Chances of more interviews

[BlatantPlatitude]

Hey guys, at this point I am looking for some kind of verification that this is normal. Between August and late September, I was riding high, got 5 interview invites within that span, and then, nothing. It has been radio silence for ~almost~ three months now and i'm somewhat worried?

I have been told that the average amount of interviews some people get is like 1-2 so I have been told off on the premed reddit that i'm being cringe for asking. It just seems weird to be on a good pace and then for everything to fall off like that.

Helpful information: 525 MCAT, 3.79 GPA (weak point), multiple mid author C/N/S pubs, 1 second author mid pub, 3000+ clinical hours, 500+ volunteering.
My application was certainly top heavy, but it had a fair amount of mid/upper mid kind of places. I was essentially told to not waste my time with a lot of places b/c yield protection. at this point i'm inclined to think its my GPA that is yellow-flagging me, and my essays were read by like 5+ people who said my writing was great, articulated why I wanted to do medicine and had some personality in it.
here's my list:

Interviews: Hofstra, Penn, Yale, UW, Duke.
Post-II R: UW
Pre-II R: Case, U Chicago, Mayo, Michigan, UCSF, Wisconsin, Boston, NYU.

Albert Einstein

Case Western

Chicago

Cleveland Clinic Lerner

Colorado

Columbia

Cornell

Dartmouth

Duke

Emory

Harvard

Hofstra

Johns Hopkins

Mayo

Miami

Michigan

Mount Sinai

Penn

Pittsburgh

Stanford

University of California San Francisco

Vanderbilt

Washington

Washington University Saint Louis

Wisconsin

Yale

Boston

New York University - Grossman

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[NotADoctor1]

Don't have much help to offer, but I'm in a similar situation. Top-heavy school list, 5 IIs July-September, then nothing. I'm holding out hope that there may be one more in the January/February months, but I'm also counting my blessings knowing that most applicants get 0 or 1 II. With 5 IIs, it's pretty unlikely that none of them will turn into acceptances. The waiting sucks though. Best of luck

 

[Goro]

Impossible to determine.

 

[BlatantPlatitude]

Don't have much help to offer, but I'm in a similar situation. Top-heavy school list, 5 IIs July-September, then nothing. I'm holding out hope that there may be one more in the January/February months, but I'm also counting my blessings knowing that most applicants get 0 or 1 II. With 5 IIs, it's pretty unlikely that none of them will turn into acceptances. The waiting sucks though. Best of luck

Well its nice at least to know someone else is in the same boat. Good luck to you too. Just for fun I take the post-II acceptance rate, then take all the inverses of that (e.g 40% post-II A rate = 60% post-II R) multiply them all together, and subtract that number from one. That is the chance of getting in to at least one of the schools given they are independent events.

 

[LizzyM]

You might get more invites but some schools may look at your metrics and zip code and decide to yield protect knowing you are likely to choose a place higher ranked and/or closer to home. Or you just don't fit what they're looking for this year. You have 4 irons in the fire at the moment and it just takes one offer.

I'd be very concerned if you don't get an offer anywhere but for now you just wait (Mardi Gras rule: don't concern yourself with a lack of offers until Mardi Gras -- that's February 13th this year).

 

[j_diggity]

I'm no expert but I think your school list is OK for your application and the fact that none of the other adcoms on here have mentioned it suggests that they agree (?).

If you have any updates, it might be worth sending update letters to schools that are still interviewing and haven't rejected you. Or even if you don't have updates, a short letter talking about what you've been up to and reiterating your interest in the school might get your app looked at again and trigger an II.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hey guys, at this point I am looking for some kind of verification that this is normal. Between August and late September, I was riding high, got 5 interview invites within that span, and then, nothing. It has been radio silence for ~almost~ three months now and i'm somewhat worried?

I have been told that the average amount of interviews some people get is like 1-2 so I have been told off on the premed reddit that i'm being cringe for asking. It just seems weird to be on a good pace and then for everything to fall off like that.

Helpful information: 525 MCAT, 3.79 GPA (weak point), multiple mid author C/N/S pubs, 1 second author mid pub, 3000+ clinical hours, 500+ volunteering.
My application was certainly top heavy, but it had a fair amount of mid/upper mid kind of places. I was essentially told to not waste my time with a lot of places b/c yield protection. at this point i'm inclined to think its my GPA that is yellow-flagging me, and my essays were read by like 5+ people who said my writing was great, articulated why I wanted to do medicine and had some personality in it.
here's my list:

Interviews: Hofstra, Penn, Yale, UW, Duke.
Post-II R: UW
Pre-II R: Case, U Chicago, Mayo, Michigan, UCSF, Wisconsin, Boston, NYU.

