Chances of Receiving IIs at this Point in the Game

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Goro said:
Chances are low and getting lower. They're best at your state school(s).
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Does that mean we the zero II crowd should start to plan for back ups already?
 
Goro said:
ALL applicants to med school should have a Plan B ready to go from Day 1, until they have an accept in hand.
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Sorry I meant to execute instead of to plan.
 
No, don't assume the worst. It's not binary. Just keep a backup plan developing in the background. As far as post-interview chances, it's going to vary school to school but they wouldn't interview someone that wouldn't potentially be accepted.

We are still a month away from the thanksgiving rule, which is that after that date if you have no IIs you should begin to move forward with a backup plan.

I am (as are many others) attending the school I was invited to interview in March. These are just general guidelines, not absolutes. It's just about being realistic. If it's Thanksgiving and you applied to 20 schools and have no interviews, it's time to figure out what's wrong with your app and what to do about it. That's all.


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21Rush12 said:
I am (as are many others) attending the school I was invited to interview in March. These are just general guidelines, not absolutes. It's just about being realistic. If it's Thanksgiving and you applied to 20 schools and have no interviews, it's time to figure out what's wrong with your app and what to do about it. That's all.
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The bold should be emphasized repeatedly. All these holiday rules are just guidelines to help track your application progress. Same goes for planeblue's interview tracker. Do not use them as absolute rules. Each and every school has its own admissions process that follows its own logistics. It is very much possible to get interviews as late as spring of the application cycle and still get accepted.

But it's important to be realistic. Everything depends on when you were complete. Someone who is complete in early July and has no interview invites by Thanksgiving should plan to prepare for reapplication (but even then, that doesn't mean there is no hope of getting interviews). Someone who is complete in early September with no interview invites yet can afford to wait a little longer after Thanksgiving but should still prepare to reapply since they are late.

Use these SDN holiday rules as guidelines and not as absolute truths.
 
MCATISEZ said:
I’m confused. I would say we are not even half way done yet. Is that wrong?


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By Thanksgiving, we are three months into interviews with three months left to go. Most schools finishinterviewing by end of March and begin relooking at applicants on post-interview hold to determine accepts, waitlisted, and rejects.
 
Goro said:
Chances are low and getting lower. They're best at your state school(s).
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Two to three weeks the general sentiment was "be patient." Is October such a flurry of activity that things are radically different?

Do you say that as a consequence of half being given out? Or is this more a matter of, "If you have zero II's it means your application is non-competitive"?
 
As near as I can figure, 14 of my schools haven't even looked at me yet, as evidenced by "file complete" status with nothing about processing/review, and only four schools have finished reviewing my application. I have a hard time believing my cycle is essentially over, except maybe at super early rolling schools like Tulane.

Tulane... one of my favorites and I don't even have the green checkmark yet, RIP.
 
I have a friend at Brown who received his *FIRST* interview in October, and had interviews coming around in feb and march. I have another friend at Stanford who had his *first* interview during thanksgiving. Another friend at Stanford who got a lot of her interviews during or after thanksgiving. I had an interview offered as early as September 2nd, and as late as today, it's so random, totally bizarre, with no regard for date of completion, take a deep breath, more will come. We have an entire month according to the Thanksgiving rule (and honestly, that's the rule for NO interviews), if you get AN interview by then, like keep looking forward to more in December, January, and February.

Heard directly from friend at Brown, who heard directly from adcoms that EVEN IN ROLLING, they TRY THEIR BEST to offer interview to the SAME PERCENTAGE in every batch. So, for example, if there are 500 JUNE applicants, they will try to select about 20-30 for interview, and put others on hold for re-review, and then of the 600 JULY FIRST HALF applicants, they'll try their best to choose again 30-40 for interview, putting others on hold. So the advantage of applying early is that you have a weaker pool competing against, but it's not necessarily for "more" seats. Yes there is some truth to the fact that the applicants they're looking at in November and December are probably stronger overall (MCAT retakes, extra cushioning, better letters, who knows), but that doesn't mean your chances are slimmer. If they like you and you're a great applicant, you should be invited for interview regardless of when you've applied.

HAVE CONFIDENCE OP!!!! YOU GOT THIS!!!
 
lol_new_user said:
I have a friend at Brown who received his *FIRST* interview in October, and had interviews coming around in feb and march. I have another friend at Stanford who had his *first* interview during thanksgiving. Another friend at Stanford who got a lot of her interviews during or after thanksgiving. I had an interview offered as early as September 2nd, and as late as today, it's so random, totally bizarre, with no regard for date of completion, take a deep breath, more will come. We have an entire month according to the Thanksgiving rule (and honestly, that's the rule for NO interviews), if you get AN interview by then, like keep looking forward to more in December, January, and February.

