2020-2021 Waitlist Support Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Virus777 said:
Consider applying DO. Ive worked with both MD’s and DO’s, and I have noticed about 0 clinical difference in primary care and emergency settings. Obviously if you want to practice in a competitive specialty like neurosurg, ophthalmol, derm, MD would be the right path. But otherwise, you should at least give it thought. Every DO school i interviewed at gave me a definitive decision in 2-4 weeks after my Easter egg hunt. I feel that the MD cycle is unnecessarily grueling and treacherous because they want to make it this way. It certainly doesnt have to be this way. Making students wait for nearly a year to find out the future of their career? Gimme a break lol. Also taking this opportunity to vent 🙂

edit: not sure why easter egg hunt got thrown into my post lol. Am i not allowed to say the word in***view?
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Ah, SDN's got its funny on for April F**l's 😂 No more in***views and w**tlists, bless up. Interviews and waitlist only
 
Virus777 said:
Consider applying DO. Ive worked with both MD’s and DO’s, and I have noticed about 0 clinical difference in primary care and emergency settings. Obviously if you want to practice in a competitive specialty like neurosurg, ophthalmol, derm, MD would be the right path. But otherwise, you should at least give it thought. Every DO school i interviewed at gave me a definitive decision in 2-4 weeks after my Easter egg hunt. I feel that the MD cycle is unnecessarily grueling and treacherous because they want to make it this way. It certainly doesnt have to be this way. Making students wait for nearly a year to find out the future of their career? Gimme a break lol. Also taking this opportunity to vent 🙂

edit: not sure why easter egg hunt got thrown into my post lol. Am i not allowed to say the word in***view?
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i hear you. but the only two DO schools I applied to this cycle, neither have gotten back to me. Rowan and pcom to be exact.
 
studentdoctor111111111111 said:
Is anybunny else in the situation where their roommate has been accepted to Easter basket (my dream school actually lol) while they are sitting on hold elsewhere?? I'm very happy for them but seeing them wear the school apparel around the apartment is just a little too much some days :')
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which school? sdn is being annoying with the april fools stuff and changing names to easter basket.
 
DilNyethescienceguy said:
So that AAMC Recommendations for Peeps email is an Easter's joke, right? It is the Peeps' responsibility - not the central oversight entity that collects a fee for administration of the Easter egg collection service- to ensure timely notification of Easter egg collection outcome?
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Honestly, I have no idea if I would even have an answer for your question. I'm just commenting to make note that this comment is near impossible to interpret with this little joke SDN is playing. I thought I was having a stroke while reading some of these comments lol.
 
benzodiazepinacolada said:
Honestly, I have no idea if I would even have an answer for your question. I'm just commenting to make note that this comment is near impossible to interpret with this little joke SDN is playing. I thought I was having a stroke while reading some of these comments lol.
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It was funny at first, now it's extremely annoying to read. There should be an option to turn it off..
 
studentdoctor111111111111 said:
Is anybunny else in the situation where their roommate has been accepted to Easter basket (my dream school actually lol) while they are sitting on hold elsewhere?? I'm very happy for them but seeing them wear the school apparel around the apartment is just a little too much some days :')
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Along the similar line, my brother got accepted to his top choice medical school and I have nothing but wait lists. I am of course immensely proud to have been part of his journey and to help him achieve his dreams but it stings a little to be in the same group of friends and to have as my response when they ask "when I'm getting accepted" or " you're next, I know it" and my response is "I have no idea and I wish I knew". I hope this purgatory is over soon and we all can accomplish what we've worked so hard for and can see the light at the end of this very dark tunnel.
 
Was looking at a thread earlier and there was a dude that had 15 MD A's. Insane. Should I message him and ask how difficult it was curing cancer?

In all seriousness though, hopefully these high stat applicants are all holding a similar amount of A's so us WL plebs can start moving up in the world during the next month.
 
benzodiazepinacolada said:
Was looking at a thread earlier and there was a dude that had 15 MD A's. Insane. Should I message him and ask how difficult it was curing cancer?

In all seriousness though, hopefully these high stat Peeps are all holding a similar amount of A's so us purgatory plebs can start moving up in the world during the next month.
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Yep, he can only fill one seat! That's 14 people coming off the waitlists as soon as he starts dropping them 😉
 
benzodiazepinacolada said:
Was looking at a thread earlier and there was a dude that had 15 MD A's. Insane. Should I message him and ask how difficult it was curing cancer?

