*** 2017-2018 MD/PhD cycle - Questions, Comments, and other things ***

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Meaningful updates are presentations, manuscripts, grades for Fall and Spring (if available), etc.

The program has to only extend as many acceptances that they plan to bring by 3/15. As they realize about the other acceptances of their initial round by 3/15, they could extend a few more acceptances days later...

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Meaningful updates are presentations, manuscripts, grades for Fall and Spring (if available), etc.

The program has to only extend as many acceptances that they plan to bring by 3/15. As they realize about the other acceptances of their initial round by 3/15, they could extend a few more acceptances days later...
Okay, thank you so much for your input and explanation and for making this thread
 
Every year, as this report comes out (April 1), there are about 70-100 people with more than 4 MD/PhD acceptances. It is a slow process over the next 6 weeks or so. It takes about 2 weeks to decrease to around 50 applicants, and then about 20 or so by April 21. I have no problem with people keeping 2 acceptances until the deadline, April 30, and visiting both programs in 2nd visits. I do have an issue with people hoarding acceptances ...
That’s an absurdly high number of people holding 4+ acceptances by April. And honestly does not reflect well on the applicant.
 
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Well, this year, we only have 55 applicants with at least one MD/PhD acceptance who still have > 4 acceptances (i.e.: 5 or more). In addition, 57 applicants have 4 acceptances including at least one MD/PhD acceptance. Maybe this constant bashing in the forum has made an impact...

In total, there are 364 applicants with at least one MD/PhD acceptance who are holding at least one other acceptance. I am still expecting another 120 applicants who have NOT received yet a MD/PhD acceptance to eventually receive a MD/PhD acceptance in the present cycle.
 
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On April 1, the following national reports for AMCAS would be released to all Program Officers:
  • National Acceptance report - This national report displays current Accept (AC), Early Matriculation (EM), Matriculated (MA), and Defer Matriculation to Future Class (DF) actions submitted by all U.S. medical schools. This is a long alphabetical list of all accepted students and includes all current MD/PhD accepted applicants.
  • Joint Acceptance report - every applicant who currently has, or at one time had, an acceptance at the medical school program running the report and who had at least one additional acceptance (i.e.: at least 2 acceptances, that school plus another program).
  • School Alternate report - current acceptances for all applicants listed in the waitlist (AL for Alternate) for that given program.
It is in your best interest to reduce your acceptances to no more than 3 at this point. If I look to the Alternate report to extend an acceptance and I see someone with many acceptances, I will much less inclined to offer my program's acceptance even if this applicant is the next on my list...

UPDATE as of 03/30/18
TOTAL APPLICANTS --- 1814
TOTAL ACCEPTED ------ 636
Withdrew after AC ------- 20
Rescinded AC ------------- 2
Defer to Future Class ----- 3
CURRENT ACCEPTED --- 611

I expect about 140 additional applicants with at least one MD/PhD acceptance that the end of the cycle. There is still a lot of hope for people who are in waitlists.

Just curious, does "Withdrew after AC" mean that only 20 or fewer people have withdrawn from any of their acceptances? If so, I didn't realize how slow the waitlist movement was before April.
 
This is the best position for an applicant. For example, take an applicant with 1 MD/PhD acceptance, or another with 4 MD/PhD acceptances, or one with 6 overall acceptances (MD and MD/PhD), they count as only one accepted applicant (each). For an applicant who had at least one MD/PhD acceptance (but also other MD acceptances), and they count in the WA (withdrew after AC) only after they have withdrawn from their MD/PhD acceptance typically staying in a MD-only program. By the end of the cycle, typically about 90-120 applicants will withdraw after acceptance, 20-30 defer to later year, and we will matriculate a national class of about 630-650 MD/PhD students.
 
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Wow, that's a lot of people who decide MD-only after putting in the extra work to apply MD/PhD. I guess that's why there's all those "why both degrees" questions during interview...
 