Heard directly from friend at Brown, who heard directly from adcoms that EVEN IN ROLLING, they TRY THEIR BEST to offer interview to the SAME PERCENTAGE in every batch. So, for example, if there are 500 JUNE applicants, they will try to select about 20-30 for interview, and put others on hold for re-review, and then of the 600 JULY FIRST HALF applicants, they'll try their best to choose again 30-40 for interview, putting others on hold. So the advantage of applying early is that you have a weaker pool competing against, but it's not necessarily for "more" seats. Yes there is some truth to the fact that the applicants they're looking at in November and December are probably stronger overall (MCAT retakes, extra cushioning, better letters, who knows), but that doesn't mean your chances are slimmer. If they like you and you're a great applicant, you should be invited for interview regardless of when you've applied.

HAVE CONFIDENCE OP!!!! YOU GOT THIS!!!
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Bless your soul. This post is incredibly reassuring lol I have 3 IIs so far, but haven't heard back so I've been getting antsy. Hoping for more IIs in the months to come!
 
lol_new_user said:
I have a friend at Brown who received his *FIRST* interview in October, and had interviews coming around in feb and march. I have another friend at Stanford who had his *first* interview during thanksgiving. Another friend at Stanford who got a lot of her interviews during or after thanksgiving. I had an interview offered as early as September 2nd, and as late as today, it's so random, totally bizarre, with no regard for date of completion, take a deep breath, more will come. We have an entire month according to the Thanksgiving rule (and honestly, that's the rule for NO interviews), if you get AN interview by then, like keep looking forward to more in December, January, and February.

Heard directly from friend at Brown, who heard directly from adcoms that EVEN IN ROLLING, they TRY THEIR BEST to offer interview to the SAME PERCENTAGE in every batch. So, for example, if there are 500 JUNE applicants, they will try to select about 20-30 for interview, and put others on hold for re-review, and then of the 600 JULY FIRST HALF applicants, they'll try their best to choose again 30-40 for interview, putting others on hold. So the advantage of applying early is that you have a weaker pool competing against, but it's not necessarily for "more" seats. Yes there is some truth to the fact that the applicants they're looking at in November and December are probably stronger overall (MCAT retakes, extra cushioning, better letters, who knows), but that doesn't mean your chances are slimmer. If they like you and you're a great applicant, you should be invited for interview regardless of when you've applied.

HAVE CONFIDENCE OP!!!! YOU GOT THIS!!!
Click to expand...


Curious about this comment. Wouldn't applying early mean you have a stronger pool competing against? From what I've observed, the most neurotic individuals are the one who apply early bc they have all their letter of recs lined up, MCAT/materials ready, etc.
 
This question is more or less answered by Planeblue's Interview Invite Tracker which uses data from the 2015-2016 cycle- relevant graph for those who don't want to click on it (WARNING: This is data for TOTAL interviews, specific schools differ)
upload_2017-3-5_17-9-38-png.215785



upload_2017-3-5_17-10-36-png.215786

Here in numbers. Of course, this is a plot of SDN students and not very representative of the total population. But, assuming you're an average SDN answering student, about 36% of interviews that will be handed out to SDN users have yet to come. I'd try to put this in proportion with national uninterviewed and the pre-October crowd that is 64% of SDN but the likely case that our average reporting user has higher stats than the average applicant it will give you an unrealistically bleak image of your situation.

As goro said, you should have a plan B. But your chances are very far from null at this point.
 
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imxpandanese said:
Curious about this comment. Wouldn't applying early mean you have a stronger pool competing against? From what I've observed, the most neurotic individuals are the one who apply early bc they have all their letter of recs lined up, MCAT/materials ready, etc.
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From what I've heard it's a mix. It's a mixture of people who think they need to apply early, because they're weaker, and neurotic premeds as well. The general idea though is that smaller pool --> fewer stronger applicants to compare against. In theory, if everyone is strong, they'll keep some on hold, and then interview them later when they see that those were indeed one of their stronger applicants.
 
That info was compiled by someone on sdn who simply went through the school specific threads and tallied up people saying they got interview invites. I don't think that information is very useful - people are far more likely to post II at the beginning of the cycle when excitement is high than they are towards the end of the cycle when everyone else is talking about acceptances and making plans to attend.
 
Even so, we are probably about Halfway through most schools invites, and for the most part the super high stats, URM, and other outlying desirable candidates have gotten multiple interviews and are being picked over. Now that the first acceptance date has passed and people are dropping II's and acceptances because they got in somewhere else, I would suspect above average, average, and marginal candidates will start seeing more action.
 
