2018-2019 Waitlist Support Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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ClamShell said:
So just to clarify, you held 3 acceptances after April 30?
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Are you asking so you can point the finger at me over the fiasco that AAMC created if I say yes? LOL. I'm joking, have at it. The answer is technically, yes although I went down to 1 acceptance prior to 4/30.
 
oil_rig said:
I see a lot of people here talking about how PTE is not enforced....but has no one seen this wonderful tweet?



scary stuff i would def follow the rules after seeing that!
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That's the thing, it's not a rule it's just a suggestion. I'm really glad they are tweeting that and trying to get classes full.
 
ReturnToMed said:
@gyngyn if i do a graduate program will it count towards by cGPA or is it considered something completely different?
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Graduate grades are not included in the overall gpa and are not generally considered evidence of academic prowess (at MD schools).
DO schools see things differently.
 
ClamShell said:
I think the other person was being sarcastic.
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I wish everyone could just be a good, honest person and follow the "guideline" even if it's just a guideline. They implemented it to try to make this better/easier!! I guess the issue is maybe some schools are not considering an applicant as "going" until they select CTE, which makes PTE kind of pointless tbh...
 
med_cow_2019 said:
I guess the issue is maybe some schools are not considering an applicant as "going" until they select CTE, which makes PTE kind of pointless tbh...
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Therein lies another big problem I believe. PTE doesn't give enough actionable info and there aren't really any reinforcements about it. Even if, virtually, every student did act honorably, it would still present a problem because there is no evidence of that along with the lack of information from the missing acceptance reports.
 
I think AMCAS could still be liable for lawsuits because it is their responsibility to make the process go smoothly.
 
phillykat96 said:
Hey guys! I have an acceptance at a school but am still on the waitlist for my top choice school, which I would wait out till mid-July for. I got a call from the school I'm accepted at saying that I should choose the PTE or CTE tool since I haven't already done so. I haven't used the PTE tool because I don't want my top choice school seeing I am "planning" on enrolling somewhere else.

I know previous posts mentioned that the PTE tool doesn't have much effect; however, I think the contrary. If schools are pushing us to use the PTE tool, I'm under the assumption that they are still considering it as some form of commitment so they can rule out people to base who to take off the WL (essentially people with 0 acceptances). Since WL movement is already happening later this cycle and they're in the dark, I'm sure they are desperate to fill in empty seats as efficiently as they can.

I am very grateful for at least getting one acceptance, don't get me wrong. However, my top choice school is an overall better fit for me in a variety of aspects so I am not sure what to do.

I have sent an LOI to my top choice school where mentioned I had another acceptance but would still pick their school if they were to offer an acceptance. However, I am scared that using the PTE tool is going to make me look like I've already committed somewhere else and they will be hesitant to take me off the WL versus someone else with 0 acceptances.

If anyone has any advice based on their own experience or in general, it would help a lot. Thanks so much!
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AlphaDoctor said:
I’m in the same predicament and I selected PTE. It will make zero difference from what I’ve read from a variety of different ADCOM members in the SDN community. @gyngyn can comment further.
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FWIW I selected PTE for a school and was accepted off the waitlist at a school where I didn't even send an LOI. Makes zero difference, y'all are overthinking it
 
futuredoc0307 said:
You are not required to withdraw acceptances after April 30, but only to PTE one of them.
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If a significant portion of people are doing this that would explain, or at least contribute to, why schools have no idea who’s planning on attending and cannot give out the typical wave of post April 30th acceptances.

I would expect the majority of people to narrow their choices as schools call them and ask for PTE/CTE and financial aid packages come out.

If schools begin to require PTE or CTE to hold an acceptance people will be forced to narrow to a single Acceptance, release others, and the waitlist movement should occur as it always has.

This combined with people making decisions on their own should create a trickle of seats opening each week rather than the post April 30th tidal wave we were all expecting / hoping for.

What we can’t predict is how these schools will manage / fill these seats as they start to become available. Schools may be waiting for more info to offer additional acceptances even if people have already withdrawn.

Honestly I expect that the # of seats which come off the WL from every school historically is unlikely to change this year. If anything it may be slightly higher with schools accepting less and waitlisting more for 2019.

In my wholly unprofessional opinion, I expect a similar amount of WL movement to happen this year but it might happen over a much longer time and in smaller bursts — driving us all to collective insanity in the process.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Everyone should just follow the guidelines. Just do it. You think by not selecting PTE/CTE it will help your chances but what it's doing is causing a stalemate where no one is getting selected. So in essence you won't be accepted off your WL school anyways.
 
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gyngyn said:
Graduate grades are not included in the overall gpa and are not generally considered evidence of academic prowess (at MD schools).
DO schools see things differently.
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lol so much for finding ways to improve my app.
 
