Can being too strong of an applicant hurt you?

[magnoliadoc]

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A little background, I’m from Michigan and a Med student at MSUCOM and a friend was asking me for some advice regarding their younger sibling who applied this past cycle. They went to a top tier Undergraduate program, scored in the 99th percentile on the MCAT, 3.9+, all the extracurricular activities you could as for and is a normal likable person. Someone you would think would be an easy in. We have 6 in state MD schools plus 1 DO (which they didn’t apply to), they applied to all of them plus a few out of state schools but only received two interviews invites including one from The University of Michigan, which objectively is the most selective school on the list. Unfortunately, they currently sit without any acceptances.

Comparing this to myself I went to a very mid-tier undergraduate program and at best was a very average candidate, honestly probably on the lower end of average. This made me decide to apply only to DO schools. I applied to 10 schools, received 6 interview invites, and was accepted to all 4 places I interviewed at. Now I completely understand its easier to get invites to DO schools and there is a multitude of factors that go into interview invites and these two examples are not apples to apples. However, comparing these two cases and a few antidotal cases of friends and classmates, I feel like too high of scores can start to hurt you.

My hypothesis is this Admissions committees go through high profile candidates and think realistically we will likely just be a safety net for this student so why bother wasting our time, when they believe the data reflects a more “average” candidate will take the spot we offer. Thoughts on this? Also, if you think this is the case how does one create the impression of interest for a school to give them a shot. Disclaimer – Please don’t be offended by the word average candidate, I know we all of us work our ass off and an average med school candidate is still a super impressive applicant in any other field, but even among ourselves we can’t recognize there are degrees of separation.

 

[puahate]

Sure but that just means you need to meet the mission of the more mid to low tier schools

 

[ClimbsRox]

From what I have gathered, yield protection is unlikely after interview and if it does occur, it is more likely to lead to waitlist than to a rejection, which a letter of intent may or may not help with. I doubt University of Michigan, one of the most respected public medical colleges in the country, is yield protecting anyone. Prior to interviews, I suspect schools triage applicants based upon their target student body. Screening out applicants unlikely to attend the school would probably happen more often at that point, than after they have given them an interview slot.

 

[efle]

This is a well known enough phenomenon that it has a name: "yield protection". You can search that to find lots of discussions on the topic. Short answer is yes, schools will deny interviews to highly competitive candidates because they feel it's a wasted interview slot and there's no chance the person would actually attend their school.

 

[magnoliadoc]

Thank you for the replies. Completely makes sense, never personally been in the position to experience this or even be concerned about it. Some what humors that I benefited from being on the opposite side of the spectrum.
So in above case, since the student was among the unfortunate few that has to wait an extra year. The general advice is to write a convincing secondary they are genuinely interested in that school and not simply raking up acceptances?

 

[compound_policy]

Anecdotally, I will say that this was true in my case. I don't feel "hurt" by it, but I scored a 517 on the MCAT and received IIs from schools exclusively in the 515-519 MCAT range. I applied to 21 schools and received no serious interest from any place with significantly higher or lower median scores than mine. I do think adcoms are cognizant of the kinds of candidates that are realistic for their school - both in terms of fitting in academically and in terms of actually deciding to go there.

 

[Gilakend]

I’ll throw the option of poor interview skills out there. UMich post interview acceptance rate is around 75% (for us IS folks at least) which was the highest of any school I interviewed at. Poor MMI performance/nerves could’ve played into it. Because I don’t think they are yield protecting anyone as the previous person said. They value interviews slots very very highly so I’m assuming their overall application was strong/no major red flags.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Thinking from the prospect of the admissions committee -- their goal is simply to fill a class, and that doesn't mean packing their institution with the highest achievers possible. Makes sense they want to strategically accept candidates that "fit," both academically (scores) and logistically (interests/profiles etc).

 

[Goro]

Actually, the better term is "resource protection". Schools have only so many interview slots, and so why waste time and resources on someone who is most likely (based upon historical data) to go to a really Top School?

State schools will be more willing to take top candidates because they know what people tend to want to stay close to home.

EDIT: I agree witht he above posts that the poor success was due to something other than stats.

 

[deleted877060]

A little background, I’m from Michigan and a Med student at MSUCOM and a friend was asking me for some advice regarding their younger sibling who applied this past cycle. They went to a top tier Undergraduate program, scored in the 99th percentile on the MCAT, 3.9+, all the extracurricular activities you could as for and is a normal likable person. Someone you would think would be an easy in. We have 6 in state MD schools plus 1 DO (which they didn’t apply to), they applied to all of them plus a few out of state schools but only received two interviews invites including one from The University of Michigan, which objectively is the most selective school on the list. Unfortunately, they currently sit without any acceptances.

Comparing this to myself I went to a very mid-tier undergraduate program and at best was a very average candidate, honestly probably on the lower end of average. This made me decide to apply only to DO schools. I applied to 10 schools, received 6 interview invites, and was accepted to all 4 places I interviewed at. Now I completely understand its easier to get invites to DO schools and there is a multitude of factors that go into interview invites and these two examples are not apples to apples. However, comparing these two cases and a few antidotal cases of friends and classmates, I feel like too high of scores can start to hurt you.

My hypothesis is this Admissions committees go through high profile candidates and think realistically we will likely just be a safety net for this student so why bother wasting our time, when they believe the data reflects a more “average” candidate will take the spot we offer. Thoughts on this? Also, if you think this is the case how does one create the impression of interest for a school to give them a shot. Disclaimer – Please don’t be offended by the word average candidate, I know we all of us work our ass off and an average med school candidate is still a super impressive applicant in any other field, but even among ourselves we can’t recognize there are degrees of separation.

Were they rejected after their interviews, or waitlisted?

 

[LizzyM]

Having no offers of admission this early in the cycle is not unusual. Give it 8 weeks... Something may shake out. If not, the candidate has to consider that the school list was poor (applied only to schools that thought "this guy is too good for us, we should yield protect and spend our time with applicants who are more likely to matriculate if offered admission) or the attitude at interview came across as entitled, "full of himself", and giving off a vibe of "you'd be lucky to get me as I am better than your average matriculant."

 

[magnoliadoc]

Were they rejected after their interviews, or waitlisted?

Rejected at U of M post interview. I think they have a very late interview with Western.

 

[doc05]

Rejected at U of M post interview. I think they have a very late interview with Western.

How well do you know the applicant? Don’t discount the possibility of a poor interview.

 

[efle]

Michigan accepts the vast majority of their interviewees, if an instate resident who was nearly perfect on paper got interviewed but not admitted that seems like a big red flag regarding their interviewing

 

[capriccio]

Resource protection happens, but I don't think IS schools would engage in too much yield/resource protection for their IS applicants, even if they are above their average matriculant stats-wise—they are interested in retaining IS applicants because they're more likely to attend, in addition to working long-term in the area. My MCAT is clear above the 90% percentile for both my in-state MD schools, but I've received an acceptance already and I felt my other interview went very well, so clearly both of them decided that I was interested in their programs (which I am lol) and a good fit.

It's possible that the person in question wrote a lackluster primary or secondary, had a red flag, so-so LORs, or came off poorly/unprepared in their interview. Maybe they submitted their application materials too late. They might have also had a poor OOS school list. There's a lot of reasons beyond stats and ECs that could explain their situation.