2013-2014 Dartmouth College (Geisel) Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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Anyone complete 9/18 (or around) been rejected yet? I'm feeling antsy!
 
been complete since early august, no rejection yet
 
@lall +1 We know they have rejected at least some people up to 9/10 (per earlier in this thread). Of course they have also invited people who were completed even more recently. At least we know that we're still in the running for now. :highfive:
 
Sent an in the area email yesterday, rejected today. 🙂 I considered it a favor for not making me wait! Good luck to those still in the running!
 
Yeah, so weird how they're jumping around on the rejections. The 9/10 then July then August. Random
 
lall said:
Yeah, so weird how they're jumping around on the rejections. The 9/10 then July then August. Random
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Yeah, they don't reject based on date interviewed; they reject based on where you get placed on a ranking system post-interview. If you're "ranking/score" is below the current working cutoff post-interview, you're out of luck even if you had a relatively recent interview. Similarly, if you happen to be placed near the very top of the rank list, you'll get an acceptance no matter when you interviewed.
 
pDeluxe said:
Yeah, they don't reject based on date interviewed; they reject based on where you get placed on a ranking system post-interview. If you're "ranking/score" is below the current working cutoff post-interview, you're out of luck even if you had a relatively recent interview. Similarly, if you happen to be placed near the very top of the rank list, you'll get an acceptance no matter when you interviewed.
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Ah same for pre-interview? That's what I was referring to, should have been more clear

Also, wahts a "ranking score" outside of just MCAT/GPA (pre-interview)
 
lall said:
Ah same for pre-interview? That's what I was referring to, should have been more clear

Also, wahts a "ranking score" outside of just MCAT/GPA (pre-interview)
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Ooo my mistake. Pre-interview I have no idea, but I would imagine they employ a similar system. They seem to like to quantify everything, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had readers giving your secondary responses a score, in addition to MCAT, GPA, and even ECs. Of course, I'm just speculating. On my interview day, they did say that they operate under the "no news is good news" motto, so keep your chin up!
 
pDeluxe said:
Ooo my mistake. Pre-interview I have no idea, but I would imagine they employ a similar system. They seem to like to quantify everything, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had readers giving your secondary responses a score, in addition to MCAT, GPA, and even ECs. Of course, I'm just speculating. On my interview day, they did say that they operate under the "no news is good news" motto, so keep your chin up!
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nice, thanks for the info
 
lall said:
Ah same for pre-interview? That's what I was referring to, should have been more clear

Also, wahts a "ranking score" outside of just MCAT/GPA (pre-interview)
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We were told on interview day that basically Dartmouth has sub-committees made up of people who only reviews apps from a certain number of schools. The reason they do this is because they want people on the committee to specialize in and become experts in various institutions so that they know the nuances of the academics and ECs at those colleges (like what classes are hard, which majors are difficult, what a good GPA would be for a grade-deflating school, what ECs all the pre-meds seem to do at the school, etc).

So the reason why we see pre-interview rejections from random complete dates all over the place is because the different sub-committees are running on different timelines for different undergrads.

The ranking score is basically a score that's given post-interview to each applicant out of 1000. Your interviewers and the committee will meet and assign a score to your application and interview. Basically a list is created with the very top scorers getting admitted outright, the bottom scorers getting rejected immediately, and the people in the middle hearing back later on (after January). The theory behind this is that Dartmouth wants to really protect its class size because they believe that a small class size is a unique part of the Dartmouth experience, so they are very stingy with acceptance offers. So as they said on interview day, no news post-interview is good news.
 
nemo123 said:
We were told on interview day that basically Dartmouth has sub-committees made up of people who only reviews apps from a certain number of schools. The reason they do this is because they want people on the committee to specialize in and become experts in various institutions so that they know the nuances of the academics and ECs at those colleges (like what classes are hard, which majors are difficult, what a good GPA would be for a grade-deflating school, what ECs all the pre-meds seem to do at the school, etc).

So the reason why we see pre-interview rejections from random complete dates all over the place is because the different sub-committees are running on different timelines for different undergrads.

The ranking score is basically a score that's given post-interview to each applicant out of 1000. Your interviewers and the committee will meet and assign a score to your application and interview. Basically a list is created with the very top scorers getting admitted outright, the bottom scorers getting rejected immediately, and the people in the middle hearing back later on (after January). The theory behind this is that Dartmouth wants to really protect its class size because they believe that a small class size is a unique part of the Dartmouth experience, so they are very stingy with acceptance offers. So as they said on interview day, no news post-interview is good news.
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As someone from a very small Midwestern university, the emphasis on undergraduate institution is interesting. I wonder how it impacts my application.
 
