MD Chances of getting in to competitive EDP program?

[Peds PreMed]

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[SuaveCardigans]

The best advice will come from the Yale admissions dept. on how competitive you are. Anyone else outside of Yale SOM can only really speculate.

 

[positive8]

Only a handful of people (read: less than 5) apply EDP to Yale each year and most, if not all, get deferred to the normal applicant pool pre-interview. Years go by where no one is accepted EDP, so the acceptance rate for EDP is probably lower than regular admissions. From the admissions office, to successfully apply EDP you need a very strong reason why you must be at Yale (spouse, family commitments, children in New Havens schools, etc) in addition to being a good fit with the school (this means not only having a competitive application but also a track record of thriving in self-directed systems like Yale's).

With a less than average GPA and no serious commitments to the area, you are better off applying regular and at a variety of schools. Applying EDP can only hurt you by delaying your applications elsewhere.

 

[Peds PreMed]

Ok thanks - I talked to someone in admissions at Yale and they specifically said you don't have to have a special compelling tie to Yale (i.e. spouse, kids, etc.) to apply EDP but they really look for people who will be a good fit for Yale (i.e. independence, research, etc.). Not sure if that's the truth or just the admissions spiel, but definitely something to think about.

Would applying EDP make any more sense for me if I were 100% ok with taking a 2nd gap year if necessary? I also heard that most people who apply EDP (in general, not specific to Yale) usually talk to adcom before they apply and adcom gives them a wink if they should apply, so most applicants aren't necessarily going in blind. Also, do you know if Yale would reject you before the decision date if they knew you weren't a qualified applicant, or would they wait? My reasoning is they don't want to intentionally screw you over if you have no chance of getting in.

 

[picturethat]

Ok thanks - I talked to someone in admissions at Yale and they specifically said you don't have to have a special compelling tie to Yale (i.e. spouse, kids, etc.) to apply EDP but they really look for people who will be a good fit for Yale (i.e. independence, research, etc.). Not sure if that's the truth or just the admissions spiel, but definitely something to think about.

Would applying EDP make any more sense for me if I were 100% ok with taking a 2nd gap year if necessary? I also heard that most people who apply EDP (in general, not specific to Yale) usually talk to adcom before they apply and adcom gives them a wink if they should apply, so most applicants aren't necessarily going in blind. Also, do you know if Yale would reject you before the decision date if they knew you weren't a qualified applicant, or would they wait? My reasoning is they don't want to intentionally screw you over if you have no chance of getting in.

Yes, if you are serious about applying EDP, schedule a meeting with dean/director of admissions no later than May of the year you plan to apply. Treat this as a first interview. By the time of this meeting you should have your AMCAS already filled out, personal statement done, and transcript ready to bring with you or send in ahead of time. Since you are at Yale, if you work with anyone with connections to the admissions office, it would be beneficial for them to give you an "in" by calling/emailing ahead of time to vouch for you. While the admissions director cannot tell you whether or not you would get in EDP, he/she may give subtle (or not so subtle) hints that you should or should not apply EDP. Don't plan on applying EDP and then taking another year off if you don't get in because it looks bad to apply twice even under these circumstances. What you can do is start to prepare secondaries for other schools while you are waiting to hear back from Yale so that if you do have to apply elsewhere later, you can submit as fast as possible. From what I've heard at Yale, they usually defer noncompetitive EDP applicants to the normal applicant pool pre-interview so it would likely not be as late as October, maybe more like September, but again, you can't bank on this. Also, Yale's admissions director for many years retired this year so this information may or may not be relevant for this future application cycles.