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TarHeelMD? said:
A hold is actually different than being waitlisted. As people have said before, a "hold" basically just means they've looked over your application but didn't decide if they want to give you an interview or not yet, so they are going to look at other applicants and then get back to you. It's definitely not a rejection, so don't give up! Several of my friends who are now MS1s didn't get interviews until Spring. I believe that re-review can come after a hold when they are actively looking back over your application.

In terms of waitlisting, GW uses the "alternate pool" system. It's essentially a waitlist, but it isn't ranked. Post-interview you can either be accepted, rejected, or placed in the alternate pool. The alternate pool isn't a bad place to be and a fair portion of the class ends up coming from the alternate pool.
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Which one has higher priority: On Hold or Waitlist?
 
bicman said:
II today for interview in November, complete 7/25; this is my first interview and second year applying to MD programs, very excited!!
LizzyM: 70, WARS: 69, I’m finishing up an MPH at a top school
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Congrats! Enjoy D.C. and don't stress for the interview, Very low-key and easygoing day 🙂
 
imbesrs said:
You might be best off holding that information until after the interview, and adding it to your portal as a post-II update so they have that to consider as "new info still grinding and getting paper" before they make a decision on your entry
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Another question on this note. I interviewed on Friday and now get to wait the 4-8 weeks to hear a decision. Does anyone have any input on when to send the post-II update? I think it's a fairly valuable update and the interview went very well IMO, so I really want to try to "drive it home." Is there a good strategy as to when to send the post-II update?
 
AdductorMagnus said:
Another question on this note. I interviewed on Friday and now get to wait the 4-8 weeks to hear a decision. Does anyone have any input on when to send the post-II update? I think it's a fairly valuable update and the interview went very well IMO, so I really want to try to "drive it home." Is there a good strategy as to when to send the post-II update?
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I’ve seen conflicting information regarding update timing. Ultimately, I just said “screw it,” and sent my update today lol.

Then again, my update revolved around a newly accepted/published publication, which the consensus seems to think warrants an immediate update. I think it depends on the type of update and how valuable you think it really is. At the end of the day, I personally don’t think it’s going to matter much if you send it today or after October 15th.
 
I just checked my portal and it says "your file is now complete. At this point we received all the necessary credentials..." underneath my application status. I was complete on 7/25 but a lot of people on this thread who were complete after me said that they were either notified that they got an interview or they were on hold. My question is that is this message under my application status considered a hold or not. And if it's not a hold, should I be concerned that it's been almost two months since I was complete and I haven't had any change in my status?
 
thisisaburneraccount said:
I just checked my portal and it says "your file is now complete. At this point we received all the necessary credentials..." underneath my application status. I was complete on 7/25 but a lot of people on this thread who were complete after me said that they were either notified that they got an interview or they were on hold. My question is that is this message under my application status considered a hold or not. And if it's not a hold, should I be concerned that it's been almost two months since I was complete and I haven't had any change in my status?
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Nope, not a hold. I believe the hold status would clearly state you were put on hold as no decision was made to date.

I was complete on the same day as you and was put on hold at the end of last week so don’t worry! I don’t think they review chronologically anyways.
 
medschooldreamer59 said:
Nope, not a hold. I believe the hold status would clearly state you were put on hold as no decision was made to date.

I was complete on the same day as you and was put on hold at the end of last week so don’t worry! I don’t think they review chronologically anyways.
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Do you know roughly how many days you had the “your file is under review” status before you were put on hold?
 
On another note, does anyone know when admissions meets to determine who is accepted post-interview? As in, do they meet every 2 weeks or at the beginning/end of each month?
 
Yes I received it through email.
No I was never on hold, yesterday I was put under review.
LM 68.
Not sure the exact complete date but it was around late July, early August.
 
Interviewing on 10/1!

For those of you who have interviewed already, how many ethical issues/scenario based questions were asked?
 
skrrss said:
Interviewing on 10/1!

For those of you who have interviewed already, how many ethical issues/scenario based questions were asked?
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Both interviews were blinded, so both of my interviewers really just made an effort to get to know me as a person. We went pretty in-depth about my experiences and why I chose GW. This isn’t an MMI lol. Just traditional, blinded interviews. There were no tricky questions for me at all.

My faculty interviewer was freaking amazing. We went into a little bit about the profession of a physician in general, but I never once felt stressed or anxious. He just genuinely wanted to know about my motivations when it came to pursuing medicine and whether or not I knew what I was getting myself into. I really appreciated how open and honest he was about the profession itself, and we talked quite a bit about the benefits and pitfalls. It was super conversational throughout, and I’m really (wishfully) hoping he’s my faculty mentor if I’m fortunate enough to be accepted here!

