2012-2013 Dartmouth Medical School Application Thread

[scrubulous]

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Just got an interview here!!!!
😀😀😀😀😀
Anyone know whether they reject post interview or just waitlist?

Also do they accept post interview updates?

ii today, complete first week of august

feel like sharing stats?

 

[smittym91]

what dates are they offering for interviews? thanks and congrats.

 

[Randommemb]

First and second week in February. Stats are (very generally): lower than average GPA and higher than average MCAT

 

[orangeblossom]

Just got an interview here!!!!
😀😀😀😀😀
Anyone know whether they reject post interview or just waitlist?

Also do they accept post interview updates?

Hey nontrad, congrats on your interview invite. If you don't mind: When were you complete? Stats?

 

[Lafakads]

Well got wait listed here. This one hurt bad. Top choice and would love to attend

 

[smittym91]

....

 

[Cinclus]

Sorry to hear that.

Does dartmouth reject people or do they just waitlist everyone. Is being put on the waitlist in January a good or bad sign?

According to what they told us during the interview day last cycle, they do hand out rejections. I do not think any waitlist movement occurred last year, as they wound up over-accepting, so I don't know about what kind of sign it is, but any waitlisting was no bueno last year.

 

[TheShaker]

According to what they told us during the interview day last cycle, they do hand out rejections. I do not think any waitlist movement occurred last year, as they wound up over-accepting, so I don't know about what kind of sign it is, but any waitlisting was no bueno last year.

How did you find out that they were overaccepting? Oh man, I hope this isn't a regular occurrence.

 

[Cinclus]

How did you find out that they were overaccepting? Oh man, I hope this isn't a regular occurrence.

They didn't mean to; their acceptance/waitlist/rejection ratio had prevented them from overaccepting in the past, but it didn't work last year. Look up last year's thread for details.

 

[smittym91]

.....

 

[Cinclus]

I was hoping someone could help me understand this waitlist/acceptance thing. So a school with a 100 class member may initially accept 200 people and if only say 80 of those 200 accept the offer they then take from the waitlist? So schools over accept for the class and if they don't over accept they then use the waitlist? Or is a waitlist a means of giving you some sort of answer and waiting till they finish the interview process and then maybe accepting you?

The specifics are unique to each school, but the gist of waitlists is that they are used to add to the class when accepted applicants decline to attend, and therefore the desired class size is not obtained. Some schools accept more than is needed to fill the class, with the anticipation that a certain percentage of those accepted will decline. If the class size remains at or above capacity with just those who were accepted, waitlisters will not be added to the class.

 

[desilva11]

....

 

[Lafakads]

was I the only person that got waitlisted? hopefully I didnt do so bad I was the first they wanted out 🙁

 

[smittym91]

.........

 

[Arbor Vitae]

So is there ever a mass acceptance day here, or do they just dole out the acceptances?

 

[TheShaker]

So is there ever a mass acceptance day here, or do they just dole out the acceptances?

From last year's thread, it seems like the only wave that happened was a massive wave of waitlists around....this time. 😱 It seems like they just slowly hand out the acceptances.

 

[smittym91]

...........

 

[Lafakads]

i highly doubt they only waitlisted a few today. But if this is the case maybe being waitlisted earlier isn't a bad sign and they are just going to be even more stingy with the initial acceptance than previous years.

lol I feel like we are coming up with crazy conclusions to explain the system. That being said, May 15th needs to come fast, its going to be a long few months!

 

[LONeil]

So just going through some logic here...with their "batting average" method of ranking interviewers, a waitlist should mean that you were more towards the middle of the list; not high enough to be accepted outright, and not low enough to be rejected outright. So are they at the point no where they are putting people located more so towards the middle of the list in a waitlist category while they accept and reject people knowing that, with the last couple months of interviews, that you'd not be able to move into either one of the other categories once the remainder of the rankings have been administered?

 

[pm1]

Hey guys!
Is Dartmouth receptive of pre-interview LOI? This will be my first LOI. I just wrote it and it is a page long. Is that alright? Usually, how long are they?
Thank you!!

 

[RicoSalamandra]

Hey guys!
Is Dartmouth receptive of pre-interview LOI? This will be my first LOI. I just wrote it and it is a page long. Is that alright? Usually, how long are they?
Thank you!!

With so few interview invites left, perhaps you should send it regardless. While there is no set-in-stone rule about length, my personal guess is that you're fine with one page.

 

[pm1]

With so few interview invites left, perhaps you should send it regardless. While there is no set-in-stone rule about length, my personal guess is that you're fine with one page.

Thank you!!
Should I just send it to the adcom or to someone in specific? Thank you for all the help!!!

 

[RicoSalamandra]

Thank you!!
Should I just send it to the adcom or to someone in specific? Thank you for all the help!!!

