2013-2014 University of Michigan Application Thread

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Sandra Davis: bringing me to a new low one e-mail at a time.

P.S. -- I don't care about Twitter chats or website updates... I would rather know what my status is after 4 months of waiting. :whistle:
 
What's worse is I got my rejection (from the MSTP) this morning...and then got the survey email a few hours later. 😵
 
I must really be out of the running then.. They aren't even sending me those spammy emails. 🙁
 
Well, no 3:33 Thursday here. But what's new about that :cry:
 
aspirantmed said:
Well, no 3:33 Thursday here. But what's new about that :cry:
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I don't know if they had any 3:33 today. Today Rich and Susan, the people who gave the $50 million gift to the medical school came in and the whole med school was celebrating. But again, I don't know if this affected the 3:33 or not.
 
Personally I find their spam emails to be rather insensitive. They don't reflect well on the school.
 
nkfaris said:
I don't know if they had any 3:33 today. Today Rich and Susan, the people who gave the $50 million gift to the medical school came in and the whole med school was celebrating. But again, I don't know if this affected the 3:33 or not.
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Well, considering this picture of Robert Ruiz taken earlier this afternoon...

17kdmwf1pq9wbjpg.jpg
 
pyrrion89 said:
Personally I find their spam emails to be rather insensitive. They don't reflect well on the school.
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totally agree....like why are they sending us emails about their new website....? it doesnt even help at this point when weve applied already so why would we even need to go on their website...

no other school sends out these annoying spammy emails...
 
scarlett14 said:
totally agree....like why are they sending us emails about their new website....? it doesnt even help at this point when weve applied already so why would we even need to go on their website...

no other school sends out these annoying spammy emails...
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To be fair, no other schools do tweet chats, have application trackers or have as transparent a process(as frustrating as it can still inherently be) as Michigan does either.
 
jeghaber said:
To be fair, no other schools do tweet chats, have application trackers or have as transparent a process(as frustrating as it can still inherently be) as Michigan does either.
Click to expand...
FWIW Pritzker has done Tweetchats too, and quite a few programs have admissions Twitter accounts. But yeah, props to Michigan for being so upfront and non-mysterious about their process.
 
jeghaber said:
To be fair, no other schools do tweet chats, have application trackers and have as transparent a process(as frustrating as it can still inherently be) as Michigan does either.
Click to expand...

True, true. Fixed, hahah 😉
 
jeghaber said:
To be fair, no other schools do tweet chats, have application trackers or have as transparent a process(as frustrating as it can still inherently be) as Michigan does either.
Click to expand...
 
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nkfaris said:
Honestly, I don't agree with you. I think many other schools have more transparency but michigan likes to publicize it while others don't care much. If you consider michigan schools, wayne for example is very very helpful if you call them and ask about your application. They will tell you exactly your status. Oakland also has a tracker that is much better than Michigan's and is updated more frequently. Also, the rest of the michigan schools do not keep you wondering about what's going on with your application. They give you a decision within a month or so, whether you're waitlisted for an interview, rejected or not. If you don't hear back, contacting them through phone/email is always very helpful.
In my opinion, the "big names" schools are arrogant I guess and don't treat an applicant with much respect as the smaller school do. As an instate applicant, this is my opinion but I totally respect yours and I hope I don't sound disrespectful in my reply 🙂
Click to expand...

Hahah, not at all! I was definitely not aware of all these cool things other schools were doing! 👍 I had actually thought the tracker was unique to Michigan -- oops! 😛

Like you mentioned though, it seems like many schools unfortunately don't feel the need to make any kind of effort. As such, I do appreciate the fact that Michigan at least tries, despite being a fantastic school anyways and not necessarily needing to "win over" or charm applicants with their transparency or tweet chats or what have you.

But yeah, I'm not sure if I can say which is worse -- not receiving ANY communication (not even a "complete" email) from a school for months before what could end up being a silent rejection or randomly getting emails from the admissions office regarding non-application related material every two weeks. Neither is ideal, really, hahah.
 
jeghaber said:
Hahah, not at all! I was definitely not aware of all these cool things other schools were doing! 👍 I had actually thought the tracker was unique to Michigan -- oops! 😛

Like you mentioned though, it seems like many schools unfortunately don't feel the need to make any kind of effort. As such, I do appreciate the fact that Michigan at least tries, despite being a fantastic school anyways and not necessarily needing to "win over" or charm applicants with their transparency or tweet chats or what have you.

