Application Horror Stories

[ScrubswithnoSleeves]

Here is a thread to vent your application horror stories and potentially help other applicants avoid situations you fell victim to.

I will start with the awful event that inspired me to start this thread:

I received an email today that my application was withdrawn from one of my top choice schools. I called the admissions office, and they said they had offered me an interview 2 weeks ago, and followed up, but received no response from me. I was shocked because I had been checking my email every day, but it turns out that good'ol Gmail had sorted these emails into my spam/promotions folder. They said that there was, unfortunately, nothing they could do, and proceeded to tell me about their school of podiatry. This is the ONLY MD II I have received, so this hits extra hard. ironically, the email notifying me of my "withdrawal" was not filtered to spam... ha ha.

So:

1. Go through every school's email and apply filters to mark them as important and sort them into the correct folder.
2. Don't make fun of the kids that are checking every school's portal each day because maybe they are on to something.

UPDATE 1:

After emailing the director of admissions with an appeal, I was still told that there was nothing they could do. They have a strict policy to withdraw applicants two weeks after an II without a response. I am sending one last email to the assistant dean of admissions, but I expect the same response.

FINAL UPDATE:

Got the nail in the coffin today from the assistant dean of admissions. . Understandable tho, tbh two weeks to respond is quite generous. Learn from my mistakes!

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[Lifeblood_20]

Darn, I'm so sorry that happened.

 

[neurotic_lemongrab]

Wow that is heartbreaking. My story is not as bad, but I somehow completed my secondary, paid for my secondary, only to realize I never hit submit :-( $100 for a school I didn't even technically complete the application for

 

[r2med]

Here is a thread to vent your application horror stories and potentially help other applicants avoid situations you fell victim to.

I will start with the awful event that inspired me to start this thread:

I received an email today that my application was withdrawn from one of my top choice schools. I called the admissions office, and they said they had offered me an interview 2 weeks ago, and followed up, but received no response from me. I was shocked because I had been checking my email every day, but it turns out that good'ol Gmail had sorted these emails into my spam/promotions folder. They said that there was, unfortunately, nothing they could do, and proceeded to tell me about their school of podiatry. This is the ONLY MD II I have received, so this hits extra hard. ironically, the email notifying me of my "withdrawal" was not filtered to spam... ha ha.

So:

1. Go through every school's email and apply filters to mark them as important and sort them into the correct folder.
2. Don't make fun of the kids that are checking every school's portal each day because maybe they are on to something.

That really sucks. Good luck to you to get other IIs soon. Do you mind sharing the name of the school so others who have applied to the same school can watch out?

 

[bngli]

This is why I rely on Outlook for important stuff. Even for "spam" e-mails, Outlook will send a weekly email with a summary of all of the spam e-mails that were blocked from the main inbox. I rarely trust G-Mail for professional stuff - maybe they have a setting that will allow the same, but it is much easier when it is on by default.

 

[ScrubswithnoSleeves]

That really sucks. Good luck to you to get other IIs soon. Do you mind sharing the name of the school so others who have applied to the same school can watch out?

Yeah this was Rosalin Franklin

 

[RJ McReady]

OP
I’m sorry to read that.
this is truly tragic
If I were you, I would find your acceptance email and snail mail/email/call or somehow directly speak to the director of admissions and plead your case. And if you have no luck with that, go up the chain to the dean of the medical school. You have nothing to lose.

 

[r2med]

OP
I’m sorry to read that.
this is truly tragic
If I were you, I would find your acceptance email and snail mail/email/call or somehow directly speak to the director of admissions and plead your case. And if you have no luck with that, go up the chain to the dean of the medical school. You have nothing to lose.

Agree with this poster.

 

[PigsHaveWings]

OP
I’m sorry to read that.
this is truly tragic
If I were you, I would find your acceptance email and snail mail/email/call or somehow directly speak to the director of admissions and plead your case. And if you have no luck with that, go up the chain to the dean of the medical school. You have nothing to lose.

Agree 100% with this. Make a thread of the emails and take screenshots of all of them and go to the director of admissions, if no luck definitely higher up to the Dean.

