Behind the Doors of Ad Com Meetings

[djipopo]

---

Members do not see this ad.

What is it that these people do? How exactly do they decide our fates? Do they pick names out of a hat or roll the die?

But seriously, I've heard that the ad com that interviews you acts as your "advocate", but how much input do they ultimately have in the admissions decisions? What do the other ad coms do?

 

[eagle26]

It depends on the admissions committee. I know at Arizona, the admissions committee is made of only 8 people, 4 faculty members and 4 current medical students. Interviewers are not part of the admissions committee, but generate reports for the admissions committee to put in your file. It's different in other schools though. VCU is made of 28 individuals, one of which is the person who interviewed you (your advocate) and another the person who recommended that you be interviewed. It's up to the advocate to see them on your personal info that can't be found in the file. I only know these because of my interviews at these two places. I didn't interview anywhere else, so I think it's dependent on the individual schools.

 

[praying4MD]

Bump: I too would be interested to know what happens behind closed doors with the gods. Anyone with some info on this? I know some of the med students serve on adcoms so maybe they can give us some insight on the process?

 

[CoffeeCat]

Bump

 

[Sammmeyeam]

At Georgetown, and many other medical schools (including UCLA, etc) there is usually one person that determines whether you are invited for an interview (sucks huh?).

After your interview, then your application is officially sent to the admissions committee.

During the adcom meeting, everyone on the committee (or a sub-committee) will read your entire application: grades, personal statement,experiences, LORs, and interview evaluations. They may discuss your application. They then take a vote, and I guess each school is different, but depending on the # of votes (Accept / Reject) - you will either be accepted, rejected, or waitlisted.

I believe that this is basically the same mechanism that is used at most schools, the only thing that varies is the formula (cutoff # of GPA / MCAT) they use for the initial screening, # of people on the ADCOM, interview tactics, etc.

Hope that is helpful.

 

[djipopo]

bump and grind . . .