Deadline questions

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Trashino

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The admission process has been so much longer than I thought it would be! In the end, I have an acceptance at a PhD program, but would like to wait to hear from the waitlist at an MSTP. Since the deadline to decide on PhD admissions is April 15, while waitlists typically move on May 15, I am in a bit of a bind. Add to this that I just interviewed at a medical school that I really liked (they give a lot of leeway for research, and have a partially funded MD/PhD pathway), and I have even more time to wait. I've asked the MSTP about my position on the waitlist, and have yet to receive a reply.

I will probably ask for an extension from the PhD program, hopefully to around May 15.
My question: if I cannot get an extension, how binding is the April 15 PhD deadline? Do I just lose my deposit after an April 15 commitment, or am I obligated to attend the school?

Thanks in advance.

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The system is set up so that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES will an applicant be forced to withdraw from waitlists. You are absolutely free to decline an offer of acceptance in favor of a school that took you off the waitlist...you only risk losing your deposit. Even if you write a letter of intent to the PhD program (some may ask you to), the letter becomes null and void if you are removed from a waitlist for an MSTP.

This information is all available in the "traffic rules" section of the AAMC website. These rules were designed to provide applicants with the maximum amount of freedom to choose their program while making it easier for admissions departments to manage their class lists. Don't worry!
 
Trashino, this may sound bad, but I'll put it to you this way. What can the PhD program do to you? There's no legally binding contract that can make you attend their program and not go somewhere else. I'm also certain you wouldn't be the first person to do this. So, maybe you piss people off there, so what? Do what you need to do.
 
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I would highly recommend against pissing people off in our small world. The MD / PhD / MSTP community is so small that word travels, and everyone is at most a few connections removed from anyone else. Starting off a career this way doesnt seem like a bright idea.

That having been said, I think that if you are accepted off an MSTP waitlist after the PhD deadline, thats tough nuggets for them. You said yes, you commited based on what you knew, but new stuff came up that you had wanted all along.

The April 15th deadline is to pick one PhD program - sounds like you have done that. Anything after that is no different than you quitting the program for any one of hundreds of personal reasons...
 
I guess this question is in parallel to the one that was already asked, so I won't start a new thread. When do waitlists start to move? My guess is most begin to move on May 15, but the schools that require a rotation the first summer have their deadline on April 15(Cornell, Sinai, etc). Do the waiting lists from these schools begin to move on April 15?

The suspense is killing me!
 
the cornell waitlist, if there is any movement, would start moving april 19th [i believe that is their decision date]. i imagine this goes for many programs with the april deadlines.
 
sounds like a lot of schools have the april deadlines. keep those waitlists rolling! i'm with you, doctorV. waiting is killing me!

good luck
 
doctorvenkman said:
When do waitlists start to move? My guess is most begin to move on May 15, but the schools that require a rotation the first summer have their deadline on April 15(Cornell, Sinai, etc).

the Yale adcom suggested that their waitlist moves almost exclusively between May 10 and June 10. i've heard of people getting offers as late as august, so i'm not sure how representative yale is.
 
doctorvenkman said:
I guess this question is in parallel to the one that was already asked, so I won't start a new thread. When do waitlists start to move? My guess is most begin to move on May 15, but the schools that require a rotation the first summer have their deadline on April 15(Cornell, Sinai, etc). Do the waiting lists from these schools begin to move on April 15?

The suspense is killing me!

same question, does anybody know if the waiting lists from those schools that have a april 15 deadline start to move? anything would be helpful to get me through this painful period. thanks.
 
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