Biggest Regret in the Application Process

[NCMED101]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Not practicing for interviews well enough at all. Plus weak EC descriptions and not having a person PS. This is likely leading to a reapp

 

[LauraJo08]

not looking at tuition and applying to some cheaper schools/schools with better financial aid.

 

[BABSstudent]

My regret was applying to too many schools. In my mind, I wanted to be early and I applied with my first MCAT score of a 28. I picked schools I could get into with that. Then I retook after submitting my AMCAS and ended up with a 32. I then applied to more schools.

I should have just applied to one school and then waited but I didn't want to. I had FAP and the secondaries didn't cost a thing.

Other regret was applying to Howard as a white male. Apparently they are a historically African American medical school. They seriously need to spend some advertising dollars on the west coast because I didn't know that. I also applied to NEOMED and they don't really accept OOS people and have a majority BS/MD students. Those both wasted my money.

 

[The Beyonder]

I wish I had spent more time studying for the MCAT. You only take it once (…..twice). I ended up with a score below my average.

I wish I had prepared more for interviews. Luckily, I interviewed at schools that were not my top choices early. After I had a few bad showings, I realized I sucked and prepared more diligently. I peaked around the time of my interview at my top choice.

I wish I had more clinical experiences. One of my interviewers at a top twenty remarked on my lack of clinical experience, I was waitlisted.

After interviewing at a few schools I realized I only wanted to live in a major city, had I know this before applying my school list would have been different.

APPLY EARLY

 

[Stixman28]

Other regret was applying to Howard as a white male. Apparently they are a historically African American medical school. They seriously need to spend some advertising dollars on the west coast because I didn't know that..

C'mon dude. You could have at least googled rather than complaining they need to spend their money on advertising. The fact that Howard is a HBCU is in the first line of their wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_University

Howard University is a federally chartered, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States.

 

[darkjedi]

 

[survivordo]

Do wish I had applied more broadly but in the end am very happy where I ended up going!

Survivor DO

 

[prado]

LMAO.

I regret applying to so many schools that I really didn't want to attend. I ended up not finishing maybe 6 or so secondaries because of this. Think really hard about where you would want and not want to attend. Even though some safety schools might have stats below yours, don't just apply to them because of that. Only apply there if you'd be comfortable going there if it turns out to be your only option. If you can't say with 100% certainty that you'd go there no question, then don't apply there.

Also, don't write the wrong school's name in your secondary. It will eat you up and cause you stress to no end (I emailed them about it, got an interview later, and eventually accepted). But after that initial gaffe, my mind was all over the place.

Lastly, if you know a school has a high in-state preference or likes a high retention rate (a la UPitt), make sure you have answers to some of the questions they'll ask you about your loyalties in attending their school. For instance, my whole family is out here where I currently live and my interviewer tried to catch me up a few times about whether or not I'd attend their school if accepted, how close I was with my family, how likely I'd stay over there, or if I'd return home after med school, etc. So just have a plan.

 

[MTHFR]

.

 

[type12]

I regret the last 7 years without an acceptance to any medical school (did not apply every year) I have done quite a few awesome things and my mind has definitely broadened, but trust me when I say an MD open doors no other degree has access to.

Love this thread and the regrets (not that you had them, but as sound, reasoned statements).

 

[cookiemonsters]

Wasting soo much time pouring my heart into secondaries for schools I probably got autorejected at anyway based on numbers. Pretty sure I spent like 3 days making my Yale secondary perfect.

Secondary essays in general I hate... just ask those questions in interviews dammit -_-

 

[type12]

Wasting soo much time pouring my heart into secondaries for schools I probably got autorejected at anyway based on numbers. Pretty sure I spent like 3 days making my Yale secondary perfect.

Yeah, I experienced the same from one school. It was ridiculous. Wouldn't call it a regret so much as unprofessionalism on their end. Yes, screen, but SCREEN. Don't wait for the secondary only to send a rejection seconds later.

 

[pachewisc]

Not really starting any non-research ECs other than shadowing until ~4 months before submitting my primary apps due to being totally clueless.

^This. Except I only had about 3 shadowing experiences and 3 weeks of medical volunteering at the time I applied. I pumped out hundreds of hours and dozens of shadowing experiences during the cycle though. I'm sure that helped. If not, thank goodness my non-medical ECs, letters of rec, sGPA, and MCAT kept my application afloat.

I wish I would have gotten significantly better grades my first year. I underestimated the difficulty of college after taking a bunch of AP classes in high school (<total jokes!). A higher cGPA would have been a boost.

Applying to schools that don't take updates. I sent a couple frantic update letters to schools, but those that don't accept updates didn't receive them. That could have reshaped my cycle for a number of schools.

Applying too top-heavy based on my GPA/MCAT/ECs. There were too many reach schools, all of which I was rejected from. Should have gotten SDN to help me make my list!

 

[bearofthesnow]

I wish I had been more assertive when requesting my committee letter. I turned in my information in early June, had all my secondaries ready to go by late July/early August, yet my letter was not submitted until September.

There were a few schools (UMD and GW) that requested that I send updates/letters of interest and I was so frustrated/burnt out that I didn't do anything and therefore was not looked at further. I am fortunate to be attending med school in the fall, but having a greater chance at more than one acceptance would have been nice.

 

[Ellie Arroway]

I also regret applying to too many schools. I originally picked out a carefully selected 12, but bumped it to 16 eventually. And most of the extra ones were reach schools because scoring an interview at Pritzker gave me a big head for a minute. I could really use some of my app money back now.

On the other side of the coin, even though I am staying in my home region for school I am glad I got to discover the midwest through my interviews in Chicago, Rochester & Madison. I never realized the midwest was such a cool place. I might consider Minneapolis or Chitown for residency.

 

[IncognitoGuy]

 

[OhHey]

I regret not looking up schools and their specific requirements way beforehand during undergrad. I didn't know some state schools required upper div mol/cell bio. I just followed my school's premed scheme and thought I was good but nope.. I trusted them too much. Ended up graduating and finding an expensive independent class last minute.