2009-2010 Boston University Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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UncleAdam27 said:
Yeah, I'm a GMSII - interviewed in October. I heard they are cutting back on the number of GMS'ers admitted this year, so kind of anxious to hear back.
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i'm not surprised, they're cutting back GMS in general... i've been told by a source who would know that the new dean of BU med has a somewhat anti-GMS agenda, trying to reduce it down. whether that's a good or bad thing of course depends on your perspective.
 
Swim88WJ said:
I'm in the same exact boat. It means one of 3 things:

1) You will eventually get an acceptance call from your interviewer - it's still early
2) You could be accepted via email/status page without a call, as the call is only an option that the interviewer is given
3) You could be deferred/rejected via email/status page
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Haha chill guys. I wouldn't play into this too much. BU accepts over 50% of interviewees (actually, exactly 51%), and considering most of us our first round (early interviewees) we're probably all in good shape to either get accepted or deferred and eventually accepted (i.e. it's actually more likely than being rejected....as opposed to many other US medical schools). So good luck all, and hope it works out.
 
dw2158 said:
anyone else interview with the man himself-- dr. witzburg?

i must say, talking with him was one of my most enjoyable interviews of the whole season, and he totally sold me on BU... :xf::xf:
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is he the dude with the longish hair?
 
mdeast said:
Haha chill guys. I wouldn't play into this too much. BU accepts over 50% of interviewees (actually, exactly 51%), and considering most of us our first round (early interviewees) we're probably all in good shape to either get accepted or deferred and eventually accepted (i.e. it's actually more likely than being rejected....as opposed to many other US medical schools). So good luck all, and hope it works out.
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Easier said than done.
 
Got a call today from my interviewer as well! He mentioned that letters should be going out today, I assume by snail mail.
 
Interview invite! 😀

Scheduled for 1/27.
 
Just got the call, I was really surprised to be in the first cut. Best wishes to everyone else for good news!
 
Do you guys think if we call the admissions office that they would tell us accepted/deferred/rejected over the phone? Has anyone tried?
 
Hey! Congrats for those accepted! Did your status pages update? I haven't heard anything and my status is "still under consideration."

Thanks!
 
mdeast said:
Haha chill guys. I wouldn't play into this too much. BU accepts over 50% of interviewees (actually, exactly 51%), and considering most of us our first round (early interviewees) we're probably all in good shape to either get accepted or deferred and eventually accepted (i.e. it's actually more likely than being rejected....as opposed to many other US medical schools). So good luck all, and hope it works out.
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I think your figure is a little off... On interview day, I took clear notes and Dean W explicitly told us that they're expecting over 11000 apps, interview about 1000, and accept about 350, giving us a 35% acceptance rate, which is still pretty slim even after the big cut for the interview.

anyone else recall the same numbers?
 
Swim88WJ said:
I think your figure is a little off... On interview day, I took clear notes and Dean W explicitly told us that they're expecting over 11000 apps, interview about 1000, and accept about 350, giving us a 35% acceptance rate, which is still pretty slim even after the big cut for the interview.

anyone else recall the same numbers?
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Yes, I remember it as you do.

And that's pretty typical for your chances to be about 1 in 3 once you get to the interview.
 
Swim88WJ said:
I think your figure is a little off... On interview day, I took clear notes and Dean W explicitly told us that they're expecting over 11000 apps, interview about 1000, and accept about 350, giving us a 35% acceptance rate, which is still pretty slim even after the big cut for the interview.

anyone else recall the same numbers?
Click to expand...

Based on last year's numbers its about 51%. But I think they over-enrolled the class, so this year they're going to be more cautious with acceptances, so it could drop.

Nothing's changed on my status page. Last year's thread said that emails/status page changes were made a week after initial phone calls went out.
 
chickensandwich said:
congrats!! haha you just posted today too! now where's mine? 😡😉
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Yea, right after I posted that this morning I called the office, and asked if they got the update letter I sent a few days ago. One hour later I get an invite email. I guess the nudge worked! Perhaps you should give it a shot too...
 
premed541 said:
Hey! Congrats for those accepted! Did your status pages update? I haven't heard anything and my status is "still under consideration."

Thanks!
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No status change for me. I was told we should be getting our acceptances in the mail in a day or so.
 
