2014-2015 Waitlist Support Group

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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NervousWreck6 said:
I was deferred for a school last Novemeber. I wrote a letter of interest to them and the next month I was accepted. Has anyone done that and gotten the same success as me? It wouldn't hurt to follow up with the school.
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I think it's a bit late to be writing letters of interest or letters of intent... :-/
 
@gyngyn Do you know anything about UMD (Maryland)? I know some friends who have gotten off the waitlist but I can't recall seeing anything on here about UMD. Thanks!
 
fellow waitlisters, when are you going to begin signing lease agreements with your current acceptance?
 
keevwu said:
fellow waitlisters, when are you going to begin signing lease agreements with your current acceptance?
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I found a place with an MS2 and landlady that has a place who are willing to hold a place for me and let me sign the lease when I get there in person
 
@gyngyn can you speculate as to why U of Illinois would be offering new interviews as of yesterday and what that might mean for those on the WL?
 
hyacinth21 said:
@gyngyn can you speculate as to why U of Illinois would be offering new interviews as of yesterday and what that might mean for those on the WL?
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I can speculate.
They may have seriously miscalculated the number needed to fill the class.
Depending on their ability to execute a last minute bolus this could have very different outcomes for the WL candidates.
 
gyngyn said:
I can speculate.
They may have seriously miscalculated the number needed to fill the class.
Depending on their ability to execute a last minute bolus this could have very different outcomes for the WL candidates.
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I was in the top quartile of the waitlist and just got called this week. Why would they be interviewing more people when they have 75+% of the waitlist still to pull from?
 
hyacinth21 said:
@gyngyn can you speculate as to why U of Illinois would be offering new interviews as of yesterday and what that might mean for those on the WL?
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I'm not on this waitlist, or any wait list, and this isn't my cycle....but wow I'm sorry they're doing something like that. Isn't that the very point of the waitlist? I don't understand at all.
 
haveaquestionplz said:
@gyngyn has general waitlist movement been pretty steady so far? If so, do you expect that to continue?
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It has been lighter than normal for this point in the cycle.
Once it starts at a particular school, it can be expected to continue until orientation.
If there has been no waitlist movement at all, one can't how long it will take (without having access to the list). Even then, it can be difficult.
 
tofuuu said:
@gyngyn: why would a school not send out any post-interview rejections at this point of the cycle?
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They don't know how deeply they may need to sink into the wait list.
As time goes on, the higher ranked candidates get picked up by other schools.
 
resiroth said:
Why do some schools interview 1000 people for 300 spots as opposed to 600? There's no incentive for them not to.
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Actually, there is an incredible disincentive to over-interviewing.
It's costly, time consuming and it burns out your best evaluators.
 
resiroth said:
I was shocked to discover that interviewers were not standardized anywhere. Only with MMI it seems. As much hate as MMI gets it seems objectively better to have everyone evaluated by the same people.

It seems like they have random doctors that volunteer. Which is extremely generous of them, but I do wonder about inter-rater reliability.
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Exactly, for those schools that train and evaluate interviewers and check for inter-evaluator reliability. There are only so many encounters that can be standardized, MMI or no MMI.
 
So I think this may be a good place to ask for some advice since I have been on a waitlist for the past 2 years.
Preparing for the next cycle, do you think that using a late August/Early September MCAT is too late to apply for this upcoming cycle? I would not be prepared for the test any date before that (in fact my Kaplan course is expected to end 8/19, so I would take the 8/22, 8/23, or 9/03 MCAT date). I have also done more research, volunteer work, and clinical experience in the past 6 months to enhance my application. It seems I have been good enough to get interviews the past two years, but not good enough to get an acceptance so I believe a better MCAT score will get me over the hump! I am just worried that it will be extremely late in the application cycle and not worth spending hundreds in application fees :/
 
zkane11 said:
So I think this may be a good place to ask for some advice since I have been on a waitlist for the past 2 years.
Preparing for the next cycle, do you think that using a late August/Early September MCAT is too late to apply for this upcoming cycle? I would not be prepared for the test any date before that (in fact my Kaplan course is expected to end 8/19, so I would take the 8/22, 8/23, or 9/03 MCAT date). I have also done more research, volunteer work, and clinical experience in the past 6 months to enhance my application. It seems I have been good enough to get interviews the past two years, but not good enough to get an acceptance so I believe a better MCAT score will get me over the hump! I am just worried that it will be extremely late in the application cycle and not worth spending hundreds in application fees :/
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That's too late. Take a year off from applying and really prepare for the MCAT and otherwise enhance your application. It's more important to do it right than to do it soon.
 
Hi @gyngyn , I was wondering if you've seen any Columbia movement at any point or recently? I checked the whole thread and didn't seem to catch any...

Thank you.
 
Hi @gyngyn. Thanks for all of your patience throughout this process. Have you seen any movement at WUSTL or GW?

Many thanks.
 