But yeah, I'm not sure if I can say which is worse -- not receiving ANY communication (not even a "complete" email) from a school for months before what could end up being a silent rejection or randomly getting emails from the admissions office regarding non-application related material every two weeks. Neither is ideal, really, hahah.
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I have no real gripe with the random e-mails... but I agree that, in general, for fees of $100+ per school, AT LEAST automated e-mail status updates should be expected. This application process is easily the most boring $5-10,000 I've ever spent.😛
Although... I've really never spent that much on anything other than rent... 😕 which is pretty boring.
 
nkfaris said:
Honestly, I don't agree with you. I think many other schools have more transparency but michigan likes to publicize it while others don't care much. If you consider michigan schools, wayne for example is very very helpful if you call them and ask about your application. They will tell you exactly your status. Oakland also has a tracker that is much better than Michigan's and is updated more frequently. Also, the rest of the michigan schools do not keep you wondering about what's going on with your application. They give you a decision within a month or so, whether you're waitlisted for an interview, rejected or not. If you don't hear back, contacting them through phone/email is always very helpful.
In my opinion, the "big names" schools are arrogant I guess and don't treat an applicant with much respect as the smaller school do. As an instate applicant, this is my opinion but I totally respect yours and I hope I don't sound disrespectful in my reply 🙂
Click to expand...

I'm probably biased, but not a single school I applied to last year committed to having a decision made on an application pre-interview within a month. The only school that even came close was Michigan by letting all the interviewees know when they'd receive their decision. I didn't apply to Wayne or Oakland, but it sounds like they're doing a great job. When compared to their peer schools nationwide, though, I do think Michigan does a much better job than most (i.e. interviewed in Oct and got rejected in March, waitlist letters lost in the mail and never followed up on, etc.).
 
I would rather read a twitter like this: “3:30 PM 500 rejections” than a survey email, haha.
 
Dear Michigan Admissions Committee,

If you are reading this message, please close files for those no longer being considered. At this point it seems like the very last of interviews are being given out. There is really no point in making applicants hold out hope to the bitter end of the interview process if the adcom already knows certain applicants are out of the running.
 
nkfaris said:
Honestly, I don't agree with you. I think many other schools have more transparency but michigan likes to publicize it while others don't care much. If you consider michigan schools, wayne for example is very very helpful if you call them and ask about your application. They will tell you exactly your status. Oakland also has a tracker that is much better than Michigan's and is updated more frequently. Also, the rest of the michigan schools do not keep you wondering about what's going on with your application. They give you a decision within a month or so, whether you're waitlisted for an interview, rejected or not. If you don't hear back, contacting them through phone/email is always very helpful.
In my opinion, the "big names" schools are arrogant I guess and don't treat an applicant with much respect as the smaller school do. As an instate applicant, this is my opinion but I totally respect yours and I hope I don't sound disrespectful in my reply 🙂
Click to expand...
Did you just call the admissions office at Wayne and ask them straight up for your application status?
 
PistolPete44 said:
Dear Michigan Admissions Committee,

If you are reading this message, please close files for those no longer being considered. At this point it seems like the very last of interviews are being given out. There is really no point in making applicants hold out hope to the bitter end of the interview process if the adcom already knows certain applicants are out of the running.
Click to expand...

For OOS, I think they still have 60+/-20 interviews left to offer, according to the 10/15 data and twitter updates since then.
 
I understand that. However, Umichigan has also received 4000 applications at this point and while they may not know exactly who will get the remaining spots, they probably have a good idea about those individuals who most definitely won't (including me). Just saying.
 
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PistolPete44 said:
I understand that. However, Umichigan has also received 4000 applications at this point and while they may not know exactly who will get the remaining spots, they probably have a good idea about those individuals who most definitely won't (including me). Just saying.
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Yeah, I'd love to be extended an
interview offer, but if that's not possible, I'd prefer to get rejected sooner rather later.
 
I recently tried contacting Dr. Gay from admissions about sending a LOI. However, he never got back to me. Can I send a LOI to different people in admissions (Dr. Gay, Robert Ruiz, Carol Teener) individually to make sure one of them sees it or is that considered bad form? If you would advise against it, then who should I send it to? I need to make sure it gets to the right person who will actually read it, but it's slightly awkward since Dr. Gay already failed to respond to my initial email about these letters. Please help!
 
