2014-2015 Duke University Application Thread

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Dr_Acula said:
This just occurred to me. I just got rejected for a secondary I didn't complete (didn't finish, so didn't withdraw my app) and it made me think of what Dr. Armstrong said about completing the post-interview survey.
Did all of you who were stuck in "limbo" complete your post-interview feedback survey? Dr. Armstrong said that was the only way our applications would go to committee to make a decision. Perhaps if that wasn't done, you weren't included in the original decisions that were sent out (i.e. accept/WL/reject), and they sent a later set to people who didn't do the survey. Not trying to accuse anyone of anything here, just trying to consider reasons this whole thing could be so messed up.

Either way, best of luck to all of you! As others have said, the fact that you even interviewed at Duke means that you're well on your way to a successful career in medicine.
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I completed the survey as soon as it became available in the portal.
 
Rejected this morning as well. I definitely completed the survey as soon as they sent me the email after my interview that it was available. I think they must have misplaced the files or something. If they were still deliberating they would have had some WL or acceptances out of the limbo group.

Either way - I appreciate everyone in this thread and I understand the roller coaster of emotions we have all been through. I thank all of you for sharing the information you received by calling admissions and I wish everyone the best of luck! You are all amazing people.
 
To all of you who just heard, I'm so sorry. I was really hopeful for all of you. I was rejected in the first group and I can't imagine the agony these extra two days must have been BEYOND what the week prior brought all of us.


This just reminds me, though, that all of us who feel horribly after this can remember how we feel and never treat anyone the way we were treated (although I'm sure it wasn't entirely intentional). I don't know about all of you, but part of my dream for a life in medicine has always been to help on an admissions committee so that I can one day advocate for students who may not appear quantitatively stellar on paper, but who are really wonderful, bright, committed and empathetic human beings. We can all learn a lot from this process I think.

My sincerest well wishes to all of you, especially those of you who are still on the wait list and unsure.
 
Scoville said:
I completed the survey as soon as it became available in the portal.
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Inventor of Post-Its said:
FWIW I promptly completed my survey immediately following my interview.
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WesternBlot said:
+3
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pompompom said:
Rejected this morning as well. I definitely completed the survey as soon as they sent me the email after my interview that it was available. I think they must have misplaced the files or something. If they were still deliberating they would have had some WL or acceptances out of the limbo group.

Either way - I appreciate everyone in this thread and I understand the roller coaster of emotions we have all been through. I thank all of you for sharing the information you received by calling admissions and I wish everyone the best of luck! You are all amazing people.
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Hmm, so much for my theory then. I am truly sorry to those who've had such a tough past 10 days!
 
Checked in on this thread to see how the limbo-ers were doing and I'm so so sorry you guys had to go through that 🙁

On another note - I got the flu 8 hours after my duke rejection soooooo I blame duke

#bestweekever
 
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On the bright side, at least I still have House of Cards to watch to keep me occupied.
 
I would say I'm jaded right now but I don't think that's a strong enough word...
 
Part of the no email/call/portal update crew.

Got rejection email this morning in junk mail from Dean Armstrong.
 
Long time lurker and fellow limb0-er here. Also just got the rejection. Wtf...there's no way that all of us got rejected if they just misplaced our files and had to re-evaluate us. I don't think that we were just misplaced rejections either, because it wouldn't have taken this long to tell us. I smell something fishy...

Edit: Also, how in the world are there 40+ post-interview rejections on sdn (just added the 22 limbo-ers to the 19 previous rejections to get this number)? Seems a little too high, doesn't it?
 
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Inventor of Post-Its said:
Last I called I was specifically told over the phone that all waitlist and rejection emails had gone out and I should just wait for something in the mail.

...This was really, really ****ed up of you, Duke.
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LetItGoo said:
Yeah, honestly, it would have been much better for them to send us rejection e-mails right off the bat. What makes this so infuriating is that they told multiple applicants that called that all rejection and waitlist e-mails have gone out, and we just have to wait patiently for postal mail. For the past week and a half, I can't quite verbalize the overwhelming amount of emotions and thoughts I (and we all) went through..... Especially yesterday, after originally expecting bad news re: limbo status, I was almost cautiously EXCITED the whole day, thinking that I was accepted after all. I just imagined that moment of seeing my letter in the mail in my head over and over again. I was at work, but I couldn't focus at all, and even my supervisor told me to think about it logically and level-headedly: that as they stated, if I had been R or WL'd, I would have heard via e-mail by now. After all that they preached to us about empathy and compassion, how can they treat their applicants like this, after the time, energy, effort, and heart we poured out into those essays, more than any other school? I'm so hurt and disappointed by Duke right now-- more so than the decision, how they handled all of this.
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Unbelievable. I have to say, if I were in this position and had gone through all this limbo nonsense (drawing the valid logical conclusion that I must have been accepted), only to be rejected against their word yet again, I would lose a great deal more (if not all) respect for Duke, and they've been my top choice this whole cycle. Just absolutely ridiculous.
 
