5 waitlists and no acceptances...time to start over? :-/

[Speedy1111]

Hello! all! I hope most of you guys are enjoying this time of the year! With May 15th approaching...I really need some advice on what I should do now.

so...now I am waitlisted at Mayo, Vanderbilt, Baylor, NYMC, and Albany Med without any acceptance. I've been waiting for so long...and now I am losing it....I am not so optimistic about my chance of being accepted to one of these schools.

I just purchased the berkeley review MCAT prep books to start studying for MCAT again...I don't really enjoying studying for MCAT.

I just read that schools do know how many acceptances I have (in my case it is 0!)

so...not having any acceptances and being on their waitlists can possibly help my chances?? or would they think of me as a seriously flawed applicant that no school wants...

I am tired of studying for MCAT, tired of writing essays, tired of waiting.
tired of uncertainty! ahh! this waiting process seriously destroyed my self-confidence

but...is it time to start over the whole process again?

(let's just say...my stats are around the average of the schools I got waitlisted.)

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[Didmybest]

Try to hang on a little bit longer, those schools all have a fair amount of movement, and since it is nearing that May 15th deadline, people will be getting into them.

 

[meah]

Yeah, I'd wait it out until at least the end of May. There will be lots of movement in the next few weeks. As for the MCAT, do you think that is what might be holding you back. Since you got a good number of interviews, your personal statement probably wasn't the problem. How were your interviews?

 

[flip26]

Why would you need to retake the MCAT? Was it deficient? Hard to believe that with that impressive list of schools...

There is very little wait list movement anywhere until after May 15. There have been very few reports here of waitlist movement. And it won't really pick up right on the 15th - it will come in waves - and will last until July...

 

[flip26]

Hello! all! I hope most of you guys are enjoying this time of the year! With May 15th approaching...I really need some advice on what I should do now.

so...now I am waitlisted at Mayo, Vanderbilt, Baylor, NYMC, and Albany Med without any acceptance. I've been waiting for so long...and now I am losing it....I am not so optimistic about my chance of being accepted to one of these schools.

I just purchased the berkeley review MCAT prep books to start studying for MCAT again...I don't really enjoying studying for MCAT.

I just read that schools do know how many acceptances I have (in my case it is 0!)

so...not having any acceptances and being on their waitlists can possibly help my chances?? or would they think of me as a seriously flawed applicant that no school wants...

I am tired of studying for MCAT, tired of writing essays, tired of waiting.
tired of uncertainty! ahh! this waiting process seriously destroyed my self-confidence

but...is it time to start over the whole process again?

(let's just say...my stats are around the average of the schools I got waitlisted.)

I don't think this is true - I think that schools that have given you an "acceptance" are privy to your other acceptances after some date, but not if you are only on waitlists...regardless, I can't see how it would matter to a med school.

 

[the donkey]

Keep your chin up speedy. I'm in the same boat...a few waitlists and no acceptances. The waiting sure does suck pretty hard doesn't it?
As said in a similar thread, I'd say prepare for the worst and start getting things rolling for next cycle. It is getting close to application time for next year. Knowing that there is a chance for it happening this year, has made studying for the mcat next to impossible for me. But one thing is for sure, I do NOT want to be in the same situation next year.
You might try and get some feedback on how you can improve for next year. Your mcat may not even be an issue. Good luck to you! May 15 is just around the corner. You never know, that phone call or letter could come at any time. Theyve got to let us know sometime, right?

 

[armybound]

well, those are some good schools to be waitlisted at.

care to tell us what other schools you applied to and how that worked out?

 

[brsboarder]

I wouldn't start over yet. Albany and NYMC pull lots of students off of the waitlists. Have you written letter of intent to them yet? Call and see where you are on the lists

 

[fireflygirl]

I agree with everyone else. Keep your chin up! There are plenty of students that get off waitlists after May 15th and I personally know two people that got calls in the middle of July telling them that they had been taken off the waitlist. But at the very least, I would wait until end of the month to see how things go before you go to Plan B.

I wish you the best!!

 

[lisichka]

Hello! all! I hope most of you guys are enjoying this time of the year! With May 15th approaching...I really need some advice on what I should do now.

so...now I am waitlisted at Mayo, Vanderbilt, Baylor, NYMC, and Albany Med without any acceptance. I've been waiting for so long...and now I am losing it....I am not so optimistic about my chance of being accepted to one of these schools.

I just purchased the berkeley review MCAT prep books to start studying for MCAT again...I don't really enjoying studying for MCAT.
I just read that schools do know how many acceptances I have (in my case it is 0!)

so...not having any acceptances and being on their waitlists can possibly help my chances?? or would they think of me as a seriously flawed applicant that no school wants...

I am tired of studying for MCAT, tired of writing essays, tired of waiting.
tired of uncertainty! ahh! this waiting process seriously destroyed my self-confidence

but...is it time to start over the whole process again?

(let's just say...my stats are around the average of the schools I got waitlisted.)

why?

 

[CHAINCHOMPER]

You took the MCAT before, once is good enough

 

[LifetimeDoc]

If you got an interview at that many schools, then they thought your GPA and MCAT scores were good enough to warrant admission to those schools. Great job! I don't think an extra point or two is going to make any difference in their decision. So, all you can do is sit back as best you can and just wait it out. If you really must do something, maybe talk to your letter writers sometime in June about writing LORs again, but I wouldn't do anything until the mid June timeframe. You just don't know what will happen before then and there is no use wasting money or time or energy on applying for next year. You might just get the call to goto med school, and all the anquish and stress will just melt away. Trust me, it did for me. And the waiting was the worst part of the entire process.