Cambover said:
As someone from a very small Midwestern university, the emphasis on undergraduate institution is interesting. I wonder how it impacts my application.
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I think what I've read on SDN is that for applicants from schools with smaller pre-med pools (i.e. very few applicants) get sent to a special sub-committee that doesn't specialize in getting to know any undergrad institution... I guess for those applicants, the review process is pretty much the same as it is at other med schools (a random person will read your app).
 
nemo123 said:
We were told on interview day that basically Dartmouth has sub-committees made up of people who only reviews apps from a certain number of schools. The reason they do this is because they want people on the committee to specialize in and become experts in various institutions so that they know the nuances of the academics and ECs at those colleges (like what classes are hard, which majors are difficult, what a good GPA would be for a grade-deflating school, what ECs all the pre-meds seem to do at the school, etc).

So the reason why we see pre-interview rejections from random complete dates all over the place is because the different sub-committees are running on different timelines for different undergrads.

The ranking score is basically a score that's given post-interview to each applicant out of 1000. Your interviewers and the committee will meet and assign a score to your application and interview. Basically a list is created with the very top scorers getting admitted outright, the bottom scorers getting rejected immediately, and the people in the middle hearing back later on (after January). The theory behind this is that Dartmouth wants to really protect its class size because they believe that a small class size is a unique part of the Dartmouth experience, so they are very stingy with acceptance offers. So as they said on interview day, no news post-interview is good news.
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Oh cool, thanks for the super detailed info!
 
nemo123 said:
I think what I've read on SDN is that for applicants from schools with smaller pre-med pools (i.e. very few applicants) get sent to a special sub-committee that doesn't specialize in getting to know any undergrad institution... I guess for those applicants, the review process is pretty much the same as it is at other med schools (a random person will read your app).
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Hmm... So if I did a post-bacc is there a separate committee for that? Or would they go by my undergrad?
 
Hjbo said:
Hmm... So if I did a post-bacc is there a separate committee for that? Or would they go by my undergrad?
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No idea. They didn't talk about that. I'm assuming they would go by post-bacc then since you're taking your core science classes there.
 
nemo123 said:
No idea. They didn't talk about that. I'm assuming they would go by post-bacc then since you're taking your core science classes there.
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I would think so too... Thanks though, your original post was really helpful!
 
lall said:
Oh cool, thanks for the super detailed info!
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Hjbo said:
I would think so too... Thanks though, your original post was really helpful!
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You're welcome! It was really refreshing to hear some insight into the process on interview day, since most schools just keep us in the dark about the whole process in general.
 
Thought I'd contribute my timeline -- complete 10/8 & haven't heard anything. It appears they have invited people who were complete after me so I was prob passed up for the time being.
More waiting.. :boom:
 
Rejcted pre interview complete a week ago
 
How long does Geisel conduct interviews until? I imagine there's a set date at which they tell you one way or another whether you have been rejected or offered an interview invitation, just on the sheer basis of scheduling practicalities for those given an II. In other words, if they stop conducting interviews in March, then I imagine they have to contact you by January at the latest with some news.
 
How long does Geisel conduct interviews until? I imagine there's a set date at which they tell you one way or another whether you have been rejected or offered an interview invitation, just on the sheer basis of scheduling practicalities for those given an II. In other words, if they stop conducting interviews in March, then I imagine they have to contact you by January at the latest with some news.
 
jvlop said:
Rejcted pre interview complete a week ago
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Hmm that's interesting. They told us at the interview that they have a very thorough pre-interview review process where basically one person will look at your file first and if they think you're worthy of an interview, you'll get it right away. But if they don't think so, you get pushed into a second review that involves two people who look at your app together.
 
nemo123 said:
Hmm that's interesting. They told us at the interview that they have a very thorough pre-interview review process where basically one person will look at your file first and if they think you're worthy of an interview, you'll get it right away. But if they don't think so, you get pushed into a second review that involves two people who look at your app together.
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If you read his other posts, you'll notice that he has like a 22-24 MCAT, so perhaps it was an automatic screen.
 
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nemo123 said:
Hmm that's interesting. They told us at the interview that they have a very thorough pre-interview review process where basically one person will look at your file first and if they think you're worthy of an interview, you'll get it right away. But if they don't think so, you get pushed into a second review that involves two people who look at your app together.
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double post
 
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First time posting, and sorry to bring up a tough topic, but has anyone been rejected post-interview? No news is good news at Geisel apparently but if everyone who has interviewed so far hasn't heard anything (except those accepted), then it's tough to know what to make of the no news. Thanks
 
Msj13 said:
First time posting, and sorry to bring up a tough topic, but has anyone been rejected post-interview? No news is good news at Geisel apparently but if everyone who has interviewed so far hasn't heard anything (except those accepted), then it's tough to know what to make of the no news. Thanks
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I believe most people hear their post-interview results in January or later, except those applicants who are at the top of their rank list and were already accepted.
 
