Can not sending an update be viewed negatively?

[allseasons]

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I have some schools releasing decisions in March. I feel like given the fact that it's been 8 months since we submitted secondaries, they're going to expect an update, and therefore the lack of an update might be viewed negatively.

I've been lazy as hell since secondary submissions and dragging my feet on 3 manuscripts I could relatively easily have submitted and almost certainly would have been accepted by now. Looks like I'll submit them this break and they'll probably be accepted sometime mid-February (optimistically). If I can't get them in time, will it be a negative for schools releasing decisions Jan-March? I already have 3 publications (1 first author), and 10 national and international conference presentations (one gold award), so will 3 more publications (with 1 more first author) even be that significant?

Given how much time I've spent on this site, I feel like the answer for both is no, but I figured I might as well ask. Most of my schools yet to release decisions are T20s, if that changes anything. I seriously need to get off my ***.

 

[Goro]

Only to those schools that like seeing applicants grovel, or are needy (U Penn, Mayo, Jefferson, Gtown...that's all that I know of).

There are other MD schools that refuse updates.

 

[allseasons]

I also warn all students the reason why I advise against letters of interest, letters of intent, and even do some extent updates, is they are poorly written and often come out as whining and begging. Most school’s Process and workflow doesn’t allow for these letters to be seen or read any meaningful way. In other words, once your file is Evaluated, Reviewed, decided, and evaluated, It usually is it looked at again. And even though a school is not releasing decisions till March 8, The decision on your file has been made or at the very least you have been fully scored and reviewed and nothing is going to change that.

So all my schools are T20, specifically Penn Harvard UCLA WashU Vanderbilt Pitt CCLCM and probably a few others I’m forgetting. As @Goro mentioned some of these seem to want me to beg, and I was a little worried that they might write me off if I don’t (wow he’s not interested enough to send an update when everyone does?)

I feel like I’m overthinking this, but just wanted to verify.

 

[deleted1114112]

I have an update prepped for Mayo, not sure any other school needed some...news to me.

 

[KnightDoc]

I also warn all students the reason why I advise against letters of interest, letters of intent, and even do some extent updates, is they are poorly written and often come out as whining and begging. Most school’s Process and workflow doesn’t allow for these letters to be seen or read any meaningful way. In other words, once your file is Evaluated, Reviewed, decided, and evaluated, It usually is it looked at again. And even though a school is not releasing decisions till March 8, The decision on your file has been made or at the very least you have been fully scored and reviewed and nothing is going to change that.

And yet, many schools encourage us to send updates, and many people on SDN insist they made a difference. As a result, we all feel compelled to submit them, even if we have nothing truly substantial to say, because they might help and they are not going to hurt. Of course, if a school explicitly says they don't want them, that's a different story. In my experience, though, those schools are the exception and not the rule.

I hear what you are saying about anything that is poorly written. Hopefully, it is reasonable to expect most people to be as careful with anything they submit as they are with their primaries and secondaries, so I'm not sure general advice should be geared to the few who don't know better than to submit garbage as an update/LOI.

 

[allseasons]

And yet, many schools encourage us to send updates, and many people on SDN insist they made a difference. As a result, we all feel compelled to submit them, even if we have nothing truly substantial to say, because they might help and they are not going to hurt. Of course, if a school explicitly says they don't want them, that's a different story. In my experience, though, those schools are the exception and not the rule.

I hear what you are saying about anything that is poorly written. Hopefully, it is reasonable to expect most people to be as careful with anything they submit as they are with their primaries and secondaries, so I'm not sure general advice should be geared to the few who don't know better than to submit garbage as an update/LOI.

To be more qccurate, I have updates, just not any exceptional ones (began working on some cool new research while my manuscripts are going through the publication process).

But the thing is, literally 7 of my 15 activities are research. I've worked with medical research across 6 departments (cardio, cardiac surgery, vascular, neuro, pulmonary, trauma, dermatology). This update would literally be meaningless beyond just being an "update", and I figured it might even hurt in that it makes them think I didn't do anything worthwhile the past 6 months (which would be correct lol)

Based on @gonnif I'll just hold off sending any updates unless I get a publication.

 

[Goro]

I don't think Pitt wants you to beg. I think Penn is definitely needy and loves updates from what I have seen online. Idk about the others. You definitely should update your schools regardless to show your interest and if you have meaningful updates.

Sending them an application shows your interest.

Most Admissions Deans treat LOIs as lies, BTW.

 

[effectedtag]

Idk but I have sent multiple updates to schools including why I would be a good fit and almost within a week, I received an interview invite. This happened to a few school like Saint Louis, Jefferson etc. I also sent a thank you letter/interest/update to the school from my first interview (the only school I have heard back from post-interview so far) and it resulted in an acceptance. From my experiences, n=1, harping on why you are a good fit with an update has been very helpful.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I feel like needy implies Letter of intent rather than update letter.

But I think that gonnif’s assertion that most schools have already assigned scores is correct. For example, I saw in the mayo thread that people got emails saying that they were scored highly. I think that these letters are usually good for giving assurance that everything possible was done.

 

[allseasons]

Idk but I have sent multiple updates to schools including why I would be a good fit and almost within a week, I received an interview invite. This happened to a few school like Saint Louis, Jefferson etc. I also sent a thank you letter/interest/update to the school from my first interview (the only school I have heard back from post-interview so far) and it resulted in an acceptance. From my experiences, n=1, harping on why you are a good fit with an update has been very helpful.

Did that for 30 schools last cycle, pretty sure it did nothing.