Application Process - Getting to the Interview

[hh786]

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This is a general question about the app process because 'holistic admissions' is used by adcoms. Do they actually look at every app (there is a pre-screen >3.0 GPA before secondaries but not after)? Looking at the whole app, let's say they find something remarkably striking about the applicant based on ECs but they have mediocre stats. Do they call him/her for an interview based on some reason that really struck them as unique? or is it not finding a reason to reject the applicant? or a combination of both?

 

[bananafish94]

They probably don't look at every application. Most schools will just send secondaries to everybody to collect money, but there are stats below which I seriously doubt they consider the application. Beyond that, there's a lot of black magic that has to do with your "fit" with the school, and a lot of luck.

 

[Espressso]

They probably don't look at every application. Most schools will just send secondaries to everybody to collect money, but there are stats below which I seriously doubt they consider the application. Beyond that, there's a lot of black magic that has to do with your "fit" with the school, and a lot of luck.

100% convinced that there's a lot of black magic and/or wizardry that goes on inside the adcom conference rooms...

 

[Gryffindor20]

100% convinced that there's a lot of black magic and/or wizardry that goes on inside the adcom conference rooms...

That must be why I'm a reapplicant. On my last AMCAS, I forgot to put down all of the quidditch matches that I won. This year, I won't make that mistake. Fifty more points to Gryffindor!

 

[Astra]

That must be why I'm a reapplicant. On my last AMCAS, I forgot to put down all of the quidditch matches that I won. This year, I won't make that mistake. Fifty more points to Gryffindor!

Make sure you put down that you killed he who shall not be named.

It can go under volunteering

 

[Gryffindor20]

Make sure you put down that you killed he who shall not be named.

It can go under volunteering

Clinical or non-clinical? He was mentally ill, with narcissistic PD, and I need clinical hours. Can I do clinical?

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

This is a general question about the app process because 'holistic admissions' is used by adcoms. Do they actually look at every app (there is a pre-screen >3.0 GPA before secondaries but not after)? Looking at the whole app, let's say they find something remarkably striking about the applicant based on ECs but they have mediocre stats. Do they call him/her for an interview based on some reason that really struck them as unique? or is it not finding a reason to reject the applicant? or a combination of both?

The problem is every school has super different systems of review.

Some schools may be very holistic (ie someone will read your entire thing start to finish), others may only seriously look at people over a certain metric. Others may stratify the apps so the first ones to get read are the ones with higher metrics, and lower stat candidates will be reviewed later. Also a school may do a full holistic review but still weight the numbers heavily.

In the case you describe its probably a good bet that they won't call anyone in for an interview that they wouldn't consider accepting. Interviews are expensive and time consuming for a school so they won't put forth the effort for people they know they won't accept.

Also for someone with low stats but good ECs, the interview can serve as a chance for you to "plead your case" in person. I had several interviews where the first question was "so what happened freshman year"

Edited 9:30 am since I realized I didn't answer your question in my original post lol

 

[yungspleen]

They probably don't look at every application. Most schools will just send secondaries to everybody to collect money, but there are stats below which I seriously doubt they consider the application. Beyond that, there's a lot of black magic that has to do with your "fit" with the school, and a lot of luck.

Hence why I'm applying to 35. I know it's overkill but I've heard horror stories

 

[Azete]

Zero chance they read every application, and the folks on the admissions committee here admit it openly. They filter based on certain criteria (every school is different), and for a class of 100 they'll probably give a good strong look at ~600 of the applications, out of 6 or 7 thousand. These are incredibly rough estimates, but based on some conversations with professors that are part of the process.

 

[Inspector JacquesClouseau]

Hence why I'm applying to 35. I know it's overkill but I've heard horror stories

Wish I could do the same thing but the thought of 35 secondary fees on top of $1452 was too much for me to bear...

 

[bananafish94]

Hence why I'm applying to 35. I know it's overkill but I've heard horror stories

It may or may not be overkill depending on your application. If I had to do it over again, I would certainly apply to more because of my average MCAT.

