Completed for 3 months and still "under review" ... should i call?

[Phenol312]

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As the title states...the schools to which I have applied have had all my materials since the end of august and yet I'm still listed as "under review." I'd be flat out lying if i said the waiting wasn't driving me up a bloody wall. What bothers me most is that my instate schools haven't contacted me yet, and the check was in the mail months ago.

Question is, should i call and ask or sit tight?

Furthermore, should I be relieved that I haven't been rejected yet or should I start writing myself off as rejected without confirmation?

 

[Cataract]

As the title states...the schools to which I have applied have had all my materials since the end of august and yet I'm still listed as "under review." I'd be flat out lying if i said the waiting wasn't driving me up a bloody wall. What bothers me most is that my instate schools haven't contacted me yet, and the check was in the mail months ago.

Question is, should i call and ask or sit tight?

Furthermore, should I be relieved that I haven't been rejected yet or should I start writing myself off as rejected without confirmation?

Give them a call, there's no harm in it. Unless you call schools like NYU that spit fire if you dial their number. Just ask if there have been any updates to your application.

 

[Jolie South]

Give them a call, there's no harm in it. Unless you call schools like NYU that spit fire if you dial their number. Just ask if there have been any updates to your application.

yea, just ask about the status of your application. as long as you're not hounding them or being rude, they should tell you something.

 

[Phenol312]

Give them a call, there's no harm in it. Unless you call schools like NYU that spit fire if you dial their number. Just ask if there have been any updates to your application.

well i didnt apply to NYU but are there any other schools out there knowing for fire breathing?

 

[Cataract]

well i didnt apply to NYU but are there any other schools out there knowing for fire breathing?

SUNY Downstate doesn't like status checks. I think AECOM, too.

 

[Phenol312]

thats funny because the SUNY downstate status page doesnt even say if youre "under review" it just shows the dates tehy got all my materials...

 

[jamilla_w]

No offense but I don't like you odds at all.

 

[AIF]

No offense but I don't like you odds at all.

No offense, but that comment was neither helpful nor supportive.

 

[Kingfish]

One of those schools wouldn't happen to be Jefferson would it? They've been sitting on my app for about a month and a half now (which is terrible because I love the school!). Apparently this is a pretty common experience with them.

 

[Corker]

No offense but I don't like you odds at all.

This is the second post I've seen from jamilla_w that has had a very rude tone to it. The first was that inflammatory post about Thanksgiving being offensive. Jamilla_w, if you are considering a career in medicine, I wonder if you wouldn't be more successful as a lawyer or businessperson. Doctors need to have a sensitivity and compassion that has not been apparent in the tone of your posts. I have worked with THOUSANDS of sick people, and it is a bit distressing to me to think of a person with your personality (or at least what I PERCEIVE to be your personality, based on your posts) damaging the delicate feelings and hopes of patients who are suffering. I hope you will work on developing some tact before you venture out into the medical field. As a potential future colleague, I would not look forward to the "damage control" I would have to use with patients you had upset with your rude and tactless comments. I say this with the best intentions. I believe you need some self-reflection.

 

[MDRus]

don't worry. i have a feeling she will not be attending medical school.

 

[Phenol312]

Jamilla has flamed me in several of my threads...i just take it with a grain of salt...

apparently i can't meet her standards of a "competitive" applicant...thank god shes not on an admissions committee.

 

[Vihsadas]

Jamilla has flamed me in several of my threads...i just take it with a grain of salt...

apparently i can't meet her standards of a "competitive" applicant...thank god shes not on an admissions committee.

Don't let other people hold you down. What you want to do with your life is your business, and others that judge you for it are just immature.

 

[Phenol312]

i'm not...my prehealth advisor said i would be competitive and he knows more about how the system works than a great portion of the people here on SDN so his word counts a bit more than jamilla's lol.