Yes... it is essentially 1 out of 7 accepted students who withdraw. Now, better now than later in the program.

PDs are seriously talking about a 2-year graduate research payback requirement for program expenses during MS-1/2 (i.e.: quitting before completing GS-2 could have financial consequences for the MD/PhD student that has received full tuition, stipend and fees). It might be limited to MS-1/2 tuition repayment, and graduate research time could be prorated. When you signed-up for the military, you must pay back...
 
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Yes... it is essentially 1 out of 7 accepted students who withdraw. Now, better now than later in the program.

PDs are seriously talking about a 2-year graduate research payback requirement for program expenses during MS-1/2 (i.e.: quitting before completing GS-2 could have financial consequences for the MD/PhD student that has received full tuition, stipend and fees). It might be limited to MS-1/2 tuition repayment, and graduate research time could be prorated. When you signed-up for the military, you must pay back...
I think that’s certainly fair and would support to have it implemented.
 
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I'm waitlisted at a school that I'd like to go to, and I sent them a letter of intent in late February. One of the directors told me to continue to send them updates (presumably about the progress of my work). I sent them an update yesterday when I found out that my abstract got accepted for a conference. I just found out today that I was selected to present my research at a different, more selective, competition type of event. Should I send another update letter so soon?
 
You can, but I would wait for a week from last email. In your newest email, make sure that you include the names of several faculty where you see yourself working towards your PhD. However, make sure that these faculty are substantially funded. Check NIH reporter for active grants...
 
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You can, but I would wait for a week from last email. In your newest email, make sure that you include the names of several faculty where you see yourself working towards your PhD. However, make sure that these faculty are substantially funded. Check NIH reporter for active grants...

Thanks for the advice. I already mentioned faculty who I would like to work with in my letter of intent, but I'll be sure to elaborate on it (and also verify their level on funding) in my second letter.
 
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UPDATE on 2018 AMCAS MD/PhD CYCLE (as of yesterday)

Total Applicants - 1816
Total Accepts - 678 (at least one MD/PhD acceptance)
Withdraw after Acceptance - 33
Defer to later class - 4
Rescinded Acceptance - 1
Currently Accepted - 640

By the end of the cycle, ~100 additional applicants will receive at least one MD/PhD acceptance, while the WA will grow to 90-120 and the DF to 20-25. If you have 3+ MD/PhD interviews, your chances are pretty good to join them.

For comparison, we had 778 total accepts in 2017 cycle, and 785 total accepts for the 2016 cycle.
 
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Is it possible to not know or not realize that you've been accepted somewhere? Or simply that a decision has been made on your application? I ask because I recently found out that I had been waitlisted at a school, but I was never notified about that information. I've also been accepted at another program and was required to take action on both the waitlisted program and the accepted program, but I wasn't aware of it until the last moment. Disclaimer, both of these programs were MD-only, but both were tied to MSTPs that I was waiting to hear back from, so I wonder if there has ever been a lapse of communication for MD/PhD programs. I wish AMCAS had a section on their website that allowed applicants to see all the action on their application.
 
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Is it possible to not know or not realize that you've been accepted somewhere? Or simply that a decision has been made on your application? I ask because I recently found out that I had been waitlisted at a school, but I was never notified about that information. I've also been accepted at another program and was required to take action on both the waitlisted program and the accepted program, but I wasn't aware of it until the last moment. Disclaimer, both of these programs were MD-only, but both were tied to MSTPs that I was waiting to hear back from, so I wonder if there has ever been a lapse of communication for MD/PhD programs. I wish AMCAS had a section on their website that allowed applicants to see all the action on their application.
how did u end up finding out from the MD programs?
 
For institution 1, I went to the secondary application portal to withdraw my application from their MSTP, only to find that I had been waitlisted by their medical school. It didn't change my decision to withdraw, but it certainly made me wonder if I had been accepted, waitlisted, or denied from their MSTP (or others) all along. The MSTP of this institution had told me that I was under continued review a while ago, but didn't state that I should take any action on the application portal.

