A Watched Mailbox Doesn't Boil

[locitamd]

What do you guys think? Is it safe to walk away from my inbox/mailbox till after the holidays?

At this point I'm still hoping for invites to interview, not acceptances.

The amount of time I spend clicking Send/Receive on my e-mail server, is not healthy. Like now for instance, nothing is coming through from an MD school @ 1.35 a.m. on a Friday night.

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[brandonite]

I have a steady stream of status check websites that I visit every couple hours. I mean, I seriously doubt that anything will change between 3 AM Sunday morning and 4 AM Sunday morning, but hey, you never know!

I hate this waiting! But I suppose you're right... Most adcoms have probably already broken for Christmas...

 

[Ranger Bob]

Man, I've gotten in the habit of doing the same thing! I sometimes imagine that the schools keep track of the number of times I access the status check page, and for each time I check it, they delay my interview invite one more day. If that's true, then it'll be 2003 by the time I interview at Northwestern. This is pathetic.

 

[brandonite]

It says on the Stanford site that all access is logged and monitored... I'm wondering if that goes into my file.

I'm not sure what the interviewer would think about that. Would that imply dedication or obsesion? Hopefully the former.

 

[locitamd]

If they go according to status checks, I'm pretty cetain Stanford has a restraining order out against me, as does my mailman. Man, I tracked that guy down three blocks away on the day he delivered my MCATs. Then when he finally got to my block, he found me throwing a hissy fit on my stoop.

On a slightly more serious note, most of the status check pages I've gone to don't seem to have a place where they'd indicate whether or not you've got an interview. Am I mistaken or just not blessed?

 

[brandonite]

Haha! Even if you and I get at interview at Stanford, we may not be allowed on campus due to the restraining order!

I was hoping something would show up on the screen. Most of them don't have a slot on there, but I was thinking that something might show up. That said, I haven't gotten an interview yet, so I don't really know a whole lot.

 

[locitamd]

I wouldn't mind going to gross anatomy in cuffs!



(I'll refrain from making any more comments, lest someone think I am alluding to the type of inappropriateness that happened at Pitt)

 

[brandonite]

Taking the 5th?

I think you'd have a ways to go to replicate that...

 

[locitamd]

Maybe we should consult with studentlawyer.net just in case.

 

[brandonite]

Now THAT would be a scary board.

Think of the slander lawsuits flying back and forth...

 

[locitamd]

Whereas a board w/2000+ are on it all day and night because they are afraid they might conceivably miss an e-mail (that may not come for another 3 months, if at all) is not scary?

 

[locitamd]

P.S. I'm guilty as charged, btw.

 

[brandonite]

I prefer not to think about things like that.

Making fun at others is much more comforting. It makes me feel better...

Besides, it is discomforting knowing that out there, somewhere, somebody knows the future of my life, and they just haven't told me yet... Especially since I haven't gotten a single interview yet (late in the game), let alone an acceptance.

 

[locitamd]

I feel less guilty when I make fun of myself instead of someone else.

And a. I have no acceptances either b. I'm concerned not that someone out there knows my future, but that they really don't care enough to even make a decision about it.

Whoa, can you tell the waiting is getting to me?

 

[THE instiGATOR]

My mailbox boils...when I wear my laser-emitting goggles, that is!

Seriously, if I don't hear from some of my "dream schools" soon, I'm gonna go NUTS!!! I'm heading home for a week, so maybe I'll find a nice Christmas present when I return to school.

 

[brandonite]

I was just kidding about the making fun of others thing. The waiting is getting to me, too...

Hopefully things will start to move again in January... I don't know if I can wait until then, though!

 

[SMW]

Don't give up hope yet, guys, even if they've all gone home now, whatever they gave the USPS before they left is slowly making it's way to and through the irradiating machines and out into the "homeland." So stop checking your e-mails and camp out by the mailbox. Except it's below zero here!

 

[brandonite]

Thanks, SMW! You've given me hope over the holidays. I'd forgotten about the anthrax problems... And mail usually takes another couple of days to get up here, so I might be in luck after all!

But, it's well below zero here, too, so I think camping outside by the mailbox is a good awy to freeze off some limbs... I'll just keep constant vigil by the window, k?

 

[E'01]

Originally posted by SwampMan:
•My mailbox boils...when I wear my laser-emitting goggles, that is!

Seriously, if I don't hear from some of my "dream schools" soon, I'm gonna go NUTS!!! I'm heading home for a week, so maybe I'll find a nice Christmas present when I return to school.•••

Swampman I am feeling you big time (no, not literally...) I too am going nuts. You know what's worst??? My little 11th grade brother gets college mail EVERY day. So I get the mail right, and I see like 5 letters and one was from Wash U!!!!!!! I was like, YES!!!!!!! But of course, it was the undergrad institution writing to my brother and not the medical school. Days like that I just wanna bawl

 

[locitamd]

Would it be so hard for med schools to post something on their websites, like "Hi, we're off to sunny Mexico for the holidays until (insert date), so go inside, stop freezing your laser goggles while waiting for the mailman, cause we ain't gonna to tell you squat until we get back. Until then, happy marguaritaville."

