Accepted but reapplying...need some opinions...

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lepetit

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kinda in a similar situation...any thoughts?
 
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As I understand it, it is viewed pretty poorly if you are accepted somewhere and decline so you can reapply. However, I've only inquired about MD only degrees, your situation is somewhat different and may give you a little more room to make a case. I can't offer you a lot of insight here, but I would suggest contacting the admissions departments at the schools you are interested in attending to see how they would view your reasoning.
 
It may be difficult to say you turned down the MD program because your intention was MD-PhD, and then apply only to MD programs the following cycle.
 
I would be very concerned about turning down your only acceptance to reapply later. I know people who did this only to not get accepted anywhere the second and third time around. With your gpa, you were lucky to get in. If it were me, I would take the acceptance and make the best of it. You can always pursue other academic aspirations later on.
 
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lepetit said:
well..it would be turning down the md program because i've never had a chance to actually see the school and get to interact with the students...and that's what i would tell programs if they bring up that point. i believe it's a valid one too. i dunno about you, but does it seem logical to accept a choice where you've never even seen the place? how would u ever know u're going to be happy there for the next four years?

and before u say it's an md, just do the time, yes...i understand that u'll have an md after four years, but one, i don't want the 450,000 price tag to force me into choosing a specific specialty, and two, i just feel really weird about accepting a place i've never been to. i believe that's why the interview is important because u look for the place where u fit..and ultimately where u feel u can get the best education.
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Did you ask someone at admissions about flying out to visit the school?

Why did current students tell you not to come, simply because you're OOS? Do the professors only give A's to state residents or what?

And your GPA's are on the very low end for being accepted to an MD program. I agree that you are lucky to get in.
 
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Withdraw your application. Don't reapply to that school. Apply elsewhere adn if asked about the previous cycle, say you withdrew your application when you realized that the school was not a good fit with your career goals.

You *might* want to make a hurried visit to the campus that has offered you admission before you turn down the offer. It is possible that it may be the only offer you ever get. Would you rather not be a physician than to attend that school? If so, go ahead and drop them without a visit, otherwise, hurry your a*s over there before May 15.
 
lepetit said:
is may 15th the day that is like the point of no return sorta day? @.@

thanks for the reply LizzyM..

so you would say that my application is fairly competitive to apply for another round, given i apply to 30+ schools?

edit: o and of course i will NOT reapply to that school. schools will not know whether i was accepted unless they do some investigative work on their end - contrary to what others on sdn like to say all the time. it is only whether u have applied before and whether u have matriculated NOT whether u have been accepted. now, some schools do ask this on the secondary in which case i could explain my rationale.
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yes, may 15th is when the waitlist of many schools start to move.
 
Honestly, you need to take this acceptance or think about other career plans. I say that because you are basically maxed out on stats. As you say, your GPA can't go up any more. Your MCAT is already good enough and it would be very risky to retake. The only possible benefit you can get from another year would be that added research experience, but you already have a lot and it didn't work. Med school admissions are only getting more competitive each year. For these reasons, it is unlikely that you will fair better next cycle. What reason do you have to think that you will get into an MD/PhD program or even another MD program next year?

You can still do research including bench research with just an MD. If the PhD is that important to you, and you are that research focused, maybe you would be better off applying to PhD programs and going the pure research route?
 
Also, you should certainly attempt to visit the campus before you withdraw. Maybe it's not as bad as the rumor mill makes it out to be. 450 does sound ridiculously high. Is that including debt from your undergrad and postbacc?
 
I've never met an attending who is crippled by his debt. Just go to the school, then lament the 200k you could have saved, or the PhD you could have had, as you live in your nice house with your well-provided-for family while having a career you're passionate towards. Document your struggles and create the most mundane memoir anyone's ever read.
 
lepetit said:
no i will be applying MD only this second round if i do reapply. the reason why i think i have a shot is because i got 6 interviews, and while my stats aren't the best, having applied md phd and got sent to the md pile really late in the cycle (Sept/Oct) i still got those interviews.

if i get into a school that i'm on the waitlist for right now, then hands down i will attend. i am not interested in the sole phd because while i like and enjoy research a lot, i ultimately want to see patients.

in ref. to ur 2nd question, no i paid off all my undergrad debt just recently. the 450,000 is for med school ONLY. yes, it's really high.
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So you applied only to MD/PhD, and all your interviews were as a result of being bumped into the MD pile at some of those programs? Well, that is a little more hopeful, but not much. As others have said, you are on the lower end of GPA and MCAT is fine but not stellar. Your chances are decent if you apply broadly, but this is a big risk to take. Certainly you need to give the acceptance you have every opportunity to win you over before you flush it down the toilet.
 