Hang in there!

 

[dArroway]

You took the MCAT before, once is good enough

Well is (s)he wants to improve a part of his/her application the fastest that certainly would be the way (for next year). Once is enough? Not if the op feels he/she can do better and that would improve his/her app.

 

[EpiPEN]

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

Well is (s)he wants to improve a part of his/her application the fastest that certainly would be the way (for next year). Once is enough? Not if the op feels he/she can do better and that would improve his/her app.

Unless you can do a least 3 points better than your current score, it's not worth taking especially if you already have a score of 30 or higher. The statistics show that you have a good chance of going down.

At this point in the process, there is no point in running around like a crazy person and studying/retaking the MCAT. With that many waitlists, there is a good chance the OP will get into somewhere this summer. It's too early to do anything. If it comes around to early July and they haven't gotten in, then it's time to START the reapplication process. Until then, restudying for the MCAT will only serve to drive yourself crazy.

 

[dArroway]

If you got an interview at that many schools, then they thought your GPA and MCAT scores were good enough to warrant admission to those schools. Great job! I don't think an extra point or two is going to make any difference in their decision. So, all you can do is sit back as best you can and just wait it out. If you really must do something, maybe talk to your letter writers sometime in June about writing LORs again, but I wouldn't do anything until the mid June timeframe. You just don't know what will happen before then and there is no use wasting money or time or energy on applying for next year. You might just get the call to goto med school, and all the anquish and stress will just melt away. Trust me, it did for me. And the waiting was the worst part of the entire process.

Hang in there!

I don't buy that (through my experiences). It could have been that the op's other aspects perhaps bolstered her MCAT etc. Generally post-interview, at top schools, you're looking at between 1/5-1/3% accepted. Let's say he/she interviewed in the middle tier of the interviewees yet her stats (perhaps MCAT) put her in the bottom 25% of interviewees... hopefully you follow... Improving the MCAT by a 2 points or so could really give her the edge going into the interview (putting her at the top of the pack). I think at many schools interviews are a way to make sure you are acceptable, and unless you are amazing at the charm game....

 

[OnlyLiveOnce]

Hello! all! I hope most of you guys are enjoying this time of the year! With May 15th approaching...I really need some advice on what I should do now.

so...now I am waitlisted at Mayo, Vanderbilt, Baylor, NYMC, and Albany Med without any acceptance. I've been waiting for so long...and now I am losing it....I am not so optimistic about my chance of being accepted to one of these schools.

I just purchased the berkeley review MCAT prep books to start studying for MCAT again...I don't really enjoying studying for MCAT.

I just read that schools do know how many acceptances I have (in my case it is 0!)

so...not having any acceptances and being on their waitlists can possibly help my chances?? or would they think of me as a seriously flawed applicant that no school wants...

I am tired of studying for MCAT, tired of writing essays, tired of waiting.
tired of uncertainty! ahh! this waiting process seriously destroyed my self-confidence

but...is it time to start over the whole process again?

(let's just say...my stats are around the average of the schools I got waitlisted.)

How do you get waitlisted at schools like Mayo and Baylor... and ALSO get waitlisted at NYMC and Albany? I'd think someone good enough to get waitlisted at Mayo and Baylor would be a shoe-in for the latter.

You have to be careful about the MCAT. Imagine if your score actually goes down. The fact that you qualified for an interview with stats-obsessed schools like Mayo and Baylor means your MCAT and GPA are fine. Unless you are dead positive that you can dramatically increase your score (which I doubt, considering how high it must already be, and that the higher your score gets, the harder it is to improve it), I would focus on some other part of your application.

In fact, right now, I wouldn't even focus on reapplying. I would bombard every school with letters of interest, updates on what you've accomplished, phone calls to the admissions office asking for your status, etc. It's too early to give up. Besides, it's not even May 15th yet; people have not even been forced to narrow down their acceptances yet. I could understand the feeling of hopelessness if this were mid-June or something.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

I don't buy that (through my experiences). It could have been that the op's other aspects perhaps bolstered her MCAT etc. Generally post-interview, at top schools, you're looking at between 1/5-1/3% accepted. Let's say he/she interviewed in the middle tier of the interviewees yet her stats (perhaps MCAT) put her in the bottom 25% of interviewees... hopefully you follow... Improving the MCAT by a 2 points or so could really give her the edge going into the interview (putting her at the top of the pack). I think at many schools interviews are a way to make sure you are acceptable, and unless you are amazing at the charm game....

In my experience talking with admissions committee members and other administrators, there are many aspects to your application. A point or two is within the error bars regarding your own score. Yeah, a higher score is better, but the chances of you doing much better are low for people that retake the test. If the OP had a 30 on the MCAT, that's not what's keeping them out. If they had a 27, possibly. The point is that your application is more than just the numbers.

The OPs chances of getting in are really good when you are on that many waiting lists. Half of those that apply to medical school get in SOMEWHERE every year. The OP got interviews and waitlisted at A LOT of schools.

Regardless of the debate regarding retaking the MCAT, it's way to EARLY to do anything at this point. Waiting lists don't move that much until after May 15th, and generally not until the end of May. So there is no point to freaking out and spending all kinds of money and effort on reapplying when the OPs chances of getting in are so high.

 

[bioteach]

I don't think this is true - I think that schools that have given you an "acceptance" are privy to your other acceptances after some date, but not if you are only on waitlists...regardless, I can't see how it would matter to a med school.

You're right that it won't matter to a med school, but CU (on the waitlist there) knew that I was accepted to UT when I went to discuss my application a few days ago. So all schools know where you've been accepted, but it shouldn't matter one way or the other.