 

[TheMCATWorther112]

Yeah this was Rosalin Franklin

Sorry to hear about this. Was there any change in the application portal after you were selected for an interview?

 

[DNAJB6]

Here is a thread to vent your application horror stories and potentially help other applicants avoid situations you fell victim to.

I will start with the awful event that inspired me to start this thread:

I received an email today that my application was withdrawn from one of my top choice schools. I called the admissions office, and they said they had offered me an interview 2 weeks ago, and followed up, but received no response from me. I was shocked because I had been checking my email every day, but it turns out that good'ol Gmail had sorted these emails into my spam/promotions folder. They said that there was, unfortunately, nothing they could do, and proceeded to tell me about their school of podiatry. This is the ONLY MD II I have received, so this hits extra hard. ironically, the email notifying me of my "withdrawal" was not filtered to spam... ha ha.

So:

1. Go through every school's email and apply filters to mark them as important and sort them into the correct folder.
2. Don't make fun of the kids that are checking every school's portal each day because maybe they are on to something.

I am so sorry. I feel for you. Who did you talk to in the admissions office? Any chance you could email the dean of admissions directly?

 

[r2med]

@ScrubswithnoSleeves - did you contact the Director or anyone else? Hope you got a positive outcome. Please keep us posted.

 

[Damson]

Agree with above to contact more people to get that interview

 

[deleted1064759]

OP
I’m sorry to read that.
this is truly tragic
If I were you, I would find your acceptance email and snail mail/email/call or somehow directly speak to the director of admissions and plead your case. And if you have no luck with that, go up the chain to the dean of the medical school. You have nothing to lose.

I don't think OP was accepted. It seems like an II email.

I would be profusely apologetic and send multiple emails to admissions coordinators and deans that demonstrate your very strong interest in the school. You have nothing to lose at this point.

PS, the podiatry suggestion was just a massive slap in the face.

 

[ScrubswithnoSleeves]

Hey All,

Thank you for your kind words.

I have sent a well-written email to the director of admissions and he said he will be taking my appeal into account and sending it up the chain.

I will keep everyone posted. My expectations are low, but I am glad I sent the email and I wouldn't have done that if it weren't for you guys urging me to do so. So, thanks haha.

 

[r2med]

Hey All,

Thank you for your kind words.

I have sent a well-written email to the director of admissions and he said he will be taking my appeal into account and sending it up the chain.

I will keep everyone posted. My expectations are low, but I am glad I sent the email and I wouldn't have done that if it weren't for you guys urging me to do so. So, thanks haha.

Good luck. Send a reminder in a few. As other posters said - you've got nothing to lose at this point. Of course, be polite and nice and apologetic at all times.

 

[canquito]

OP, your story hits close to home. I also have missed a crucial interview because of gmail's spam filter. I wish you the best of luck and hope the school grants you another II.

 

[RJ McReady]

Hey All,

Thank you for your kind words.

I have sent a well-written email to the director of admissions and he said he will be taking my appeal into account and sending it up the chain.

I will keep everyone posted. My expectations are low, but I am glad I sent the email and I wouldn't have done that if it weren't for you guys urging me to do so. So, thanks haha.

Good luck!!

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

Not exactly a horror story but I was accepted a week before classes started and had three days to drive across the country after getting everything in order at home. I had already submitted half of my applications for the next cycle! I can’t bring myself to check my spreadsheet and see how much $ I threw into the second cycle.

To avoid: submit apps your first cycle as early as possible and be a better applicant than I was...

 

[PhD_to_DO]

This didn’t happen to me but its a cautionary tale regarding the importance of being honest in your applications. My wife is faculty at one of our home state DO programs and also sits on the admissions committee. She was reviewing an applicants file as the student was selected for an interview. She noticed that one of the students letters of recommendation mentioned that the student had attended a Caribbean medical school. She took a peek at the students AACOMAS and it didn’t indicate that the student had ever attended a medical school and there was no transcript from the school in question. My wife went on to read the students PS and the student mentioned that that they’ed been an EMT at this particular school and that they’ed taught CPR to Med 1 students. The app raised enough flags that she referred it to the chair of the admissions committee and they will likely not go thru with the interview.

