All schools tell you reasons for rejection? A myth.

[vitaminX]

Being currently on the waitlist of my dream school, I can't do anything but wait, so in the meantime I decided to call up some schools that rejected me and ask for their reasons for doing so. Although I didn't feel bad about getting rejected by those particular schools, I was shocked by their complete lack of willingness to reveal the reasons for my rejection. The only school who gave me *a thread of hope* of eventually getting that information is UCLA, who told me to call back in June and ask again. But all other schools simply and adamantly refused to help me out.

Has this happened to anyone else?

p.s. This is not related to the topic, but I am extremely disappointed with Stanford Med School's lack of communication. The man in charge of my file always has an answering machine on (with a message saying that he'll get to the caller soon), but he never gets back to me, not even for the messages I left back in January. I heard from another person in the Admissions that he's always there in the office but just doesn't want to pick up the phone. What an awesome dude you are, Mr. V.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Nikki]

Maybe you shouldn't direct your question as "Why did you reject me?" but rather "I'm preparing to reapply next year (even if you aren't), and I was wondering if you could help me to improve my application or let me know my weaknesses" or something like that. I have always heard that most of the time schools are open to tell you where you can improve on your application. It's worth a try.

 

[Mystique]

I think Nikki has made a great suggestion. Try her approach. Some schools will tell you to talk to your pre-med advisor, but usually most will work w/ you if you ask them to pinpoint the weaknesses in your application.

 

[vitaminX]

Actually, I have always asked them very politely.

This is how I have always asked (almost the exact words): "Hi, good morning, I have received a rejection letter from your office, but I plan to reapply again this summer, so could you please let me know what I lacked in my previous application? I really wish to know how I could improve my chances of getting in XXXXX[the name of the school in question]. Thank you."

I have always formulated my question this way, if there is anything wrong with this question that's preventing me from getting helpful responses, please let me know.

 

[relatively prime]

I think Nikki's version is better.. it's a little softer. I think the words "rejection letter" and "improve my chances" just don't sound good for whatever reason...
I could be wrong though. Good luck

 

[pwrpfgrl]

The first time around, when I asked the school that rejected me what I could do better they basically gave me the "oh, well, we had so many qualified applicants and we can only take a small number of them" blah blah blah spiel. I wish they would have just told me to check out SDN!! It's way more informative!!

 

[oldman]

Dr. Becker at the U of MN is willing to schedule time to go over your application. She's very nice.