BrooklynBulls said:
I've never met an attending who is crippled by his debt. Just go to the school, then lament the 200k you could have saved, or the PhD you could have had, as you live in your nice house with your well-provided-for family while having a career you're passionate towards. Document your struggles and create the most mundane memoir anyone's ever read.
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450k in debt is nothing to sneeze at my man. That will be upwards of 700k in repayment when all is said and done. I'm not saying you would be in the bread line, but if you go into peds or something else on the lower end of the payscale, those loan payments could be a hefty portion of your monthly income. Almost any attending you have met will have well less than half that debt from their education. 5 years ago med school was much cheaper and even today most people graduate with something in the high 100s.
 
I looked up tuition at your school and unless I am reading the numbers wrong, your figure of 450,000 is way wrong. The OOS tuition that I saw is in line with other schools. Also take a look at the interview questionnaire results on this site for this school. They are ok, some very positive and some not so positive.
 
lepetit said:
the first year is around 90000 dollars including tuition and cost of living...what u may have discounted was the summer tuition. you pay summer tuition for ur m2 and m3 years which is an added 30,000 dollars each on top of the yearly tuition. m4 year is another 90000. so added that with other costs such as books/mandatory fees, cost comes out to 450,000.

unfortunately... :eek:
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Jesus. How much is cost of living in these numbers?
 
lepetit said:
two interviews were solely md/phd (one at an mstp), two were md only i had applied to as backup, and two interviews were md interview offers after md/phd rejection. i will have three years of straight A's essentially in all science classes, and will adcoms see that and hopefully make a more informed decision?

i also just wanted to say...if i do get accepted from any of the other schools i'm currently on the waitlist for, i will HAPPILY go.
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They might. They might not. Upward trend is important, but you are still on the low end. I'd take the acceptance and run with it, but you have to make your own decision. Environment, by the way, is not nearly as important as you think it is. Life in med school is pretty similar no matter where you go. It is nonstop studying and class. There will be malignant people and professors, but plenty that you get along with and even like.
 
I'm confused. You don't have enough money to fly out and see the school but in a month you will have enough funds to apply for a whole new cycle for 30 schools?

Regardless, you owe it to yourself to check out the location of this school before turning it down. Your stats are on the very low end and even though you did receive 6 interviews you, in my opinion are lucky to have an acceptance.

I also don't believe the 450k for four years unless the school factors in a considerable amount for cost of living. Most people can get by with not taking all of the money out for cost of living and save 10k or more in loans by living reasonably. No reason you have to accept all 450k in loans, especially the portion for cost of living. OOS students always get screwed at state schools, thats across the board, not just at the specific one you were accepted to. Unless you reapply and get accepted to your own state school you will be looking at a hefty price tag for any other school you are accepted to. Even if those schools are only 250k for four years, the extra year you took off to reapply and assuming you make 200k after your residency it all evens out in the end since you will lose a year making 200k by taking another year off.

My opinion, go to the school you were accepted at. You will be studying and attending class no matter where you go, its going to suck and be hard but its four years of your life and in the end you have your MD. I don't think anyone can predict where they will or will not be happy. You may think you love a school and you get there and it isn't for you. You make think you will hate going somewhere and it could be the best fit for you. Take the acceptance, do well and thank your lucky stars that you are on your way to becoming a doc.
 
lepetit said:
70,000 for tuition, 20,000 for coa which is modest because it's a major urban city.

man..i really don't want to go to this school i feel like i'm jumping into an unknown abyss :/ i know some people who don't have an acceptance think i'm crazy, but honestly...if you are going to pay upwards of a million bucks and at someplace u've never even been at...this is a hard decision to make after 7 years of trying to repair my app.
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It's as stupid if not stupider to walk away with out ever checking the place out as it is to go without checking it out. Check it out. Now.
 
reddoc said:
What school is this?
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Holy crap that's expensive... can you PM me the school too? My friend is applying and he's got big loans coming up.
 
dbeast said:
Holy crap that's expensive... can you PM me the school too? My friend is applying and he's got big loans coming up.
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It's UIC. Unless there is another school with 450K COA for OOS with extra costs for M2 and M3 summers and with multiple campus locations.
 
lepetit said:
hey guys,

i'm a lurker here but this is my first post. so long story short...