My wife’s school has interviewed Caribbean transfer students in the past and even offered an acceptance to one last year. The thing is, be honest in your apps; if you’re not, you may well be found out. Not a good look.

 

[Damson]

Not exactly a horror story but I was accepted a week before classes started and had three days to drive across the country after getting everything in order at home. I had already submitted half of my applications for the next cycle! I can’t bring myself to check my spreadsheet and see how much $ I threw into the second cycle.

To avoid: submit apps your first cycle as early as possible and be a better applicant than I was...

my god

grats tho man

 

[seikilos]

Not for med school, but a postbacc. Trying to keep it as brief as possible.

I had been looking at a public college in Illinois that my father went to. I was given nearly zero correspondence throughout March to July of what my options were for pursuing a postbacc/second bachelors as a career changer with no background yet.

The year prior before covid I had reached out and in similar fashion despite directly following up on leads by admins/advising I was not responded to. Because of this, I graduated from a business school without knowing their LAS policy that students with a degree cannot study biology or an adjacent field and must register as a non-degree seeking student.

So for nearly 3-5 months March/April onward I sought advising and wrote to every director and advising office for information on the ambiguous policy on their college website that made it seem like the second bachelors policy was up to the discretion of the department.

I was lead on by the liberal arts and sciences program and their advising team, saying they correspond with the department and we would figure it out through the summer. They said worst case scenario I would be able to even TA as a non-degree seeking student so it'd be better for me and so on. One month until school starts, I still haven't gotten confirmation and my application is ready to go. I call every single day to the advising office and finally got in touch with an administrative director of the LAS program who told me I should give up on pursuing that policy because the school year would start in 3 and a half weeks and there's too many hoops to jump through.

I saw that the bioengineering college took on second bachelors, and seemed like by some divine providence had the interest areas I was passionate toward.

Based on the recommendation from the administrative director + graduate advisor I followed up with the pre-health advising office who did deferred me to the bioengineering advising team. No response! I email the director. Finally, a good man I thought.

He said he will help me follow up with an academic advisor of his department(who I already reached out to) for further information I needed on the program as well as addressing more technical concerns as I had maybe two and a half weeks until the end of August when classes would start to apply and get admitted(the deadline was extended over the summer to the first week or so of August).

He takes days to follow up and connect me, but I stay patient. However hilarious I couldn't even get the advisor to respond with him directly contacting them and CC'ing me on the email. I have a maybe two weeks now to get in for the fall, but despite this I feel confident because he's allegedly in my corner. I follow up and call them and email them because I know this will push me back entering medical school for at least a half a year or more if I don't sort it out.

No response for almost a half a week. Finally hear back the following the weekend with a week and a half until classes start, she tells me basically tells me "I don't know what you want" despite having explained exactly the information I needed to her in email for weeks and that it would take less than 30 minutes to address but regardless I'm not her problem and she can't help me. I reply tactfully and respectfully and just beg her for her but still no response!

I follow up with the director again, and he tells me to contact the Dean of the Engineering college. I call two days in a row, leave messages briefly and no response. Again, following up, the director CC's me in a short email with the Dean, explaining my situation with the college over the past few months and if I could get help with late admit. Classes start after the weekend, and he replies the day before stating he cannot get me in this semester, but I will be taken care of moving forward. Said to email him my transcripts and desperately find a way into a Calculus I course(I had taken business calc without trig) as it is the minimum requirement to be admitted into the engineering college.

a month and a half later I apply to the engineering college for Winter semester. Discuss in an advising meeting with the director who said I have nothing to worry about, that I should literally start familiarizing myself with ****ing Matlab/CAD etc and email the Dean once more with him CC'd once I've applied stating that I have the directors "full support and backing" etc that I will succeed in the program.

I spent a long evening writing that email explaining my current status with the course he told me to take and excitement for the program.

Two days following that email I got denied.