Hi Guys! Im wanting to just vent for 5 seconds.
SO STRESSED. On high priority waitlist for 1 MD and on 2 DO waitlists.
and I'm dying inside. My apt lease is up in 2 weeks, so we need to move but dont know where to move!!!! OH and, we have 2 kids. So I need to move them and get them set up with a daycare/preschool in the new location. I'm finishing my undergrad coursework & have one final and one paper left (yay!) but then have one week to finish my reapplication AMCAS (bcos If I dont do it and I dont get in then I'm a real idiot). And planning my wedding which is June 30.

Basically..... LOL I'm an idiot who thought this med school application would go smoother. I banked too hard on the reputation of my undergrad school (which is ironic bcos every premed class made me feel stupid), but now I have learned. I'm glad I'm not alone. I wish you guys good luck!!!! and I'm done now. phew.
 
molly41 said:
Currently wait-listed at SUNY Downstate which is my first choice school. Would really appreciate some advice on how to contact the admissions office to let them know this is my first choice school. Just competing college and I have ready submitted my fall 2018 transcript. Do I call and ask where I stand on the wait-list or should I send an email saying this is my top choice school. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of updates to offer since January interview. Thanks for any advice in advance.
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As long as they accept updates, then I would write a letter explaining that it is your first choice and WHY you are a good fit for the school (connections to the area, specific connections to programs, etc). If you have any updates then you can add them as well. You can tell them your spring grades in the letter. I wouldn't call and ask where you stand
 
futuredoc0307 said:
But how many people see that tweet? They should mass send an email to everyone.
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That tweet is an admission by the AAMC that things are a complete mess. It comes off as, "Please do what we say even though we won't enforce our own 'deadlines'!". I know several people holding multiple A's well past the April 30th suggestion/deadline.
 
And don't blame applicants for holding multiple A's if their schools are taking forever with financial aid. A lot of responsibility is on the schools to provide timely financial aid and clear PTE/CTE deadlines. A few people on SDN have said in the past, "why should a school spend time on financial aid for a student that isn't going to matriculate anyway?"... this is why!!!
 
brownsfan999 said:
And don't blame applicants for holding multiple A's if their schools are taking forever with financial aid. A lot of responsibility is on the schools to provide timely financial aid and clear PTE/CTE deadlines. A few people on SDN have said in the past, "why should a school spend time on financial aid for a student that isn't going to matriculate anyway?"... this is why!!!
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i just think its kind of funny that you say this when what ... 70-80 percent of med students will need loans. how many students can even be picky enough to wait to see how much money each school gives them?

its hard not to roll eyes at this when the people without a single acceptance would die to pay their likely full loans tuition lol
 
Epyon said:
i just think its kind of funny that you say this when what ... 70-80 percent of med students will need loans. how many students can even be picky enough to wait to see how much money each school gives them?

its hard not to roll eyes at this when the people without a single acceptance would die to pay their likely full loans tuition lol
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Agreed! Their right to pick between schools is impeding our right to know whether or not we will have a single acceptance.
 
Epyon said:
i just think its kind of funny that you say this when what ... 70-80 percent of med students will need loans. how many students can even be picky enough to wait to see how much money each school gives them?

its hard not to roll eyes at this when the people without a single acceptance would die to pay their likely full loans tuition lol
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I understand where you're coming from, but can you really blame them? If their schools don't have PTE deadlines this month and they are waiting on financial aid, why not wait for it? The AAMC isn't going to enforce anything. Are applicants supposed to ignore one of the biggest factors ($$$) in a decision just so other WL'ed applicants don't have to wait as long?

***the situation I'm describing is different from, say, an applicant holding multiple A's in May after receiving financial aid.
 
The April 30th deadline to hold only one acceptance is not something new from what I understand. Schools should be enforcing this rule more strictly, but it’s harder without the multiple acceptance report. However, schools should reach out to all their accepted students who have not selected PTE by April 30th and tell them to select PTE or withdraw, or else their acceptance will be rescinded. From what I understand, schools can see, or at least deduce, this information, because all student names who selected PTE at their school should be available (please someone correct me if I’m wrong).

I honestly find it surprising. This system is not too difficult to understand (for the applicants, obviously things are a lot more hazy for the adcoms). I mean these are supposed to be our future doctors, who did 4 years of undergrad, the MCAT, etc. The new tool is not more complex than that! And still some students don’t respect the deadline to withdraw by April 30th to help other students on the waitlist (and they all know of this deadline, literally every school mentioned it during my interviews, and we’ve been inundated with emails about it). The problem is when nothing happens to these students that think this is “just a guideline,” more will continue to follow suit in future years, all to the disadvantage of the waitlisted students. Some strict enforcement needs to happen; can’t expect future doctors to do the right thing, unfortunately.
 
