2020-2021 Waitlist Support Thread

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Hi, All!
Specific question-
I sent a LOI to one of my 3 wait-lists
I was admitted to a school with an offer that I absolutely love for one of the 3 that I hadn't sent an LOI for. I plan to accept this offer and withdraw from the other 2 wait-lists. Just making sure that this is OK, since my LOI school never gave me the A anyway? Probably being paranoid but wanted to double check 🙂
 
starryfish said:
Hi, All!
Specific question-
I sent a LOI to one of my 3 wait-lists
I was admitted to a school with an offer that I absolutely love for one of the 3 that I hadn't sent an LOI for. I plan to accept this offer and withdraw from the other 2 wait-lists. Just making sure that this is OK, since my LOI school never gave me the A anyway? Probably being paranoid but wanted to double check 🙂
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Congrats! 100% okay
 
faze_contusion said:
Do schools typically have another small wave of WL movement right at the CTE deadline?
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If by wave you mean a few schools having some movement, then sure. 🙂

It's worth keeping in mind that the PTE wave is caused by literally thousands of people giving up excess As all at the same time (within a few days of each other). Any so-called CTE wave, by contrast, is nothing more than a tiny trickle caused by a few outliers, spread across schools all over the country, holding more than one A and failing to select CTE when expected to do so.

At most schools, the CTE deadline will come and go with a very disappointing thud, with the final few PTEs converting to CTE when their WL dreams don't come true. It is, however, the final realistic trigger for movement this cycle. After that, it really is just people not showing up to orientation for whatever reason.
 
greys_anatomy said:
If you were WL somewhere and then rejected, does that lower the chance of you getting an interview there the next cycle?
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As opposed to what? Someone who was rejected post-II, or pre-II, without a stop on the WL first?

By definition, a reapplicant is someone who was previously rejected by the school. They are already at a disadvantage, and have to overcome a bias as well as increased scrutiny. If anything, I think receiving an II in a prior cycle gives you a definite leg up in a subsequent cycle, unless the reason for your rejection was doing something so offensive on the interview that there is no coming back from it. It is highly unlikely that would be the case if you were WL instead of outright R after the interview.
 
KnightDoc said:
If by wave you mean a few schools having some movement, then sure. 🙂

It's worth keeping in mind that the PTE wave is caused by literally thousands of people giving up excess As all at the same time (within a few days of each other). Any so-called CTE wave, by contrast, is nothing more than a tiny trickle caused by a few outliers, spread across schools all over the country, holding more than one A and failing to select CTE when expected to do so.

At most schools, the CTE deadline will come and go with a very disappointing thud, with the final few PTEs converting to CTE when their WL dreams don't come true. It is, however, the final realistic trigger for movement this cycle. After that, it really is just people not showing up to orientation for whatever reason.
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Welp, I've lost all hope with the school I'm waitlisted for having a CTE of June 15th 🙁 It's hard for me to believe that anyone will drop after they've made it this far, ya know? Unless one person max decides medicine may not be for them right now
 
wegotthis20201234 said:
Welp, I've lost all hope with the school I'm waitlisted for having a CTE of June 15th 🙁 It's hard for me to believe that anyone will drop after they've made it this far, ya know? Unless one person max decides medicine may not be for them right now
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Why do you say this? It's not 6/15 yet! Also, what do you mean by "max one person"? The people who drop drop because they can't keep 2 As, assuming they are holding them. It's rare, but it not unheard of. You've held on this long -- another week at this point is nothing.
 
KnightDoc said:
Why do you say this? It's not 6/15 yet! Also, what do you mean by "max one person"? The people who drop drop because they can't keep 2 As, assuming they are holding them. It's rare, but it not unheard of. You've held on this long -- another week at this point is nothing.
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I feel pretty beat down knowing I was THIS close only to have to do it all over again (which I know is common given how competitive it is) but whenever I feel hopeful I find out that I missed another wave of waitlist movement - I gotta get out of this funk and work on my reapp
 
There was a school I was rejected from where my application status never changed from something along the lines of "Your application status is ready and is awaiting review by the Committee on Admissions."