Albert Einstein

Case Western

Chicago

Cleveland Clinic Lerner

Colorado

Columbia

Cornell

Dartmouth

Duke

Emory

Harvard

Hofstra

Johns Hopkins

Mayo

Miami

Michigan

Mount Sinai

Penn

Pittsburgh

Stanford

University of California San Francisco

Vanderbilt

Washington

Washington University Saint Louis

Wisconsin

Yale

Boston

New York University - Grossman

It's impossible to predict if you will get more invitations or not. Schools are still sending them out (or will be after 1/1). You're lucky, as you acknowledge, that you have had 4 interview invitations already.

I actually have a podcast episode that will air next Tuesday that addresses your question, but in summary, until you get an acceptance from a school that you would be happy to accept, you need to assume that you are not accepted. This is true whether you've had interviews or haven't had them. I laid out my thoughts in this forum post as to what you should be doing now.

In addition, if you have 4 interviews and get rejected from all, I would very strongly encourage you to get interview prep before you have any more. You could be making a mistake and simply not realizing it.

I hope your angst soon turns into the happiness that accompanies acceptance.

 

[HappyRabbit]

Your GPA isn’t the issue and your application is stellar (further reinforced by the II’s you’ve already received).

I would be patient and focus on maximizing your chances at the schools you are already in contention for - if you have any updates to schools you interviewed with, send those in.

There’s always a chance you receive more interviews in January (thinking WashU and Cornell) but you have had a successful cycle so far and the odds are in your favor to receive at least one acceptance.

Without knowing more about your application and overall narrative, it’s impossible to predict “what went wrong”. Sure you could have received more invites but you could just have easily received less. Head up, you’re doing great

 

[lesbianherbs]

Duke, Penn, and Yale are all schools that don’t send decisions until March. The wait sucks for sure—I’m in a similar boat with most of my interviews being at schools that give decisions in March—but it’s likely with 4 interviews, at least 1 will turn into an acceptance! Best of luck!

 

[toastedbutter]

What's your letter of recommendation distribution like? Is there a letter that went to most of the schools you haven't heard from or got the pre-II R from that, by chance, didn't go to the ones you got the interviews from?

Like others are saying, it could just be some more waiting involved and you getting a little unlucky through no fault of your own with the screening process. But I know that, for example, one of my letters was considerably weaker than all of the others and I only sent it to a few schools. Most of those schools are the ones I haven't heard anything from or have gotten a rejection from already.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What you wrote

WAMC: 3.79, 525

Focus: Need Help with School List Any suggestions with schools to remove or add. Have tried to apply broadly but also scared of too many "safety" schools as I have been told with my stats lower tier schools will actually reject me for yield-protection. cGPA/ sGPA: 3.85, 3.90 MCAT: 525...

forums.studentdoctor.net

I had pointed out your lack of service orientation activities since you had a lot of fundraising. I think this is more of a yellow flag than your GPA.

You may get invitations after the new year, but that's hard to say.

Bummed about your R from UW though. What happened there?

 

[BlatantPlatitude]

What's your letter of recommendation distribution like? Is there a letter that went to most of the schools you haven't heard from or got the pre-II R from that, by chance, didn't go to the ones you got the interviews from?

Like others are saying, it could just be some more waiting involved and you getting a little unlucky through no fault of your own with the screening process. But I know that, for example, one of my letters was considerably weaker than all of the others and I only sent it to a few schools. Most of those schools are the ones I haven't heard anything from or have gotten a rejection from already.

Thats a good thought but I sent all the same letters to every school I applied to. I'm trying to think about factors that could be contributing but the fact of early II's indicates to me at least that there was no problem with my writing or red flags in there I suppose. Lucky to have the IIs but still a weird position to be in.

 

[BlatantPlatitude]

What you wrote

WAMC: 3.79, 525

Focus: Need Help with School List Any suggestions with schools to remove or add. Have tried to apply broadly but also scared of too many "safety" schools as I have been told with my stats lower tier schools will actually reject me for yield-protection. cGPA/ sGPA: 3.85, 3.90 MCAT: 525...

forums.studentdoctor.net

I had pointed out your lack of service orientation activities since you had a lot of fundraising. I think this is more of a yellow flag than your GPA.

You may get invitations after the new year, but that's hard to say.

Bummed about your R from UW though. What happened there?