Reason for the denial was that I don't meet the requirements of the program. They didn't even wait for my references to submit their LOR. That Calculus I course I clawed my way into and paid out of pocket, where I'm getting a 97% in with only the final left and is not sufficient enough to enter the program as a transfer applicant. The admissions email said I needed to start as a non-degree seeking student or take Calc II and Diff EQ for the next year so I could start in the Fall.

The Dean never responded to that email. He didn't even look at my application and similarly so with the director.

I could throw up writing this. I don't even want to appeal or have anything to do with this program at this point.

I applied nowhere else and had 2 days after being denied to find a new school to go to because of deadlines. If I cannot figure out financial aid/instate tuition, I would have to somehow pay 28-50k now(LOL) my first year for an out of state program that has accepted me this spring semester, or I will have wasted 2 years just beginning the premed/non-traditonal process.

Put a bullet in my face, I'm excited for more bureaucracy as this journey unfolds

 

[Damson]

Not for med school, but a postbacc. Trying to keep it as brief as possible.

I had been looking at a public college in Illinois that my father went to. I was given nearly zero correspondence throughout March to July of what my options were for pursuing a postbacc/second bachelors as a career changer with no background yet.

The year prior before covid I had reached out and in similar fashion despite directly following up on leads by admins/advising I was not responded to. Because of this, I graduated from a business school without knowing their LAS policy that students with a degree cannot study biology or an adjacent field and must register as a non-degree seeking student.

So for nearly 3-5 months March/April onward I sought advising and wrote to every director and advising office for information on the ambiguous policy on their college website that made it seem like the second bachelors policy was up to the discretion of the department.

I was lead on by the liberal arts and sciences program and their advising team, saying they correspond with the department and we would figure it out through the summer. They said worst case scenario I would be able to even TA as a non-degree seeking student so it'd be better for me and so on. One month until school starts, I still haven't gotten confirmation and my application is ready to go. I call every single day to the advising office and finally got in touch with an administrative director of the LAS program who told me I should give up on pursuing that policy because the school year would start in 3 and a half weeks and there's too many hoops to jump through.

I saw that the bioengineering college took on second bachelors, and seemed like by some divine providence had the interest areas I was passionate toward.

Based on the recommendation from the administrative director + graduate advisor I followed up with the pre-health advising office who did deferred me to the bioengineering advising team. No response! I email the director. Finally, a good man I thought.

He said he will help me follow up with an academic advisor of his department(who I already reached out to) for further information I needed on the program as well as addressing more technical concerns as I had maybe two and a half weeks until the end of August when classes would start to apply and get admitted(the deadline was extended over the summer to the first week or so of August).

He takes days to follow up and connect me, but I stay patient. However hilarious I couldn't even get the advisor to respond with him directly contacting them and CC'ing me on the email. I have a maybe two weeks now to get in for the fall, but despite this I feel confident because he's allegedly in my corner. I follow up and call them and email them because I know this will push me back entering medical school for at least a half a year or more if I don't sort it out.

No response for almost a half a week. Finally hear back the following the weekend with a week and a half until classes start, she tells me basically tells me "I don't know what you want" despite having explained exactly the information I needed to her in email for weeks and that it would take less than 30 minutes to address but regardless I'm not her problem and she can't help me. I reply tactfully and respectfully and just beg her for her but still no response!

I follow up with the director again, and he tells me to contact the Dean of the Engineering college. I call two days in a row, leave messages briefly and no response. Again, following up, the director CC's me in a short email with the Dean, explaining my situation with the college over the past few months and if I could get help with late admit. Classes start after the weekend, and he replies the day before stating he cannot get me in this semester, but I will be taken care of moving forward. Said to email him my transcripts and desperately find a way into a Calculus I course(I had taken business calc without trig) as it is the minimum requirement to be admitted into the engineering college.

a month and a half later I apply to the engineering college for Winter semester. Discuss in an advising meeting with the director who said I have nothing to worry about, that I should literally start familiarizing myself with ****ing Matlab/CAD etc and email the Dean once more with him CC'd once I've applied stating that I have the directors "full support and backing" etc that I will succeed in the program.