In all seriousness though, hopefully these high stat Peeps are all holding a similar amount of A's so us purgatory plebs can start moving up in the world during the next month.
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There will be significant movement in the next month, but that is a total outlier. Keep in mind that only half of the 40% with As have more than one. Half of those have 2, and it goes down progressively from there.

There are only a literal handful of people in the country with more than 10 As (maybe two or three dozen out of 21,000). The vast majority of movement will come from the 10,000 or so people with 2, 3, or 4 As having to reduce to one, not from 30 something people dropping 10 or more As.
 
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Are we expecting that the waitlist movement this year will be about the same as previous years since a lot of schools have over-accepted students?
 
gomdoliborae said:
Are we expecting that the waitlist movement this year will be about the same as previous years since a lot of schools have over-accepted students?
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Schools always over-accept I think. It’s just what they do, I think waitlist movement will be pretty much the same, maybe larger for some schools and smaller for other
 
Julatteluver said:
Schools always over-accept I think. It’s just what they do, I think waitlist movement will be pretty much the same, maybe larger for some schools and smaller for other
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Yup! The speculation has been that schools might have been a little more conservative with initial As this year, on the theory that top applicants MIGHT be hoarding As this year, since nothing stopped them from taking virtual IIs that they might have turned down in years past due to the time and expense of attending live IIs, but nobody knows for sure.

If true, and top applicants are, in fact, hoarding more As than in years past, that should lead to more WL movement. All will be revealed in the next month or so.
 
realistically, how likely is it to have to reapply with 4 WLs --> 0 As? I know it is variable depending on the school but I am plagued with anxiety 🙁
 
snoo98 said:
realistically, how likely is it to have to reapply with 4 WLs --> 0 As? I know it is variable depending on the school but I am plagued with anxiety 🙁
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I don’t know if this will placate your anxiety but your chance of getting off a WL is better than those with 0, 1, 2, or 3 WL and 0 As.
 
snoo98 said:
realistically, how likely is it to have to reapply with 4 WLs --> 0 As? I know it is variable depending on the school but I am plagued with anxiety 🙁
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Honestly, depends on the WL movement of the schools. If you have 4 low movement waitlists, then I would seriously focus on my reapplication plans.
 
Exocus said:
Honestly, depends on the WL movement of the schools. If you have 4 low movement waitlists, then I would seriously focus on my reapplication plans.
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is there an "easy" way of finding out which schools have low movement waitlists?
 
bodynotfondofcoffee said:
is there an "easy" way of finding out which schools have low movement waitlists?
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There are some schools that have no movements historially, usually top tier schools and others like Rush, EVMS (for IS) etc etc. if the school also has a separate high priority waitlist, then reg waitlist wont have much movement. Best/easiest way is to read thru previous threads
 
Julatteluver said:
There are some schools that have no movements historially, usually top tier schools and others like Rush, EVMS (for IS) etc etc. if the school also has a separate high priority waitlist, then reg waitlist wont have much movement. Best/easiest way is to read thru previous threads
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Where are you getting that zero IS EVMS WL movement from? Past threads - and even this year IIRC - have decent, albeit less than OOS, in-state WL movement
 
DilNyethescienceguy said:
Where are you getting that zero IS EVMS WL movement from? Past threads - and even this year IIRC - have decent, albeit less than OOS, in-state WL movement
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Oh yea, didn’t mean to say there is zero movement for EVMS, but I heard a LOT of top third waitlisted OOS applicants get in (even middle tier WL) while way less IS students get in. Ofc i dont know how much less but i hear the movement is just significantly less than OOS due to costs and all.

edit; if you are top third, then i believe you still have a plausible chance for both IS and OOS
 
Julatteluver said:
Oh yea, didn’t mean to say there is zero movement for EVMS, but I heard a LOT of top third waitlisted OOS applicants get in (even middle tier WL) while way less IS students get in. Ofc i dont know how much less but i hear the movement is just significantly less than OOS due to costs and all.

edit; if you are top third, then i believe you still have a plausible chance for both IS and OOS
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Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that makes total sense!
 
Hey guys! What do you suggest is the best time to send a letter of intent after a wait-list? I have been wait-listed since December (they call it an alternate list, but I assume it's the same thing), and I have already sent a letter of interest + an update.
 
Flavio_Flores said:
Hey guys! What do you suggest is the best time to send a letter of intent after a wait-list? I have been wait-listed since December (they call it an alternate list, but I assume it's the same thing), and I have already sent a letter of interest + an update.
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Is the school typically receptive to letters of intent and updates? some schools do not want any additional materials, so just be sure of that before sending (I am sure you already have, but just want to be sure.)
 
