Hi all, congrats to all those who got accepted and invites! I'm a second year student at GW and I might have interviewed several of you. I just want to come on to help all those who have questions regarding GW.
First of all, no you don't have to take your facebook down, unless you have really embarrassing pictures, but seriously, they don't check regardless of what others have told you.
I have received several question regarding the waitlist, the thing is, most of the update letters and letters of intent don't get read at all because the admissions office receive so many, and if you have met dean McQuail at the interview, you know how busy she is... so my point is you can send them in, but I think if you're waitlisted at several schools then you should focus on writing letters to other schools if you know these letters are actually being read. And sorry to be the bearer of bad news but at this point, it doesn't look like the waitlist will be moving much this year...
Also one thing that may not be mentioned at all during your interview is the licence problem GW had several years ago, it's coming back to haunt us once again. how do I know this? let's just say a little bird in the committee who happens to be a close friend of mine told me. So be warned. Of course, GW is keeping it in the low or else people be freaking out, hence I don't tell this to my classmates or else they go berserk, but I think this is something applicants NEED to know because this concerns your future. They will assure you that everything is fine when you ask them, and that's because most students and staffs at admissions don't know about the issue (besides the people higher up) or even if they do they don't want to tell you because they think it's gonna work out, which is possible, but if you're accepted at another school, I say why risk it? I'm not saying GW is a bad school, by no means, and I get a lot of "I want to go here because DC is nice". But to be completely honest, some of friends at Georgetown seem to be having a much better time, and it looks like they're integrating their new program there better than GW (you have learned about or will learn about the new program at your interview). And taking everything into account at this point, I'd say if your main reason is to be in DC, Georgetown is the better choice.
I'm not trying to bash GW, I'm simply trying to tell you guys what I think as a student here and what I have learned recently. It is of utmost importance that you can make an informed decision because you're going to spend the next 4 years at the medical school of your choice. I think the GW website and interview give you a good sense of what the school is like and present the best aspects of the school, and that's what I based my decision on when I chose to come here. But in the end it's about the execution of all of these great ideas that are proposed and presented, and personally, I think GW does a decent job, not great. If I knew of a lot of these issues beforehand, I would not have come here even with the promises of the track program and collaborative learning opportunities because I think they're execute very poorly. And given many of their problems as of late that I won't mention (you can pm me if you want), as a student here, I just can't fully recommend GW to you at this stage of the game.
let me know if you have any questions.
good luck