Hmm. Most correspondence is addressed to the office of admissions which means Geisel probably adds it to your file. I don't know if this would make them actually revisit your file though. At this point maybe it'd be best to call them and ask. Nothing to lose you know?

 

[Lafakads]

With so few interview invites left, perhaps you should send it regardless. While there is no set-in-stone rule about length, my personal guess is that you're fine with one page.

Do you know when they are interviewing till?

 

[Nontrad081287]

...

 

[The Beyonder]

So just going through some logic here...with their "batting average" method of ranking interviewers, a waitlist should mean that you were more towards the middle of the list; not high enough to be accepted outright, and not low enough to be rejected outright. So are they at the point no where they are putting people located more so towards the middle of the list in a waitlist category while they accept and reject people knowing that, with the last couple months of interviews, that you'd not be able to move into either one of the other categories once the remainder of the rankings have been administered?

Yeah, the system is a little confusing. I guess if you have not been waitlisted your either pretty good or pretty bad.

 

[smittym91]

...

 

[heartshaped box]

For those who sent letters of interest, did you send them to Andy welch specifically or the admissions office?

 

[smittym91]

..

 

[TheShaker]

do most people think that they don't reject people and thats what they tell interviewee? over the past two year there have been a very high amount of waitlists assuming sdn is a small sample. It's kind of odd that not even one person reported a post-interview rejection.

I always thought that most schools don't reject post interview. I've only seen maybe one or two people get rejected in past threads of different schools. I think that you can only get rejected if you royally screwed up somehow.

Then again, maybe it's the bottom 5% who get rejected but I'm trying not to say things like that since I might end up with a rejection one of these days. 😳

 

[sk15731]

How many II's do you think they have left? I have a 4.0 and above avg MCAT and would really like an II.

 

[biggurl]

how often does dartmouth usually send out rejections/acceptances/WLs?

 

[Traveller01]

Does anyone know when they start sending out acceptances?

 

[vvv133]

just wanted to add some info for those wondering about timeline

personally, i was complete around mid october, interview invite late november, interviewed mid december, and accepted about 2 and a half weeks after the interview, so like early early january

hope this helps.

 

[Arbor Vitae]

Does anyone know when they start sending out acceptances?

 

[The Beyonder]

Lol

 

[biggurl]

so does dartmouth send acceptances on friday and waitlists, rejections, invites on any other day?

 

[oluyinka]

Hi there ... I'm a current M1 at Dartmouth (now officially Geisel). Anyways - we've created a facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/203355649803318/) for those of you that have been accepted so feel free to join it and post any questions/concerns/comments you have over there. Congrats to those of you already accepted, and good luck to those waiting to hear back or that haven't interviewed yet. If you're around the Hanover area feel free to message the facebook group and I'll meet up with you if you want. I've never actually been on this site so I can't guarantee I'll notice any responses on here. I look forward to seeing those of you that will be at second look!

 

[oluyinka]

I always thought that most schools don't reject post interview. I've only seen maybe one or two people get rejected in past threads of different schools. I think that you can only get rejected if you royally screwed up somehow.

Then again, maybe it's the bottom 5% who get rejected but I'm trying not to say things like that since I might end up with a rejection one of these days. 😳

I think this has more to do with pride (and the small sampling of SDN) as opposed to actual statistics. Quite a lot of people get rejected post-interview - of my classmates, very few of us interviewed on the same day (personally, only one person I interviewed with wasn't rejected).

 

[oluyinka]

Does anyone know when they start sending out acceptances?

They send them out on a sort of rolling basis - I got mine in Oct and the latest they're sent out is that last deadline in April (least I think it's April - this wasn't so long ago but it seems like a blur)

 

[biggurl]

I think this has more to do with pride (and the small sampling of SDN) as opposed to actual statistics. Quite a lot of people get rejected post-interview - of my classmates, very few of us interviewed on the same day (personally, only one person I interviewed with wasn't rejected).

congrats on your acceptance. are you talking about dartmouth specifically or just about medical school in general.

 

[oluyinka]

So I have a question for a current student there:

Being associated with a liberal-arts school (Dartmouth) does that philosophy of education bleed over at all to the medical school? I.E. does the Geisel School of Medicine offer/recommend their students take classes in the humanities/art/literature/philosophy more compared to other schools?

I'm definitely procrastinating on doing work so I apologize if someone else has answered this (haven't gotten that far yet).

They honestly don't push anything on us - it's more like "here's this whole plethora of things to do (both academic and not) - if you think you have the time, do it, if not, cool" First term I took an ethics elective (I'm interested in ethics) and this term I'm taking a vascular surgery elective (coolest thing ever!) - what I will say is that they're all about doing things that keep you sane (you can go crazy really fast and not even realize it)

 

[oluyinka]

congrats on your acceptance. are you talking about dartmouth specifically or just about medical school in general.