Surgeryislife said:
I recently tried contacting Dr. Gay from admissions about sending a LOI. However, he never got back to me. Can I send a LOI to different people in admissions (Dr. Gay, Robert Ruiz, Carol Teener) individually to make sure one of them sees it or is that considered bad form? If you would advise against it, then who should I send it to? I need to make sure it gets to the right person who will actually read it, but it's slightly awkward since Dr. Gay already failed to respond to my initial email about these letters. Please help!
Click to expand...
I think it's rather bad form to send them a bunch of e-mails (regardless of what they might do to us :LOL🙂. I would say to upload it through the "additional information" tab in the portal. Maybe a current student could give you better advice, though.
 
johnamo said:
I think it's rather bad form to send them a bunch of e-mails (regardless of what they might do to us :LOL🙂. I would say to upload it through the "additional information" tab in the portal. Maybe a current student could give you better advice, though.
Click to expand...


That was my initial thinking, which is why I originally emailed (once) asking if he accepts these letters or would prefer not to receive them. I just wish he had responded. But thanks for the idea to upload the document--I'll probably do that!
 
Surgeryislife said:
I recently tried contacting Dr. Gay from admissions about sending a LOI. However, he never got back to me. Can I send a LOI to different people in admissions (Dr. Gay, Robert Ruiz, Carol Teener) individually to make sure one of them sees it or is that considered bad form? If you would advise against it, then who should I send it to? I need to make sure it gets to the right person who will actually read it, but it's slightly awkward since Dr. Gay already failed to respond to my initial email about these letters. Please help!
Click to expand...

Your best bet is probably going to be calling the admissions office and asking 1. if they accept such letters and 2. if so, to whom it should be addressed and how it should be delivered. The admissions staff at medical schools get hundreds of emails a day, so random unsolicited ones from email addresses they don't recognize are likely to get lost.
 
Calling is usually better than emailing. You get a live person who can answer your question on the spot, plus you have the added benefit that you can be anonymous. With that said I don't think Michigan accepts letters of interest/intent.

Surgeryislife said:
That was my initial thinking, which is why I originally emailed (once) asking if he accepts these letters or would prefer not to receive them. I just wish he had responded. But thanks for the idea to upload the document--I'll probably do that!
Click to expand...
 
MacNCheesy said:
Calling is usually better than emailing. You get a live person who can answer your question on the spot, plus you have the added benefit that you can be anonymous. With that said I don't think Michigan accepts letters of interest/intent.
Click to expand...

I recall Dr. Gay telling us on interview day that while Michigan accepts LOIs, it's really just to appease the applicants and they're not taken into much account at all. Update letters that include significant updates, on the other hand, are accepted and considered together with the rest of your application, from what I remember.
 
Thanks everyone for the input/help. I will call on Monday and see what they say. Even if the letter isn't weighed heavily (or at all) I would feel better submitting it and then getting rejected as opposed to not submitting one, getting rejected, and wondering "what if" 🙂
 
pyrrion89 said:
Personally I find their spam emails to be rather insensitive. They don't reflect well on the school.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it doesn't get much better as the cycle continues. Last year, UM's mass pre-interview rejection email, sent out in March, after all of the interviews had already been conducted, stated "It is with regret that we inform you we are not able to offer you a position in the University of Michigan Medical School 2011 entering class."

Obviously, not only is that the incorrect year, it's TWO years off. And I'm pretty sure this went out to thousands of applicants.
 
Whatever happen to this tweet? "Another round of applicants were reviewed at today's [Wednesday, 10/6] AEC meeting--outcomes will be shared by Friday."

I'm getting so anxious for the 15th here. Really hoping for good news!
 
safe said:
Whatever happen to this tweet? "Another round of applicants were reviewed at today's [Wednesday, 10/6] AEC meeting--outcomes will be shared by Friday."

