2019-2020 Harvard

BU Medical Sciences
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Alright y’all, schedule conflicts - The available dates are the 17th, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th

I have Pitt on the 17th, will be UMich 26th 27th and the first day of school is the 25th....

Problem: I can leave the 23rd and come back the 24th but the flights don’t leave any later than 5:55 and Harvard says “please plan to be available the entire day from 8-6.” Anyone with any experience know if they release us at 6....?

Alternatively, I can cancel my flight home from UMich and just head straight to Boston Friday Evening but then I have back to back interview days and I don’t get to Boston until around Midnight. I am used to getting little sleep, but still....back to back is no fun plus I may end up losing money on the return ticket.

What would you guys do?
 
MemeLord said:
Alright y’all, schedule conflicts - The available dates are the 17th, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th

I have Pitt on the 17th, will be UMich 26th 27th and the first day of school is the 25th....

Problem: I can leave the 23rd and come back the 24th but the flights don’t leave any later than 5:55 and Harvard says “please plan to be available the entire day from 8-6.” Anyone with any experience know if they release us at 6....?

Alternatively, I can cancel my flight home from UMich and just head straight to Boston Friday Evening but then I have back to back interview days and I don’t get to Boston until around Midnight. I am used to getting little sleep, but still....back to back is no fun plus I may end up losing money on the return ticket.

What would you guys do?
Click to expand...
Can you call any of the schools for alternate dates (or no because you've already bought your flights?)

Edit: I wouldn't risk flying out the 24th if you're not sure they'd release you in time. I'd probably fly straight to Boston (plan B).
 
MemeLord said:
Alright y’all, schedule conflicts - The available dates are the 17th, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th

I have Pitt on the 17th, will be UMich 26th 27th and the first day of school is the 25th....

Problem: I can leave the 23rd and come back the 24th but the flights don’t leave any later than 5:55 and Harvard says “please plan to be available the entire day from 8-6.” Anyone with any experience know if they release us at 6....?

Alternatively, I can cancel my flight home from UMich and just head straight to Boston Friday Evening but then I have back to back interview days and I don’t get to Boston until around Midnight. I am used to getting little sleep, but still....back to back is no fun plus I may end up losing money on the return ticket.

What would you guys do?
Click to expand...

I have a similar sitch with another school, i’m trying to get through via phone to see if school #2 will have more dates later
 
MemeLord said:
Alright y’all, schedule conflicts - The available dates are the 17th, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th

I have Pitt on the 17th, will be UMich 26th 27th and the first day of school is the 25th....

Problem: I can leave the 23rd and come back the 24th but the flights don’t leave any later than 5:55 and Harvard says “please plan to be available the entire day from 8-6.” Anyone with any experience know if they release us at 6....?

Alternatively, I can cancel my flight home from UMich and just head straight to Boston Friday Evening but then I have back to back interview days and I don’t get to Boston until around Midnight. I am used to getting little sleep, but still....back to back is no fun plus I may end up losing money on the return ticket.

What would you guys do?
Click to expand...
You won't get the schedule until last minute and sometimes you are going between locations for your interviews in the afternoon. You may not know until your interview is over whether you can make it out before 6 PM.
 
MemeLord said:
Alright y’all, schedule conflicts - The available dates are the 17th, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th

I have Pitt on the 17th, will be UMich 26th 27th and the first day of school is the 25th....

Problem: I can leave the 23rd and come back the 24th but the flights don’t leave any later than 5:55 and Harvard says “please plan to be available the entire day from 8-6.” Anyone with any experience know if they release us at 6....?

Alternatively, I can cancel my flight home from UMich and just head straight to Boston Friday Evening but then I have back to back interview days and I don’t get to Boston until around Midnight. I am used to getting little sleep, but still....back to back is no fun plus I may end up losing money on the return ticket.

What would you guys do?
Click to expand...
You still need to get to Logan, go through check-in and board the plane, even if they let you go at 5 it's not enough time. 4 might be okay, but I doubt they're going to release you 2 hrs before the end.

Did you consider alternative travel methods? I don't know where you're coming from but there's both buses and Amtrack out of South Station, it could be a crappy long ride but might be able to make it work. Alternatively asking to see if there are other dates available probably wouldn't be too offensive if you're polite about it!
 
Wolvvs said:
You still need to get to Logan, go through check-in and board the plane, even if they let you go at 5 it's not enough time. 4 might be okay, but I doubt they're going to release you 2 hrs before the end.

Did you consider alternative travel methods? I don't know where you're coming from but there's both buses and Amtrack out of South Station, it could be a crappy long ride but might be able to make it work. Alternatively asking to see if there are other dates available probably wouldn't be too offensive if you're polite about it!
Click to expand...
I’ll definitely ask. I figured they would be like Stanford where it is “no dates available”

And I am coming from West coast so unfortunately nah. Thank you for the advice though! Looks like direct Detroit to Boston is what imma do.


Edit: Looks like I will just be missing the entire first week of school because that Saturday was already taken by the time I got to scheduling....YOLO gonna have a B or two in fall quarter....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
MemeLord said:
I’ll definitely ask. I figured they would be like Stanford where it is “no dates available”

And I am coming from West coast so unfortunately nah. Thank you for the advice though! Looks like direct Detroit to Boston is what imma do.
Click to expand...
I think that's probably the best option unless you can get them to move your date, hopefully that works out. Good luck!
 
