Declining an interview for a reapplication?

[Dreadedpremed]

Hi everyone

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[Moko]

Hi everyone. I recently got an interview at NYMC but I am extremely unhappy with its location and its ranking is a bit low. I also received an interview from a T5 this cycle that unfortunately ended in a rejection. I was wondering whether I should withdraw my application to NYMC and reapply, hoping for an interview/acceptance at a better school in a good location. Is this incredibly dumb? I have high STATS. I just applied to only 18 schools this cycle and should have applied to more.

If you would rather chance it at a higher ranked school next year rather than potentially matriculate to NYMC this year if accepted, then you have your answer. Don't take up an interview slot that another applicant would be thrilled to utilize. Just my thoughts.

 

[Dreadedpremed]

If you would rather chance it at a higher ranked school next year rather than potentially matriculate to NYMC this year if accepted, then you have your answer. Don't take up an interview slot that another applicant would be thrilled to utilize. Just my thoughts.

Do you think that’s a bad idea? Do you also provide application feedback? Thank you

 

[ByThe+C]

You have high stats so I would vote to withdraw if you wouldn't want to attend NYMC.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You haven't been successful with interviews so far. Do you really think you can snag an A if you interview? Seems very presumptuous.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Matching a competitive specialty will be hard regardless of where you go to school. You have a chance to be a doctor, which is the whole point of this process, and it's even an MD school.

It would be an unequivocal mistake to decline your interview.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Edit: it seems I misjudged OP based on some comments. Still gonna leave this here because premeds need to see this

Honestly people need to quit being so obsessed with derm/plastics/ENT.

Look, yeah, those are important specialties that make double my future salary while working less hours. However, as one of the FM docs I shadowed in undergrad used to say "If you can't be happy making 'regular doctor' money, you need to reevaluate your priorities."

If you can't see yourself as an internist/pediatrician/family doc, don't go to medical school. I hope things work out for you and you match derm or whatever, but you could work 90 hours a week all through med school, have a perfect app, and still not match those fields. It's not good to bank on getting into one of those.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Usual advice: if you have an offer in hand, turn the II down.

If you don't have an offer in hand, take the interview. It gives you insight about the school that you can use in comparison with others in how they sell themselves; you might be surprised and want to go. If not, you get interview practice in case you reapply.

You have high STATS yet you say you should have applied to more than 18 schools? This isn't a game where the highest "school count" wins a prize.

 

[Med Ed]

Hi everyone. I recently got an interview at NYMC but I am extremely unhappy with its location and its ranking is a bit low. I also received an interview from a T5 this cycle that unfortunately ended in a rejection. I was wondering whether I should withdraw my application to NYMC and reapply, hoping for an interview/acceptance at a better school in a good location. Is this incredibly dumb? I have high STATS. I just applied to only 18 schools this cycle and should have applied to more.

One interpretation of your cycle: you have high stats and got an interview at a T5.

Alternative interpretation: you have high stats and 18 non-acceptances.

I have some top-notch colleagues who went to NYMC. Is it Columbia? No, but it's a path to an MD.

 

[candbgirl]

Do you think that’s a bad idea? Do you also provide application feedback? Thank you

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[Dreadedpremed]

One interpretation of your cycle: you have high stats and got an interview at a T5.

Alternative interpretation: you have high stats and 18 non-acceptances.

I have some top-notch colleagues who went to NYMC. Is it Columbia? No, but it's a path to an MD.

are they still able to match into competitive specialties?

 

[Med Ed]

are they still able to match into competitive specialties?

No. No one who has graduated from NYMC has ever matched into a competitive specialty.

 

[Goro]

No. No one who has graduated from NYMC has ever matched into a competitive specialty.

Yup. The surgeon who operated on a family member of mine was a graduate of New York Medical College. Poor guy, he has to make do with a salary averaging around $400k a year.

Too bad for him. If he had gone to Stanford, he'd be making around $400k a year.

 

[xffan624]

Hi everyone. I recently got an interview at NYMC but I am extremely unhappy with its location and its ranking is a bit low. I also received an interview from a T5 this cycle that unfortunately ended in a rejection. I was wondering whether I should withdraw my application to NYMC and reapply, hoping for an interview/acceptance at a better school in a good location. Is this incredibly dumb? I have high STATS. I just applied to only 18 schools this cycle and should have applied to more.

Despite your high stats, if you don't get an acceptance this cycle you will have a reapplicant stigma attached to your application. Unless you're doing something significant to round out your high stats to make you an exceptional applicant like a prestigious Rhodes scholaresque type activity this cycle, this is the zenith of your ability for your stats to influence your application. After that, it's expected and then what have you done lately. You don't say what the other 18 schools represented or whether NYMC or the T5 represent your only interviews. If those are the results from 18 schools, you either have some significant deficiencies in your app or you're shooting too high and don't have enough variety (I suspect the latter). So rejecting NYMC would be foolish at this point. Next app cycle you're going to have apply more broadly and include more NYMC type schools so you don't become a 3 time reapplicant so might as well see if you can get in now. As should be abundantly clear now, you can get in to competitive specialties from lower ranked MD schools. I went to a MD school that has seen its rank rise recently, but was previously below 75th on the rankings and my colleagues still matched to Derm, Plastics, ENT, Neurosurgery, and prestigious IM residencies etc.

 

[candbgirl]

All we know is you have high stats, and that’s because you told us.
What have done this year?
How have you significantly improved your current application for a reapp. ADCOMS will expect significant improvement in your application.
Why did you apply to this school in the first place if it’s so bad?
The way I’m reading your first post, you have only received two II this cycle. The one you are talking about now and one at a T5 that you received a R after the interview. If I’m reading this correctly, why do you think things will be any different next cycle? Have you vastly improved your application?