For institution 2, I went to the secondary application just to feed into my neuroticism and see if a decision was waiting for me there. Funnily enough, I also applied to a scholarship program from that institution this cycle, and I thought that the decisions would be released by email, only to neurotically log into my application and find my interview decision waiting for me days after it came out. Institution 2 had already offered me an acceptance into their MD program, and the dean called me to let me know (I also received emails later on). It wasn't until I neurotically checked the application that I found that I had two weeks after being offered an acceptance to acknowledge that I was offered an acceptance. I presume that it would have been revoked or given away if I didn't reply on time, but thankfully I saw the instructions 10 days after being notified. Come to think of it, a similar thing happened with institution 3, except they emailed me to say that I got accepted into their MD program, but they never told me that I had to acknowledge it in the application portal. They didn't have a deadline for acknowledgement, but still.

UPDATE: MSTP Dean of Institution 2 called me to say that I was on the waitlist and she wanted to know where I was at. My response? I didn't know I was on the freaking waitlist! :laugh:
 
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I know this is likely a generic question. My applicant profile is 4.0/512 I interviewed at Baylor, Tufts, and UAB got wait listed by all of them. I haven't heard anything back and I know that we are fast approaching the end of April. Are my odds likely low? I'm not looking for a fortune teller or anything but ff anyone has some experience it would be much appreciated.
 
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I know this is likely a generic question. My applicant profile is 4.0/512 I interviewed at Baylor, Tufts, and UAB got wait listed by all of them. I haven't heard anything back and I know that we are fast approaching the end of April. Are my odds likely low? I'm not looking for a fortune teller or anything but ff anyone has some experience it would be much appreciated.
what is your state of residence
 
Do you have extensive research experience?
2 years in a lab with undergrad, 2 presentations at national conferences, 1 summer research internship at OHSU, and I'm currently working as a research associate with my work to be published in nature methods.
 
2 years in a lab with undergrad, 2 presentations at national conferences, 1 summer research internship at OHSU, and I'm currently working as a research associate with my work to be published in nature methods.
LOI could help at this point to you favorite program.
 
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is the deadline to withdraw from schools apr 30 11:59 PM? or like before apr 30?
 
is the deadline to withdraw from schools apr 30 11:59 PM? or like before apr 30?
The traffic rules lay out actions that are to be taken for "applicants who hold multiple acceptances after April 30."

So you have until May 1.
 
Every program reacts a bit different when they see their acceptance report on May 1 still showing that you are holding multiple acceptances. If you take until the last minute to do that, you are not giving enough time to the other program director to update the system. In theory, it can take up to 3 days for the system to be updated. (PDs can take up to 2 days to update, as per rules; and system synchronizes/updates reports for that day between 12 - 3 am EST). Just expect to be contacted, possibly irritating your new PD... nice way to start!
 
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Every program reacts a bit different when they see their acceptance report on May 1 still showing that you are holding multiple acceptances. If you take until the last minute to do that, you are not giving enough time to the other program director to update the system. In theory, it can take up to 3 days for the system to be updated. (PDs can take up to 2 days to update, as per rules; and system synchronizes/updates reports for that day between 12 - 3 am EST). Just expect to be contacted, possibly irritating your new PD... nice way to start!

We still have 5 candidates with 5 open acceptances, and 1 with 6 acceptances! (None of them are holding spots at UCSF & Washington, the only programs doing second looks this week.) I am kind of hoping they pick one of the other programs. If they struggle with making decisions, or at least narrowing their options, how will they be in lab?
 
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Regarding withdrawals -- I have been sending emails to the PDs /administrators of the MSTP programs and also withdrawing from the portal if they have that option.

Do I need to do anything specific to let the Medical school know that I am withdrawing/declining the offer? ( I didn't apply to any MD only programs -- this is the MD part of the MSTP)

I wish there is an option through AMCAS - list of my schools to see/edit my current status of applications for all schools.
 