ClamShell said:
Agreed! Their right to pick between schools is impeding our right to know whether or not we will have a single acceptance.
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Maybe the right to know right now, but it shouldn't affect the end outcome of someone getting off the WL or not. I wouldn't blame an applicant for waiting if they are taking into account 10's of thousands of dollars of debt.
 
futuredoc0307 said:
if got hammered and started writing random nonsense down i'll probably put together a better system than this. I feel like there is a business component into this mess where amcas benefits from. oh wait..
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Money from reapplication
 
ReturnToMed said:
I am glad to see this because it really does prove that movement hasn't really happened yet.
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Maybe. WL are def moving everyday, but my guess is slower than usual. Also, adcoms go the satisfaction survey from the AAMC recently. Maybe their responses sparked the tweet. Kinda late for AAMC to put their foot down, lol. Next cycle will be smoother or applicants will just know that WL movement will be slower than before. There's no way to get around the waiting though. Every year the WL thread is the same until school begins.
 
OchemOficionado said:
Maybe. WL are def moving everyday, but my guess is slower than usual. Also, adcoms go the satisfaction survey from the AAMC recently. Maybe their responses sparked the tweet. Kinda late for AAMC to put their foot down, lol. Next cycle will be smoother or applicants will just know that WL movement will be slower than before. There's no way to get around the waiting though. Every year the WL thread is the same until school begins.
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I agree. If anything it makes me feel a bit better knowing its been slower because it makes me more hopeful than I would have been at this time had the traffic rules not changed. It also is making me check this thread so much less because I now see it as if "it happens, it happens." Refreshing won't make it happen any quicker lol.
 
OchemOficionado said:
Maybe. WL are def moving everyday, but my guess is slower than usual. Also, adcoms go the satisfaction survey from the AAMC recently. Maybe their responses sparked the tweet. Kinda late for AAMC to put their foot down, lol. Next cycle will be smoother or applicants will just know that WL movement will be slower than before. There's no way to get around the waiting though. Every year the WL thread is the same until school begins.
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Of course there's still movement but hasn't it been said by gyngyn in this thread that it's much slower than usual?
 
Reyluvbry said:
I agree. If anything it makes me feel a bit better knowing its been slower because it makes me more hopeful than I would have been at this time had the traffic rules not changed. It also is making me check this thread so much less because I now see it as if "it happens, it happens." Refreshing won't make it happen any quicker lol.
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Exactly, haha!

oil_rig said:
Of course there's still movement but hasn't it been said by gyngyn in this thread that it's much slower than usual?
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Not sure, you'd have to scroll through the posts. I saw him say that he can't see what other schools are doing this year and that nobody knows what to do really.
 
Reyluvbry said:
I agree. If anything it makes me feel a bit better knowing its been slower because it makes me more hopeful than I would have been at this time had the traffic rules not changed. It also is making me check this thread so much less because I now see it as if "it happens, it happens." Refreshing won't make it happen any quicker lol.
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Best day since May 1st for me has been today. Avoided these forums since yesterday afternoon. Slept like a baby; relatively worry-free day. Why I'm back right now? Not sure! Will check back tomorrow night. Good luck tomorrow everybody!
 
@gyngyn if i've understood you correctly in previous comments, it seems many schools (I know you can't speak for all medical schools, but it appears you've got a pretty good pulse on what's going on nationally?) are hesitating to put out WL offers due to their blindedness of what their PTE/CTE students might still have on the side, right?

I guess they are just being rational self-interested actors, which is fair and the least we can expect of any party here. Given this framework of self-interest, what is the critical point that needs to be reached for this standoff to pass lol?

Edit: and if they can't even enforce a CTE, barring a specific contract of withdrawal, what is the difference between their confidence in yield the day after a CTE deadline passes and a month before?
 
oil_rig said:
@gyngyn if i've understood you correctly in previous comments, it seems many schools (I know you can't speak for all medical schools, but it appears you've got a pretty good pulse on what's going on nationally?) are hesitating to put out WL offers due to their blindedness of what their PTE/CTE students might still have on the side, right?

I guess they are just being rational self-interested actors, which is fair and the least we can expect of any party here. Given this framework of self-interest, what is the critical point that needs to be reached for this standoff to pass lol?

Edit: and if they can't even enforce a CTE, barring a specific contract of withdrawal, what is the difference between their confidence in yield the day after a CTE deadline passes and a month before?
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CTE deadlines lol
 
futuredoc0307 said:
if got hammered and started writing random nonsense down i'll probably put together a better system than this. I feel like there is a business component into this mess where amcas benefits from. oh wait..
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You hit right on the money. It's all about their bottom line and their bottom line does not prioritize the students one bit.
 
Reyluvbry said:
I agree. If anything it makes me feel a bit better knowing its been slower because it makes me more hopeful than I would have been at this time had the traffic rules not changed. It also is making me check this thread so much less because I now see it as if "it happens, it happens." Refreshing won't make it happen any quicker lol.
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idk man. my WL's have been hauling ass
 
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