Clarification on Turning Down Acceptance

[Peter Pan.]

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I have a friend who turned down a DO acceptance. They got a 502 and a 503 on the MCAT after taking it 2 times 1 year apart. They don’t want to go DO but applied to 30 DO schools. And even before they applied they said they didn’t want to go DO.

So why even apply to all those schools? So much money. Not only do they want to go MD but they want to go to one particular school in state. And this state school is one of the most competitive schools in the state. Now they refuse to go any other MD school.

Now they’re studying for the MCAT a third time. They said they will keep applying until they get in to this one school but this is blind wishful thinking and depending on your app MD might not be a realistic option for you.

And this person is super picky about residency. They said primary care is too boring and they want to make more money doing surgery or another competitive specialty. Also several other options are too boring other than primary care. Oh and they’re set on going to residency at the same place they want to go to med school. I told them but you can’t always get your preferred destination for residency. They said they will make it work. More wishful thinking on something that isn’t entirely in their control.

Some people need to wake up and realize what their options are. Be realistic about your chances and this whole process. I just find it incredibly ignorant how this person applied to so many DO schools and only got 1 acceptance and now they think they deserve more. They want a specific MD school and are picky about residencies.

Being my friend I wish this person the best but I really don’t think it’s gonna work out for them. They probably won’t ever become a doctor.

It amazes me how often this happens too. An acquaintance of mine turned down an acceptance as well and I see it all the time on SDN.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

You took on the risk of losing at least $300K in order to avoid paying a $2K deposit. Unless there was >99.5% certainty that you'd get another acceptance (and obviously that level of certainty is impossible in the crapshoot that is the medical school admissions process), your gamble wasn't mathematically worth it. Even if you did receive another acceptance, it still would've been an objectively awful gamble.

Hopefully you make better decisions during the next cycle. Good luck.

Yeah. Anybody with a level of certainty that high is either so powerful or connected that two grand is a drop in the bucket, or else so famous and brilliant as to be a household name. For example, if you're the President's son, or you or your parents have given a medical school a nine-figure donation, or you have something like a Nobel Prize or the Medal of Honor with perfect grades and MCAT...then you have a shot. Or if you are an unobtainium-grade rock star and turn the acceptance down to do something like play professional football, maybe that could be tolerated.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

The $2000 non refundable deposit indicates that this is most likely a DO school. I believe you’re not allowed to have deposits that high for MD as per AAMC rules.

Hmm. If MD schools don't know they turned down the DO acceptance or applied DO, then they might have a shot at MD.

 

[gyngyn]

Hmm. If MD schools don't know they turned down the DO acceptance or applied DO, then they might have a shot at MD.

Unless the school asks about previous acceptances to medical school (or the outcome of previous cycles).

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Yes. But do all MD schools ask that question? Some do, some don't - and they have a shot at the ones that don't.

 

[L3sterine]

Hi all, OP here, a year later. I wanted to post this as a follow-up to this thread to update anyone who's looked through here and add a data point to the mix, as I've had a number of people reach out to me in similar situations to myself.
Tl;dr I (foolishly, according to SDN wisdom) turned down a DO acceptance my first app cycle, reapplied, and was accepted into an MD program.

I reapplied to 16 MD schools and received 5 interviews. Of those, I had 3 WL and 2 R, and was accepted off the waitlist at one (and cancelled the other 2 I was still waiting to hear back about). I reapplied to a total of 3 schools, re-interviewed at 2 of them, was WL at one of them. In each of my reapplication interviews, the fact that I had previously applied, much less turned down an acceptance previously, never came up once. (FWIW, I had a 511 MCAT and 3.86 cGPA/3.77 sGPA.) All that being said, I don't think that turning down a school my first app cycle was detrimental to my re-application, as no school I applied to on the second go-around even knew (it was a DO school and no one asked me about it.) I did have a few questions in secondary apps about how I'd improved since last app cycle though, but nothing about turning down an A.

By no means am I making any recommendation re this situation to anyone else. I know that I certainly made the best decision for me and I do not regret turning down that A in my first cycle. Perhaps I was lucky, or perhaps turning down an A isn't as detrimental to an app as people seem to believe (note that I'm only n=1).

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to PM/reply with additional questions or criticism you may have.

@Goro @gyngyn

PS: Just for kicks, here's some of the feedback I was given in this thread regarding my decision:
"You don’t have a shot for next cycle, or even the next few after that. You messed up and the best you can do is be stellar for the next 5 years and give it another shot."
"You likely will not get an interview."
"OP better apply to at least 30 schools so that at least one has mercy."
"A completely ignorant and stupid decision…looking at the very real likelihood of never being a doctor because of that decision…literally beg for mercy."
"OP...might be done for life. If OP's dead-set on reapplying MD, they...IMO need at least five years' worth of exemplary behavior."

 

[and 99 others]

Hi all, OP here, a year later. I wanted to post this as a follow-up to this thread to update anyone who's looked through here and add a data point to the mix, as I've had a number of people reach out to me in similar situations to myself.
Tl;dr I (foolishly, according to SDN wisdom) turned down a DO acceptance my first app cycle, reapplied, and was accepted into an MD program.

