2014 Nontrad Applicants' Progress Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Picked up rejection no. 6 today. Consider this my whine, but realistically i was due for one. Let's hope i see some more lovin' soon!
 
Congrats to the successful early decision applicants! Now ya'll get to sit back and relax 😉

I'm at 11 interviews and cannot believe some of the programs that want to talk to me. Unbelievably thrilled.

Had my first interview which *knock on wood* I thought went well and is a school that I would be happy to go to. Hoping for good news on Oct 15th to take some of the pressure off.
 
SN12357 said:
Congrats to the successful early decision applicants! Now ya'll get to sit back and relax 😉

I'm at 11 interviews and cannot believe some of the programs that want to talk to me. Unbelievably thrilled.

Had my first interview which *knock on wood* I thought went well and is a school that I would be happy to go to. Hoping for good news on Oct 15th to take some of the pressure off.
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dang man, closing the gap indeed! Congrats and I'm pulling for you 🙂
 
monkeyfeet said:
First II today!!!!!! Still shaking a little... so excited!!! 🙂
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Congrats! As I like to say, first II is the sweetest. And I was shaking, too 🙂
Captain Sisko said:
Picked up rejection no. 6 today. Consider this my whine, but realistically i was due for one. Let's hope i see some more lovin' soon!
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I got my 2nd rejection yesterday, too, which made me kind of happy because in the past couple of days I had started to think I was dreaming, but this rejection assured me that I wasn't 😀 And I like my II to rejection ratio so far, though it's only the beginning of the cycle and more rejections are guaranteed to come.
acceptmeplease said:
Accepted LSU early decision!
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Congrats! Awesome!👍 I kind of envy you ED people, you're already done with this whole thing 🙂
SN12357 said:
I'm at 11 interviews and cannot believe some of the programs that want to talk to me. Unbelievably thrilled.
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Congrats on your IIs, and I certainly share your feeling of "WHAT??? THIS school invited me?" :laugh: Very happy with my IIs, too.
Shjanzey said:
You guys may have more II than me, but I have the best ratio of invite to acceptance -- 100% :banana:
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True 😀 Most importantly, you're done and accepted to the school you want to go! Kudos to you!

I absolutely loved my Pitt experience - the city, the Oakland neighborhood, my superawesome student host and, of course, the school and everybody I met there (except for, I hate to say it, some of my fellow applicants: some were great, interesting people, friendly and interested in the school, but others were kind of stuck up and snobbish a la "So, what school did you go to? Huh?" and seemed outright - and very impolitely - bored). Student guide was amazing and gave some very useful info for me specifically because he happened to be interested in exactly the same area of medicine and research as I am. I think my student interview went pretty smoothly, but I'm not sure about my faculty interview. My faculty interviewer was an absolutely freaking awesome person - someone who is genuinely, not superficially nice, you know? - but by the time of my interview with her I got so excited about Pitt and everything, I'm afraid my excitement got the best of my English 😀 I mean, I think I answered all her questions just fine - in fact, we had a really nice and meaningful conversation due to the fact that my interviewer also did the PhD-to-MD thing - but because I got emotional during my conversation with her I don't think I expressed myself quite as clearly as I could have... She could have liked my sincerity and enthusiasm, but she could as well have thought: "Who is this crazy person with an accent?"... Well, I guess I will know in January.
 
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Amygdarya said:
I absolutely loved my Pitt experience - the city, the Oakland neighborhood, my superawesome student host and, of course, the school and everybody I met there (except for, I hate to say it, some of my fellow applicants: some were great, interesting people, friendly and interested in the school, but others were kind of stuck up and snobbish a la "So, what school did you go to? Huh?" and seemed outright - and very impolitely - bored).
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My host for my interview this week told me to pay the most attention to fellow interviewees, because they'll be your peers going forward. I think she was right. I imagine second look weekends are even more important because of this....