MemeLord said:
Ended up just scheduling to com back on the first day of school....Harvard be like that I guess....
Click to expand...
I guess that makes sense. I thought you were a non-traditional student though, you still have classes?
 
MemeLord said:
I did my gap stuff before coming back to school and I am more nontrad by pathway as opposed to age.
Click to expand...
Got it, so you still have to finish your degree. Hope you have reasonable professors! TBH a Harvard interview trumps everything else. Going to be a busy week for you, hope it goes well though and I know you'll do great!
 
DaIlluminaughty said:
Does anyone know if HMS is receptive to ITA emails?
Click to expand...
When searching the school specifics, a lot of people asked but they were in the middle of II waves so only one guy got a response:

here2learn1 said:
nope, they have a standard response to everyone
Click to expand...
Take it with a grain of salt as this is from the 2016/2017 cycle, but Harvard does not seem to be the kind of school that would change its ways in just a couple years.
 
Wolvvs said:
Got it, so you still have to finish your degree. Hope you have reasonable professors! TBH a Harvard interview trumps everything else. Going to be a busy week for you, hope it goes well though and I know you'll do great!
Click to expand...
Thankfully my school year is mostly a research year with a few classes sprinkled in here and there. For fall quarter my quant class has 3 built in dead days (although I have already scheduled to use one of those...) and my other 8 credits are all with classes taught by my advisor/PI/Prof I TA for so he will be pretty chill about it hahaha
 
jtmv234 said:
Would a 7:10 departure out of Boston be manageable or should I try for something later? I know interview day can go until as late as 6.
Click to expand...
After you schedule the interview the page that pops up says not to schedule your flights any earlier than 730. You might just have to stay an extra day… I ended up having to do that.
 
jtmv234 said:
Looks like I might have to do the same. There aren't any flights out of Boston into Denver in the later evening.
Click to expand...
Ive flown from Boston to Denver many times and the 6-7pm flights are usually the latest offered 🙁 I wouldn't risk it especially since traffic is going to be hellish in the city during that hour. Stay the extra day.
 
For people that have an II, did you take a stats class? I know they require it but I haven't taken one yet. They say it's ok as long as you take it by the time you matriculate.
 
I don't know if this will help anyone, but Harvard requires your headshot be under 3Mb....All the other schools are 4Mb, so I gotta reduce the quality a bit. That may just be a me issue, but if anyone else needs this info....
 
MemeLord said:
When searching the school specifics, a lot of people asked but they were in the middle of II waves so only one guy got a response:


Take it with a grain of salt as this is from the 2016/2017 cycle, but Harvard does not seem to be the kind of school that would change its ways in just a couple years.
Click to expand...

Thank you for checking! I appreciate it.
 
Just got the letter in the mail from the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs "inviting me to apply" due to my MCAT scores. Pretty sure it's not worth it, but curious if anyone else has received the same with an II?
 
KCDot said:
Just got the letter in the mail from the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs "inviting me to apply" due to my MCAT scores. Pretty sure it's not worth it, but curious if anyone else has received the same with an II?
Click to expand...
I received this letter and I got an II! Not sure how correlated this is, but it may be worth a shot.
 
Wolvvs said:


According to this tracker, most were sent in September and November.
Click to expand...

This is excellent data. I was wondering if you are aware of any LM score change, MCAT score change over the interview season.
The question is: do they send out IIs to stronger candidates first and others later? Of course there are exceptions, but is there a trend like this at all these med schools?
Thank you.
 
kkweens said:
Same. When were you complete?
Click to expand...

Mid July. But tbh I reaaaally doubt this letter means anything at all, and one thing for certain is none of us are gonna be able to figure out anything about it so it’s almost certainly not worth thinking about at all.
 
I got an interview and was just re-reading my secondary. I noticed I listed for hours worked the total number of hours worked per year not per week.

So like freshman year I put 250 hours (obv 5 hours per week) considering there are only 168 hours per week I obv did not work 250 hours per week lol. Do you guys think I should mention this anywhere like with an email or to my interviewer on interview day or is it pretty obvious and they wont care that much?
 
spuding102 said:
I got an interview and was just re-reading my secondary. I noticed I listed for hours worked the total number of hours worked per year not per week.

So like freshman year I put 250 hours (obv 5 hours per week) considering there are only 168 hours per week I obv did not work 250 hours per week lol. Do you guys think I should mention this anywhere like with an email or to my interviewer on interview day or is it pretty obvious and they wont care that much?
Click to expand...
Nah, they should figure it out or ignore it (assuming they even saw it), Don’t draw attention to highlight a negative.
 
Seems like there was never any consensus on this, but maybe someone has more insight-- is it worth sending an ITA email to Harvard? I'm gonna be in Boston for another interview at some point, and given the dismal and ever-worsening state of my bank account it would be lit to not have to travel back there 😵

edit: would there any downside to just shooting my shot and sending one... ?
 
Mr_Kurtz said:
Seems like there was never any consensus on this, but maybe someone has more insight-- is it worth sending an ITA email to Harvard? I'm gonna be in Boston for another interview at some point, and given the dismal and ever-worsening state of my bank account it would be lit to not have to travel back there 😵
Click to expand...
I’d be pretty surprised if Harvard is receptive, but OTOH the worst thing that can happen is they ignore you.
 
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