Msj13 said:
First time posting, and sorry to bring up a tough topic, but has anyone been rejected post-interview? No news is good news at Geisel apparently but if everyone who has interviewed so far hasn't heard anything (except those accepted), then it's tough to know what to make of the no news. Thanks
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To be honest I was also a little bit skeptical of the fact that they reject the lowest ranked interviewees right away. If you go through other threads, I have rarely seen a post-interview rejection and if it happens it's later in the season. It might be because some interviewees don't post that they were rejected or some of the interviewees interviewing later are ranked a little lower to begin with pre-interview.

But yes, most people are accepted post-January and only a very small number are accepted before that.
 
It seems from last year's thread, Dartmouth holds your app until mid February at the latest to give you an II or rejection... Does anyone know if the majority of pre-II rejections come at that time or have most pre-II rejections already gone out?
 
Syndicate said:
It seems from last year's thread, Dartmouth holds your app until mid February at the latest to give you an II or rejection... Does anyone know if the majority of pre-II rejections come at that time or have most pre-II rejections already gone out?
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its hard to tell. there's been a smattering of pre-interview rejections reported on the thread but they've been random. one person says they were complete a week ago and rejected, others have reported dates from july to september and rejected recently, but nothing has been in "order".

also, seems like the threads have been shy this year (according to some other sdner's/reapps) and/or schools are slower on the processing.
 
lall said:
its hard to tell. there's been a smattering of pre-interview rejections reported on the thread but they've been random. one person says they were complete a week ago and rejected, others have reported dates from july to september and rejected recently, but nothing has been in "order".

also, seems like the threads have been shy this year (according to some other sdner's/reapps) and/or schools are slower on the processing.
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Yea I have seen on previous threads and have friends who've gotten silence from Dartmouth until ~March and then rejected so I was wondering
 
Syndicate said:
Yea I have seen on previous threads and have friends who've gotten silence from Dartmouth until ~March and then rejected so I was wondering
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Well seems like they reject you if they know they don't want to interview you, but as long as you havent' been rejected, you're still in the running. They seem to come back to people they initially passed over. Your friends might have just sat in the maybe pile all the way through March. FWIW, I had a friend complete in August and interview invite in february. It happens
 
Anyone have any idea how much a "boost" an early interview (Sep-Oct) gives you at Geisel versus other schools? Rather, is it a good indication? I only ask because a med student thought it important enough to hint this to us on interview day; maybe he was just being nice...
 
Ja3ger said:
Anyone have any idea how much a "boost" an early interview (Sep-Oct) gives you at Geisel versus other schools? Rather, is it a good indication? I only ask because a med student thought it important enough to hint this to us on interview day; maybe he was just being nice...
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I got the impression that it is less meaningful at Geisel than other schools because they wait to accept a majority of their interviewees until later in the cycle. The dean of admissions specifically said this was because they want to level the playing field and give those who apply/interview later an equal chance of admission (He said this on my 9/12 interview).
 
Ja3ger said:
Anyone have any idea how much a "boost" an early interview (Sep-Oct) gives you at Geisel versus other schools? Rather, is it a good indication? I only ask because a med student thought it important enough to hint this to us on interview day; maybe he was just being nice...
Click to expand...

I think they said during our interview day that one person will read your application first and if they really like it, they will grant you an interview automatically. If not, it goes into a second round of reviews, which includes two members of the subcommittee reading your app together. Basically they have a very thorough pre-interview review process.
 
anyone know how many more batches of rejections they have left? I'm looking through last year's thread but can't seem to find a consensus
 
Syndicate said:
anyone know how many more batches of rejections they have left? I'm looking through last year's thread but can't seem to find a consensus
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You asked the same question in two different ways. Sorry you weren't satisfied with the answer you got.
 
Syndicate said:
anyone know how many more batches of rejections they have left? I'm looking through last year's thread but can't seem to find a consensus
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You could always call the admissions office. The lady who works there is very nice.
 
Rejected pre-interview this morning, complete 10/23
 
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Rejected just now. Not surprised though since I've been complete since 8/13 with no word. Good luck everyone still waiting!
 
how are you finding out about your status through the portal or by email?
 
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