I really loved the school but I can't remember if anyone asked me about why I wanted to go to Pitt in my interviews. Should I wait till I hear from them to express my interest? Thanks
 
what's taking so long? i'm entering the 9 week mark this week. ughh....let me in!!!
 
Erina,

would you suggest doing this before a decision has been reached on your file? I interviewed about two weeks ago & I really loved the school but I can't remember if anyone asked me about why I wanted to go to Pitt in my interviews. Should I wait till I hear from them to express my interest? Thanks
If you feel really strongly about Pitt, go for it. Since it seems the admissions committee is running a bit behind, you should be able to get a letter in before they meet (just send it soon).

I can't stress enough how important it is to all of us at Pitt that you really want to be here. We don't like interviewing people who don't have a good reason to come here. We're proud of our school 🙂
 
I tried to do that for my interview... I tried to focus what I liked, and why I felt Pitt had the best program for it... I guess we will see in a few weeks if I was convincing enough.:xf::luck::xf::luck:

I'm glad you did that in your interview. Giving a good argument about why Pitt is perfect for you is one of the best things you can do. If you were genuine, I'm sure your interviewer saw it and it will be reflected in your review.
 
Anybody have any idea how many people are expected to be waitlisted? i know they said that they plan on waitlisting more this year than last.... i.e. what percent of the waitlist ends up getting accepted? anyone?
tx 🙂
 
Since they wanted those of us on waitlist to let them know of interest, when does everyone think as a goodtime to send notes of interest. Should we start doing it now and send them one more time before May. Also would it be preferrable to send email over hard copy?
 
hey guys, I don't know if I made this up in my delusional mind or read it on this thread, but do status updates usually occur on Thursdays? thanks!
 
hey guys, I don't know if I made this up in my delusional mind or read it on this thread, but do status updates usually occur on Thursdays? thanks!

Yes, it looks like Thursdays and Fridays have been the days.
 
Since they wanted those of us on waitlist to let them know of interest, when does everyone think as a goodtime to send notes of interest. Should we start doing it now and send them one more time before May. Also would it be preferrable to send email over hard copy?

In my opinion, the best thing to do is send a letter every month explaining what you've been doing and that you're still very interested in Pitt. Polite, continual interest will get you noticed more than a single LOI now or in May. I would also send hard copies rather than an email... but I'm old fashioned sometimes.
 
While I really was impressed with Pitt during my interview, I'm kind of wondering about the school after being waitlisted. I feel that Pitt basically said "well, you're good, but not that great- please continue to suck up to us and maybe we'll grant you a boon"

i look for those who really want to come to pitt, not just get into medical school. so the more you can convince the admissions committee that pitt is the ONLY place you could possibly be happy, the better your chances

and that's just unrealistic- sorry Erina. Medical school is a means to an end, not the end. I feel that pitt'll help more than other places in my goal, but I want to be a doc not just a Pitt graduate.
 
While I really was impressed with Pitt during my interview, I'm kind of wondering about the school after being waitlisted. I feel that Pitt basically said "well, you're good, but not that great- please continue to suck up to us and maybe we'll grant you a boon"



and that's just unrealistic- sorry Erina. Medical school is a means to an end, not the end. I feel that pitt'll help more than other places in my goal, but I want to be a doc not just a Pitt graduate.

i'm not completely serious when i say that--of course i know people really just want to get into medical school. what i'm saying is that you need to convince your interviewer that their school is the best place for you to be. you really should do that at every school. everyone who is interviewing you knows that you'd be happy at other schools, too, but we really want to hear a lot of enthusiasm about OUR school. i don't care if you go to 5 other schools and try to convince your interviewers that X is your perfect school. but if you also tell me that at Pitt, i want you to back it up with reasons. and if you have good reasons, reasons that are specific to pitt, that's good enough for me.

Sorry you didn't get accepted right away, but if you haven't noticed so far, Pitt isn't accepting a lot of people right away. Last year, they accepted too many so they're being conservative this year. If you're having doubts about the school because of that, I'm sorry.
 
Sorry you didn't get accepted right away, but if you haven't noticed so far, Pitt isn't accepting a lot of people right away. Last year, they accepted too many so they're being conservative this year. If you're having doubts about the school because of that, I'm sorry.

Isn't that the truth... I remember last year there were 50 XXXX vs Pitt threads... which made me kind of sad. Maybe they read SDN and found that they accepted too many people who did not wanna go to Pitt, but rather just go to a med school... Hey, I would be very happy to come to Pitt right now... all they need to do is accept me...
 
and that's just unrealistic- sorry Erina. Medical school is a means to an end, not the end. I feel that pitt'll help more than other places in my goal, but I want to be a doc not just a Pitt graduate.

It is definitely realistic. I'm assuming that if you are interviewing at our school, this is not your only interview unless you screwed yourself by only appling to the top tiered schools. So since this is not your only option, you should have a reason that you'd want to come here. If you don't have actual reasons (not like some of these really generic - "it's close to city X," which is about 10 hours away type thing - you'd be amazed at the answers I got the past two years), then it shows to the interviewer that you'd much rather go someone else and wouldn't be happy here so why should we waste a spot on you if there are more people with similar credentials that have an interest here?
 
I really do understand what you guys are trying to say- I guess I just hesitate when I see a huge amount of emphasis upon JUST the school. My enthusiasm is for medicine, so shouldn't that make the spot given to me not wasted anywhere I go?