How do you know about waitlist movement? Can you really see waitlist movement at all schools or something?
 
zkane11 said:
So I think this may be a good place to ask for some advice since I have been on a waitlist for the past 2 years.
Preparing for the next cycle, do you think that using a late August/Early September MCAT is too late to apply for this upcoming cycle? I would not be prepared for the test any date before that (in fact my Kaplan course is expected to end 8/19, so I would take the 8/22, 8/23, or 9/03 MCAT date). I have also done more research, volunteer work, and clinical experience in the past 6 months to enhance my application. It seems I have been good enough to get interviews the past two years, but not good enough to get an acceptance so I believe a better MCAT score will get me over the hump! I am just worried that it will be extremely late in the application cycle and not worth spending hundreds in application fees :/
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You can always apply and take the Mcat and send your updated scores. If you don't get the score you want you can withdraw your application.
 
futureMD20152019 said:
You can always apply and take the Mcat and send your updated scores. If you don't get the score you want you can withdraw your application.
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But he will still count as having applied, which means he will have been a 3rd time applicant who didn’t get in and now become a 4th time applicant which obviously isn’t great. @zkane11 definitely take a year off.
 
zkane11 said:
So I think this may be a good place to ask for some advice since I have been on a waitlist for the past 2 years.
Preparing for the next cycle, do you think that using a late August/Early September MCAT is too late to apply for this upcoming cycle? I would not be prepared for the test any date before that (in fact my Kaplan course is expected to end 8/19, so I would take the 8/22, 8/23, or 9/03 MCAT date). I have also done more research, volunteer work, and clinical experience in the past 6 months to enhance my application. It seems I have been good enough to get interviews the past two years, but not good enough to get an acceptance so I believe a better MCAT score will get me over the hump! I am just worried that it will be extremely late in the application cycle and not worth spending hundreds in application fees :/
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I think the problem isn't your MCAT score. The fact that you were offered interviews makes me believe that schools feels that you are academically qualified otherwise why would they waste the time and energy to interview an applicant they are not going to admit because of scores. Perhaps you need to work on how to present yourself on interviews, relate to people, and be able to talk more effectively about your interest and motivations. What you have done to enhance your experiences is great. Maybe you can try speaking to an admissions officer at a school that you were rejected at and see if they can tell you exactly which areas they think you need improvement.
 
tealeafdoc said:
I think the problem isn't your MCAT score. The fact that you were offered interviews makes me believe that schools feels that you are academically qualified otherwise why would they waste the time and energy to interview an applicant they are not going to admit because of scores. Perhaps you need to work on how to present yourself on interviews, relate to people, and be able to talk more effectively about your interest and motivations. What you have done to enhance your experiences is great. Maybe you can try speaking to an admissions officer at a school that you were rejected at and see if they can tell you exactly which areas they think you need improvement.
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This is more in line of my thinking. But thank you everyone for the advice, I am definitely taking it all in. Just to give context, I applied super late the first cycle (October) and still recieved II's and the eventual waitlist. The second year, there was a cancer diagnosis and eventual death of my mom, which threw off my plans to study and retake the MCAT (wasn't emotionally well enough to study and be a caregiver). So I finished my applications in June with the exact same application and EC's. I didn't bring up my mother at all during the apps but did during the interviews, I didn't want it to seem like an excuse. Long story short, I have gotten II's and a waitlist when applying early and late with the same exact application. So while I know it's not ideal, having a more rounded application completed with my MCAT scores released end of September isn't what worries me as much. Thank you all for the advice and support though, it is a decision I am still heavily pondering!
 
zkane11 said:
This is more in line of my thinking. But thank you everyone for the advice, I am definitely taking it all in. Just to give context, I applied super late the first cycle (October) and still recieved II's and the eventual waitlist. The second year, there was a cancer diagnosis and eventual death of my mom, which threw off my plans to study and retake the MCAT (wasn't emotionally well enough to study and be a caregiver). So I finished my applications in June with the exact same application and EC's. I didn't bring up my mother at all during the apps but did during the interviews, I didn't want it to seem like an excuse. Long story short, I have gotten II's and a waitlist when applying early and late with the same exact application. So while I know it's not ideal, having a more rounded application completed with my MCAT scores released end of September isn't what worries me as much. Thank you all for the advice and support though, it is a decision I am still heavily pondering!
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Hey we need people like you in medicine. If this is what you want to do don't give up keep going! I agree with the advice of talking to admissions of schools that rejected you. They might be able to point you in a better direction having seen your whole application. Good luck!!
 
AspiringERMD said:
I was in the top quartile of the waitlist and just got called this week. Why would they be interviewing more people when they have 75+% of the waitlist still to pull from?
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I am also in the top quartile at UIC and have not heard a word from them, and several other people in the UIC thread are in the same boat. Obviously UIC is not hurting for warm bodies to pull off the waitlist to fill seats.

Gyngyn or anyone who may know, how unusual is it for a school to bypass its waitlist this late in the game in favor of sending out a whole batch of IIs? I mean, we're in June lol. Does it mean they really hate the people they have on the waitlist? I could see that happening, since it seems like UIC tends to hand out very, very few outright rejections post II and rather just shunts everybody who didn't get an acceptance into the "waitlist" to be disposed of at a later date.
 
Hi @gyngyn are you able to give any sort of rational as to why a school like mount Sinai who historically accepts about a third of their students off the waitlist hasn't accept any this year? Do you think that they still will at some point? Thank you!!
 
ColdBrew92 said:
Hi @gyngyn are you able to give any sort of rational as to why a school like mount Sinai who historically accepts about a third of their students off the waitlist hasn't accept any this year? Do you think that they still will at some point? Thank you!!
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If special programs have started using a significant proportion of available seats the algorithm for acceptances will have a lot less unpredictability.
 
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