2013-2014 University of Miami (Miller) Application Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Long time lurker, so I feel like I know all of you guys already. Hi everyone! Like many of you, I am an alternate lister.

So just to summarize, I think we can agree it is clear that they are not making the acceptance decisions on the same day they call. Sunnysideup3 received her scholarship email Jan 17, several days before the official meeting on Jan 22. Also, as far as we know everyone who received a second look email on Feb 4th was accepted on Feb 5th. So, in the Jan 22 instance, the decisions were probably made prior to the Friday before the calls. If we are up for wild speculation, I am thinking that they probably meet every Wednesday now and decisions are made alternating Wednesdays with calls made the other Wednesdays.

If I recall, that does somewhat contradict what we were told at the interview day about decisions being made on the posted committee meeting dates. I am getting a little concerned that the alternate list is not considered at these meetings and will not be looked at until after all the committee meetings in March. The fact that you had to confirm you wanted a spot on the alternate list was strange and seemed more in line with a non-rolling alternate list. There also seems to be no confirmed instance of someone who was on the alternate list getting an acceptance at one of these meetings.

On the other hand, it would be really wacky to ignore the alternate list people when the pools at each meeting are likely vastly different in size (due to the delay in evaluation of applications from November, I think Jan 22nd was a huge pool and Feb 5th and Feb 19th are likely to be much smaller). This would likely have a big impact on who is accepted and that gives me hope that they have no choice but to consider people from the alternate list.

Can someone confirm that there is no instance of an alternate list followed by a committee acceptance? I looked through some of the posts from previous years, and I didn't see it there either. Also, perhaps some of us should call and try to get that information directly from admissions. I would really like to know at this point if I am waiting in agony every other Wednesday for no reason.

All that said, I still have a lot of love for UM and hope to join you guys there in the fall.
 
UMhopeful said:
Found one: jdiazuf was accepted off the alternate list in the 2012-2013 cycle in Dec after being placed on it in October.
Click to expand...


In what month was jdiazuf accepted off the alternate list?

I actually asked someone from admissions whether it would be possible for people to come off the alternate list at today's committee meeting. She said that it IS possible but not highly likely since they are still in the interview process.
 
Waitlisted today for both MD and MD/MPH. Congrats to those accepted!

I'm just going to assume that those of us who are waitlisted should just chill until we get closer to May 15
 
jdiazuf was accepted off of the alternate list in December.

Medsf, I heard something similar from someone who worked in admissions. The evidence does seem to support that it is pretty rare, but I just don't understand the logic in that. On January 22, it seems that decisions were made on more than two months worth of interviews. On February 5th and 19th, decisions will be made on more like two weeks worth of interviews. So, they just accept 20 from both groups and put everyone else on the alternate list even if one has 4x as many applicants as the other (except of course the chosen few who are rejected even though we were assured nobody is rejected)? At least if they consider people from the alternate list, there is some evening out by the end of the selection of the first 200.

What we really need is data. Is anybody out there who was accepted off the alternate list while interviews were ongoing?
 
Hi, all! Superstalker of this thread since the beginning, but only just now created a profile just to respond to this post 🙂

After interviewing on December 9-10, I expected to hear some sort of news (be it good or bad) on Jan. 22, like many of you. After two hours of waiting, refreshing this page every 6 seconds, and having a heart attack at every single text and email, I did not received the coveted phone call that night. Lo and behold, I received the alternate list email for both the MD and MD/MPH programs on the afternoon of Jan. 23rd, much to my disappointment since this is my top choice right now.

That day, I emailed Admissions back to accept my place on the list and they confirmed it a few days later. I pretty much gave up hope that I would ever move off the list, and mentally shelved UM until May. Last week, I emailed an update letter, fully intending to do everything possible in the mean time to get them to reconsider my application. Two days ago I received the hard-copy letter in the mail again confirming my spot on the alternate list. Disappointment round dos.

UNTIL yesterday, to my extreme surprise, my interviewer called at 5:15pm to let me know that I had been accepted to the MD/MPH program. I was so excited I could have kissed him. I did receive the second look email on Feb. 4th, but again (being a pessimist) assumed they had either sent it to everyone or mistakenly sent it to me. Moral of the story, though, don't give up hope yet! I was accepted off the alternate list 🙂

Good luck to everyone!!! Stay strong, fellow applicants 🙂
 
Last edited:
Syndicate said:
anyone know how many people are on the admissions committee? my interviewer literally told me word for word that i was the best applicant he has ever interviewed and yet i get the alternate list. i would like to think that at least 1 interviewee of his can end up getting accepted.. unless the adcom is comprised of 100+ people.
Click to expand...