My endpoint is twofold: I'd love to go to Pitt- huge patient demography, great academics, gobs of hospitals, and juggernaut research. I also don't want to end up at a school where students are in love with their school only. Academic snobbery holds no truck with me.

Thanks for your replies though, they're good points and something to consider.
 
Just because I'm moderately neurotic, anyone other waitlisters notice the ever-so-slightly different wording of the snail mail letter vs email?
Yup. That bored?
 
Just because I'm moderately neurotic, anyone other waitlisters notice the ever-so-slightly different wording of the snail mail letter vs email?
Yup. That bored?

Can you give examples?
 
oh, theyre super insignificant, but for instance my email read exactly as I think Chuck posted earlier, but in my actual mail, they didnt say " The decision on whom to take from the wait list is based on several factors, not the least of which is interest of the wait listed student in attending this school. Therefore, we welcome updates from you regarding your continued interest in attending school here, if such is the case. These expressions of interest can be sent to the [email protected] mailbox at any time." That wasn't in the snail mail. I know, stupid to mention, just throwing it out there 🙂
 
haha be careful what you post...it's not at all likely anyone will find out who you are, but come on--dbags?

i'm offended 😛

as she rummages thru my post history to discern my identity! lol...okay, okay i take it back...LUBBA YA PITT ADCOMS MONITORING SDN! now lemme in! :laugh:

neway, i havent heard from pitt and its been over a month...ut oh 😳
 
It's Thursday! Seems like the only day I look forward to anymore...
Is this the week of decisions for students who interviewed in the second week of October?

Gahh...the waiting is painful!
 
Oct 10 interview - finally heard... I'll join you all on that waitlist!

Does anyone have a solid understanding on what this means? By this I mean... do they not look at us again until May 15th?

I'm trying to find the silver lining. This is better than my only other post-interview response (a rejection). By May 15th, I'll have wrapped up this current research project and will be hopefully up for publication. So - I'm kind of hoping they don't look at us again till then.. I might be able to convince them that they want me by then!
 
Yes, does someone know what the waistlist process/schedule looks like? Do they look at you periodically, or only in May!?

Any insight would be great -- the office wasn't very informative this morning.

Thank you!
 
I'm sorry about that Myuu...sometimes this whole process is a crapshoot...keep the hope! :luck:
 
Yes, does someone know what the waistlist process/schedule looks like? Do they look at you periodically, or only in May!?

Any insight would be great -- the office wasn't very informative this morning.

Thank you!

Someone more informed will probably chime in soon but what I was told at my interview is that Pitt will not look at its waitlist until May 15th. Therefore, anyone waitlisted should/can expect movement only after that date. They, however, welcome updates and LOI before that date.
 
I checked but they have not made a decision for me... Week 8 for me, counting Thanksgiving...
 
as she rummages thru my post history to discern my identity! lol...okay, okay i take it back...LUBBA YA PITT ADCOMS MONITORING SDN! now lemme in! :laugh:

neway, i havent heard from pitt and its been over a month...ut oh 😳

Haha if only I had time to rummage through your post history...oh the joys of medical school. Of course, I'm starting to get lazy and not studying as much as I should, so maybe I will take a look at those posts...😉

I'm really sorry that all of you are having to wait so long to find out whether or not you've been accepted. I know how long and drawn out this process can be. I really hope your enthusiasm for Pitt sticks with you.

And for those of you that have been rejected, I'm even more sorry. Like someone else said, this process really can seem like a crapshoot. Just try to trust that you'll end up where you're supposed to end up--if the process works like it should, you'll be accepted to a place where the faculty really believe that you'd be a good fit. And if you get multiple acceptances, then you can choose the place that feels best to you. In the end, you'll still be a doctor...and you can apply to Pitt for residency and show them what an awesome person they missed out on 🙂
 
Does anyone know when Pitt's orientation is for 2009 (Wishful thinking... I know)
 
Myuu,

I'm so sorry to hear that- im still without an acceptance, just waitlists. I think I remember talking to you on 10/1. Best of luck, and I know it will work out 🙂
 
Does anyone know when Pitt's orientation is for 2009 (Wishful thinking... I know)

orientation typically begins around the middle of august. for example, in 2007 we had our white coat ceremony on sunday august 12 (i think?) and then orientation was august 13-17 with classes starting august 20. This year, I think the white coat ceremony was sunday august 10 with orientation the 11th through the 15th. If they keep the same timeline, I would expect 2009's white coat ceremony to be on august 9 (or august 16 if they push it back) with orientation the following week.
 
This has probably been said somewhere earlier, but is the wait list ranked? I thought I heard no... even though I don't entirely believe that.
🙂
 
What is the latest interview date that has received a decision?

I think the latest I have seen on here is 10/10...if people don't mind sharing for the sake of the sanity of the folks waiting, that would be great! 😀
 
Myuu,

I'm so sorry to hear that- im still without an acceptance, just waitlists. I think I remember talking to you on 10/1. Best of luck, and I know it will work out 🙂

Aww, thanks! I'm in the same boat right now, with one decision pending and one school left to visit. Here's hoping we both (well, all of us, really) get into awesome schools!👍:laugh::xf::luck:
 
UgH Pittsburgh is going to give me a heart attack with these e-mails
 
If you need any more proof that Pitt loves LOIs... they've sent me 3 separate emails about the city and school in the last couple of months. I like these reverse-LOIs as much as I like reverse-rejections (withdrawing from a school). It's good to have a school show some interest in the applicants.
 
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