7+ interviews, no acceptances?

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orthobone

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Hello everyone,

I've had 7 interviews so far and have yet to receive any acceptances thus far. It's surprising, as I've had multiple interviewers tell me that i'm a strong candidate (at the end of the interview) and have felt that the interviews have overall gone well. I'm starting to consider what I should be doing for my gap year.
I was thinking it would be nice to start a thread people in the same boat, and for any people who have been in a similar experiences this cycle or past cycles with waitlists, silent schools, etc. whether it was good or bad.
 
Hey if you need any encouragement or advice in prepping for possible post December interviews feel free to message me!
 
I interviewed at east coast schools. For reference, I have a 3.7gpa, 21AA. My interviewers were overall very receptive, and I answered the questions well in my opinion, but I have several ideas for why schools have been mostly silent with me. If you have had success this application cycle, I would love to get some thoughts on this.
 
On another note, I would love to get an ADCOM or faculty's opinion on the matter. Would you ever call an applicant a strong candidate during an interview if you did not mean it?
 
orthobone said:
I interviewed at east coast schools. For reference, I have a 3.7gpa, 21AA. My interviewers were overall very receptive, and I answered the questions well in my opinion, but I have several ideas for why schools have been mostly silent with me. If you have had success this application cycle, I would love to get some thoughts on this.
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Have you followed up or called for any feedback? Or maybe just to ask your status or what you can do that will strengthen your application or your chances of acceptance? Don't be afraid to just call and ask 🙂

I'll bet that you will hear something soon and you will also probably be getting more interview invitations as well. Good luck to you!!!
 
GalDental54 said:
Have you followed up or called for any feedback? Or maybe just to ask your status or what you can do that will strengthen your application or your chances of acceptance? Don't be afraid to just call and ask 🙂

I'll bet that you will hear something soon and you will also probably be getting more interview invitations as well. Good luck to you!!!
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I have not followed up with any schools. I'm considering sending a letter of intent to my top school, but I wasn't sure if I should wait till I here back from them or not.
I've come across threads about calling about checking in the status, but it seems every ADCOM says that they are still under review.
 
You definitely messed up something if you didn't hear back after 7 interviews. I only had 5 before 12/3 and was accepted to 3 plus 1 waitlist and 1 silence. Your stats are certainly fine so it was probably something on your app or your interview tbh.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah this sounds very strange - your stats are fine. I had 9 interview offers, went to 7, got accepted into 6 and rejected from 1. Even in the 6 schools I was accepted into I didn't feel great about every interview. It's definitely not your stats so I'd def narrow it down to something else on you app or your interviews did not go too well?
 
orthobone said:
Hello everyone,

I've had 7 interviews so far and have yet to receive any acceptances thus far. It's surprising, as I've had multiple interviewers tell me that i'm a strong candidate (at the end of the interview) and have felt that the interviews have overall gone well. I'm starting to consider what I should be doing for my gap year.
I was thinking it would be nice to start a thread people in the same boat, and for any people who have been in a similar experiences this cycle or past cycles with waitlists, silent schools, etc. whether it was good or bad.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, one thing I know is having high stats (24+) helps you tremendously. Even if you didn't have a great interview, very good stats can push you into getting accepted. Your stats seem to be good, but you'll have also will have to have a good interview in order to get an acceptance, unless your social skills are very off. I had 3 interviews this cycle with a 3.77 and a 22 and have gotten into 1 and waitlisted at 2. The school I got into my stats were their average; whereas the school I was waitlisted to my stats were above. And the one that I got into I felt my interview went very well; whereas, the other 2 I felt like went ok and ended up I actually getting waitlisted. So it turns out your interview skills do have a great weight to the application, although having extremely high stats can outweigh the interview. I've also had a friend who had 26+ with 5 interviews only heard back from 1 "back up" school on December 3rd and silence from the rest and after a long period of silence he then had 3 more acceptances from March to June.
 