Question - did anyone in the limbo group feel like the rejection email we received was similar to one you would receive if you were rejected pre-interview? I would expect a rejection letter coming to someone who had interviewed would be different than the standard (We received XX number of completed applications....). Just a thought.........
 
Really sorry for everyone who was rejected today - you're all amazing applicants and I know many of you have awesome acceptances already. As someone who is considering matriculating next year, I can promise I'll do what I can to make sure this doesn't happen again.

That said, another thing that occurred to me that could explain the split of rejections is how people have said they evaluate post-interview candidates. I have heard (and read here) that not all candidates make it to the exec adcom meeting and they are rejected numerically, so maybe one of the rejection groups is the one that didn't make it to the meeting? I don't really get how/why that would happen given that most of you have incredible stats, it's just something I thought made explain the split into two groups.

Also, that doesn't excuse anything that happened. Literally nothing Duke admissions said came true (emails, no phone calls, etc.).
 
Willy38 said:
I would say I'm jaded right now but I don't think that's a strong enough word...
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Another one for the rejection...honestly I'm furious and I'm writing them...or maybe I'll call. They honestly led us on with that one it is so completely ****ed up I have no words right now!
 
It's a shame that SDN is the cause of so much disappointment. It's so hard to get away from it, though.
 
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I just sent this to dr. Armstrong, I don't even care what they think of it since clearly they didn't care about us in limbo yesterday.


"I just need to say that although I was very impressed by Duke on my interview day, I am extremely disappointed with admissions this past week. I was told by phone yesterday that all Waitlist and Rejections were sent by email on Tuesday and that I had to wait for mail to come, leading me to believe I was accepted. I cannot express how upsetting it is to get this email after speaking with admissions. I hope you can improve your system in the future so as to not put applicants through something like this again. It is honestly a bit cruel and I expected better from a school that seemed so invested in it's students."
 
kingtba said:
It's a shame that SDN is the cause of so much disappointment. It's so hard to get away from it, though.
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SDN is not the cause here. Applicants were informed upon interview in February that decisions would go out Feb 23-Mar 2. If one of these applicants were in limbo after that time frame, they would be informed upon calling that all WL and rejection emails had gone out, as applicants on SDN were. Thus, the same thing would have occurred. Duke didn't need help from SDN to screw this up.
 
gettheleadout said:
SDN is not the cause here. Applicants were informed upon interview in February that decisions would go out Feb 23-Mar 2. If one of these applicants were in limbo after that time frame, they would be informed upon calling that all WL and rejection emails had gone out, as applicants on SDN were. Thus, the same thing would have occurred. Duke didn't need help from SDN to screw this up.
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You can't be sure of what the applicants would have been told because it seems like everyone that called had reported a different story. If we weren't buying into all the crazy conspiracy theories on here, we probably would have just let the cards fall where they may. I just don't think the hate mail, lawyer talk and postings about Duke having "the worst admissions staff in the country" given the relatively short timeframe (three days) between the end of the decision period and today's wave, are warranted. I know a lot of you guys have been admitted to some other awesome places, too. Best of luck.
 
I don't think its hate mail to call them on what they did. I also don't think there was any malicious intent for Duke to treat some of their applicants with the lack of dignity and fairness shown here but they definitely can't fix it if they don't know or acknowledge that it happened.