3.48 cumulative gpa, 3.20 science only gpa (had a really strong upward grade trend though after sophomore year...i'm talking 2.11 to 3.48) after doing two years of straight A's at a postbacc coupled with two years of very strong grades my last two years of undergrad
32T on the mcat (10P/11V/11B) - did a first bachelor's degree at an ivy school, then did my postbacc at a nearby state school close to home
2 years of significant research experience in one lab at the post-bacc (one 2nd author pub, potential first author pub very soon...and now that this application cycle is over, i will have had 3 years of research experience)
excellent letters from professors, especially my PI
250 hours of clinical experience + shadowing at two different hospitals

so i applied this cycle to mostly MD/PhD's with a few backup MD's, and understandably since my app was not numbers heavy, i only had two MD/PhD interviews and 4 MD only interviews (two of these interviews i had initially applied to the MD/PhD program...but was denied and transferred to MD where i received an interview offer) - so 6 interviews this cycle so far

now...after this cycle, i have only gotten into one MD program. the funny thing is, i interviewed with the school in one location, and they placed me into another location for the med school! i was shocked by this...did everything i could to transfer my site to the location i had actually interviewed at (since my plan was to apply internally as an MD/PhD internal applicant...but now i'm having doubts because the program said they don't really take internal applicants) - i honestly thought about this for a long time, and i would have had no problem attending the other schools i received interviews at, because i was able to see how the students liked their school and get a feel for the school itself when i visited. i believe that going to a school just because i got accepted may set me up for disaster my first year..

given my stats, how favorable is it to apply MD only next cycle, if i withdraw my app?

i understand that one, i shouldn't have applied to a school i wouldn't want to go, but frankly, i applied to the MD/PhD program, and when i was denied, i was offered an MD interview - i didn't think i would be placed at a different site entirely - yeah if i had been placed at the site where i interviewed at, then it would be no problem i would go. two, there was no 2nd look, no information whatsoever to direct me to making an informed decision by talking with students (and the students who i have interacted with online have told me that it's a stupid choice to go to that school as an OOS candidate), and the only positive feedback i've gotten from the admissions office is how much money i need to pay (and it is a lot, by golly - over 450,000 and counting).

so...i was thinking about reapplying to MD only next cycle, with:
new essays
one more year of research experience
one more year of straight A's (although this will only raise my overall GPA up to a 3.49 since i've taken so many classes already)
two more letters of rec from a prof and the chair of my major department
and an explanation in my personal statement of why my grades were so low the first time around (had some issues at home that i had to deal with and fortunately, they have now been resolved but the damage was done)

question is, how competitive would i be for MD schools? should i retake my mcat? my understanding is that medical schools do not know whether i've been accepted to a school unless they do some investigative work (there is only a button for whether i applied before and whether i matriculated) i applied to a lot of MD/PhD schools the first time, and after talking to some of them, they said it was a combo of my low gpa and mcat - but i understand MD takes a different vantage point. i'm a CA resident if that helps. if i do reapply, i will be ONLY applying to MD schools, and a lot of them as well...is there a suggested range of schools?

thanks so much!!!
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You'd be insane to not accept with those stats... No offense, but my friend has applied twice with a 32 MCAT, 3.9 uGPA and 4.0 gGPA and she has nothing but waitlists. But if you want to take that insane gamble as a reapplicant, go ahead. They may not see that you turned down an acceptance, but they will know you are a reapplicant.
 
Withdrawing an MD acceptance so that you can reapply??? LOL Either you are Colonel Troll himself or simply an idiot.
 
lepetit said:
yup unfortunately i have to take out all loans. the financial aid for the school wasn't very helpful actually...

in all honesty, if i get into any other school that i'm on the waitlist for, and i have a couple of waitlists, i am done and gone lol.

i did a bit of thinking today and i guess so many people are against reapplying for good reasons no doubt. i will probably end up going just because it is an MD school and that was my goal from the beginning.

any other applicants who have done otherwise and were successful at all?
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I know a guy who didn't accept several MD-PhD admissions (including Cornell and Hopkins) and reapplied two years later after a post-bacc research program. He wanted to go to a very specific school (which he got into).

So, at least with Md-PhDs, it is possible to reapply after accepted and do well.
 
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