orthobone said:
Hello everyone,

I've had 7 interviews so far and have yet to receive any acceptances thus far. It's surprising, as I've had multiple interviewers tell me that i'm a strong candidate (at the end of the interview) and have felt that the interviews have overall gone well. I'm starting to consider what I should be doing for my gap year.
I was thinking it would be nice to start a thread people in the same boat, and for any people who have been in a similar experiences this cycle or past cycles with waitlists, silent schools, etc. whether it was good or bad.
Click to expand...
Did you research the schools mission statement, core values, etc before each interview? I had 3 pre dec interviews, before every interview I researched the school and based my answers on their core values and mission statement I got accepted to 2 and ghosted from the other haha
 
Your stats are not bad. I know some people have worst stat than you and still get in. Maybe, your interview is the biggest factor of downfall or something else that you haven't told us yet.

7+ interview and no acceptances. That's suck. Lots of money and effort going waste.
If you don't hear anything back from them, talk to them and try to get in this year. If not, then do post bacc to increase your chance for next cycle
 
Doctorishere12345 said:
If you don't hear anything back from them, talk to them and try to get in this year. If not, then do post bacc to increase your chance for next cycle
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Why would this person do a post-bacc with a 3.7 GPA...? If he didn't get in this cycle, and he decided to do a PB to boost his GPA, the adcom would think this person doesn't know what's weak about himself as he's reapplying, and will most likely reject him again.
 
I had two interviews, one wait listed, one silence. Although there were a few questions where I know I didn't provide the most coherent answer, I never thought that was going to be the deal breaker. Unfortunately, people give you false hope sometimes. At many schools, I heard your interviewers are usually not the ones who make the decisions.
 
youngsushi said:
the adcom would think this person doesn't know what's weak about himself as he's reapplying, and will most likely reject him again.
Click to expand...

I'm no ADCOM, but this statement of pure conjecture let's me know that you aren't either.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 
They simply did not like you.
It's all about luck here. Some get in, some get out.
Better luck on your next interview!
 
Many of us have gone through what you're going through to some extent. The best advice is keep improving yourself in all aspect. Focus on the weakest part and work your way up. You can ask the admissions about your application and/or interview but from my experience, I only got kind words and no constructive criticism about my interviews and application. I was told that there are just so many candidate similar to myself. Took me 3 years of working on different areas before receiving an acceptance. If this is what you want just keep working towards it. At the end of the day there are many candidate each one working as hard as the other and sometimes we need that touch of luck 🙂 Good luck!
 
If you interviewed at 3 or 4 schools and didn't get in, some could call it unlucky. But something is going on when you have 7 interviews and no acceptances. I might guess that something was inconsistent with what you had on your application and maybe what you said during the interview. There is still plenty of time to get accepted this cycle so defiantly don't lose hope! You're a strong applicant and reevaluate your application if you have to apply again.
 
O Gaúcho said:
If you interviewed at 3 or 4 schools and didn't get in, some could call it unlucky. But something is going on when you have 7 interviews and no acceptances. I might guess that something was inconsistent with what you had on your application and maybe what you said during the interview. There is still plenty of time to get accepted this cycle so defiantly don't lose hope! You're a strong applicant and reevaluate your application if you have to apply again.
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I agree, a med school adcom from my school told us a lot of adcoms during your interview day are trying to see if you are consistent with the application you sent in. If they see anything or feel that you misrepresented yourself on the application that is an easy red flag. Not saying that is what happened but its something to think about.
 
youngsushi said:
Why would this person do a post-bacc with a 3.7 GPA...? If he didn't get in this cycle, and he decided to do a PB to boost his GPA, the adcom would think this person doesn't know what's weak about himself as he's reapplying, and will most likely reject him again.
Click to expand...
What else can he do if he doesn't get in this year. Doing postbac to show that he stills interesting in the dental field and it gives him a year to rethink why he doesn't get in this cycle
 
Doctorishere12345 said:
What else can he do if he doesn't get in this year. Doing postbac to show that he stills interesting in the dental field and it gives him a year to rethink why he doesn't get in this cycle
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Doing a PB with a 3.7 GPA will most likely only boost the GPA by 0.01-0.05, there are people here who get accepted with average GPA like 3.5-3.6. I would recommend him to retake the DAT to score 23+ AA to become extremely competitive if he feels the need to. You can show interest in dental field in other ways by pursuing a DA job at an office instead. This person is smart enough to get into dental school, so taking more classes ain't gonna help him when he has better use of his time doing more involved dental field experiences instead of studying.
 