 

[Inspector JacquesClouseau]

Zero chance they read every application, and the folks on the admissions committee here admit it openly. They filter based on certain criteria (every school is different), and for a class of 100 they'll probably give a good strong look at ~600 of the applications, out of 6 or 7 thousand. These are incredibly rough estimates, but based on some conversations with professors that are part of the process.

Depends on the institution. Some schools, like VTech, will only send a secondary after a serious review of your primary application.

 

[bananafish94]

Wish I could do the same thing but the thought of 35 secondary fees on top of $1452 was too much for me to bear...

I still refuse to look at the total cost of my applications because it would probably depress me. I could have a nice car in the driveway or pay down my student loans for the same price of getting rejected from 22 schools.

 

[Azete]

Depends on the institution. Some schools, like VTech, will only send a secondary after a serious review of your primary application.

Very true, but even then I doubt any school is reading every primary application; it's just not an efficient use of their resources.

 

[Inspector JacquesClouseau]

I still refuse to look at the total cost of my applications because it would probably depress me. I could have a nice car in the driveway or pay down my student loans for the same price of getting rejected from 22 schools.

But the one acceptance makes it all count! Congratulations on getting into Rush. I've looked at quite a few of your posts, and I hope I can be in your position this time next year. (although I don't think I want the same experience you had, no offense but that's PTSD inducing)

 

[bananafish94]

Very true, but even then I doubt any school is reading every primary application; it's just not an efficient use of their resources.

They might "read" every application in the sense that they say, "Oh this guy has a 2.9 GPA. Let me just scan through this for 25 seconds to make sure there isn't some kind of extraordinary circumstance going on here." But they most definitely do not holistically review every single one. That sounds like an impossible task, unless it's a very mission-based school that gets much fewer applications and doesn't care as much about stats.

 

[bananafish94]

But the one acceptance makes it all count! Congratulations on getting into Rush. I've looked at quite a few of your posts, and I hope I can be in your position this time next year. (although I don't think I want the same experience you had, no offense but that's PTSD inducing)

I hope that you can be in my position much sooner than that so that your hair doesn't turn completely gray first! Good luck with everything!

 

[Newhorizons21]

I had a good cycle last year with multiple acceptances but I personally experienced two annoying/less than holistic things:

- Michigan sent out interviews to people who hadn't even completed the secondary

- My application at Harvard has been complete since 7/14/2015 and I have yet to get a rejection.

 

[soswim]

I had a good cycle last year with multiple acceptances but I personally experienced two annoying/less than holistic things:

- Michigan sent out interviews to people who hadn't even completed the secondary

- My application at Harvard has been complete since 7/14/2015 and I have yet to get a rejection.

Not to derail the thread, but if you use gmail, I had a couple friends say their Harvard correspondence either went to spam or to the "promotions" tab so they didn't see it. Congrats on your acceptances and good luck next year!

 

[JDTURKLETON]

Having been tasked to look through resumes to fill the work position I'm leaving, I realized even a "holistic review" falters to human tendencies. When you're tasked with looking through so many applications, you tend to just skim through unless something catches your eyes. And GPA and standardized metrics unfortunately does catch your eyes easier. They may skim through some profound thing in your ECs or not value it as much as you may value it.

 

[Newhorizons21]

Not to derail the thread, but if you use gmail, I had a couple friends say their Harvard correspondence either went to spam or to the "promotions" tab so they didn't see it. Congrats on your acceptances and good luck next year!

I still have access to the Harvard portal and it just says my app is under review and the last email on there was telling me I'm complete. If I wasn't so lazy I'd ask for my $100 secondary fee back

 

[soswim]

I still have access to the Harvard portal and it just says my app is under review and the last email on there was telling me I'm complete. If I wasn't so lazy I'd ask for my $100 secondary fee back

The portal won't list any more correspondence past the secondary unless you got an interview, my friends portals don't saying anything either but one of them dug through their email inbox and finally found the email (from beginning of March). I guess it also doesn't matter anymore either way haha. Can't hurt to call and get your money back though!