If jamilla is trolling about i would like to know why she(?) thinks i have such a bad chance...probably my lack of health related EC's but i just chose to continue volunteer activities that i was very passionate about. They were the kind of things only i could do and they are rewarding for me.

I think showing that you can stick with something counts just as much as showing you know what youre getting into if not more so. A lot of people do things like volunteer rescue squads just to put it on their app to med school...thats a hard truth here lets face it. I do my volunteer work because its rewarding for me thats all that matters in my book. I will admit things like shadowing and whatnot help but does that really prepare us that much for what its gonna be like when we have our MD's? the medical climate and doctor/patient relations can change drastically in four years time. From my point of view, health related EC's are valuable but you need more than that to show personality.

Here i am jacking my own thread lol... :gets off soap box:

 

[Phenol312]

so I emailed RWJ and NJMS this morning...NJMS got back to me pretty quick and said my file was complete and everything. So i guess that means they havent rejected me yet...waiting to hear from RWJ...

 

[lisichka]

yes, i've also been complete forever at some schools, and all they tell me when i call is that i am under review. 🙄 it is hard to believe that it takes them three months to read my file. prolly it is a form of a pre-int hold or a slow deathly rejection😡

 

[Phenol312]

I'd like to think they just have a big spreadsheet and organize them by some (GPA x 10) + MCAT forumula and work their way down. THey would probably update the list once or twice a week to let more "favorable" students jump ahead more "average" ones like myself

 

[lisichka]

I'd like to think they just have a big spreadsheet and organize them by some (GPA x 10) + MCAT forumula and work their way down. THey would probably update the list once or twice a week to let more "favorable" students jump ahead more "average" ones like myself

are u sure about the formula? i thought it was gpa+(mcat*10)

 

[Phenol312]

im sure each school does it differently...i was just trying to get at some kind of overlying logic to all this. I just keep telling myself i have to be patient and that they havent forgotten about me lol.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

are u sure about the formula? i thought it was gpa+(mcat*10)

THis would make GPA negligible,it would hardly count at all

 

[Phenol312]

yeah i was just thinking that...it would be great if the mcat really was 100x more important than your gpa. Well, at least in my case heh.

 

[Textuality]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, many of us are probably in the same boat as you! I know I am. I haven't heard back from..oh..say 10 schools even though I've been complete since early September and am coming up on 3 months. So if this is their form of slow rejection, we can be rejected together! Hehe. Always nice to have company isn't it?

 

[jmw38]

this has happened to me as well - i think you just have to be patient. i mean, i don't think it could hurt to call for updates, depending on the school, it could help. for example, i called the admissions office at one school almost every day for two weeks, until finally one day the dean of admissions herself answered (!) and when she looked over my application she said she would make sure i was in the "right pile" and that she should be seeing me for an interview. so in other words, don't give up! it does bug me that i've been waiting for baylor for like... almost 3 months now. and i know they've reviewed my app... =/

 

[patientdriver]

I think you should definitely give the schools a call to see what's going on.

I'm still waiting on about 13 schools after having been complete since aug/sept.

Almost all of them were still in the process of review, but two schools actually had my apps on hold because they hadn't received my LOR yet... but they've been available on virtual evals since august, they just neglected to download 'em and add them to my paper file. (and of course they're both rolling admissions)

Just calling or emailing to get a status check from a human instead of an automated system probably won't hurt you, but can possibly help you fix any boneheaded, incompetent errors they've made.

[no i'm not bitter]
[well... maybe a little]

 

[mikkey]

Hey, this is simply my experience, but I have called a few schools to inquire about my file and everybody blows me off and tells me to check their status web page. So I am not entirely sure that calling will change anything. Then again, some people on this forum got interviews that way, so this may just be my bad luck (or most probably the fact that I am international...)
Hope this helps!

 

[Textuality]

Well, most of the schools I haven't heard from are the "top tier" folk that don't really encourage you to call them, like UPenn and Yale. I haven't even tried. I only really call schools if their status page for me is really behind or just plain wrong, lol.