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The MD-PhD program should notify the med school of your decision.
 
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"... should...." Send an email to the Med School Admissions Office too.

Next year, AMCAS is looking into the possibility of a centralized hub for admission decisions, where they will change your status. The processes are not yet well defined as to whether is the applicant having a portal decision tool, or how...
 
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Any movement on the waitlists?

I think applicants have until the end of the day to meet the deadline, but programs may take a few days to look over their accepted class and choose which applicants to admit
 
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Any movement on the waitlists?

Got accepted to a top 5 off the waitlist a few days ago but I'll be turning them down. Hope the seat goes to one of you!
 
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UPDATE on 2018 AMCAS MD/PhD CYCLE (as of overnight sync)

Total Applicants - 1816
Total Accepts - 701 (at least one MD/PhD acceptance)
Withdraw after Acceptance - 60
Defer to later class - 7
Rescinded Acceptance - 1
Currently MD/PhD Accepted - 633

For comparison, we had 778 total accepts in the 2017 cycle, and 785 total accepts in the 2016 cycle. By the end of the cycle, ~ 70 additional applicants will receive at least one MD/PhD acceptance, while the WA will grow to 100-120 and the DF to ~ 20. If you still have 3+ MD/PhD interviews, you still have a chance to join them. Send emails of interest to your target schools. If you were interviewed but you didn't get in, reach out to your interviewer schools for advice prior to application or PM me.

 
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UPDATE on 2018 AMCAS MD/PhD CYCLE (as of overnight sync)

Total Applicants - 1816
Total Accepts - 701 (at least one MD/PhD acceptance)
Withdraw after Acceptance - 60
Defer to later class - 7
Rescinded Acceptance - 1
Currently MD/PhD Accepted - 633

For comparison, we had 778 total accepts in the 2017 cycle, and 785 total accepts in the 2016 cycle. By the end of the cycle, ~ 70 additional applicants will receive at least one MD/PhD acceptance, while the WA will grow to 100-120 and the DF to ~ 20. If you still have 3+ MD/PhD interviews, you still have a chance to join them. Send emails of interest to your target schools. If you were interviewed but you didn't get in, reach out to your interviewer schools for advice prior to application or PM me.
Does this mean that some students still hold multiple acceptances?
 
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Yes. Still a substantial number, I saw about 85 applicants, and our total MD/PhD accepted class is now smaller than predicted by ~20. As the domino effect occurs, some (not all) programs make new offers from waitlist, which results in a little bit of movement over the next 10 days or so. Some people will be deciding between MD/PhD and MD programs at different schools, and some at same school.

Also, keep in mind that schools might take up to a couple of days to update the system. Applicants with new offers might need to make decisions with a smaller time frame of even 2-3 days (due to MD/PhD orientation and lab rotations happening as early as June 1).
 
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our total MD/PhD accepted class is now smaller than predicted by ~20.
Does this mean that there will more more or fewer waitlist acceptances in the upcoming weeks?
 
UPDATE on 2018 AMCAS MD/PhD CYCLE (as of overnight sync) - look what 3 days does

Total Applicants - 1816 -----------------------------------------------> no change
Total Accepts - 715 (at least one MD/PhD acceptance) -----> +14
Withdraw after Acceptance - 76 -------------------------------------> +16 (net -2)
Defer to later class - 10 ----------------------------------------------> + 3 (net -3)
Rescinded Acceptance - 2 --------------------------------------------> + 1 (net -1)
Currently MD/PhD Accepted - 627 ------------------------------> - 6

The number of people with multiple acceptances is rapidly reducing, to around 60-70. Some of these are new, perhaps, due to the domino effect after a dual acceptee selects between 2 top tier institutions, resulting in the school losing the matriculant to offer someone from their waitlist, who now has two MD/PhD acceptances (or a regular MD and a MD/PhD acceptance), but replacing the multiple acceptee in the list of applicants with multiple acceptances. These movements in the admission lists keep happening for about another week, and then slowly things settle down.