Swim88WJ said:
I think your figure is a little off... On interview day, I took clear notes and Dean W explicitly told us that they're expecting over 11000 apps, interview about 1000, and accept about 350, giving us a 35% acceptance rate, which is still pretty slim even after the big cut for the interview.

anyone else recall the same numbers?
Click to expand...

That's based off the official US News numbers. I've included them below. This includes those put on the waitlist and later accepted.

10870 applied, 1034 interviewed, 531 were accepted, 178 enrolled

51.3% accepted of those interviewed. Moral of the story: this is much higher than most schools.
 
congrats to all of you lucky accepted 🙂 but come on, initials, anything? you're already accepted so it wont matter if your interviewer even reads this..
 
Swim88WJ said:
I'm in the same exact boat. It means one of 3 things:

1) You will eventually get an acceptance call from your interviewer - it's still early
2) You could be accepted via email/status page without a call, as the call is only an option that the interviewer is given
3) You could be deferred/rejected via email/status page
Click to expand...


Yeah, definitely NOT time to freak out if you haven't gotten a call. At this point, it really depends on if your interviewer is the type to make calls or not. I was just having this discussion with current BU med students today - A lot of the interviewers who are practicing physicians simply don't have the time to call their applicants who got accepted. I'm guessing the faculty/professors/deans are more likely to call, but even then, they may not get around to it. There are PLENTY of people who get in via email/status page/snail mail and do not ever get a phone call. But congrats to those of you already accepted and GOOD LUCK to those of you waiting to hear back!
 
mdeast said:
That's based off the official US News numbers. I've included them below. This includes those put on the waitlist and later accepted.

10870 applied, 1034 interviewed, 531 were accepted, 178 enrolled

51.3% accepted of those interviewed. Moral of the story: this is much higher than most schools.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. It was clearly said that BU rarely uses their wailist, so to accept over 150 off the wailist seem Unlikely. I think about 350 are accepted for about 100 or so spots and the rest are enrolled through other types of programs, and maybe 50 are pulled off of waitlis so in general 400 out of 1000 interviewed = 40%
 
UncleAdam27 said:
Yeah, definitely NOT time to freak out if you haven't gotten a call. At this point, it really depends on if your interviewer is the type to make calls or not. I was just having this discussion with current BU med students today - A lot of the interviewers who are practicing physicians simply don't have the time to call their applicants who got accepted. I'm guessing the faculty/professors/deans are more likely to call, but even then, they may not get around to it. There are PLENTY of people who get in via email/status page/snail mail and do not ever get a phone call. But congrats to those of you already accepted and GOOD LUCK to those of you waiting to hear back!
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Yeah, I think my interviewer is a faculty member, not a practicing physician. Also, I knew that this person made calls based on old BU threads. Just do a search for your interviewers name, and see what comes up.
 
Infinitydrop said:
I don't think so. It was clearly said that BU rarely uses their wailist, so to accept over 150 off the wailist seem Unlikely. I think about 350 are accepted for about 100 or so spots and the rest are enrolled through other types of programs, and maybe 50 are pulled off of waitlist so in general 400 out of 1000 interviewed = 40%
Click to expand...

Um....I don't think you understand...these are OFFICIAL numbers, you can't change them, lol. 51% of applicants are accepted. There are many paths people take to get to this (SMP programs that may feed BU directly, or I think BU has a combined undergrad/med program) in addition to the normal track...all of those people are included in this figure.

Almost every US medical school uses their waitlist and the US News numbers are specific to include students outright accepted and those accepted off the waitlist (no matter what path they took to get to that point)...and I'd definitely imagine a place like BU which is borderline between mid-tier and high-tier would lose many accepted students to higher ranked schools and would need to go to the waitlist to fill their class. This is why relatively so many people (over 500) are accepted for a much lower number of spots (as a consequence of a somewhat low enrollment rate). Anyway, the numbers don't lie. That's how many people are interviewed and accepted each year.
 
People who got a phone call - did your interviewer mention when statuses would be updated online?
 
mdeast said:
Um....I don't think you understand...these are OFFICIAL numbers, you can't change them, lol. 51% of applicants are accepted. There are many paths people take to get to this (SMP programs that may feed BU directly, or I think BU has a combined undergrad/med program) in addition to the normal track...all of those people are included in this figure.