 

[Phenol312]

I've emailed RWJ and NJMS and they've both gotten back to me saying that im still under review...which is good because it means i haven't been rejected yet!

As for the others im just playing the waiting game with their status pages and watching the mail

 

[OMFB]

this has happened to me as well - i think you just have to be patient. i mean, i don't think it could hurt to call for updates, depending on the school, it could help. for example, i called the admissions office at one school almost every day for two weeks, until finally one day the dean of admissions herself answered (!) and when she looked over my application she said she would make sure i was in the "right pile" and that she should be seeing me for an interview. so in other words, don't give up! it does bug me that i've been waiting for baylor for like... almost 3 months now. and i know they've reviewed my app... =/

sorry, was it call baylor that you called again and again? im debating if i should start calling about my app. it says that it hasnt been reviewed yet on the status page, but it's been forever and im getting worried

 

[jmw38]

it mos def was not baylor. when i called baylor the lady gave me one-word answers and did all but hang up on me. you could try calling baylor (couldn't hurt) but i personally don't think it'll help unless one day you amazingly get the dean of admissions on the phone (like i did at uth) but i don't think baylor is a place that will happen.

 

[surfstarj]

This is the second post I've seen from jamilla_w that has had a very rude tone to it. The first was that inflammatory post about Thanksgiving being offensive. Jamilla_w, if you are considering a career in medicine, I wonder if you wouldn't be more successful as a lawyer or businessperson. Doctors need to have a sensitivity and compassion that has not been apparent in the tone of your posts. I have worked with THOUSANDS of sick people, and it is a bit distressing to me to think of a person with your personality (or at least what I PERCEIVE to be your personality, based on your posts) damaging the delicate feelings and hopes of patients who are suffering. I hope you will work on developing some tact before you venture out into the medical field. As a potential future colleague, I would not look forward to the "damage control" I would have to use with patients you had upset with your rude and tactless comments. I say this with the best intentions. I believe you need some self-reflection.

Thank you for saying that but you might be wasting your "breath". Unfortunately, there are so many people on here that give me that impression and a good number with an acceptance already. It's a little scary, I agree and nobody on SDN who makes comments like that cares to heed advice like yours. Having great stats doesn't make you an admissions expert and it doesn't give you license to **** on everyone else on SDN or elsewhere. In 10 years, nobody is going to care what your GPA was no matter who you are but especially if you're a nasty curmudgeon with no bedside manner.

 

[surfstarj]

OP, I meant to say that I think you should call to check. It can't hurt as long as you only call once and are polite.

::loving the waiting game::

 

[Textuality]

Heh, anybody else want to just scream from all this waiting? YARGGGGGGGGGG!!!! I swear every time I go to check my mail my heart skips a beat....I don't think it's good for me, lol.

 

[orient03]

Heh, anybody else want to just scream from all this waiting? YARGGGGGGGGGG!!!! I swear every time I go to check my mail my heart skips a beat....I don't think it's good for me, lol.

same here.

 

[jmw38]

yeah, ditto.

 

[LikeClockWork]

same here.

I second this as well. I wish this whole process only took a month. That way I'd just have a massive heart attack and not a massive heart attack with an ulcer.

 

[ohnodapopo]

I'd like to think they just have a big spreadsheet and organize them by some (GPA x 10) + MCAT forumula and work their way down. THey would probably update the list once or twice a week to let more "favorable" students jump ahead more "average" ones like myself

I'm in the same boat as you OP, and I can tell you firsthand that above-average GPA and MCAT (for the schools to which you are applying) dont guarantee first round interviews. I've only had 2 interviews myself, but haven't given up yet.

 

[orient03]

I second this as well. I wish this whole process only took a month. That way I'd just have a massive heart attack and not a massive heart attack with an ulcer.

haha, our health is at stake.