I reapplied to 16 MD schools and received 5 interviews. Of those, I had 3 WL and 2 R, and was accepted off the waitlist at one (and cancelled the other 2 I was still waiting to hear back about). I reapplied to a total of 3 schools, re-interviewed at 2 of them, was WL at one of them. In each of my reapplication interviews, the fact that I had previously applied, much less turned down an acceptance previously, never came up once. (FWIW, I had a 511 MCAT and 3.86 cGPA/3.77 sGPA.) All that being said, I don't think that turning down a school my first app cycle was detrimental to my re-application, as no school I applied to on the second go-around even knew (it was a DO school and no one asked me about it.) I did have a few questions in secondary apps about how I'd improved since last app cycle though, but nothing about turning down an A.

By no means am I making any recommendation re this situation to anyone else. I know that I certainly made the best decision for me and I do not regret turning down that A in my first cycle. Perhaps I was lucky, or perhaps turning down an A isn't as detrimental to an app as people seem to believe (note that I'm only n=1).

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to PM/reply with additional questions or criticism you may have.

@Goro @gyngyn

PS: Just for kicks, here's some of the feedback I was given in this thread regarding my decision:
"You don’t have a shot for next cycle, or even the next few after that. You messed up and the best you can do is be stellar for the next 5 years and give it another shot."
"You likely will not get an interview."
"OP better apply to at least 30 schools so that at least one has mercy."
"A completely ignorant and stupid decision…looking at the very real likelihood of never being a doctor because of that decision…literally beg for mercy."
"OP...might be done for life. If OP's dead-set on reapplying MD, they...IMO need at least five years' worth of exemplary behavior."

Ahh I am very curious how this would have played out if your initial acceptance was from an MD. Either way, I'm glad it turned out the way it did for you, Congrats!

 

[penguinsfan71]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't AMCAS and AACOMAS not share data? So if you turn down a DO school, MD programs would never know, right?

 

[Osminog]

Hi all, OP here, a year later. I wanted to post this as a follow-up to this thread to update anyone who's looked through here and add a data point to the mix, as I've had a number of people reach out to me in similar situations to myself.
Tl;dr I (foolishly, according to SDN wisdom) turned down a DO acceptance my first app cycle, reapplied, and was accepted into an MD program.

I reapplied to 16 MD schools and received 5 interviews. Of those, I had 3 WL and 2 R, and was accepted off the waitlist at one (and cancelled the other 2 I was still waiting to hear back about). I reapplied to a total of 3 schools, re-interviewed at 2 of them, was WL at one of them. In each of my reapplication interviews, the fact that I had previously applied, much less turned down an acceptance previously, never came up once. (FWIW, I had a 511 MCAT and 3.86 cGPA/3.77 sGPA.) All that being said, I don't think that turning down a school my first app cycle was detrimental to my re-application, as no school I applied to on the second go-around even knew (it was a DO school and no one asked me about it.) I did have a few questions in secondary apps about how I'd improved since last app cycle though, but nothing about turning down an A.

By no means am I making any recommendation re this situation to anyone else. I know that I certainly made the best decision for me and I do not regret turning down that A in my first cycle. Perhaps I was lucky, or perhaps turning down an A isn't as detrimental to an app as people seem to believe (note that I'm only n=1).

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to PM/reply with additional questions or criticism you may have.

@Goro @gyngyn

PS: Just for kicks, here's some of the feedback I was given in this thread regarding my decision:
"You don’t have a shot for next cycle, or even the next few after that. You messed up and the best you can do is be stellar for the next 5 years and give it another shot."
"You likely will not get an interview."
"OP better apply to at least 30 schools so that at least one has mercy."
"A completely ignorant and stupid decision…looking at the very real likelihood of never being a doctor because of that decision…literally beg for mercy."
"OP...might be done for life. If OP's dead-set on reapplying MD, they...IMO need at least five years' worth of exemplary behavior."

Even if you did receive another acceptance, it still would've been an objectively awful gamble.

The above is what I said in response to your original situation, and I stand by it. It wasn't worth the gamble. The situation happened to play out the way you wanted it to, so now you can use the benefit of hindsight to rationalize the immense risk that you took on.

Based on the AAMC grid, you had a 75% chance of getting an MD acceptance based on your stats (not factoring in the fact that you were a re-applicant)—so you risked a guarantee of becoming a physician and a year of attending salary for a 75% chance of getting into MD school the subsequent cycle. One doesn't need "SDN wisdom" to know that that was an inadvisable decision.

With all of that being said, I'm genuinely glad it worked out for you in the end. Thanks for returning to the forum to share how things turned out, and good luck in medical school.

 

[efle]

Bro you barely eeked in off a late waitlist. You still did almost miss your chance to become a doctor. There is no way you can look at how close your cycle came to failing again and feel like SDN was wrong to warn you.

 

[Kpw101]

By no means am I making any recommendation re this situation to anyone else.

Happy for you OP, but everyone please remember these words.

 

[Goro]

One can engage in unprotected sex with 300 people, and not get HIV.

But it's still a stupid thing to do.