I liked the group I interviewed with for the most part this week except that there was one guy who I'm pretty sure was high! That seems like a bad life choice. I wonder what his interview evals are going to say.

dang man, closing the gap indeed! Congrats and I'm pulling for you
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Thanks for the good wishes! I'm sure you'll get lots of good news on Oct 15th, given how early you interviewed 🙂
 
SN12357 said:
My host for my interview this week told me to pay the most attention to fellow interviewees, because they'll be your peers going forward. I think she was right. I imagine second look weekends are even more important because of this....
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I kind of agree and disagree with you at the same time. On the one hand, yes, some of these people may end up being your classmates, on the other hand, only some people will 🙂 I mean, I can't imagine a school extending an acceptance to someone who was obviously disinterested in being there... but what do I know? Like you say, second look weekend is probably a better indicator.
SN12357 said:
I liked the group I interviewed with for the most part this week except that there was one guy who I'm pretty sure was high! That seems like a bad life choice. I wonder what his interview evals are going to say.
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Wow. I've only been at 2 interviews so far, but at each of them (even at Pitt where there were only 12 people) there were inappropriately dressed girls (yes, your skirt should be longer, no, stilettos are not appropriate for a professional school interview - and the same goes for bare legs) and guys in bad need of a shave. These things are just common sense, but, as they say, common sense is not that common.
 
Thanks, y'all.

Don't stress about interviews or acceptances, I applied 3 years ago and was rejected outright.

If you get an interview, they like you on paper. Just don't be weird, and think about the answer to questions before you speak.
 
I have really enjoyed my fellow interviewees. But some people are surprising. A guy on his phone literally the entire time, another guy not wearing business attire, a girl with a tank top and such tight pants you could see, well, about everything underneath. Not my concern, I suppose.
 
Well, Pose, not suggesting you revel in others' misfortunes, but I'd wager that the guy on his cell phone the entire time just took himself out of the running for a spot, which means you have a slightly higher chance of getting one yourself 🙂
 
Meant to get everyone's thoughts on the 'exit interview' or debriefing. I wasn't expecting it, and it lasted around 2 minutes at my first interview. I was asked for my feedback, and if I had any questions. I really had no questions, and expressed that everything was answered by interviewers, faculty, and presentations. In retrospect, perhaps I should've taken this time to express my interest in the school. I'm hoping this wouldn't mar my otherwise positive interview....
 
Pose said:
Meant to get everyone's thoughts on the 'exit interview' or debriefing. I wasn't expecting it, and it lasted around 2 minutes at my first interview. I was asked for my feedback, and if I had any questions. I really had no questions, and expressed that everything was answered by interviewers, faculty, and presentations. In retrospect, perhaps I should've taken this time to express my interest in the school. I'm hoping this wouldn't mar my otherwise positive interview....
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Do many schools do this? I've received some surveys after the fact via email, but nothing on the day of. Three of the four interviews didn't even have a goodbye, just left the applicants to figure out they had to leave after their last interview of the day...

Oh and ii #14 this morning.
 
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2 interviews done and 2 more to go. Interview #2 was at an amazing school and I felt like I did really well. About 3 hrs into the 9hr drive home I had a blowout so I had a fun day and a half changing the tire, finding a hotel, getting new tires the next day and finally making it home. I caught a cold from one of my fellow interviewees as well. I loved the school so much I don't even care really. I'm thinking of writing some letters of interest at beginning of Nov if I don't hear anything this month from a few schools I believe I have a chance at.

Never heard of exit interviews either.
 
Pose said:
Meant to get everyone's thoughts on the 'exit interview' or debriefing. I wasn't expecting it, and it lasted around 2 minutes at my first interview. I was asked for my feedback, and if I had any questions. I really had no questions, and expressed that everything was answered by interviewers, faculty, and presentations. In retrospect, perhaps I should've taken this time to express my interest in the school. I'm hoping this wouldn't mar my otherwise positive interview....
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Captain Sisko said:
Do many schools do this? I've received some surveys after the fact via email, but nothing on the day of. Three of the four interviews didn't even have a goodbye, just left the applicants to figure out they had to leave after their last interview of the day...