Yes I do have a gap in the service related activities for sure. No excuse there, always time to volunteer on weekends and things like that. Not sure what happened with UW, but one thing that sticks out in my mind is this:
At the end of my interview, (of which it was a three on one) the lead interviewer (or executive admissions member) pulled me into a separate zoom breakout room and said something to the effect of : "I'm sure you're getting interviews at a lot of other schools right? You're going to go to the place that is right for you"
And that **** caught me so off guard I was like what, thats such a weird comment, and I didn't even know what to say. In hindsight I would have said something like "No no no! UW is the school for me! it is my TOP choice and I would fit in so well here" but I didn't. whatever.

 

[toastedbutter]

Yes I do have a gap in the service related activities for sure. No excuse there, always time to volunteer on weekends and things like that. Not sure what happened with UW, but one thing that sticks out in my mind is this:
At the end of my interview, (of which it was a three on one) the lead interviewer (or executive admissions member) pulled me into a separate zoom breakout room and said something to the effect of : "I'm sure you're getting interviews at a lot of other schools right? You're going to go to the place that is right for you"
And that **** caught me so off guard I was like what, thats such a weird comment, and I didn't even know what to say. In hindsight I would have said something like "No no no! UW is the school for me! it is my TOP choice and I would fit in so well here" but I didn't. whatever.

That's unfortunate but you live and learn. Sorry that's definitely off putting and I know you wish you had that moment back but don't dwell on it too much, what's done is done

 

[LizzyM]

The schools that were hot for you jumped on the bandwagon early because the didn't want to risk getting the cold shoulder if you got an offer in October and decided to retire from the interview trail (doesn't happen as much now that many interviews are online and less expensive and time consuming than they were even 5 years ago).

So you had lots of suitors early on but the rest of the schools are just not that into you. Maybe it is something you did or didn't do or maybe they just have so many terrific applicants that it is hard to whittle it down to just the small proportion who can be interviewed.

Fingers crossed that you get some good news when the schools that interviewed you start releasing decisions.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yes I do have a gap in the service related activities for sure. No excuse there, always time to volunteer on weekends and things like that. Not sure what happened with UW, but one thing that sticks out in my mind is this:
At the end of my interview, (of which it was a three on one) the lead interviewer (or executive admissions member) pulled me into a separate zoom breakout room and said something to the effect of : "I'm sure you're getting interviews at a lot of other schools right? You're going to go to the place that is right for you"
And that **** caught me so off guard I was like what, thats such a weird comment, and I didn't even know what to say. In hindsight I would have said something like "No no no! UW is the school for me! it is my TOP choice and I would fit in so well here" but I didn't. whatever.

I'm not sure how I would read into it. Did you send a post-interview follow-up/thank you note pointing out your mission fit? Unless you really have a bad fit, in-state applicants (should) rarely get rejected post-interview. I suspect you are interpreting this as an expression of "yield protection," which is not something schools should be doing with in-state applicants.

2022-2023 statistics AAMC Table A-1
University of Washington
7630 applications, 7.2% in-state (549) for 142 in-state seats (3.87 apps/seat)

Washington State Floyd
1443 applications, 58.1% in-state (838) for 73 seats (11.5 apps/seat)

 

[BlatantPlatitude]

The schools that were hot for you jumped on the bandwagon early because the didn't want to risk getting the cold shoulder if you got an offer in October and decided to retire from the interview trail (doesn't happen as much now that many interviews are online and less expensive and time consuming than they were even 5 years ago).

So you had lots of suitors early on but the rest of the schools are just not that into you. Maybe it is something you did or didn't do or maybe they just have so many terrific applicants that it is hard to whittle it down to just the small proportion who can be interviewed.

Fingers crossed that you get some good news when the schools that interviewed you start releasing decisions.

Haha I love the dating metaphor lol. Thank you I hope that it works out for sure I didn't really think about their strategy in that way.

 

[BlatantPlatitude]

I'm not sure how I would read into it. Did you send a post-interview follow-up/thank you note pointing out your mission fit? Unless you really have a bad fit, in-state applicants (should) rarely get rejected post-interview. I suspect you are interpreting this as an expression of "yield protection," which is not something schools should be doing with in-state applicants.

2022-2023 statistics AAMC Table A-1
University of Washington
7630 applications, 7.2% in-state (549) for 142 in-state seats (3.87 apps/seat)

Washington State Floyd
1443 applications, 58.1% in-state (838) for 73 seats (11.5 apps/seat)

So UW actually did not allow any follow up emails or notes of any kind. So really after the interview ended in my head I was like: "****... I should have said this is my top choice blah blah" something like that. That being said, I know that in-state should not really get rejected post interview but I do have some other friends from here who got interviews and then rejected as well and we all have this perception that UW is a very picky school in terms of looking for people that want to do primary care or preventative medicine or public health kind of work super bad. My best guess is that is really just not what my application conveyed either. I think really UW is a unique school in that sense.