Only recently did I get feedback from the school. I just checked my portal and saw that my status is now "You application is currently being reviewed by the Admissions Committee."
I was rejected prior to this changing.

I was disheartened to see this. Do you think they even looked at my application before rejecting me? My thinking is that the person who gave me feedback opened up my application and that's what caused the status change.
 
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LiteralLungs said:
There was a school I was rejected from where my application status never changed from something along the lines of "Your application status is ready and is awaiting review by the Committee on Admissions."

Only recently did I get feedback from the school. I just checked my portal and saw that my status is now "You application is currently being reviewed by the Admissions Committee."
I was rejected prior to this changing.

I was disheartened to see this. Do you think they even looked at my application before rejecting me? My thinking is that the person who gave me feedback opened up my application and that's what caused the status change.
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What you are speculating on sounds very plausible.

If it happened, the only takeaway is to maybe welcome you to the real world, in which, at the end of the day, everyone does not receive the full benefit of a holistic review. Given how buried all schools were this past cycle, it's entirely possible that some schools stole some secondary fees and never looked at some applications, beyond performing an auto-screen based on stats and demographics to decide what pile to place an application in.

None of us has any way to know whether this actually happened anywhere, but, if it did, someone with your profile might very well be a candidate for such treatment, depending on the school. You will never know for sure. If it did happen, no one would ever admit it, so there is really no value to speculating about it.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me at all. Assuming it did happen, would you really feel better if someone actually looked at your application for 2 minutes before rejecting you?
 
spicymeatball said:
Still holding out some hope, but went ahead and sent in my new application yesterday. I got an email that my application processing was complete within an hour of submitting.. is this weird? Last year it took mine 6 weeks to get through processing
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I don’t think that’s right. AMCAS is still Processing applications that reached "Ready for Review" on May 27. So they are still verifying those from the first day of submission? Maybe double check what you received unless your application was like early decision or something for which I am not sure.
 
PokemonTransformer said:
I don’t think that’s right. AMCAS is still Processing applications that reached "Ready for Review" on May 27. So they are still verifying those from the first day of submission? Maybe double check what you received unless your application was like early decision or something for which I am not sure.
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Even this wouldn't be verified within an hour! It's a virtual guarantee that all @spicymeatball received was the acknowledgement e-mail that he successfully submitted. Anyway, @spicymeatball, thanks for getting the crowd a little excited, since so little else is going on in this thread right now!! 🙂
 
spicymeatball said:
Still holding out some hope, but went ahead and sent in my new application yesterday. I got an email that my application processing was complete within an hour of submitting.. is this weird? Last year it took mine 6 weeks to get through processing
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I really hope you didn't just jinx yourself here! Given that it's been a week and a half and they haven't moved past the first day yet, you might very well be looking at six weeks again this year. Unless, as @PokemonTransformer suggested, you are in a different queue, you almost certainly misinterpreted an e-mail congratulating you on a successful submission to mean you are done. Trust me, you merely entered the queue.
 
PokemonTransformer said:
I don’t think that’s right. AMCAS is still Processing applications that reached "Ready for Review" on May 27. So they are still verifying those from the first day of submission? Maybe double check what you received unless your application was like early decision or something for which I am not sure.
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I submitted the 27th and was successfully processed last week
 
NecroticallyNeurotic said:
I submitted the 27th and was successfully processed last week
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Yes. People who submitted the 27th have been processed from the 27th through today. The point is that no one from any day after the 27th is supposed to be processed before everyone from the 27th has entered review! Otherwise, what's the point of having a queue, if processing order is just random?
 
TRP23 said:
Hi! I plan to submit within the next week. Would this mean that processing for some will probably be alot faster compared to last year?
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Not at all. Processing should be faster than last year because last year was a cluster**** due to UGs and AMCAS itself being slow to adjust to the pandemic. The fact is, however, that it took AMCAS 12 days (including a holiday weekend) to advance one day in processing submitted applications (they have been working on 5/27 submissions from 5/27 until today, when the first reports of 5/28 submissions being verified appeared on SDN).