Oh and ii #14 this morning.
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I don't know how common "exit interviews" are - Captain Sisko has a bigger sample of schools 😉 (congrats once again, but shouldn't you leave a couple of IIs to us mere mortals? :laugh:) - but, for what it's worth, I had one at one of my 2 interviews so far. Basically, one of the Deans at Pitt sat down with us at the end of the day, asked whether we had any questions (nobody had any questions, as we'd been asked this question all day 🙂), then asked what were the factors we used to choose a medical school (just 3 of 6 people answered something), after which he proceeded to elaborate on what was so great about Pitt in regards to the factors we mentioned. He actually had a list of factors with him, circled the ones we mentioned and wrote down names of people who mentioned them; he also seemed a bit disappointed (?) that we were not very active in answering the question (?) or that we didn't give an answer he was expecting (?). I mean, everything was very friendly and informal, but I had a feeling we disappointed the Dean as a group.
This "exit interview" was actually lighter than what I expected - based on Interview Feedback, I expected a 5-10 minute one-on-one session with a Dean asking which which schools I'd been interviewing at, where Pitt stood in my list of preferences etc. I don't know - either they did away with this kind of questions this year, or that was a different Dean asking these questions.
In any case, my point is: "exit interviews" can happen, but you can prepare for them by reading Interview Feedback (people mention if they were asked "exit interview" type of questions), paying attention during the interview day and having a ready answer about how interested you are in the school.
 
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I posted this in the UCF 2014 thread but felt I should cross post here for some motivation!

I have been lurking on SDN for over a year now without having joined but it has been an invaluable source of information for me in this journey.

I thought I'd post here as a little bit of a success story and to demonstrate how I feel about UCF College of Medicine both in general and with respect to their admissions department.

3.5 years ago I was working as a commercial jet pilot, flying small corporate jets. I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in medicine (a career that had always fascinated me) and returned to school in the fall of 2010. Living in Orlando, I watched UCF COM being built and immediately set out to attend this school. Mr Larkin (REL) was my first point of contact at UCF COM and he spent many hours with me discussing what I'd need to do and how best to go about it all; something that to this day, I'm immensely grateful for.

Over the years, I remained in contact with Mr Larkin and sought his guidance and advice on remaining competitive. I toured the school with Mr Larkin earlier this year and I was absolutely blown away by the organization, technology, staff and atmosphere. I had always planned on attending UCF COM and this left no doubt in my mind that no other school would do. With this in mind, I decided that EDP was the way forward for me. I was well aware of the risks and believe me, it definitely made me nervous, but I was 100% sure that there was nowhere else in the country I'd rather attend.

My 30th birthday rolled around on August 14th 2013 which was made all the more sweet by an interview invite from Mr Larkin to the school. That definitely made it one of the best days of my life and without a doubt, the best 30th birthday present I could have wished for!

I interviewed on the 6th of September and I'm elated to report that I got an acceptance call on the 25th!! (Early Decision)

For those of you who are also applying here, I can tell you that you won't find a better admissions staff anywhere and the vision and environment is in a class of its own.

I apologize for the somewhat long post but I wanted to both express my gratitude to UCF COM and at the same time share a success story that I'm sure many of you (hopefully all) will be a part of as well.
 
Hey, another non-trad pilot 🙂 Vantage, congrats on your acceptance!
 
Another day, another top 10 II 🙂 Wow. No, really, I'm just about speechless.

Too bad my work load is increasing by the day 🙁 At this point, I feel like I'm testing my superiors' patience even with "just" 7 interviews 🙁 My job is secure, in that it will take a while to find and train someone for this position, so it's easier for them to just stick with me till I, hopefully, leave for medical school... Still, I don't want to **** up my relationships with these people.
 