I've been courteously rejected by plenty of schools so this isn't just a case of sour grapes with Duke, its the way that these decisions were handled. I still don't even know that they reviewed my app post-interview or even have record of my interview based on portal dates listed. Applicants spend a great deal of time preparing for this process, as do admissions offices, but I don't think its too much to ask for some clear lines of communication. Here's to hoping they improve this process for future applicants.
 
kingtba said:
You can't be sure of what the applicants would have been told because it seems like everyone that called had reported a different story. If we weren't buying into all the crazy conspiracy theories on here, we probably would have just let the cards fall where they may. I just don't think the hate mail, lawyer talk and postings about Duke having "the worst admissions staff in the country" given the relatively short timeframe (three days) between the end of the decision period and today's wave, are warranted. I know a lot of you guys have been admitted to some other awesome places, too. Best of luck.
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It's more the fact that when we all called yesterday admissions staff said ALL rejections had been sent out, clearly a lie since all of us now got rejected today.
 
kingtba said:
You can't be sure of what the applicants would have been told because it seems like everyone that called had reported a different story. If we weren't buying into all the crazy conspiracy theories on here, we probably would have just let the cards fall where they may. I just don't think the hate mail, lawyer talk and postings about Duke having "the worst admissions staff in the country" given the relatively short timeframe (three days) between the end of the decision period and today's wave, are warranted. I know a lot of you guys have been admitted to some other awesome places, too. Best of luck.
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I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say the "worst admissions staff in the country," but it isn't SDN's fault that when I called I was told to "wait for something in the mail." They weren't sending out rejections or waitlists by mail, so what was I supposed to expect? SDN had nothing to do with that expectation. I would say that's a pretty grave mistake for an admissions office - especially when it is repeated multiple times.
 
kingtba said:
You can't be sure of what the applicants would have been told because it seems like everyone that called had reported a different story. If we weren't buying into all the crazy conspiracy theories on here, we probably would have just let the cards fall where they may. I just don't think the hate mail, lawyer talk and postings about Duke having "the worst admissions staff in the country" given the relatively short timeframe (three days) between the end of the decision period and today's wave, are warranted. I know a lot of you guys have been admitted to some other awesome places, too. Best of luck.
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I think it's easy to forget all the inconsistencies throughout the entire acceptance period observed here at Duke. It wasn't just that the limbo land applicants suffered. The accepted students did too. If Duke is non-rolling, then, like all the other non-rolling school, they should release the decision in one batch to reduce unnecessarily anxiety. Instead, they stretched the entire phase into the span of a week making people worried, anxious, depressed, confused for naught. Many medical schools around the country have all come up with measures to help reduce the application related stress and enhance transparency. Of course they are not obliged to do any of those kind things, but they should at least try to meet expectation set by themselves.
 
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Cell-R said:
I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say the "worst admissions staff in the country," but it isn't SDN's fault that when I called I was told to "wait for something in the mail." They weren't sending out rejections or waitlists by mail, so what was I supposed to expect? SDN had nothing to do with that expectation. I would say that's a pretty grave mistake for an admissions office - especially when it is repeated multiple times.
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I get where you're coming from and I completely believe you have every right to be frustrated. That said, most of you (I would imagine) spoke with a receptionist who has absolutely no part in the actual admissions process. She might be the face and voice of admissions, but she plays no role in your decision. When I called and spoke to her about second look, she had no idea what our lodging situation was (hosts v. hotels), what time events started, etc.

You're calling Duke out pretty hard because of one person saying all WL/rejections had gone out, when in reality it could have been a woman just making an educated guess. She might not have been aware rejections were going out in two batches; there are any number of variables here that could have come into play.

Again, this could absolutely have been handled better, but I really don't think it's a reflection on Duke Med as a whole.
 
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tenniseagle92 said:
I get where you're coming from and I completely believe you have every right to be frustrated. That said, most of you (I would imagine) spoke with a receptionist who has absolutely no part in the actual admissions process. She might be the face and voice of admissions, but she plays no role in your decision. When I called and spoke to her about second look, she had no idea what our lodging situation was (hosts v. hotels), what time events started, etc.

You're calling Duke out pretty hard because one person saying all WL/rejections had gone out, when in reality it could have been a woman just making an educated guess. She might not have been aware rejections were going out in two batches; there are any number of variables here that could come into play.

Again, this could absolutely have been handled better, but I really don't think it's a reflection on Duke Med as a whole.
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Fair enough. Duke is still an excellent medical school/center, just frustrated about this whole thing... and for that I withdraw my collegiate basketball allegiance. Go Heels!

Edit: Wait that didn't feel right, no matter how hard I try I can't pull for UNC lol
 
Willy38 said:
Fair enough. Duke is still an excellent medical school/center, just frustrated about this whole thing... and for that I withdraw my collegiate basketball allegiance. Go Heels!

