Maggie has given poor advice.
Don't say hi. This will be the day the first years tell you to find a different career and ask you why you would do this to yourself. Just look down and wave a little if you accidentally cross our path, we'll all be moping around until after the practical. Then we'll be sleeping and studying for the NBME on Monday.
😀
ok, in truth this is probably more like it.
Can you tell me how critical the interview date is for rolling admissions? There is one early date available, but it would cost me double the air fare. I am an OOS applicant.
How critical is each additional week that you wait to be interviewed? Do they interview very many OO applicants?
well first of all, what kind of a difference in interview dates are we talking? a couple of weeks? (no it wont matter, AT ALL) a couple of months? (then maybe think about paying the extra $)
for OOS applicants the hurry to apply/interview early is not nearly as important as in-staters. in state applicants have a very fixed timeline: the acceptance period ONLY runs from Nov15-Dec31 and then ONE more wave on Feb 1. Therefore, it's really important for instaters to get an interview by november to be competitive.
However, OOS-ers are not held to the same timeline and admission comittees can make decisions at almost ANY time: from mid-fall (starting tomorrow, i believe--but i could be wrong) through late spring.
For Tech specifically, we don't get that many OOS applicants that really really want to come here. The few OOS-ers that desire to do their med school in Texas usually want to go to places like Houston, Dallas, etc. because they're well known, the cities are big, the culture is lively, etc., etc.
But unless someone's actually lived in texas and knows about tech's med school, and has been around the opinions of the health care professionals within the state, Tech tends to get overlooked by OOSers.
So i'd say that more importantly than the specific week of interview, is the ability for you to show that you're actually interested in living in Lubbock. If you can do this, you're golden.
bottom line: if it's a difference of 1-4ish weeks, definately save your cash. If one option is this week and the other is in january--ok, well then you might consider selling plasma, etc. (also we have a program that you can stay for free with a current med student the night before, so that can help with costs.)
hope to see you soon on interview day!
Don't study and SDN.