There is no way to compare the week of 6/13 submissions last year to now (among other reasons, first submissions to schools were delayed last year until 7/10), but I think you should lower your expectations. If it took 12 days for someone submitting late on 5/27 to be verified, I think you should expect to wait at least a month if you are submitting next week. If I'm right, is that "a lot" faster than last year?
 
spicymeatball said:
Still holding out some hope, but went ahead and sent in my new application yesterday. I got an email that my application processing was complete within an hour of submitting.. is this weird? Last year it took mine 6 weeks to get through processing
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There are many reports where reapplicants who submit their apps have their applications verified near-instantly as AMCAS can pull up the course list from previous year's applications as long as there are no new transcripts or changes in the original one.
 
adc_needs_buff said:
There are many reports where reapplicants who submit their apps have their applications verified near-instantly as AMCAS can pull up the course list from previous year's applications as long as there are no new transcripts or changes in the original one.
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Just where are these reports? It's true that the information you provide from a previous application will roll over, but new transcripts still have to be submitted and verified, and you still have to enter the queue.

AMCAS does not say anywhere that reapplicants jump to the front of the line, or that they have their own line. I don't see why a verification of a reapplicant would be any faster, since a verifier still has to go line by line, to make sure not only that the transcript hasn't changed, but also that the applicant didn't change anything from the prior application.
 
KnightDoc said:
Not at all. Processing should be faster than last year because last year was a cluster**** due to UGs and AMCAS itself being slow to adjust to the pandemic. The fact is, however, that it took AMCAS 12 days (including a holiday weekend) to advance one day in processing submitted applications (they have been working on 5/27 submissions from 5/27 until today, when the first reports of 5/28 submissions being verified appeared on SDN).

There is no way to compare the week of 6/13 submissions last year to now (among other reasons, first submissions to schools were delayed last year until 7/10), but I think you should lower your expectations. If it took 12 days for someone submitting late on 5/27 to be verified, I think you should expect to wait at least a month if you are submitting next week. If I'm right, is that "a lot" faster than last year?
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This makes a lot of sense! Thank you!
 
PokemonTransformer said:
I don’t think that’s right. AMCAS is still Processing applications that reached "Ready for Review" on May 27. So they are still verifying those from the first day of submission? Maybe double check what you received unless your application was like early decision or something for which I am not sure.
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KnightDoc said:
I really hope you didn't just jinx yourself here! Given that it's been a week and a half and they haven't moved past the first day yet, you might very well be looking at six weeks again this year. Unless, as @PokemonTransformer suggested, you are in a different queue, you almost certainly misinterpreted an e-mail congratulating you on a successful submission to mean you are done. Trust me, you merely entered the queue.
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adc_needs_buff said:
There are many reports where reapplicants who submit their apps have their applications verified near-instantly as AMCAS can pull up the course list from previous year's applications as long as there are no new transcripts or changes in the original one.
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Oh lots of replies! I did apply early decision this time AND I have no new classes/transcripts that were added since my application from last year. One or both of these must be why this happened?

I went back and checked, double checked, triple checked - my email says my application has completed processing and my AMCAS says the same thing!
 
spicymeatball said:
Oh lots of replies! I did apply early decision this time AND I have no new classes/transcripts that were added since my application from last year. One or both of these must be why this happened?

I went back and checked, double checked, triple checked - my email says my application has completed processing and my AMCAS says the same thing!
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Yup -- you're good because ED put you in a different queue. You still had to resubmit transcripts, right? If so, you had to be reverified, and that doesn't take any less time than the first time around, since the verifiers have no way to know whether or not you altered any entries on your app, if anything was added to your transcript.
 
Is anyone else finding it difficult to work on their application with hopes of submitting in the next 2 weeks? I can't find the inspiration to rewrite things that I had previously spent weeks upon weeks writing last cycle
 
wegotthis20201234 said:
can we keep ~80% of our app the same as last cycle?
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You can keep 100% of your application the same as last cycle if you want to. The percent you keep the same should be directly proportional to how happy you are with the results.
 
wegotthis20201234 said:
Is anyone else finding it difficult to work on their application with hopes of submitting in the next 2 weeks? I can't find the inspiration to rewrite things that I had previously spent weeks upon weeks writing last cycle
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No kidding -- if you're not feeling it, you should probably consider taking a break and maybe sitting a cycle out. Several schools recommend this anyway. An additional gap year will not only make your reapplication that much better, but it will likely help you rediscover your missing inspiration, which will also only help you.
 