I spent a long evening writing that email explaining my current status with the course he told me to take and excitement for the program.

Two days following that email I got denied.

Reason for the denial was that I don't meet the requirements of the program. They didn't even wait for my references to submit their LOR. That Calculus I course I clawed my way into and paid out of pocket, where I'm getting a 97% in with only the final left and is not sufficient enough to enter the program as a transfer applicant. The admissions email said I needed to start as a non-degree seeking student or take Calc II and Diff EQ for the next year so I could start in the Fall.

The Dean never responded to that email. He didn't even look at my application and similarly so with the director.

I could throw up writing this. I don't even want to appeal or have anything to do with this program at this point.

I applied nowhere else and had 2 days after being denied to find a new school to go to because of deadlines. If I cannot figure out financial aid/instate tuition, I would have to somehow pay 28-50k now(LOL) my first year for an out of state program that has accepted me this spring semester, or I will have wasted 2 years just beginning the premed/non-traditonal process.

Put a bullet in my face, I'm excited for more bureaucracy as this journey unfolds

current stats (GPA+MCAT)?
is the post-bacc for covering med prereqs or gpa boost?
what is your plan now?

 

[seikilos]

current stats (GPA+MCAT)?
is the post-bacc for covering med prereqs or gpa boost?
what is your plan now?

Haven't taken the MCAT, it's a combination of GPA boost and doing the medicine prereqs(as well as clinical/cog psych prereqs in order to have options in case I don't get in). My GPA is a different nightmare story where my transcripts legitimately account for classes I withdrawed from, replaced grades for, and dropped. Would have a ~2.9, shows as a ~2.4.

 

[Damson]

@Goro

 

[Goro]

Haven't taken the MCAT, it's a combination of GPA boost and doing the medicine prereqs(as well as clinical/cog psych prereqs in order to have options in case I don't get in). My GPA is a different nightmare story where my transcripts legitimately account for classes I withdrawed from, replaced grades for, and dropped. Would have a ~2.9, shows as a ~2.4.

Do a DIY post-bac instead

 

[seikilos]

Do a DIY post-bac instead

Do you have a specific reason for that instead of a second bachelors? I'd like to but would have restrictions with financial aid and choosing classes from what I know as a non-degree seeking student. I also want to fulfill the requirements for those other clinical/cognitive psych and research grad programs to keep as options in the event I can't get above a ~3.8 over 90 credit hours, as I understand that would raise my cGPA to a 3.0(given that I cannot get my old school to stay true to their initial word of fixing their mistake with my transcripts, short of taking some bizarre legal route) which then gives me a 30/70 or 50/50 shot at med school depending on a high mcat or not. I'm also really interested in clincal applications of the material between bioengineering and also the space cadet philosophical side of the neurobio/psych, but we'll see what happens.

 

[Goro]

Do you have a specific reason for that instead of a second bachelors? I'd like to but would have restrictions with financial aid and choosing classes from what I know as a non-degree seeking student. I also want to fulfill the requirements for those other clinical/cognitive psych and research grad programs to keep as options in the event I can't get above a ~3.8 over 90 credit hours, as I understand that would raise my cGPA to a 3.0(given that I cannot get my old school to stay true to their initial word of fixing their mistake with my transcripts, short of taking some bizarre legal route) which then gives me a 30/70 or 50/50 shot at med school depending on a high mcat or not. I'm also really interested in clincal applications of the material between bioengineering and also the space cadet philosophical side of the neurobio/psych, but we'll see what happens.

Doing a second bachelors is overkill. Just give Adcoms 1-2 years of good grades and a good MCAT to show that you can handle med school. Or do an SMP

 

[nOTableHOPE]

Not for med school, but a postbacc. Trying to keep it as brief as possible.

I had been looking at a public college in Illinois that my father went to. I was given nearly zero correspondence throughout March to July of what my options were for pursuing a postbacc/second bachelors as a career changer with no background yet.

The year prior before covid I had reached out and in similar fashion despite directly following up on leads by admins/advising I was not responded to. Because of this, I graduated from a business school without knowing their LAS policy that students with a degree cannot study biology or an adjacent field and must register as a non-degree seeking student.