I'm getting so anxious for the 15th here. Really hoping for good news!
Click to expand...
I was wondering the same thing. Maybe it's best that I don't know the outcome though, it will only make me more anxious, haha
 
@UMichMedAdmiss: Outcomes from 10/18 MD interviews: 58% Accept/10% Defer/32% Waitlist. Outcomes from 10/25 MD 58% Accept/4%Defer/38% Waitlist #GoBlueMed

So nervous! :scared:
 
ANATOMYgirl22 said:
@UMichMedAdmiss: Outcomes from 10/18 MD interviews: 58% Accept/10% Defer/32% Waitlist. Outcomes from 10/25 MD 58% Accept/4%Defer/38% Waitlist #GoBlueMed

So nervous! :scared:
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Top choice right here, kinda nervous as well. I've got some other schools to "fall back on," but nothing compared to Michigan!
 
so that's 23 accepted, 4 deferred, 13 waitlisted. I sure hope I was in the right half.

ugh... Friday really can't come soon enough
 
safe said:
so that's 23 accepted, 4 deferred, 13 waitlisted. I sure hope I was in the right half.

ugh... Friday really can't come soon enough
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I wish they'd tell us now. Our fates are already determined!
 
II today! So excited! Lizzy M score 70+, complete early September :happy:

Edit: OOS
 
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Hi everyone,
On behalf of the Admissions Ambassadors program at UMMS, 6 current M1s and M2s (including an MSTP) have volunteered to help answer questions about Michigan on this forum. We'll all be using the same account (this one). Feel free to post questions within this thread or send PM's to us. One of the 6 of us will be available to answer questions every day, and for anything we cannot answer easily/quickly, we can defer to Director Ruiz or another member of the faculty/administration for an answer. We cannot offer any specific application status checks, but if you have questions about student life, interview day, traveling to Michigan, the academic program, research opportunities etc, please post questions! We hope having multiple students on board will give a diversity of experiences and opinions as well. For specific information about the admissions process itself, please refer to the Twitter and the Admissions Tracker for the latest data and information that has been made publicly available.
Sincerely,
UMMS Admissions Ambassadors
PS- As you probably know, there's another Tweet Chat coming up Wednesday evening, which offers an opportunity to ask current students and Admissions directors any questions you might have about UMMS.
 
umms2017 said:
Hi everyone,
On behalf of the Admissions Ambassadors program at UMMS, 6 current M1s and M2s (including an MSTP) have volunteered to help answer questions about Michigan on this forum. We'll all be using the same account (this one). Feel free to post questions within this thread or send PM's to us. One of the 6 of us will be available to answer questions every day, and for anything we cannot answer easily/quickly, we can defer to Director Ruiz or another member of the faculty/administration for an answer. We cannot offer any specific application status checks, but if you have questions about student life, interview day, traveling to Michigan, the academic program, research opportunities etc, please post questions! We hope having multiple students on board will give a diversity of experiences and opinions as well. For specific information about the admissions process itself, please refer to the Twitter and the Admissions Tracker for the latest data and information that has been made publicly available.
Sincerely,
UMMS Admissions Ambassadors
PS- As you probably know, there's another Tweet Chat coming up Wednesday evening, which offers an opportunity to ask current students and Admissions directors any questions you might have about UMMS.
Click to expand...

My question is in regards to the status posted on twitter early today "If your file is open you are still under consideration for interview otherwise your file would be closed. Will be 02/2014 before we finish!" Does this mean statuses will say closed or is it closed without a status update.

Thanks
 
sly1 said:
My question is in regards to the status posted on twitter early today "If your file is open you are still under consideration for interview otherwise your file would be closed. Will be 02/2014 before we finish!" Does this mean statuses will say closed or is it closed without a status update.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Great question; your application portal will indeed show a status change to reflect if your file has been closed. If your status says "File Complete - Under Review," then you are still under active consideration.
 
umms2017 said:
Great question; your application portal will indeed show a status change to reflect if your file has been closed. If your status says "File Complete - Under Review," then you are still under active consideration.
Click to expand...

Does it actually happen that someone is complete for 4 months (July) and actually has a "real" shot, not just a .0000001% chance. What exactly can change that causes a "no" to turn into a "yes" after months?
 
TheLastofUs said:
Does it actually happen that someone is complete for 4 months (July) and actually has a "real" shot, not just a .0000001% chance. What exactly can change that causes a "no" to turn into a "yes" after months?
Click to expand...
This is something I am also wondering. Can you describe the review process a bit (i.e. how applications are reviewed/categorized/re-reviewed)? Are updates (publications/work experiences) something that can realistically help bring an application out of limbo?
 
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