KnightDoc said:
Yup -- you're good because ED put you in a different queue. You still had to resubmit transcripts, right? If so, you had to be reverified, and that doesn't take any less time than the first time around, since the verifiers have no way to know whether or not you altered any entries on your app, if anything was added to your transcript.
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I resubmitted transcripts, yes. I have no idea! Hoping it's not an issue
 
wegotthis20201234 said:
Is anyone else finding it difficult to work on their application with hopes of submitting in the next 2 weeks? I can't find the inspiration to rewrite things that I had previously spent weeks upon weeks writing last cycle
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Yep. My goal was to submit by this Friday, but I just don’t have the energy to finish rewriting everything. Just feeling really defeated and exhausted.
 
I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with leaving most of your application descriptions and personal statement the same. If you can get a feedback interviews with schools, see if they mention deficiencies in your written application before completely overhauling it.
 
Question: I haven't gotten my recommendation letters together yet, but the rest of my app is done. Should I submit right away or wait for the letters if they are processing apps so quickly? I was banking on having like a month to get them in before they send it off to schools.
 
BigRed0017 said:
Question: I haven't gotten my recommendation letters together yet, but the rest of my app is done. Should I submit right away or wait for the letters if they are processing apps so quickly? I was banking on having like a month to get them in before they send it off to schools.
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Absolutely no reason to wait for letters. They can be assigned to individual schools whenever you want, and they will be sent to assigned schools whenever they come in. Verification and transmission to schools is independent of receipt of LORs, so, why wait if everything else is ready to go?
 
jamaica jan sun princess said:
I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with leaving most of your application descriptions and personal statement the same. If you can get a feedback interviews with schools, see if they mention deficiencies in your written application before completely overhauling it.
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Screeners have immediate access to any previous application, now that we have software.
Submitting the same PS and essays is not a good look. Taking the opportunity to improve would be preferable.
 
gyngyn said:
Screeners have immediate access to any previous application, now that we have software.
Submitting the same PS and essays is not a good look. Taking the opportunity to improve would be preferable.
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What if we have the same anecdote, but re-write the rest? Is that too similar?
 
BigRed0017 said:
What if we have the same anecdote, but re-write the rest? Is that too similar?
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Honestly, there is no rule here. It's just a rule of thumb.

The idea is to change what didn't work and leave what did alone. Since you have no way to know what did or didn't work (unless someone flat out says something like "your application was meh, but your anecdote was dynamite"), the safest course of action is to redo everything.

YMMV, and plenty of people make little or no changes and are subsequently successful. It all depends on why you were unsuccessful in the first place, and making sure to fix it.
 
gyngyn said:
Screeners have immediate access to any previous application, now that we have software.
Submitting the same PS and essays is not a good look. Taking the opportunity to improve would be preferable.
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I spoke with another ADCOM member and they recommended rewriting work and activities and that they spend the least amount of time looking at PS/rarely makes a difference in their decision unless it is terribly written.

I see how it could be a bad look though not rewriting a personal statement.
 
INDIGO5362 said:
I spoke with another ADCOM member and they recommended rewriting work and activities and that they spend the least amount of time looking at PS/rarely makes a difference in their decision unless it is terribly written.

I see how it could be a bad look though not rewriting a personal statement.
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This almost certainly varies widely from school to school, and person to person at a given school. The only way to cover all bases is to do, and then redo, everything to the very best of your ability.
 
My hot take/unpopular opinion: the fact that it’s a soft requirement that every reapplicant has to redo all their essays is ridiculous. Sure, some people’s essays suck and need to be redone, but I’ve read jaw-dropping essays (in a good way) from applicants who were waitlisted at their multiple interviews and are now reapplying. I just reread one PS that was redone, and it seemed so watered down compared to the amazing original one. This applies even more so with applicants with amazing essays whose only weakness was a low MCAT score, which they dramatically improved for their next cycle. I disagree HARD with the notion that every PS should be improved. Many can be, but some are essentially perfect the way they are.