Almost every US medical school uses their waitlist and the US News numbers are specific to include students outright accepted and those accepted off the waitlist (no matter what path they took to get to that point)...and I'd definitely imagine a place like BU which is borderline between mid-tier and high-tier would lose many accepted students to higher ranked schools and would need to go to the waitlist to fill their class. This is why relatively so many people (over 500) are accepted for a much lower number of spots (as a consequence of a somewhat low enrollment rate). Anyway, the numbers don't lie. That's how many people are interviewed and accepted each year.
Click to expand...

Dean Witzburg also said that last year there was very little to no waitlist movement due to the over-enrollment. This year he said that there WILL be movement. I distinctly remember him saying that if you are waitlisted and really really want to go BU, hang in there long enough and you will probably get in off the waitlist (I swear not making this up).
 
RWboston said:
People who got a phone call - did your interviewer mention when statuses would be updated online?
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No, just that packets were being mailed out today. Based on last year's thread, email acceptances and status changes came the week following phone calls.
 
paki20 said:
has anyone complete in mid-september received an interview?? i havent heard anything from BU since i was complete..
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from last page someone complete sep 1 got an interview 2 days ago.. good luck! 🙂
 
RunningDiva said:
Dean Witzburg also said that last year there was very little to no waitlist movement due to the over-enrollment. This year he said that there WILL be movement. I distinctly remember him saying that if you are waitlisted and really really want to go BU, hang in there long enough and you will probably get in off the waitlist (I swear not making this up).
Click to expand...

Hm...my interviewer said there has been practically no waitlist movement in recent years so the committee is considering eliminating the waitlist option all together. All BU faculty/advisors i talked to say veryl little applicants are put on the waitlist but doesn't really seem like it
 
nankk000 said:
Hm...my interviewer said there has been practically no waitlist movement in recent years so the committee is considering eliminating the waitlist option all together. All BU faculty/advisors i talked to say veryl little applicants are put on the waitlist but doesn't really seem like it
Click to expand...

Dean Witzberg told us as well that they expect there to be more movement off the wait list this year - they are trying to better estimate their acceptance invitations with matriculation ratios. He wishes they could get rid of the wait list all together, but they can't because of the AAMC.
 
Purkinje123 said:
Dean Witzberg told us as well that they expect there to be more movement off the wait list this year - they are trying to better estimate their acceptance invitations with matriculation ratios. He wishes they could get rid of the wait list all together, but they can't because of the AAMC.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I remember the Witzman saying this too.
 
mdeast said:
Um....I don't think you understand...these are OFFICIAL numbers, you can't change them, lol. 51% of applicants are accepted. There are many paths people take to get to this (SMP programs that may feed BU directly, or I think BU has a combined undergrad/med program) in addition to the normal track...all of those people are included in this figure.

Almost every US medical school uses their waitlist and the US News numbers are specific to include students outright accepted and those accepted off the waitlist (no matter what path they took to get to that point)...and I'd definitely imagine a place like BU which is borderline between mid-tier and high-tier would lose many accepted students to higher ranked schools and would need to go to the waitlist to fill their class. This is why relatively so many people (over 500) are accepted for a much lower number of spots (as a consequence of a somewhat low enrollment rate). Anyway, the numbers don't lie. That's how many people are interviewed and accepted each year.
Click to expand...

these numbers were specific to a particular year, and that year is not this year. school's do quite often change their acceptance rates to balance out matriculation ratios, since a lot of variable factors go into matriculation (# schools applied to, national economy, personal finances, etc.)

dean witzburg told us about 35% acceptance rate for this year - i don't think he would lie. he's the one making the decisions on all of this. USNWR publishes statistics on specific years, which aren't concrete year to year (which is the whole point of having annual issues) and as other people have said, they've overadmitted in the past, so this year, they're admitting less and then resorting to the waitlist more than previous years.
 
Swim88WJ said:
these numbers were specific to a particular year, and that year is not this year. school's do quite often change their acceptance rates to balance out matriculation ratios, since a lot of variable factors go into matriculation (# schools applied to, national economy, personal finances, etc.)

dean witzburg told us about 35% acceptance rate for this year - i don't think he would lie. he's the one making the decisions on all of this. USNWR publishes statistics on specific years, which aren't concrete year to year (which is the whole point of having annual issues) and as other people have said, they've overadmitted in the past, so this year, they're admitting less and then resorting to the waitlist more than previous years.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. On another note, my interviewer said that they'll be having a second-look in early May. Anybody know anything about apartment hunting in Boston?
 