Lol - I'm a current medical student, sorry if that wasn't clear ... I'm talking about Dartmouth specifically but it applies to schools in general (I have a lot of friends at other med schools)

 

[desilva11]

Lol - I'm a current medical student, sorry if that wasn't clear ... I'm talking about Dartmouth specifically but it applies to schools in general (I have a lot of friends at other med schools)

do you know if someone gets waitlisted from this school do they have to wait until may or is it like some other school were they take people off the waitlist before they finish all the interviews because people withdraw, don't interview, etc

 

[Lafakads]

Lol - I'm a current medical student, sorry if that wasn't clear ... I'm talking about Dartmouth specifically but it applies to schools in general (I have a lot of friends at other med schools)

Good news to hear. It just seemed like everyone that didnt get accepted made it to waitlist. Since I'm on the waitlist at least it makes me feel a bit better now.

Do you guys have any idea if there is expected to be a lot of movement? Anything we can do to increase our chances on the waitlist or will that basically come after may 15th?

 

[oluyinka]

do you know if someone gets waitlisted from this school do they have to wait until may or is it like some other school were they take people off the waitlist before they finish all the interviews because people withdraw, don't interview, etc

And I'm responding to this one as well: "Do you guys have any idea if there is expected to be a lot of movement? Anything we can do to increase our chances on the waitlist or will that basically come after may 15th?"

Seems like today is not going to be a productive day for me lol .... anyways - I've never heard from my class or upperclassmen that the waitlist moves BEFORE the May 15th deadline because they're still in the ongoing interview process.

As for movement AFTER May 15th - I am only theorizing here (definitely don't have any power in this regards, or even some sort of "in the know") - anyways: I expect there will be MORE waitlist movement than last year (technically speaking though, relative to 0 anything is more). To cut a long story short, last year they over-admitted (our class of 87 is more than they wanted) so no one on the waitlist was bumped up to "accepted" but I assume they'll be more stringent as to admittances this year (probably explains the long wait most of you guys have experienced - although the wait is also normal). So by this logic (less people admitted), there's a higher probability that they'll need to dip into the waitlist pool.

As to making yourself stand out, post-interview, I honestly don't know. I guess if you've done something special/noteworthy then update them. Call the office (they're really friendly) and ask a question - not a stupid one, mind you, but just chat them up a little. These LOI's I've been reading about sound promising but I didn't send any last year so I have no clue about that stuff.

Hope this helps. 😀😎

 

[desilva11]

I think this has more to do with pride (and the small sampling of SDN) as opposed to actual statistics. Quite a lot of people get rejected post-interview - of my classmates, very few of us interviewed on the same day (personally, only one person I interviewed with wasn't rejected).

So do you actually know people who received a rejection email from dartmouth or are you making the assumption that they since they were not in you class they were rejected. It just seems that in the past they have waitlisted a ton of people. I am just wondering that a waitlist at this school is very much a rejection in the end.

 

[TheShaker]

I think this has more to do with pride (and the small sampling of SDN) as opposed to actual statistics. Quite a lot of people get rejected post-interview - of my classmates, very few of us interviewed on the same day (personally, only one person I interviewed with wasn't rejected).

Interesting. Maybe SDN just has stronger, more informed, or more prideful (to not admit rejection) applicants. I do hear a lot of uninformed applicants treat interviews as more of a formality.

 

[agjordan]

I have an interview tomorrow, 1/31, at Dartmouth. Anyone want to give me a quick run-down of what to expect? Stats: 30yo, 33P, 3.63s, 3.6undergrad, 3.7masters program in international affairs. I am kind of an unusual candidate (Peace Corps, US Army Reserve) and I've been really curious why some schools seem into me and others don't. Interviewed at Einstein and UMass and have interviews at NYMC and UVM coming up in February. But got rejected pre-interview from BU, GW, and USC. This process sucks. Part of me feels privileged just to be getting interviews, but then I'm like damn, that still only gives me like a 1/5 chance at each school. This process is definitely a form of information-deprivation torture. Ahhhhhh!

 

[Nandrolone]

I have an interview tomorrow, 1/31, at Dartmouth. Anyone want to give me a quick run-down of what to expect? Stats: 30yo, 33P, 3.63s, 3.6undergrad, 3.7masters program in international affairs. I am kind of an unusual candidate (Peace Corps, US Army Reserve) and I've been really curious why some schools seem into me and others don't. Interviewed at Einstein and UMass and have interviews at NYMC and UVM coming up in February. But got rejected pre-interview from BU, GW, and USC. This process sucks. Part of me feels privileged just to be getting interviews, but then I'm like damn, that still only gives me like a 1/5 chance at each school. This process is definitely a form of information-deprivation torture. Ahhhhhh!

u're bound to get into one...either way GL tomorrow. kill it!👍