Anyone decline acceptance, reapply, and get in?

[pasta man]

There has been a lot of heated discussion on SDN about this topic. Basically, someone will post saying he was accepted to a med school but doesn't really want to go there - is it okay if he declines the acceptance and reapplies the following year (or later)? People will jump in left and right saying...
1. Doing this will say to med schools that he is not serious about medicine, and no med school will want to take him if he had the chance to be a doctor and turned it down because of frivolous prestige/location reasons.
2. He is an idiot for applying to schools he really didn't want to attend.

To put response #1 to rest:
Is there anyone out there who was accepted, declined the acceptance, and reapplied? Were you accepted again (to a "better" school, perhaps)? Or did you find the market exceedingly harder the second time around?

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[Kikaku21]

There has been a lot of heated discussion on SDN about this topic. Basically, someone will post saying he was accepted to a med school but doesn't really want to go there - is it okay if he declines the acceptance and reapplies the following year (or later)? People will jump in left and right saying...
1. Doing this will say to med schools that he is not serious about medicine, and no med school will want to take him if he had the chance to be a doctor and turned it down because of frivolous prestige/location reasons.
2. He is an idiot for applying to schools he really didn't want to attend.

To put response #1 to rest:
Is there anyone out there who was accepted, declined the acceptance, and reapplied? Were you accepted again (to a "better" school, perhaps)? Or did you find the market exceedingly harder the second time around?

This is a good question. I have not seen any actual data, including anecdotes on SDN, suggesting that you are screwed for declining and reapplying.

 

[SpiresAAC]

A friend of mine was on the waitlist of a few schools the first year he applied. One of the schools where he was waitlisted accepted him the day before orientation. He declined the acceptance, cause he already had a job and a plan to apply again the next year. The second time he applied he was accepted to his first choice med school, and he is now an emergency medicine resident.

 

[pasta man]

Only one person has actually done this?

 

[Rocket3004]

others have, as this topic has come up before. I *think* that it may be school dependent on how they "view" this.

 

[Darksmurf]

Please see this thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=366451

 

[Carl Weathers]

An interesting question could be turning down a DO school to apply MD. I think I remember reading a thread where someone applied to an MD school the first semester they were at a DO school. Supposedly, they got into the MD school, but they had to redo their first semester.