It's a small group of faculty, admin and medical students (not anywhere near 100). I was talking with someone on the committee last week, and apparently everyone receives a 1-5 ranking after their interviews. Any 1s on the list are immediately accepted, and the rest often end up on the alternate list. According to my source, there's a single committee member this year who is giving people 1.5 rankings because they have a stellar application but slightly lower MCATs (speaking of which, what's up with you crazy smart people?! apparently we've interviewed some people with 40+ MCATs this year, a score which was unheard of only a few years back), meaning that highly desired candidates can end up on the alternate list for a bit before they are accepted.

As for the alternate list, I'm currently in contact with one of you by PM (not imaginegravity - congrats by the way!) who was put on the alternate list in October and accepted off the list in December. Again, I encourage all of you to re-express your interest and stay in contact with our admissions team. They seem to look favorably on hearing from you with important updates / new publications or projects.

Excited to meet some of you at the Second Look event! I'll be on a sub-internship, so hopefully I can sneak away from surgery to come visit. I think you guys usually attend our on-campus end-of-the-year Academic Societies award ceremony-party. Feel free to PM if you have any questions!
 
Last edited:
Updating: chatted with my source again. Source confirms that although it's possible to get off the alternate list right now, it's pretty rare. The committee member with whom I was speaking says that they're only voting on newly-interviewed people right now, but since people sometimes are accepted off the alternate list, there must be some executive action/ list review going on. They expect the majority of movement to happen after May 15.

My source also says that when you send in update letters, make sure it's about something major (again, they like to hear about new publications or important accomplishments) and make sure that you have no grammar errors in your updates. 😉
 
Thanks leonora! Just out of curiosity, are all interviewers part of the admissions committee? Or are some just faculty in the SOM and write a report to the committee summarizing the candidate?
 
No clue whatsoever on that one. I'll ask for you the next time I run into one of the members.
 
Member44444 said:
It's definitely not chill. The interviewer actually said it was going to be casual and then proceeded to read from a list of arbitrary scenario based questions? It was weird
Click to expand...

I got the same type of questions, but it wasn't as if he was grilling me. Did you hear back with a decision yet?
 
what does everybody or anybody think about one's chances as an interviewee in march? i got an invite last week for various dates in march for both the md and md/mph interviews.... miami is awesome to me and i'd love to go to the interviews, my only problem is i have to travel quite far (doing gap year out of the country). i did a lengthy trip back home in november for interviews, i'm just trying to see if coming back just for this one, quite late in the game, can be justified. is it appropriate in my situation to email them and perhaps ask how their class is shaping up, how many offers have gone out etc, just to gauge if it's worth the time and $ investment?
 
darrylkalil said:
what does everybody or anybody think about one's chances as an interviewee in march? i got an invite last week for various dates in march for both the md and md/mph interviews.... miami is awesome to me and i'd love to go to the interviews, my only problem is i have to travel quite far (doing gap year out of the country). i did a lengthy trip back home in november for interviews, i'm just trying to see if coming back just for this one, quite late in the game, can be justified. is it appropriate in my situation to email them and perhaps ask how their class is shaping up, how many offers have gone out etc, just to gauge if it's worth the time and $ investment?
Click to expand...
I don't know if that's a good idea. Personally, I think asking those questions might give off the impression to administration that you're not 100% interested/committed to Miami. I wouldn't want to go into an interview on the wrong foot like that. I completely understand it's a lot to ask to come back to the states for 1 interview, however, I feel like everybody gets too wrapped up in the idea of 'interviewing for the wait list.' An interview is an interview, and maybe it's naive of me but I always feel like there's a chance for acceptance no matter how late in the cycle it is. You just really have to evaluate if its worth the financial and/or whatever stressors to interview at Miami. How badly do you want to go there? Is the chance of a spot worth it? Those are questions only you can answer. Just my 2 cents. Good luck to you either way!
 
II at last! Dates go until the end of March
 
darrylkalil said:
what does everybody or anybody think about one's chances as an interviewee in march? i got an invite last week for various dates in march for both the md and md/mph interviews.... miami is awesome to me and i'd love to go to the interviews, my only problem is i have to travel quite far (doing gap year out of the country). i did a lengthy trip back home in november for interviews, i'm just trying to see if coming back just for this one, quite late in the game, can be justified. is it appropriate in my situation to email them and perhaps ask how their class is shaping up, how many offers have gone out etc, just to gauge if it's worth the time and $ investment?
Click to expand...

I also think this is a bad idea. First off, I don't believe the committee will tell you anything that will be significant in swaying you one way or another. Second off, it shows your hesitation. If you haven't yet been accepted to a medical school or are very interested in attending UMMSM (which you should be because it's the greatest med school ever), then you should definitely go. If you have another acceptance that you'd be happy at, then it's probably not worth it.
 
