Applying as a Couple: Disadvantage if both applicants not equal?

[narc]

Michigan asks if you will be applying as a couple.
Is it a disadvantage to apply as a couple if your stats are not equal, mainly MCAT score?
Are there any advantages to applying as an unmarried couple? Why do they ask this question?

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[TMP-SMX]

Michigan asks if you will be applying as a couple.
Is it a disadvantage to apply as a couple if your stats are not equal, mainly MCAT score?
Are there any advantages to applying as an unmarried couple? Why do they ask this question?

They don't want to break up the love? Lol I don't know. It's too bad my girlfriend is applying to pharmacy schools and not med schools.

 

[el chivo]

Michigan asks if you will be applying as a couple.
Is it a disadvantage to apply as a couple if your stats are not equal, mainly MCAT score?
Are there any advantages to applying as an unmarried couple? Why do they ask this question?

It sounds like you're not married, but here are some insights from my experience applying to medical school with my wife.

On one side of the coin, it seems like applying as a couple could help the weaker candidate get in. This wasn't an issue for us as far as scores went; ours were pretty much identical. Schools can, and probably will, still like one of you more than the other after an interview, though, so there can still be a "stronger" and "weaker" candidate. If the stronger one gets in, you figure that the weaker one can ride coattails to admission. It makes sense in theory. In practice, however, this isn't how it worked for us.

Cornell was the only place that accepted one of us and waitlisted the other. Hence, it was the only school where one of us could have really ridden those coattails to a place in the class. (We applied to 19 schools originally, but only both interviewed at about 10 or 12). Which leaves the other side of the coin: admissions officers are very concerned about their matriculation rates. If you apply as a couple, you pose a major risk to the school--accept both and risk a double hit to your matriculation rate.

As a case in point, we were put high on the waitlist at a top-5 school and invited by the dean of admissions to come back and visit (not as part of a revisit weekend). The visit was to give us a feel for the school, but it also gave the dean a chance to gauge how much we really wanted to go there. During our visit, the dean straight-up told us that while we probably would have been accepted as individuals, they waitlisted us as a couple because of the matriculation rate issue. (I had a lot of respect for the dean for coming out and saying this, since most of the people in the process just hem-and-haw and hide behind curtains like the wizard of oz.)

Bottom-line: we were both waitlisted at most of the top-tier schools we applied to. A couple of schools accepted one and rejected the other post interview. We made a conscious decision to tell admissions comittees that we were married, and that decision backfired. Having gone through this, I am convinced that we would have had more success applying as individuals. We would have had more acceptances and THEN could have used the leverage of the acceptance to get the other person in.

I'm not sure how relevant this will be to you in applying to UM. We didn't apply there, and there's a big difference between girlfriend and wife. Some of the same principles may apply, though.

For those of you who are still reading this post, the story ends happily: we both got into Stanford.

 

[Mirc™]

It sounds like you're not married, but here are some insights from my experience applying to medical school with my wife.

On one side of the coin, it seems like applying as a couple could help the weaker candidate get in. This wasn't an issue for us as far as scores went; ours were pretty much identical. Schools can, and probably will, still like one of you more than the other after an interview, though, so there can still be a "stronger" and "weaker" candidate. If the stronger one gets in, you figure that the weaker one can ride coattails to admission. It makes sense in theory. In practice, however, this isn't how it worked for us.

Cornell was the only place that accepted one of us and waitlisted the other. Hence, it was the only school where one of us could have really ridden those coattails to a place in the class. (We applied to 19 schools originally, but only both interviewed at about 10 or 12). Which leaves the other side of the coin: admissions officers are very concerned about their matriculation rates. If you apply as a couple, you pose a major risk to the school--accept both and risk a double hit to your matriculation rate.

As a case in point, we were put high on the waitlist at a top-5 school and invited by the dean of admissions to come back and visit (not as part of a revisit weekend). The visit was to give us a feel for the school, but it also gave the dean a chance to gauge how much we really wanted to go there. During our visit, the dean straight-up told us that while we probably would have been accepted as individuals, they waitlisted us as a couple because of the matriculation rate issue. (I had a lot of respect for the dean for coming out and saying this, since most of the people in the process just hem-and-haw and hide behind curtains like the wizard of oz.)