Edit: Wait that didn't feel right, no matter how hard I try I can't pull for UNC lol
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Yeah, never go for the Heels. Everyone here is awesome for getting an interview at Duke, and I hope you all know that. If I attend Duke, I'll try to make sure the receptionist a little more informed next year (if that is what the issue was).
 
tenniseagle92 said:
I get where you're coming from and I completely believe you have every right to be frustrated. That said, most of you (I would imagine) spoke with a receptionist who has absolutely no part in the actual admissions process. She might be the face and voice of admissions, but she plays no role in your decision. When I called and spoke to her about second look, she had no idea what our lodging situation was (hosts v. hotels), what time events started, etc.

You're calling Duke out pretty hard because of one person saying all WL/rejections had gone out, when in reality it could have been a woman just making an educated guess. She might not have been aware rejections were going out in two batches; there are any number of variables here that could have come into play.

Again, this could absolutely have been handled better, but I really don't think it's a reflection on Duke Med as a whole.
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We aren't calling out Duke as a whole - just the admissions office. I don't think it's too much to expect that the face of Duke admissions isn't making an educated guess that I have been accepted.
 
I don't know, guys. I may just be bitter I got rejected, but I have a feeling they didn't even review our applications post-interview.
 
tenniseagle92 said:
I get where you're coming from and I completely believe you have every right to be frustrated. That said, most of you (I would imagine) spoke with a receptionist who has absolutely no part in the actual admissions process. She might be the face and voice of admissions, but she plays no role in your decision. When I called and spoke to her about second look, she had no idea what our lodging situation was (hosts v. hotels), what time events started, etc.

You're calling Duke out pretty hard because of one person saying all WL/rejections had gone out, when in reality it could have been a woman just making an educated guess. She might not have been aware rejections were going out in two batches; there are any number of variables here that could have come into play.

Again, this could absolutely have been handled better, but I really don't think it's a reflection on Duke Med as a whole.
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There is no excuse for the way DukeMed's admissions department handled this. Since when is it acceptable to allow your PR department to give educated guesses?! It's absolutely insane, just set a hard schedule and CC a copy to your receptionists. Duke is a great school, obviously. That said, the fact that anyone is defending their conduct here is completely crazy to me. Making admissions decisions is hard, no question. Communicating them in an unambiguous way in the 21st century is a freaking piece of cake, and they couldn't do that.
 
peyton91 said:
Did Armstrong respond? lol
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No...I don't really expect her to, although it would make me feel more respected. I just had to let then know my disappointment. I don't care about the rejection...well of course is a bummer...but the way they handled this week
 
FriendlyFH said:
I think it's easy to forget all the inconsistencies throughout the entire acceptance period observed here at Duke. It wasn't just that the limbo land applicants suffered. The accepted students did too. If Duke is non-rolling, then, like all the other non-rolling school, they should release the decision in one batch to reduce unnecessarily anxiety. Instead, they stretched the entire phase into the span of a week making people worried, anxious, depressed, confused for naught. Many medical schools around the country have all come up with measures to help reduce the application related stress and enhance transparency. Of course they are not obliged to do any of those kind things, but they should at least try to meet expectation set by themselves.
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Quoting just because this all deserves to be said again!
 
I think we can all agree that it is fundamentally difficult for people to truly understand what other people feel as a result of their experiences. Empathy requires a lot of work and energy.

For the limbo land applicants, they have every right to be frustrated. They might choose to deal with their emotions by writing a politely worded email to the dean, or by venting on an internet thread of which the purpose was to allow people to do so.

For the waitlist or accepted. They have achieved something truly tremendous. They have every reason to feel proud for their accomplishment and try to find reasons for the Duke that they might one day call home.

For Duke Med Admission. I'm sure it's very difficult to work with such a large number of applications and I'm sure there had been plenty of hard work already done to ensure the proceedings of the admission.

The bottom line is, the process needs to be improved for very good reasons. It helps everyone: It helps the future applicants to avoid frustration, it helps the current students to give them one more reason to be proud for Duke and it helps Duke Med continue to attract talented students.
 
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I know many do not agree with me on not being worked up over the Duke process, but that is the beauty of being Pluto 🙂

If I had not looked at this thread my Duke experience would have looked a bit like this:

Applied in July
Interview Invite late Jan
Interviewed February
Receive rejection email today, 5 March.

The process was easy, polite and timely. Wish the outcome had been different but it was not.

I am going to attend a medical school I am thrilled with in 2015. That is 99.5% of the plan when I started collecting letters one year ago.