youngsushi said:
Doing a PB with a 3.7 GPA will most likely only boost the GPA by 0.01-0.05, there are people here who get accepted with average GPA like 3.5-3.6. I would recommend him to retake the DAT to score 23+ AA to become extremely competitive if he feels the need to. You can show interest in dental field in other ways by pursuing a DA job at an office instead. This person is smart enough to get into dental school, so taking more classes ain't gonna help him when he has better use of his time doing more involved dental field experiences instead of studying.
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His DAT is good enough - he's gotten 7 interviews. The interviews are the problem!
 
I doubt there were any red flags because you would have likely been rejected on Dec 3rd if there were. Your stats are slightly above average as well, so something definitely was off with your interviews. Maybe you were over confident and appeared cocky or it could be something else.

I'd say you are likely to get accepted in the next couple months as people decline offers at multiple schools
 
my advice is to be patient until the second round of acceptances go out. If none by then, be patient some more. You could reach out to each school asking for feedback in the meantime if you want to
 
clark5013 said:
my advice is to be patient until the second round of acceptances go out. If none by then, be patient some more. You could reach out to each school asking for feedback in the meantime if you want to
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Do schools give you feedback if you haven't gotten a formal rejection yet?
 
Faefly said:
Can you share your insight on the matter?
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I had one guy just make inappropriate jokes during the tour. I thought it was just me until my two colleagues said similar things when it came down to writing our thoughts on individuals.
 
Faux said:
I had one guy just make inappropriate jokes during the tour. I thought it was just me until my two colleagues said similar things when it came down to writing our thoughts on individuals.
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That's interesting, my tour guides always said that they had no involvement in the admissions process. I've always played it safe anyway, but I've never noticed them attempt to memorize names or anything like that.
 
jLaws said:
That's interesting, my tour guides always said that they had no involvement in the admissions process. I've always played it safe anyway, but I've never noticed them attempt to memorize names or anything like that.
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Probably depends on the school, but we also give input to admissions. Good or bad.
 
jLaws said:
That's interesting, my tour guides always said that they had no involvement in the admissions process. I've always played it safe anyway, but I've never noticed them attempt to memorize names or anything like that.
Click to expand...

Well it was a sheet with pictures.
 
Faux said:
I had one guy just make inappropriate jokes during the tour. I thought it was just me until my two colleagues said similar things when it came down to writing our thoughts on individuals.
Click to expand...
When it comes down to interviewees who are cordial, but a little reserved is that seen negatively or neutral?
 
Blueshirts said:
When it comes down to interviewees who are cordial, but a little reserved is that seen negatively or neutral?
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course not lol. and I doubt our opinion matters much except for feeling out the bad eggs
 
Faux said:
I had one guy just make inappropriate jokes during the tour. I thought it was just me until my two colleagues said similar things when it came down to writing our thoughts on individuals.
Click to expand...
Which school?
 
jLaws said:
That's interesting, my tour guides always said that they had no involvement in the admissions process. I've always played it safe anyway, but I've never noticed them attempt to memorize names or anything like that.
Click to expand...
I heard that just means they normally don't give feedback. But if you do something very inappropriate that makes you stand out in a negative way, that doesn't mean they can't say anything.
 
princeafrica said:
Nah
Luck comes to the most prepared
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One of my favorite sayings. During residency interviews I sometimes ask the applicants " given the choice, would you rather be skillful or lucky?"
About the OP, everyone has to understand that even though the stats look good, lot's of applicants have those stats, and the schools cannot admit everyone. When the dust settles, and the deposits are made, some seats will open up and the OP may very well get in. Telling the OP that the interview is the problem is simply conjecture, as the interview is not a deal breaker for a class, unless we are talking about residency, where the PD must work directly with the resident. Most D school interviewers will not see any student for more than a semester.
Class admission is based on the schools agenda, which we are not aware of, and is not public knowledge. The OP should sit tight, and not stress.
 
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