So for nearly 3-5 months March/April onward I sought advising and wrote to every director and advising office for information on the ambiguous policy on their college website that made it seem like the second bachelors policy was up to the discretion of the department.

I was lead on by the liberal arts and sciences program and their advising team, saying they correspond with the department and we would figure it out through the summer. They said worst case scenario I would be able to even TA as a non-degree seeking student so it'd be better for me and so on. One month until school starts, I still haven't gotten confirmation and my application is ready to go. I call every single day to the advising office and finally got in touch with an administrative director of the LAS program who told me I should give up on pursuing that policy because the school year would start in 3 and a half weeks and there's too many hoops to jump through.

I saw that the bioengineering college took on second bachelors, and seemed like by some divine providence had the interest areas I was passionate toward.

Based on the recommendation from the administrative director + graduate advisor I followed up with the pre-health advising office who did deferred me to the bioengineering advising team. No response! I email the director. Finally, a good man I thought.

He said he will help me follow up with an academic advisor of his department(who I already reached out to) for further information I needed on the program as well as addressing more technical concerns as I had maybe two and a half weeks until the end of August when classes would start to apply and get admitted(the deadline was extended over the summer to the first week or so of August).

He takes days to follow up and connect me, but I stay patient. However hilarious I couldn't even get the advisor to respond with him directly contacting them and CC'ing me on the email. I have a maybe two weeks now to get in for the fall, but despite this I feel confident because he's allegedly in my corner. I follow up and call them and email them because I know this will push me back entering medical school for at least a half a year or more if I don't sort it out.

No response for almost a half a week. Finally hear back the following the weekend with a week and a half until classes start, she tells me basically tells me "I don't know what you want" despite having explained exactly the information I needed to her in email for weeks and that it would take less than 30 minutes to address but regardless I'm not her problem and she can't help me. I reply tactfully and respectfully and just beg her for her but still no response!

I follow up with the director again, and he tells me to contact the Dean of the Engineering college. I call two days in a row, leave messages briefly and no response. Again, following up, the director CC's me in a short email with the Dean, explaining my situation with the college over the past few months and if I could get help with late admit. Classes start after the weekend, and he replies the day before stating he cannot get me in this semester, but I will be taken care of moving forward. Said to email him my transcripts and desperately find a way into a Calculus I course(I had taken business calc without trig) as it is the minimum requirement to be admitted into the engineering college.

a month and a half later I apply to the engineering college for Winter semester. Discuss in an advising meeting with the director who said I have nothing to worry about, that I should literally start familiarizing myself with ****ing Matlab/CAD etc and email the Dean once more with him CC'd once I've applied stating that I have the directors "full support and backing" etc that I will succeed in the program.

I spent a long evening writing that email explaining my current status with the course he told me to take and excitement for the program.

Two days following that email I got denied.

Reason for the denial was that I don't meet the requirements of the program. They didn't even wait for my references to submit their LOR. That Calculus I course I clawed my way into and paid out of pocket, where I'm getting a 97% in with only the final left and is not sufficient enough to enter the program as a transfer applicant. The admissions email said I needed to start as a non-degree seeking student or take Calc II and Diff EQ for the next year so I could start in the Fall.

The Dean never responded to that email. He didn't even look at my application and similarly so with the director.

I could throw up writing this. I don't even want to appeal or have anything to do with this program at this point.

I applied nowhere else and had 2 days after being denied to find a new school to go to because of deadlines. If I cannot figure out financial aid/instate tuition, I would have to somehow pay 28-50k now(LOL) my first year for an out of state program that has accepted me this spring semester, or I will have wasted 2 years just beginning the premed/non-traditonal process.

Put a bullet in my face, I'm excited for more bureaucracy as this journey unfolds

Go to www.apus.edu & get a second Bach or masters or whatever certification you want there. Originally intended for military spouses its open to anyone and they’ve been long setup online unlike the cumbersome brick and mortar state universities. Also, far more affordable. Best of luck.