My other even hotter take: applications should be reviewed at face value, and schools don’t need to know you’re a reapplicant. The fact that you’re spending a ton of time and money to go through this process again should not put you at a disadvantage in how your app is reviewed. Some people just fall through the cracks unfortunately. I say this as someone who is accepted already, simply because I see my peers struggling so much with reapplying.

This is not directed at anyone. I’m just conveying my frustration with how apps are being reviewed.
 
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gyngyn said:
Screeners have immediate access to any previous application, now that we have software.
Submitting the same PS and essays is not a good look. Taking the opportunity to improve would be preferable.
Click to expand...
I assume that's only for schools an applicant has applied to before?
 
tunaktunak said:
My hot take/unpopular opinion: the fact that it’s a soft requirement that every reapplicant has to redo all their essays is ridiculous. Sure, some people’s essays suck and need to be redone, but I’ve read jaw-dropping essays (in a good way) from applicants who were waitlisted at their multiple interviews and are now reapplying. I just reread one PS that was redone, and it seemed so watered down compared to the amazing original one. This applies even more so with applicants with amazing essays whose only weakness was a low MCAT score, which they dramatically improved for their next cycle. I disagree HARD with the notion that every PS should be improved. Many can be, but some are essentially perfect the way they are.

My other even hotter take: applications should be reviewed at face value, and schools don’t need to know you’re a reapplicant. The fact that you’re spending a ton of time and money to go through this process again should not put you at a disadvantage in how your app is reviewed. Some people just fall through the cracks unfortunately. I say this as someone who is accepted already, simply because I see my peers struggling so much with reapplying.

This is not directed at anyone. I’m just conveying my frustration with how apps are being reviewed.
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This isn't going to help you, or anyone else, at all, but you are absolutely correct!!!!

The fact remains that admission is HIGHLY competitive, and everyone owes it to themselves to apply with their very best application the first time. A lot of people don't follow this advice and later regret it. There is absolutely is a bias against reapplicants, whether or not adcoms admit it.

First time applicants are the fresh produce while reapplicants are treated like picked over, day old bread. Reapplicants don't merely need to be good enough, they need to be better than they were, because they have to jump through the extra hoop of being judged against the application they previously submitted.

You really can't blame the schools for this. After all, you already had your shot, and were not only rejected by them, you were also rejected by everyone else in the prior cycle. Schools literally have thousands upon thousands of applications to go through to select a few hundred to interview. Screening based on who hasn't been previously rejected is as legitimate a first screen as anything else.

Some successful first time applicants might be objectively weaker than you, but they are not subject to this additional level of scrutiny. And, once subject to the extra level of scrutiny, appearing to be lazy by not changing everything, even if it was fine the first time, is, as @gyngyn put it, not a good look. Even if the problem was submission timing, MCAT, GPA, whatever, the written material was part of a failed application, and you are refusing to play the game on a reapp by redoing it.

The takeaway from this should be that anyone on the fence about applying should hold off until they are absolutely ready. Relatively few people in this position have the discipline and patience to do this. As a result, we have throwaway applications, and posts asking how bad it is to take or retake the MCAT in July, August or September while applying in the current cycle, or about having a ton of projected ECs because, for whatever reason, activities have not been completed but we need to apply NOWWWWWWWWWWW. We end up being late, not catching a break, and then, with a perfectly fine application, end up being at a disadvantage on a reapp, all because we all know someone who applied in October and ended up with 12 As.
 
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I'm rewriting my PS for sure, but was planning to edit only the work/activities that changed since I last applied. After reading through this thread I'm not so sure. Is it a bad look to keep work/activities the same?
 
blobfish22 said:
I'm rewriting my PS for sure, but was planning to edit only the work/activities that changed since I last applied. After reading through this thread I'm not so sure. Is it a bad look to keep work/activities the same?
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Depends. Do you know for sure that nothing you want to leave the same contributed to your results? If so, then there is no reason to change. Again, it sucks, is unfair, and there is no logic to it.

But, it is what it is. And what it is is you taking another shot at the same school as an unsuccessful prior candidate. Someone else could theoretically come in with the exact same application and receive a better reception because they won't be compared to your prior application. On the other hand, you will. Do you still want to be conservative with your tweaks?
 
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