Dean's letter and interviews

[Chemical X]

I'm applying into peds and have several interviews scheduled so far. Most peds programs don't wait for the dean's letter, but some (particularly the more competitive programs) do. I assume the main reason these programs wait for the Dean's letter is to see class rank.

I do not expect to be ranked in the top half of my class due to mediocre performance in my first two years, although my third year grades were better and I have a decent (if not overwhelming) step 1 score. Should I therefore assume that I am unlikely to receive interviews from the programs waiting for the Dean's letter? The comments on it are good, but I'm sure that's true for most people, and I don't know how many programs actually take the time to read them anyway before flipping to the graphs. If anyone has any insight into this I would appreciate it.

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[Law2Doc]

Should I therefore assume that I am unlikely to receive interviews from the programs waiting for the Dean's letter? The comments on it are good, but I'm sure that's true for most people, and I don't know how many programs actually take the time to read them anyway before flipping to the graphs. If anyone has any insight into this I would appreciate it.

No point "assuming" anything. Just sit tight three more weeks and you will know.

 

[Chemical X]

Okay...so my school sent us our final version of the MSPE with rankings and as expected, I'm not in the top half (upper part of the bottom half, but still). I still haven't heard from about half the programs I applied to yet, most of these are the more competitive ones.

I realize no one can tell me exactly what to expect with my application, and I'll know anyway in the next 1-2 weeks. I guess what I was trying to get at with this post originally is, what do programs look for in the MSPE? I mean, they should already be able to figure out from your grades if you're in the top, bottom, or somewhere in the middle. Are they just waiting to see if you somehow got ranked higher than your grades would indicate (in which case, I'm screwed)? Or do comments actually matter? As I said before, I have good comments (many "excellents" and "outstandings", that sort of thing), but I assume most people get good evals in their dean's letter. For what it's worth, my school prints comments as written, i.e. they don't edit.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out if I should brace myself for a bunch of rejections next week based on my class rank, or if programs look at other things in the MSPE when deciding whether to interview or not. Does anyone know about this?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

We look at it all. Comments, rank, shelf exam scores (if reported), and anything else included in your letter. You haven;t been rejected yet, so obviously these programs still have your application "in play". Who knows what will happen next?

 

[USMELL]

We look at it all. Comments, rank, shelf exam scores (if reported), and anything else included in your letter. You haven;t been rejected yet, so obviously these programs still have your application "in play". Who knows what will happen next?

Do you recommend emailing programs you haven't heard from, or should one wait?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

There's no right answer. Little harm can come from contacting a program, as long as your application is complete and has been there for more than 2 weeks. Be polite. I would tend to contact the prog admin -- you simply want to know what the timeline is.