Amygdarya said:
Hey, another non-trad pilot 🙂 Vantage, congrats on your acceptance!
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It is pretty cool. Though, I thought I'd get a lot of comments about my license on interviews, but they all want to hear about my barbeque and stonemasonry skillz. I'd imagine a pro pilot with experience on jets is a different story 🙂
 
Amygdarya said:
Another day, another top 10 II 🙂 Wow. No, really, I'm just about speechless.

Too bad my work load is increasing by the day 🙁 At this point, I feel like I'm testing my superiors' patience even with "just" 7 interviews 🙁 My job is secure, in that it will take a while to find and train someone for this position, so it's easier for them to just stick with me till I, hopefully, leave for medical school... Still, I don't want to **** up my relationships with these people.
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congrats!

my boss wants me to write a book! I hope I leave before that happens 🙂
 
NuttyEngDude said:
Can I be a co-author just in case I need to re-app? You can keep all the royalties....... 😛
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lol, sure ned. But they'll think I'm talking about myself if I attribute it to "nutty engineering dude"

And whatchootalkinbout? You've been accepted!!
 
Captain Sisko said:
It is pretty cool. Though, I thought I'd get a lot of comments about my license on interviews, but they all want to hear about my barbeque and stonemasonry skillz. I'd imagine a pro pilot with experience on jets is a different story 🙂
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Thanks everyone, it was a long and very uncertain journey as I'm sure you're all very much aware. Hardest part for me was knowing that I was limiting myself to getting in to only one school; certainly ramped up the pressure!

I had multiple questions on my interviews comparing the responsibilities of flying with being a physician. I also had questions asking my opinion on the differences between UK and US healthcare (I lived in the UK until I was 23).

Naturally, I'm delighted to have this all behind me now and looking forward to the future. It just goes to show though that if you want something badly enough and are willing to work hard, it just might happen.
 
Captain Sisko said:
thanks 🙂

Yeah I think maybe the sweet spot is around 5-6 ii's. Wish I were back there... or do I?

I think some of the reason for the number is that I didn't really apply to a lot of top ten's, or at least the highly ranked ones that I did apply to have either rejected me (U of Chicago) or given me silent treatment so far (Michigan, Baylor, UCSF), Others like Brown and Penn I've decided to not complete secondaries, because they've told me I'd be at a disadvantage, at root cause due to my non-traditionality (old coursework, or no letters from undergrad or grad).

I think after dinner I'll have a scotch. Macallan 12, perhaps, to commemorate 🙂
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That's such a bummer! I just interviewed at Brown and they were downright enthusiastic about non-trads. Someone told me they really like to fill the rest of the class with non-trads because the PLMEs are all trad age, and that is definitely the vibe I got from the interview day as well.
 
DR MOM said:
That's such a bummer! I just interviewed at Brown and they were downright enthusiastic about non-trads. Someone told me they really like to fill the rest of the class with non-trads because the PLMEs are all trad age, and that is definitely the vibe I got from the interview day as well.
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Interesting. I was not going to apply there but what is another secondary at this point?
 
Ugh, getting restless. I have four interview invites so far, and small pool at two schools, but radio silence on the other 15 or so. The thought of not getting in this year has started creeping into my mind lately, despite my best effort of staying positive. I haven't been rejected by anyone yet at least, but the silence kills me.
 
To add to Dr Mom's comment: Captain Sisco, not that I think you need all the help you can get getting IIs 🙂, but, for what it's worth, I know of some non-trads who were positively dumbstruck to receive an II from Penn 😉 It's not too late to submit a secondary.

Pose, 4 interviews by October is a bad reason to worry about not getting accepted 🙂 Or should we consider your post a fair whining? 😉
Silences suck, but I think you're in good shape and should be hearing something soon 🙂
 
So, it's too early for me to think about this, but does anybody have advice on affording travel expenses for interviews? I applied broadly and many were OOS. If I can only take one day off work for an interview day, does anybody have travel tips for cheap flights, etc?
 