Bottom-line: we were both waitlisted at most of the top-tier schools we applied to. A couple of schools accepted one and rejected the other post interview. We made a conscious decision to tell admissions comittees that we were married, and that decision backfired. Having gone through this, I am convinced that we would have had more success applying as individuals. We would have had more acceptances and THEN could have used the leverage of the acceptance to get the other person in.

I'm not sure how relevant this will be to you in applying to UM. We didn't apply there, and there's a big difference between girlfriend and wife. Some of the same principles may apply, though.

For those of you who are still reading this post, the story ends happily: we both got into Stanford.

What does that really mean?

 

[akademiks1989]

I think it means that if two people from a couple were accepted to the same medical school, they would definitely take the offer. And the spaces are limited, so it may mean a surplus of students if the couple matriculates, so they would rather accept one, knowing that they probably wouldn't take the offer if their significant other isn't included. Seems to me like the spots are precious, and med schools really don't care if you have a significant other. I think.

 

[narc]

I think it means that if two people from a couple were accepted to the same medical school, they would definitely take the offer. And the spaces are limited, so it may mean a surplus of students if the couple matriculates, so they would rather accept one, knowing that they probably wouldn't take the offer if their significant other isn't included. Seems to me like the spots are precious, and med schools really don't care if you have a significant other. I think.

No, I think what it means is that medical schools care about the ratio of matriculants to acceptances.
Given that, the person is saying he should not have applied as a couple. Instead what he should have done is use his acceptance to whatever school to help his partner receive an acceptance to that school as well.
In other words he would say hey school let my woman in or im not going to your school.

 

[Law2Doc]

Michigan asks if you will be applying as a couple.
Is it a disadvantage to apply as a couple if your stats are not equal, mainly MCAT score?
Are there any advantages to applying as an unmarried couple? Why do they ask this question?

While I have no knowledge about this school in particular, I cannot imagine they give any special consideration to unmarried couples. If there was any advantage for such specious "coupling", you'd see people coupling up pretty regularly for purposes of this application, just to get into med school. So I'm pretty sure they likely mean married folks.

 

[akademiks1989]

No, I think what it means is that medical schools care about the ratio of matriculants to acceptances.
Given that, the person is saying he should not have applied as a couple. Instead what he should have done is use his acceptance to whatever school to help his partner receive an acceptance to that school as well.
In other words he would say hey school let my woman in or im not going to your school.

Basically what I said, but condensed.lol

Yea, I know that is what he should've done. I wonder how the adcoms would react/respond to this type of special request.

 

[zbruinz]

It sounds like you're not married, but here are some insights from my experience applying to medical school with my wife.

On one side of the coin, it seems like applying as a couple could help the weaker candidate get in. This wasn't an issue for us as far as scores went; ours were pretty much identical. Schools can, and probably will, still like one of you more than the other after an interview, though, so there can still be a "stronger" and "weaker" candidate. If the stronger one gets in, you figure that the weaker one can ride coattails to admission. It makes sense in theory. In practice, however, this isn't how it worked for us.

Cornell was the only place that accepted one of us and waitlisted the other. Hence, it was the only school where one of us could have really ridden those coattails to a place in the class. (We applied to 19 schools originally, but only both interviewed at about 10 or 12). Which leaves the other side of the coin: admissions officers are very concerned about their matriculation rates. If you apply as a couple, you pose a major risk to the school--accept both and risk a double hit to your matriculation rate.

As a case in point, we were put high on the waitlist at a top-5 school and invited by the dean of admissions to come back and visit (not as part of a revisit weekend). The visit was to give us a feel for the school, but it also gave the dean a chance to gauge how much we really wanted to go there. During our visit, the dean straight-up told us that while we probably would have been accepted as individuals, they waitlisted us as a couple because of the matriculation rate issue. (I had a lot of respect for the dean for coming out and saying this, since most of the people in the process just hem-and-haw and hide behind curtains like the wizard of oz.)