 

[hh786]

Let's say the method you're talking about is LizzyM score and you end up cutting down the pool. So that is the time adcoms will put things into context such as low GPA high MCAT, or vice versa, and look at the rest of the app?

 

[Azete]

Not quite true. the entire admissions committee, which can be anywhere from 15 to 150 members, including all faculty, adcom staff, readers/screeners, can handle the load. Say you have 50 readers of applications, each doing 100 apps total during the season. That's 5,000 applications reviewed during the course of the season.

They might have 50 readers assigned 100 apps each, but no way in hell all 50 are doing a thorough review of each application they're given. These are busy people, and in our school's case many of them have no interest in even being part of the process.

 

[LizzyM]

They might have 50 readers assigned 100 apps each, but no way in hell all 50 are doing a thorough review of each application they're given. These are busy people, and in our school's case many of them have no interest in even being part of the process.

You don't get assigned to this volunteer service unless you are willing to do it. You bite off a small chunk at a time, maybe giving 20 minutes per application, 2 applications per day for 90 days is 180 applications, easy-peasy with an investment of 40 minutes per day. Most people can fit this into a busy schedule and many of the readers are older and semi-retired or otherwise with a lighter work load. We've also had busy professionals who liked that this type of committee work could be done from anywhere at any time rather than requiring many meetings. We have had OBs who would do reviews in the middle of the night on labor & delivery while waiting for a baby to arrive.

 

[clippers50fan]

We have had OBs who would do reviews in the middle of the night on labor & delivery while waiting for a baby to arrive.

Hahah that's awesome. "Hurry back, the baby is coming!" "Hold up, this personal statement is starting to get good."

 

[DokterMom]

This is a general question about the app process because 'holistic admissions' is used by adcoms. Do they actually look at every app (there is a pre-screen >3.0 GPA before secondaries but not after)? Looking at the whole app, let's say they find something remarkably striking about the applicant based on ECs but they have mediocre stats. Do they call him/her for an interview based on some reason that really struck them as unique? or is it not finding a reason to reject the applicant? or a combination of both?

I think application timing (via reader fatigue) comes into play here too -- Early in the season, "Why Not?" seems to fly, but after the seventieth "My grandmother had cancer" or "The sirens wailed through the night" or "I've wanted to be a doctor since kindergarten" it might take something special and a little bit refreshing to make it into the "OK, I could stand to meet this one" pile.

 

[LizzyM]

I think application timing (via reader fatigue) comes into play here too -- Early in the season, "Why Not?" seems to fly, but after the seventieth "My grandmother had cancer" or "The sirens wailed through the night" or "I've wanted to be a doctor since kindergarten" it might take something special and a little bit refreshing to make it into the "OK, I could stand to meet this one" pile.

I think that is a big, and unrecognized, advantage to applying early. It is also what can make it all seem like chance when actually it is the luck of catching a reviewer before they become exhausted and burnt out reading essay after essay of lights, sirens and dying grannies.

 

[clippers50fan]

I think that is a big, and unrecognized, advantage to applying early. It is also what can make it all seem like chance when actually it is the luck of catching a reviewer before they become exhausted and burnt out reading essay after essay of lights, sirens and dying grannies.

Not only essays, but actual accomplishments too I would presume. The earlier you apply and sooner you get your application looked at, the higher chance you won't be reviewed right after the 4.0/40 Div 1 All-American athlete that also started his own nonprofit and has 5 publications. The more apps they see, the more commonplace your ECs may seem.

 

[LizzyM]

Not only essays, but actual accomplishments too I would presume. The earlier you apply and sooner you get your application looked at, the higher chance you won't be reviewed right after the 4.0/40 Div 1 All-American athlete that also started his own nonprofit and has 5 publications. The more apps they see, the more commonplace your ECs may seem.

So true. Over the years I've seen two major league ballpark hot dog vendors and two Jeopardy contestants. Both are relatively rare activities for a pre-med, right?