Not sure how much I can say (didn’t sign anything, but you never know), but seriously: Don’t stress. It’s blinded, so while they might ask you some more generic questions, the impetus is really on you to guide the conversation. Just know your app (so you can talk about stuff you want to talk about) and be able to enunciate why the heck you’re doing this whole thing in the first place!
 
SeaHusky said:
Both interviews were blinded, so both of my interviewers really just made an effort to get to know me as a person. We went pretty in-depth about my experiences and why I chose GW. This isn’t an MMI lol. Just traditional, blinded interviews. There were no tricky questions for me at all.

My faculty interviewer was freaking amazing. We went into a little bit about the profession of a physician in general, but I never once felt stressed or anxious. He just genuinely wanted to know about my motivations when it came to pursuing medicine and whether or not I knew what I was getting myself into. I really appreciated how open and honest he was about the profession itself, and we talked quite a bit about the benefits and pitfalls. It was super conversational throughout, and I’m really (wishfully) hoping he’s my faculty mentor if I’m fortunate enough to be accepted here!

Not sure how much I can say (didn’t sign anything, but you never know), but seriously: Don’t stress. It’s blinded, so while they might ask you some more generic questions, the impetus is really on you to guide the conversation. Just know your app (so you can talk about stuff you want to talk about) and be able to enunciate why the heck you’re doing this whole thing in the first place!
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Thats so great to hear, thank you!! Good luck 🙂)
 
skrrss said:
Interviewing on 10/1!

For those of you who have interviewed already, how many ethical issues/scenario based questions were asked?
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Neither of my interviewers asked any ethical questions at all. The interviews were blind, but it seemed like the admissions committee set me up with people who had things in common with me, it seemed like too much of a coincidence. Honestly, it was purely conversational and the questions were just authentically slipped in.
 
AdductorMagnus said:
Neither of my interviewers asked any ethical questions at all. The interviews were blind, but it seemed like the admissions committee set me up with people who had things in common with me, it seemed like too much of a coincidence. Honestly, it was purely conversational and the questions were just authentically slipped in.
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+1 .

Wasn’t sure if it was a coincidence or not, but since multiple people have mentioned it, I’m leaning towards no. My student interviewer was in the same Scholary Concentration I’m interested in, and my faculty interviewer had multiple things that aligned with my background/interests. Really, really cool of GW to set that up.
 
SeaHusky said:
Both interviews were blinded, so both of my interviewers really just made an effort to get to know me as a person. We went pretty in-depth about my experiences and why I chose GW. This isn’t an MMI lol. Just traditional, blinded interviews. There were no tricky questions for me at all...

Not sure how much I can say (didn’t sign anything, but you never know), but seriously: Don’t stress. It’s blinded, so while they might ask you some more generic questions, the impetus is really on you to guide the conversation. Just know your app (so you can talk about stuff you want to talk about) and be able to enunciate why the heck you’re doing this whole thing in the first place!
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Seconded! Mostly generic getting to know you questions, nothing they asked seemed there to 'trick' me.
 
Thanks for the great feedback on the interview, about how long in total were you all there?
 
2019App said:
Thanks for the great feedback on the interview, about how long in total were you all there?
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Super short day. I was in the first group to interview, so I was done before 1:30pm. Even the second group finished around 2:15 I think. You can leave right after you finish so we all finished at different times. The short day is part of the reason I wish the tour was a bit more extensive (a general walk-around of the hospital area would have been awesome).
 
Last edited:
On hold, complete 8/24. Is there a consensus on when we should send application updates after being placed on hold?
 
aeryna said:
On hold, complete 8/24. Is there a consensus on when we should send application updates after being placed on hold?
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Hmmmm I’m taking it they don’t review applications in order then? I was complete here at 8/10 and my portal still says complete, not even under review.
To answer your question, I have no idea if there is a consensus about submitting an update after being put on hold. Anyone else wanna chime in?
 
Maurelius_ said:
Hmmmm I’m taking it they don’t review applications in order then? I was complete here at 8/10 and my portal still says complete, not even under review.
To answer your question, I have no idea if there is a consensus about submitting an update after being put on hold. Anyone else wanna chime in?
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I have been checking the portal daily (sad, I know) and my status never changed to under review. Just went from complete -> on hold
 
aeryna said:
I have been checking the portal daily (sad, I know) and my status never changed to under review. Just went from complete -> on hold
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I might have gone from complete => under review => on hold. You just did not see the middle stage because it was too fast.
 
ayjaystudent said:
I might have gone from complete => under review => on hold. You just did not see the middle stage because it was too fast.
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So it took them a very short amount of time to decide I am not an applicant they want to interview at this time :lame: .... what a comforting thought
 
aeryna said:
So it took them a very short amount of time to decide I am not an applicant they want to interview at this time :lame: .... what a comforting thought
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Lol felt that, for me it took ~10 days in mid July for them to decide this :dead:
 
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