Dean's Letter affect on interview invites?

[sparticus]

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Does anyone know how much the dean's letter affects whether you are invited or not? I am just wondering if programs might be waiting to recieve the dean's letter before sending out invites.

Also, out of the 117 ophthal programs what percentage do you think have sent out invites? It seems there are a lot of delays this year. I'd guess only 25-30%.

 

[rubensan]

i think it depends on how your school prepares deans letters. usc and a lot of other schools use "adjectives" that some programs look for. for example, at the end of some deans letters it will state, "sparticus was an outstanding/excellent/very good/average medical student" depending on your class rank, AOA status, # of honors etc. now, in the grand scheme of things i think the dean's letter is one of the least important aspects of your application. rather, i think most programs are more interested in LOR's, personal statements and USMLE scores. in fact, i remember receiving about half of my invites before my dean's letter was sent out. however, this year seems to be unique in that the SF match is moving very slow.

Does anyone know how much the dean's letter affects whether you are invited or not? I am just wondering if programs might be waiting to recieve the dean's letter before sending out invites.

Also, out of the 117 ophthal programs what percentage do you think have sent out invites? It seems there are a lot of delays this year. I'd guess only 25-30%.

 

[Wolverine98]

usc and a lot of other schools use "adjectives" that some programs look for. for example, at the end of some deans letters it will state, "sparticus was an outstanding/excellent/very good/average medical student" depending on your class rank, AOA status, # of honors etc.

Wow, USC is harsh. At Michigan the worst someone can be is "very good". They don't have average applicants from there. 🙄

Like Rubensan said, the dean's letter is next to useless for boosting someone. You can get some where there's some damning by faint praise, so they can certainly hurt you. This is especially true if more people from your school are applying to the same program; if they all are "outstanding" candidates, and you're just an "excellent" candidate, then you could be in trouble.

Even honors, because it can be so variable from school to school can be misleading. You would be amazed at how liberally some schools give out honors for clinical rotations.

Dave