We appreciate your interest in BUSM and the fact that you have offered us an opportunity to consider your application. I would like to help you understand our decision on your application but I fear that I will, inevitably, disappoint you. In a comprehensive, holistic review process like the one we use in our Admissions program, there is rarely a “smoking gun” that knocks an applicant out of contention. That is, we almost never find a single factor in the applicant portfolio that forces us to decline the candidate.
I have taken another look at your file and have confirmed that, at least by our reading, there is no single fatal flaw.
Our decisions are, inevitably, made in the context of a very large and well prepared applicant pool. As an example, we received over 12,000 applications last year for the approximately 120 4-Yr MD seats available in our class. Our application numbers this year appear to be running 3-4% ahead of last year and I would estimate that in this cycle we will see approximately 8,000 applicants who are fully qualified to attend this, or any other, medical school. Since we have capacity to interview only about 1000 candidates in the course of a single admissions cycle, we will be forced to eliminate more than 85% of those qualified applicants without ever meeting them in a face-to-face interview.
We find this to be extremely challenging and, downright sad. We recognize that our decisions are subjective, at times perhaps even arbitrary, but we read every page of every file and do the best we can with the information available to us. I have no doubt that we make mistakes and that we turn away many terrific candidates, some of whom would have been a great match for our school.
At risk of sounding harsh, the best I can say about your application is that it just did not rise to the top of an extremely competitive pool. This does not mean we do not respect you and your accomplishments, and it certainly does not mean that you should not go to medical school and have the opportunity to earn the privilege of practicing medicine. It just means that this year, this medical school will be unable to carry your application forward. For additional information on our review process, go to
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm/admissions/application-process/.
We wish you every success as you pursue your other opportunities.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Witzburg, M.D.
Associate Dean and Director of Admissions