Acceptance Question

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mvenus929

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Please note that I have not applied to medical school, nor will I apply in this application cycle. I am just looking into the application process, as well as trying to strengthen my application.

So, I've been looking at various med schools, and saw that most require that you tell them whether you'll be attending within two weeks of acceptance. Obviously people drop if people on the waitlist frequently get accepted, but my question is: do most people declare their intent to enroll for the acceptances they get, and drop them as they get closer to their 'dream' school?

Sorry if it's an obvious question, but I'm a curious person. :)

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mvenus929 said:
do most people declare their intent to enroll for the acceptances they get, and drop them as they get closer to their 'dream' school?

I did. I was accepted outright to the first school I interviewed at, then wait-listed at my top 3 choices. Once the phone call came to #1 though, I dropped my first acceptance. Even with many schools having a lot of wait-list movement, there's never a guarantee that you'll get offered a spot, so you kind of have to take what you're given and go from there. I was lucky in that my initial acceptance didn't require an enrollment deposit, so I didn't even lose any money to them :) but that would never have held me back from going where I really wanted.
 
Unfortunately I think a large number of people will accept a position in every class they are offered one in. It isn't uncommon to have someone holding multiple acceptances right down to the May 15th deadline, at which point they ussually narrow it down to one in order to get their seat deposit back. There is nothing wrong with this and its the prerogative of those who have the acceptances to do so, but one would hope people withdraw from schools they know they won't be going to ASAP so that others are offered that position.

You can do this with allopathic schools because the deposit is small and refundable, the osteopathic schools on the other hand won't let you play this game with the astronomical seat deposits some of them have ($500 to a couple thousand)...and for the most part they are non-refundable.
 
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Alright, fair enough. Thanks for answering.

Got another one now: The MSAR for 07-08, that's for people who are planning on attending med school during that time, correct? Since I'm applying next year around this time, should I get one and browse through it, or just wait until next year's edition comes out?
 
Yep, you're right. The 07-08 is for people who plan to matriculate in Fall 07. If you can spare the cash it might be worth having to give you a general idea of schools you would be interested in. Otherwise, just wait and get one next year. Not sure exactly when it's released, but probably around the beginning of the summer.
 
mvenus929 said:
should I get one and browse through it, or just wait until next year's edition comes out?
Things don't change that much from year to year. Just add a few points to each school's MCAT and .25 to each school's GPA and you've pretty much got next year's edition.
 
hermit said:
Things don't change that much from year to year. Just add a few points to each school's MCAT and .25 to each school's GPA and you've pretty much got next year's edition.

:confused: I think that logic becomes flawed after a few years...
 
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