Azimuthal431 said:
Congrats! Do you remember what status you had beforehand?
Click to expand...

I stopped checking few weeks back, but it was always stuck on the one which said something like "application is under review"
 
Anyone know the best way to send an update here? No section for it in the portal from what I've seen...

Thanks in advance
 
Troy McClure said:
Anyone know the best way to send an update here? No section for it in the portal from what I've seen...

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I just emailed my update to the admissions office. They responded within a few days to say it was added to my file.
 
II today! OOS LizzyM ~74. My status had been stuck on "under review" since the end of August. I looked yesterday and it had switched to something along the lines of "committee review complete." There were a couple dates available in February and quite a few in March.
 
So I finally got this status "Your application has been reviewed by the Admissions Committee at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. At this time, a final decision has not been reached on your application." like..a week ago maybe after being under review/complete since early September. Is that a silent rejection? Sorry I haven't really read this thread that much.
 
Does anyone who's interviewed recently have a hotel recommendation? Should I just resign myself to spending $165/night for one of the options on the info page? Thanks!
 
monkeyfeet said:
Does anyone who's interviewed recently have a hotel recommendation? Should I just resign myself to spending $165/night for one of the options on the info page? Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you have a car or rental then I would highly recommend south beach area (keep in mind parking is super expensive in Miami though) or else one of the recommended hotels.
 
monkeyfeet said:
Does anyone who's interviewed recently have a hotel recommendation? Should I just resign myself to spending $165/night for one of the options on the info page? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Look into hotels in the Coral Gables area (near the undergraduate campus; there's a Holiday Inn literally across the street from it with decent rates). From that campus, the medical school is a 17 minute MetroRail ride away. Super convenient, since the MetroRail station is located a 3 minute walk from the Holiday Inn.
 
Cool, thank you both for the suggestions!
 
Next round of decisions tomorrow. So much anxiety!
 
Really, interview invite for Feb 28 through March, when my application was complete at the end of August?? OOS, MCAT 33, GPA 3.75.

At least they didn't diss me. Will be passing on this interview invitation given it is cheaper to go instate at U of Michigan. For those of you still in the running for an II, note they are interviewing all through March 2014.
 
So did people that got accepted outright receive the second look invite prior to the call? Did people who didn't receive that email invite prior to 5:00pm also get accepted?
 
Bisonman80 said:
Just accepted via phone call to the MD/MPH program. Wow!! I was wait listed like two weeks ago. Interviewed on Jan 5th
Click to expand...
Oh nice!

I guess they do take people off the alternate list before may then
 
Syndicate said:
Oh nice!

I guess they do take people off the alternate list before may then
Click to expand...

It could be they didn't get to his application on previous adcom meetings - unless he received an alternative list email. For those who interviewed on Feb 3rd, they said "they'll try" to get to them by today but if not then the March 5th date.

Has anyone who interviewed on Feb 3rd had their status change to "A decision has been made?" Was anyone who interviewed on Feb 3 accepted today?
 
Crickets over here. Anyone from 1/27 interview hear back anything?
 
Drmo0ose said:
It could be they didn't get to his application on previous adcom meetings - unless he received an alternative list email. For those who interviewed on Feb 3rd, they said "they'll try" to get to them by today but if not then the March 5th date.

Has anyone who interviewed on Feb 3rd had their status change to "A decision has been made?" Was anyone who interviewed on Feb 3 accepted today?
Click to expand...

I interviewed Feb 3rd and got the same status change. I guess we will hear back on March 5th. But what about the "call or email back within 7 days" thing on the status page?
 
Drmo0ose said:
It could be they didn't get to his application on previous adcom meetings - unless he received an alternative list email.
Click to expand...

I definitely received the alternate list email for both the MD and the MD/MPH. I'm still on the alt list for MD, but I was accepted today off the alt list for MD/MPH. 🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

wysdoc
2024-2025 Miami (Miller)
17 18 19 20 21
Replies
1K
Views
294K
MegaKnight49
MegaKnight49
wysdoc
2023-2024 Miami (Miller)
18 19 20 21 22
Replies
1K
Views
271K
Sandman23
S
wysdoc
2022-2023 Miami (Miller)
20 21 22 23 24
Replies
1K
Views
267K
wolverine2023
W
wysdoc
2024-2025 University of Washington
10 11 12 13 14
Replies
677
Views
167K
stew_md
S
wysdoc
2024-2025 University of Chicago (Pritzker)
12 13 14 15 16
Replies
778
Views
223K
X0001234
X0001234
Top Bottom