In the 2017 cycle, we had 778 total applicants with at least one MD/PhD acceptance, and 785 total MD/PhD acceptances in the 2016 cycle. For the 2018 cycle, I still expect ~40-60 additional applicants who currently are without at least one MD/PhD acceptances to earn one before the end of this cycle. I also expect another 10 or so additional deferrals to later class, and about 20-40 additional withdrawals after acceptance. Sometimes, a few deferrals from prior years forgot to re-submit their AMCAS application, resulting in a late small increase in the final number of applicants. In the recent past, the national class ends up being between 625-650 first-year MD/PhD matriculants. One problem is that some new registrar officers might not capture accurately the MD/PhD classification in the system as they update the AAMC's Student Records System (SRS) resulting in inaccuracies in the AAMC Fact Tables.

We do not know how the proposed new changes in AMCAS traffic rules will impact the admission process but I suspect that programs will be more conservative in the number of initial acceptances using more readily their waitlists. This is to avoid unpredictability of a class too large or too small.
 
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UPDATE on 2018 AMCAS MD/PhD CYCLE (as of overnight sync) - look what another 3 business days do!

Total Applicants - 1816 -----------------------------------------------> no change
Total Accepts - 723 (at least one MD/PhD acceptance) -----> +8
Withdraw after Acceptance - 86 -------------------------------------> +10 (net -2)
Defer to later class - 12 ----------------------------------------------> + 2 (net -2)
Rescinded Acceptance - 2 --------------------------------------------> 0
Currently MD/PhD Accepted - 623 ------------------------------> - 4

In the 2017 cycle, we had 778 total applicants with at least one MD/PhD acceptance, and 785 total MD/PhD acceptances in the 2016 cycle. For the 2018 cycle, I still expect ~30-50 additional applicants who currently are without at least one MD/PhD acceptances to earn one before the end of this cycle.
 
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When is the official end of the cycle?
 
We are now up to 735 total applicants with at least one acceptance with 628 currently accepted. That is, 12 new additional applicants who received their first MD/PhD acceptance since Tuesday May 8! There is still room for a few more...
 
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Almost another week has gone by, and we are now up to 742 total applicants with at least one MD/PhD acceptance with 633 currently accepted. That is, 7 new additional applicants received their first MD/PhD acceptance since Sunday May 13! There is still room for a few more... The pace of acceptances slows down, but a few more will be accepted. Thus far, we have had 20 applicants defer to a future class, 87 withdrawals after MD/PhD acceptance (typically to MD only), and 2 rescinded acceptances.
 
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Almost another week has gone by, and we are now up to 747 total applicants with at least one MD/PhD acceptance with 635 currently accepted. That is, 5 new additional applicants received their first MD/PhD acceptance since Sunday May 19! As you can tell the pace slows down...
It is important to note for future applicants, particularly as beginning next year would have different traffic rules, intended to protect applicants (but likely to result in more conservative behavior by schools), but perhaps, the unintended consequence of increasing these late acceptances. Imagine that you get finally that acceptance you want, just barely a week prior to start your lab rotation...
Schools are likely to behave more conservative, extend less acceptances to avoid over-enrollment, and replace slots as their more wanted (or aligned w school priorities) applicants make their more "protected" choices.
 
After the admission actions from Friday June 1, 2018, we had 753 total applicants (41.5%) with at least one MD/PhD acceptance of which 637 are currently accepted, with 1815 applicants to at least one MD/PhD program. At this point on, the additions are typically people who defer from a prior cycle.
 
Surprise!! After the admission actions from Tuesday June 5, 2018, we just had 2 additional applicants who received their first MD/PhD acceptance. As of the overnight sync, we had 755 total applicants (41.6%) with at least one MD/PhD acceptance of which 639 are currently accepted and/or matriculated already, with 1815 applicants to at least one MD/PhD program.
 
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