Kage said:
So, it's too early for me to think about this, but does anybody have advice on affording travel expenses for interviews? I applied broadly and many were OOS. If I can only take one day off work for an interview day, does anybody have travel tips for cheap flights, etc?
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Struggling with this also. I just got a new job, and so I have to get out of work at 5, fly that night to my destination, and return the same day of the interview to minimize days off of work. I ask friends if they know of someone in the area I could stay with to reduce lodging costs. You could also do a student host program. In terms of flights, I've had little luck on deals, though generally earlier the better. I waited to buy my flight to Chicago by one day, and prices went from $300 to nearly $500. Ugh.

Edit: thanks for the support, Amygdarya!
 
Kage said:
So, it's too early for me to think about this, but does anybody have advice on affording travel expenses for interviews? I applied broadly and many were OOS. If I can only take one day off work for an interview day, does anybody have travel tips for cheap flights, etc?
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I wish I had a good answer to this. The only mitigating factor I used was primarily applying to schools in my region, and then if not in my region, basically in my half of the country (sorry, west coast!). I'm very glad I made that choice.
 
Kage said:
So, it's too early for me to think about this, but does anybody have advice on affording travel expenses for interviews? I applied broadly and many were OOS. If I can only take one day off work for an interview day, does anybody have travel tips for cheap flights, etc?
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Airlines tend to drop their fares on Tuesday 3 PM ET when people aren't buying and raise them again Thursday for the weekend. So the best time to buy airline tickets is Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday. I can look for the links to post when I get home or you can google them. My favorite site for searching for fares is kayak.com.
 
If you send a thank you email, and the interviewer sends back a nice note (ie, 'I hope to see you in the next entering class'), is a reply warranted? Thanking her again seems redundant...

I suspect I may be overthinking this. I blame the cold I picked up on the plane/trains I've been on in the last week.
 
SN12357 said:
If you send a thank you email, and the interviewer sends back a nice note (ie, 'I hope to see you in the next entering class'), is a reply warranted? Thanking her again seems redundant...

I suspect I may be overthinking this. I blame the cold I picked up on the plane/trains I've been on in the last week.
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I'd stop at that point, unless you are into exploring the boundaries of awkward. 😉 Or you really, really want to keep corresponding with thatinterviewer.
 
I once interviewed with a Dr. Current. David C. Current.

It was electrifying.


true story.
 
Captain Sisko said:
I once interviewed with a Dr. Current. David C. Current.

It was electrifying.


true story.
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Years ago, the internet salesman of one of the car dealerships around here was a guy named Richard Hard. He used to introduce himself with the short form of his name - in person, on his business cards, or in email. True story too.
 
Speaking of awkward interviewer interactions: I met one of my UTSW interviewers in a grocery store exactly a week after my interview (I live in Dallas). He asked me if I heard anything from the admissions yet 🙂 I wish!
 
Kage said:
So, it's too early for me to think about this, but does anybody have advice on affording travel expenses for interviews? I applied broadly and many were OOS. If I can only take one day off work for an interview day, does anybody have travel tips for cheap flights, etc?
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You could get a credit card for the airline you are going to use most. I know Southwest gives two roundtrip flights if you spend 2000 in the first 3 months. Others are similar. I find the JetBlue program is a pain to redeem awards, but others might be better.
 
DR MOM said:
You could get a credit card for the airline you are going to use most. I know Southwest gives two roundtrip flights if you spend 2000 in the first 3 months. Others are similar. I find the JetBlue program is a pain to redeem awards, but others might be better.
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I've got this. Southwest hasnt been as good as it used to be, but I'm still using it.....looking to find something better though but they still might be the best deal out there.

And by the way, my whining about no II didnt work! Now I'm whining about whining! 😛
 
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