Got the call around 5pm this afternoon followed by an email. Interviewed 11/6 🙂
 
mdeast said:
Um....I don't think you understand...these are OFFICIAL numbers, you can't change them, lol. 51% of applicants are accepted. There are many paths people take to get to this (SMP programs that may feed BU directly, or I think BU has a combined undergrad/med program) in addition to the normal track...all of those people are included in this figure.

Almost every US medical school uses their waitlist and the US News numbers are specific to include students outright accepted and those accepted off the waitlist (no matter what path they took to get to that point)...and I'd definitely imagine a place like BU which is borderline between mid-tier and high-tier would lose many accepted students to higher ranked schools and would need to go to the waitlist to fill their class. This is why relatively so many people (over 500) are accepted for a much lower number of spots (as a consequence of a somewhat low enrollment rate). Anyway, the numbers don't lie. That's how many people are interviewed and accepted each year.
Click to expand...

You are confused by the "official numbers." BU accepted no one off the wait list in 2007 because they "over-accepted in Jan/March" They ended up with more students than they wanted. I think the same thing happened in the 2008 cycle.

It's a pretty hot school right now, for a variety of reasons. One of them is that it is a totally awesome med school in just about every way!!!

For example, their admissions process is nothing sort of genius. The student body they pull together is truly amazing: smart, dedicated, focused, great people. It is, overall, the least toolish group of people I have ever been associated with.

And Boston is great too.

And I don't think they outright accept 500, it is more like 350. But I might be wrong.

But if you are deferred, stay very hopeful. Many of us here were first deferred and then accepted in March!!
 
slowbutsteady said:
You are confused by the "official numbers." BU accepted no one off the wait list in 2007 because they "over-accepted in Jan/March" They ended up with more students than they wanted. I think the same thing happened in the 2008 cycle.

It's a pretty hot school right now, for a variety of reasons. One of them is that it is a totally awesome med school in just about every way!!!

For example, their admissions process is nothing sort of genius. The student body they pull together is truly amazing: smart, dedicated, focused, great people. It is, overall, the least toolish group of people I have ever been associated with.

And Boston is great too.

And I don't think they outright accept 500, it is more like 350. But I might be wrong.

But if you are deferred, stay very hopeful. Many of us here were first deferred and then accepted in March!!
Click to expand...

Those are the statistics from Fall 2008. So I assume the Class of 2012...and the 531 number includes both those outright accepted and those waitlisted then accepted. So, if in that year BU over-enrolled because it accepted too many students outright and didn't go to the waitlist, then 531 students were accepted outright. That's not my point though...my point being that most medical schools know roughly what their enrollment rate is (how many of those accepted enroll). I think it's pretty unlikely that BU can project drastic changes in enrollment rates that would change it's # of total accepted students from ~500 to 350 (that's a HUGE decrease...and given the state of the economy and BU's high price tag, I find that unlikely). Moral of the story, BU typically relies on accepting that number of students (~500) from their interviewee pool to fill their class. Maybe that number will go down slightly this year because of over-enrollment issues in the past (or...they alternatively accept the same number of students but more off the waitlist as an enrollment control)...but there's just no way it's going to decrease to 350 total after the waitlist is used. My guess is that 35% number is going to apply to initial acceptances (not total after the waitlist is taken into account).

Anyway, I really liked BU and hope I can join the rest of you with acceptance calls.
 
Last edited:
i got acceptance phone call from my interviewer last night!! my first acceptance! I'm so excited. I'm going to be a doctor!!!
i interviewed on 12/4
 
redsquareblack said:
Accepted! Got the call on Thursday evening, interviewed 10/27/09.

Good luck, everyone waiting, and congrats to everyone who's been accepted!
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seira said:
i got acceptance phone call from my interviewer last night!! my first acceptance! I'm so excited. I'm going to be a doctor!!!
i interviewed on 12/4
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congrats!!!! 🙂
 
do you guys think we could potentially hear sunday night like last year?

it seems like last year the acceptance emails came a little sooner than the differed! i really hope im not rejected!

good luck all :luck:
 
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