Potentia Virtus said:
That info was compiled by someone on sdn who simply went through the school specific threads and tallied up people saying they got interview invites. I don't think that information is very useful - people are far more likely to post II at the beginning of the cycle when excitement is high than they are towards the end of the cycle when everyone else is talking about acceptances and making plans to attend.
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wow so somebody did that huh
 
onyxbell said:
Does that mean we the zero II crowd should start to plan for back ups already?
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If you do not have an acceptance in hand by October 30th (that's most applicants) you should ALWAYS be working on your next application cycle. Does that mean you're unlikely to get accepted? No! Not at all. It means that if your application was not strong enough originally to net you an acceptance, you'd better get busy improving it before your delayed action costs you an additional year. You want to be able to answer the "What has improved since we passed you over?" with a strong list that showcases both your self-knowledge and dedication.

What is the weakest area in your application? And can you do anything now to help shore that up? Do that -- If it's your MCAT, start prepping now for an early spring retake. If it's GPA, sign up for an evening science class or two. If it's shadowing or volunteering, do some! If you're just 'OK' all around, do something interesting that will make you stand out.

None of these activities will be wasted, and all of them will be better if started earlier.
 
Potentia Virtus said:
That info was compiled by someone on sdn who simply went through the school specific threads and tallied up people saying they got interview invites. I don't think that information is very useful - people are far more likely to post II at the beginning of the cycle when excitement is high than they are towards the end of the cycle when everyone else is talking about acceptances and making plans to attend.
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Very much agree.

I don't think everyone is reporting. more reports when frenzy is high at the beginning, and people who get interviews by Nov, and Dec are way less likely to even think about posting to SDN the moment they get it.

Bottom line: I trust my friend, and I think similar percentages of interviews are given out throughout the year. KEY WORD PERCENTAGE. Fewer and fewer applicants are looked at, later on in different pools, but you will surely be looked at, and if they like you, regardless of whom they have already invited for interview, they will invite!
 
DokterMom said:
What is the weakest area in your application? And can you do anything now to help shore that up? Do that -- If it's your MCAT, start prepping now for an early spring retake. If it's GPA, sign up for an evening science class or two. If it's shadowing or volunteering, do some! If you're just 'OK' all around, do something interesting that will make you stand out.
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Aight. So anyone knows the market for green card marriages nowadays? I feel like being int'l is my single, reddest flag right now.
 
shockdoc said:
In other words, if no II at this point, assume the worst?
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T-giving is my rule of thumb for when to start hitting the Plan B function.

ReapPremed said:
Two to three weeks the general sentiment was "be patient." Is October such a flurry of activity that things are radically different?
Do you say that as a consequence of half being given out? Or is this more a matter of, "If you have zero II's it means your application is non-competitive"?
Click to expand...
I mean that one has to be patient, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. Schools can only interview so many people a week in a cycle that may extend into spring time.
 
Ive always been curious as to why people would rather be a re-applicant for an MD cycle when they have a good shot of getting into a D.O. school.
 
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FWIW, I’ve self reported two IIs in school specific threads, but have five. So I’m not sure the tracker is all that accurate. I was aware of weak areas in my app and started working on those as soon as possible with the assumption I wouldn’t get in. It’s stressful with IIs and I can imagine how much worse it is without them. It seems like there is still a lot of hope for interviews throughout the next few months, but keep plan B in mind just in case they don’t materialize.


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Get some advising. From a pre-med advisor or something like that. One of my labmates is having your issue. I am helping her improve her application since I see my pre-med advisor a lot and research how to make a strong written application.
 
lol_new_user said:
The real question is how much money do you have.
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infectiousdisease101 said:
Get some advising. From a pre-med advisor or something like that. One of my labmates is having your issue. I am helping her improve her application since I see my pre-med advisor a lot and research how to make a strong written application.
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Would it be too late to improve my app for this cycle? I know we can send updates but it'll still take me time to build up more experience
 
I think it's not your experience but it may be you didn't know the rules to writing a PS, but I can't say for sure.

Doesn't hurt to get ahead of next cycle. Start seeking advice on what your application lacks. Contact adcoms.
 
corgicuddler said:
Would it be too late to improve my app for this cycle? I know we can send updates but it'll still take me time to build up more experience
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I think it is important to consider that many schools do not accept pre-interview updates. So don't bank on the application being a "conversation" between you and the school.

Some like GW seem to adore them.

You also don't know if they are ever really looked at. I had a paper published when sitting on a waitlist and nothing. Of course maybe that didn't do much to assuage their concerns about me.
 
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For top tier schools, does receiving a late interview matter/hurt chances? It’s a reach for everyone and some only do decisions in December.
 
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