 

[Saxappeal1]

OP, granted it has been a while since I've done this, and please know that I am not being antagonistic, holier than thou, because lord knows that I don't want to come off that way:
So I graduated medical school somewhat recently. I went to a state medical school, and I remember people matching into neurosurgery, ENT, dermatology, etc in my year, and even before that I had a person a few years above me who matched into a top 3 Neurosurgery program.
Medical school is really what you make of it. You will be the same person wherever you go, so if you are going to get 250s on step 2 (and of course a P on step 1), honor clinical rotations, get amazing letters of rec, I think it doesn't really matter where you go.
Remember, there are plenty of people with amazing stats that get interviews and get rejected, or dont even get interviews.

 

[LizzyM]

NYMC is suburban IIRC but is the location really so bad?? (Haven't been up there in 40 years)

If you would rather never be a physician than attend NYMC, withdraw your application before the interview. Don't waste anyone's time interviewing you.

If you'd hold your nose, attend if admitted, and hope for the best 4 years from now when match rolls around, attend the interview and do your best.

Good luck! You'll need it.

 

[Goro]

NYMC is suburban IIRC but is the location really so bad?? (Haven't been up there in 40 years)

No!!! It's suburban Westchester. My parents are buried in a nice cemetery in Valhalla.

 

[LizzyM]

No!!! It's suburban Westchester. My parents are buried in a nice cemetery in Valhalla.

I've since looked at their crime report and it is a big zero .... or rather a series of zeros so that can't be the objection.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hi everyone. I recently got an interview at NYMC but I am extremely unhappy with its location and its ranking is a bit low. I also received an interview from a T5 this cycle that unfortunately ended in a rejection. I was wondering whether I should withdraw my application to NYMC and reapply, hoping for an interview/acceptance at a better school in a good location. Is this incredibly dumb? I have high STATS. I just applied to only 18 schools this cycle and should have applied to more.

Why did you apply to NYMC in the first place? It's location and ranking haven't changed since you applied. What were some qualities that attracted you to include it in the 18 that you did apply to?

 

[Stuaccount]

Is this incredibly dumb?

It seems you already know it but just to answer your question, yes it would be incredibly dumb.

If you already attended 10 interviews, maybe it makes sense to cancel the 11th one. But if I were you, I would grab these interview opportunities. You will gain interview experience, learn something you didn’t know (for eg I learned a lot of eye opening information about financial aid from a couple of schools during the interview day) or you might actually change your mind later about reapplying and be happy that you gave yourself an option.

 

[IlDestriero]

As you are finding out, high stats aren’t going to guarantee you anything. You have zero acceptances, so you’re not really in a position to be turning down interviews. You could have applied to 5 or 10 more schools and be in exactly the same place. Everyone else applied to those same 5-10 schools as well.
When I had my first interviews, I had a back to back with a little lay over in the middle and took the train from Georgetown to NY Med. They both were disasters and I was feeling pretty bad about my prospects. At the time, and for many weeks after they were my only interviews. Georgetown, the medical system, was in a well known financial turmoil and the people who interacted with the interviewees were a bunch of arrogant jerks pretty much across the board. Newsflash, GTN isn’t that school in Boston, and never will be. They start, start!, by saying that we were very lucky to be getting an interview there, but getting an interview doesn’t really mean anything as they only take about 10% of interviewees. It actually went downhill from there. Several times I was thinking WTF am I doing here and why are these asshats wasting my time and money? Pretty much the only nice thing about GTN was I could live there and party like a rockstar in DC, where I had some previous experience partying like a rockstar. Then after a couple of days of debauchery, I hopped off the Acela and was greeted by Albany, and NY Med, in the winter. Cue the losing sound from The Price is Right.
I immensely disliked both schools for different reasons, but I never once, for even a second, thought I’d rather throw it away and reapply than spend 4 years with the delusional arrogant folks in DC or in the dreary rust belt escapee that is Albany. Fortunately I ended up where I wanted to be all along. Though I wouldn't have turned down that school in overpriced and very cold Cambridge.
As for residency matching, competitive specialties are competitive. You are competing nationally against all comers. You need to bring your A game from the jump and be more than a standard deviation above the mean. Harvard scores better than NYM on standardized tests because for the most part they get better students who average higher scores. One could argue you may be better off being at NY Med because you may be a big fish in a smaller pond. You could find more opportunities, etc. Also, don’t be surprised to find that you go from 2 SD above the mean in college to quite average or even below in medical school, because now you’re swimming with sharks. It happens, and to a lot of students. Champagne dreams and Derm wishes go out the window pretty quickly.
Good luck, and don’t cancel your interview. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush, and you still may not even get an acceptance anyway.

 

[LizzyM]

Sounds like you interacted @IlDestriero with the infamous Mrs. Sullivan at G'town.

NYMC is in Westchester County, just north of the Bronx whereas Albany Medical College is up the Hudson in Albany.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

As it stands you have no admission offers and are at risk of being a re applicant. You need to accept any II to a school you applied to. Now, applying to a school you don't want to attend shows a lapse in judgement. The question remains, do you want to be a doctor or not?

 

[IlDestriero]

Sounds like you interacted @IlDestriero with the infamous Mrs. Sullivan at G'town.

NYMC is in Westchester County, just north of the Bronx whereas Albany Medical College is up the Hudson in Albany.

You’re right, it was Albany Med. It’s been a while. lol