Now, would that be so difficult?

 

[mpp]

I think you'll find some admissions committees still working (probably not Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Years Day though). I have a phone interview with Mayo on December 27 so they'll be some people working there on Christmas week.

 

[EpiII]

I have to say, I think the best week of this whole process for me was the week that my computer at home crashed and I lost my hard drive. I couldn't check e-mail or SDN or status pages, etc at home (only at work). It relieved me of that nervous tension that builds and helps to make me uptight and edgy.

Unfortunately , the computer if fixed now.

 

[warpath]

Originally posted by brandonite:
•It says on the Stanford site that all access is logged and monitored... I'm wondering if that goes into my file.

I'm not sure what the interviewer would think about that. Would that imply dedication or obsesion? Hopefully the former.•••
I can't get access the status check on Stanford's website. Everytime I try to check my status, it says there's no record of me. And yet I have everything complete except 1 LOR. The weird thing is that everytime I email them, they answer all my questions except the one about the status check.

<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

 

[brandonite]

Well, I'm still waiting for my name to show up. Go figure. I still check it all the time anyway.

Who have you been talking to at Stanford? I have the direct numbers for both of their admissions councellors, if you want them. Perhaps on the phone they might be a little more forthcoming.

 

[locitamd]

When you e-mailed them, did they acknowledge that they had received your materials? 2 other considerations: 1. Canadians seem to have been having some difficulties with Stanford. 2. I don't think you show up unless you've been invited to complete a secondary.

It sounds like the latter is't your issue, but perhaps the former is?

Other than that, I spoke to both ad com officers (their info is listed on the website) over the summer, i.e. before I had applied, and both could not have been nicer. I say try giving them a call.

Good luck with it

 

[Yogi Bear]

A more internet based-quote:
-A watched mailbox doesn't say "You've got mail"
or
-A watched mailbox doesn't say: "Ta-da`" (dunno how to spell those songs in outlook/eudora"

 

[brandonite]

I'm not worried about my application. There was a problem with Canadians - they told me that they didn't get our addresses transferred correctly from AMCAS (grr...), so they couldn't send us an invitation to send in a secondary. I finally had to call them last week, and they told me over the phone that I could send in a secondary, which I did about two hours later.

Anyway, I was also confused between the secondary application website and the status check website. They are two different things. I was checking the status check thinking it would tell me if I got a secondary, but it turns out that you don't show up in the status check until after the secondary has been received. Thus, I was checking the secondary site for months for no good reason.

Anyway, as soon as they get around to updating the site, I should be in the status check. I received the confirmation that they had received my application by email.

Both Juhn and Patricia have been great, though! Try giving them a call, warpath, if things don't improve... They seem to respond better to phone calls.

 

[brandonite]

Originally posted by meddude03:
•A more internet based-quote:
-A watched mailbox doesn't say "You've got mail"
or
-A watched mailbox doesn't say: "Ta-da`" (dunno how to spell those songs in outlook/eudora"•••

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, though does it? Somehow I don't think those will catch on.

 

[locitamd]

I'm flattered.

 

[locitamd]

hey Brandonite? Are we the only late night SDN'ers?

 

[brandonite]

I'm always on here at night... I'm a late night kinda guy. I think 90% of my posts come after midnight. Go figure.

I think you and I are applying to the same sort of school. I see your name pop up all the time in threads that I follow. Is your Stanford application complete? Are you just waiting to hear about an interview.

And I can completely relate to your desire to go to a Cali school. It's too cold here now!!

 

[locitamd]

We do seem to have a lot of the same schools in common. My Stanford app is complete, I had my sec done back in the first week of Oct, but my recs didn't come through until last week of November - so I'm kind of behind the 8-ball everywhere.

At this point, I'm willing to go anywhere within the continental US, but I'd prefer more urban setting if I have the luxury of choosing.

Where exactly are you?

 

[locitamd]

P.S. You can say our late hours are good training for residency

 

[brandonite]

I just submitted in October, so I've been behind since the beginning. And I just submitted by Stanford app three days ago (I'm having letters FedEx'd over, so they should have them this week). So, I don't expect to hear from them until well into January.

I'm from Manitoba, Canada, right on the border with North Dakota. I applied to Stanford, UCSF, Yale, Harvard, Duke, Washington, and Cornell, and my local school in Manitoba. No interviews yet. Sigh. It'd be ncie to hear something, but I suppose I can only blame myself for procrastinating...