Bottom-line: we were both waitlisted at most of the top-tier schools we applied to. A couple of schools accepted one and rejected the other post interview. We made a conscious decision to tell admissions comittees that we were married, and that decision backfired. Having gone through this, I am convinced that we would have had more success applying as individuals. We would have had more acceptances and THEN could have used the leverage of the acceptance to get the other person in.

I'm not sure how relevant this will be to you in applying to UM. We didn't apply there, and there's a big difference between girlfriend and wife. Some of the same principles may apply, though.

For those of you who are still reading this post, the story ends happily: we both got into Stanford.

glad it ended so nicely!!!

 

[MinnyGophers]

I think that it also means that if the school accepts a couple, and that the couple doesn't matriculate, then their acceptance to matriculants ratio decreases even more.

The leverage effect would mostly work only if they accepted one exceptional student, and that the student has a gf/bf/wife/hubby with lesser stats who also applied.

 

[evade]

They don't want to break up the love? Lol I don't know. It's too bad my girlfriend is applying to pharmacy schools and not med schools.

If you're both looking for acceptances at the same institution, tell them anyway. My SO applied to law school the same year I applied to med school. When I was accepted to UCD Med (law school runs on a later admissions schedule than med school), he wrote a letter to UCD Law telling them that I had been accepted to UCD Med, and that if he were accepted to UCD Law, he would definitely attend. He sent the letter on a Monday; by Wednesday, he was in.

On the other hand, I mentioned him in my U. Mich application similarly (since U. Mich also has a law school); I was accepted there and he was not. That's fine, given that we preferred to stay in CA!

To the OP: I don't see where it would be detrimental to mention your SO. Besides, if a place won't accept both of you and you are really serious about staying together, would you want to go there? And if you're not that serious about staying together, maybe you shouldn't mention each other.

 

[seadizzle]

If they are worried about matriculation rate, it seems pretty stupid to accept one of the couple and reject the other. If they are staying together that is an acceptance that will surely be turned down. They'd be better off rejecting both.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

We made a conscious decision to tell admissions comittees that we were married, and that decision backfired. Having gone through this, I am convinced that we would have had more success applying as individuals. We would have had more acceptances and THEN could have used the leverage of the acceptance to get the other person in.

For those of you who are still reading this post, the story ends happily: we both got into Stanford.

Nice ending. How can u just decide to be married... couldnt they check for marriage licenses?

 

[campingisintese]

bump.

anybody else have any thoughts about applying to Michigan as a couple?

 

[BrownianMotion]

i think it would be disadvantageous to apply as a couple to a tier1 skool b/c they do worry about their matriculation acceptance rates such as harvard and washu i bet have cloe to a 90% rate there, however for lower tier skools, i believe applying as a couple could be of great benefit esp. at skools like albany and slu which have rather low matriculation acceptance rates so for them they prolly consider 2 ppl pickin them up instead of 2 ppl droppin them since their rates are lower than 50%...

 

[swim2md]

On a similar subject, my boyfriend is a first year at my top choice medical school. If I end up getting an interview, do you think it would be beneficial to bring this up? I was worried that because we're not married, they might think accepting me could be a bad thing if we ever broke up or something. I don't think this would happen, but should I even mention it? Could it possibly help me at all?

 

[MinnyGophers]

If they are worried about matriculation rate, it seems pretty stupid to accept one of the couple and reject the other. If they are staying together that is an acceptance that will surely be turned down. They'd be better off rejecting both.

Which is why appling as a couple might not be the best idea unless at least one of them is exceptional in terms of stats, and that the couple makes sure to tell the school that they would go if both are accepted...

As an adcom, if you see a couple with average stats, you'd be pretty confident that this couple would have applied to many different schools. So how would you know exactly whether the couple decides to attend if accepted? That's another reason why applying as couple can have a negative light on your application.