2/3 WL. Pending one school decision but they're not great with communication. Was told that I'm high on the WL for one and that in prior cycles, ppl in my tier/rank come off early May, but who knows what to expect with COVID. Have you guys decided/established a date/timeframe when you're gonna start actually reapplying (like start writing your primary and what not)?
 
r
bigsgr said:
2/3 WL. Pending one school decision but they're not great with communication. Was told that I'm high on the WL for one and that in prior cycles, ppl in my tier/rank come off early May, but who knows what to expect with COVID. Have you guys decided/established a date/timeframe when you're gonna start actually reapplying (like start writing your primary and what not)?
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You should honestly already be doing that. The time has come.
 
Talldoctor96 said:
You should honestly already be doing that. The time has come.
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I also had a question along these lines. How much of the PS should be changed? I think with 5 II out of 12 schools I had a good PS and my advisors also told me it had a compelling story so I'm not certain how to change the PS.
 
bigsgr said:
Do you guys also think there will be more/less/same WL movement in comparison to prior cycles?
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Based on neurotically checking around here and asking the same question for about a month now, people don’t really know, but there is no actual evidence of being less WL movement...so we’ll see

Edit: this comment was supposed to allude to “I think WL movement will be the same as what we usually see”
 
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Hello_There_117 said:
I also had a question along these lines. How much of the PS should be changed? I think with 5 II out of 12 schools I had a good PS and my advisors also told me it had a compelling story so I'm not certain how to change the PS.
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I wouldn’t change it. you can’t drastically change your why medicine answer imo. maybe just a few tweaks, have some fresh eyes look at it, etc but don’t completely overhaul it
 
golfnerd said:
I wouldn’t change it. you can’t drastically change your why medicine answer imo. maybe just a few tweaks, have some fresh eyes look at it, etc but don’t completely overhaul it
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ya a friend did this who was WL @ 2 schools with minimal movement last cycle... this cycle he had 9 IIs and like 7As..
 
Hey y'all, how can I figure out if a school is open to accepting letters of intent? I'm on one waitlist with no acceptances, and I'm dreading the idea of reapplying, so I want to do anything I can to improve my chances of getting off this WL. On the school's website, they state that "after December 1, the only permitted updates are thank you letters and unofficial grade reports." I previously assumed this meant they wouldn't accept letters of interest/intent after 12/1. But, I was looking through past threads for the school and saw that people submitted letters of intent in the spring. Do y'all think they're currently accepting letters of intent or is it more likely that they changed the policy before this application cycle?
 
daileyy said:
Hey y'all, how can I figure out if a school is open to accepting letters of intent? I'm on one waitlist with no acceptances, and I'm dreading the idea of reapplying, so I want to do anything I can to improve my chances of getting off this WL. On the school's website, they state that "after December 1, the only permitted updates are thank you letters and unofficial grade reports." I previously assumed this meant they wouldn't accept letters of interest/intent after 12/1. But, I was looking through past threads for the school and saw that people submitted letters of intent in the spring. Do y'all think they're currently accepting letters of intent or is it more likely that they changed the policy before this application cycle?
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ya don't do it. follow the instructions they give
 
daileyy said:
Hey y'all, how can I figure out if a school is open to accepting letters of intent? I'm on one waitlist with no acceptances, and I'm dreading the idea of reapplying, so I want to do anything I can to improve my chances of getting off this WL. On the school's website, they state that "after December 1, the only permitted updates are thank you letters and unofficial grade reports." I previously assumed this meant they wouldn't accept letters of interest/intent after 12/1. But, I was looking through past threads for the school and saw that people submitted letters of intent in the spring. Do y'all think they're currently accepting letters of intent or is it more likely that they changed the policy before this application cycle?
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If the school has a clear statement like that, you are much more likely to hurt your chances by sending a LOI.
 
In situations like this, don't send anything.

Just call once in two weeks and politely:
1. Introduce yourself
2. Ask about waitlist movement
3. Tell them about how much you would like to attend their school

Keep praying !
 
Bill Haas said:
In situations like this, don't send anything.

Just call once in two weeks and politely:
1. Introduce yourself
2. Ask about waitlist movement
3. Tell them about how much you would like to attend their school

Keep praying !
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What is a good way to politely ask about waitlist movement without sounding pushy or desperate?
 
katchline said:
What is a good way to politely ask about waitlist movement without sounding pushy or desperate?
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I guess, what I meant was, be calm.
And if you have more than one question, write them down before calling -- so that you are mentally ready.
 
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