Anyway -- last post on this thread. Congrats to all, because everyone on this thread that interviewed at Duke is going to a be doctor somehow some day.
 
dropped by the thread today to check up... oh wow I'm so sorry to all the limbo applicants

agree with everyone that in this day & age, there is no reason the admissions receptionists should be making crazy blind guesses, nor is there any excuse for the way Duke handled this entire past 2 weeks
 
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Got a response, although she kind of skirted around the fact that the reason I was upset was the phone call not the amount of time the process took so I dint know if admissions will change. They should probably just stick to emails for everything. Ah well here it is for you all:

"We indicated that it was our intent that all decisions would be distributed BEGINNING Feb 23rd and completed by the end of the first week in March which is Saturday March 7th for postal service-some BY mail and others by electronic notification. Given the weather delays which affected mail delays locally AND especially nationally, we were fortunate to be able to get notifications within that stated goal.

We regret that the inherent flexibility that we assumed of the students with the information above and in the context of the weather-induced disruptions everywhere in the country, most of the students were reasonable and patient, especially since we announced that we hoped to get decision-distribution completed by the end of the week of March 2nd. "
 
ArmadaSkiJunky said:
Got a response, although she kind of skirted around the fact that the reason I was upset was the phone call not the amount of time the process took so I dint know if admissions will change. They should probably just stick to emails for everything. Ah well here it is for you all:

"We indicated that it was our intent that all decisions would be distributed BEGINNING Feb 23rd and completed by the end of the first week in March which is Saturday March 7th for postal service-some BY mail and others by electronic notification. Given the weather delays which affected mail delays locally AND especially nationally, we were fortunate to be able to get notifications within that stated goal.

We regret that the inherent flexibility that we assumed of the students with the information above and in the context of the weather-induced disruptions everywhere in the country, most of the students were reasonable and patient, especially since we announced that we hoped to get decision-distribution completed by the end of the week of March 2nd. "
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That's more of a guilt trip than an apology or recognition of any fault but oh well. Half that info is news to me (particularly anything about postal mail- where was that disclosed earlier?) but it was nice that she responded. Overall duke is a great institution that just handled this situation poorly. Hopefully it's better for applicants next year.
 
Pedsmdplease said:
That's more of a guilt trip than an apology or recognition of any fault but oh well. Half that info is news to me (particularly anything about postal mail- where was that disclosed earlier?) but it was nice that she responded. Overall duke is a great institution that just handled this situation poorly. Hopefully it's better for applicants next year.
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I did honestly feel guilty, but then I thought HEY no I don't think my email was that bad. She basically hinted she thought I was unreasonable and impatient, but I just wanted them to know what some of us went through. I had no idea they were mailing some acceptances until I heard it on here. I'm still impressed with them from my interview day though even after all this.
 
ArmadaSkiJunky said:
Got a response, although she kind of skirted around the fact that the reason I was upset was the phone call not the amount of time the process took so I dint know if admissions will change. They should probably just stick to emails for everything. Ah well here it is for you all:

"We indicated that it was our intent that all decisions would be distributed BEGINNING Feb 23rd and completed by the end of the first week in March which is Saturday March 7th for postal service-some BY mail and others by electronic notification. Given the weather delays which affected mail delays locally AND especially nationally, we were fortunate to be able to get notifications within that stated goal.

We regret that the inherent flexibility that we assumed of the students with the information above and in the context of the weather-induced disruptions everywhere in the country, most of the students were reasonable and patient, especially since we announced that we hoped to get decision-distribution completed by the end of the week of March 2nd. "
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Yeah that's actually pretty rude on her part- avoids claiming any responsibility for what went wrong and doesn't even acknowledge that the receptionist lied to you. I grew up in the mid-Atlantic region, and my grandpa was never really a huge fan of Duke, describing everyone he knew who went there as a bit cocky and self-absorbed. Unfortunately this experience with Duke Med seems to be reinforcing his view...
 
Kevindurant35 said:
Is anyone having problems with logging in to the Applicant Self-Service?
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Yes, the email stated we could see what forms we needed to fill out, financial aid info, and check our application decision. I dont see anything. Anyone having similar issues?

Edit: It takes some time for the to-do list to appear after activating you account. Be patient.
 
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I can only see financial aid stuff on the to do list. Are you seeing other stuff there now too (I'm assuming reception of statement of intent and deposit)?
 
I think you can only make an account if they received your deposit and intent. I only see financial aid atm.
 
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