Did you have 'Backups' that did not give you an interview?

[Stolenspatulas]

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In response to the first bit - i find it hilarious that people get so angry by some of the things said here on sdn - look at all my posts in this thread, I have done nothing but explain and re-explain my position and my motivation for talking about this subject. I honestly do not think it was made in bad taste. I am not trying to put any school down or say that I should have gotten this or that... all I am saying is basically summed up in the second part of your comment perfectly - I dont think that it is such a stretch of the imagination to think that way...

but instead of paying attention to the motivation behind the thread, which was in essence to suggest people not apply to places they dont really want to go, people take things way out of context and get pissy, and I dont see a reason for that

I dont know. Im sitting pretty right now with solid acceptances but I STILL find it in bad taste. Maybe its bc i tend to put faces to SDN members. Think about it this way: if you were in a room with a bunch of premed strangers, would you bring up a topic like this one?.... knowing of course that there are a lot of re-applicants and anxious people in general waiting to hear from ANY school.

I'll say it again: I even hate "OMG I GOT INTO MEDSCHOOL LIFE IS AWESOME AND I JUST CRIED TO MY MOM" threads.

 

[mikeinsd]

well - it is hard because this is supposed to be a forum for everyone, and we see threads they go over the whole spectrum, from stuff i cannot stand (of the type you mention, the woohoo i got in here!!!), to the stuff that simply is not relevant to hardly anyone (cant think of a good example - but it is certainly out there)...

i was sincerely trying to be helpful... but only to a certain group of people i suppose... my take home point being dont apply to a school unless you would seriously go there, because it seems like somehow they can tell if you are not too serious -

if i was doing it over again and had already read this post, i would have saved myself some money and cut out a few schools

that said
i see your point - i tried as hard as i could to explain myself clearly so as not to come off like a jerk, but in the end you are right. I have a number of friends with only one interview and one with none, and, as you point out, i would never talk about something like this with them, ever. If you knew me you would know i am not an ass, but with these forums you just see what i type, so it is hard to make that come accross.

so sorry if you were offended - that is not why i put up the post - but i see where you are coming from, so, sorry

 

[kevster2001]

Haha, NYU a safety school? I just looked at your stats and that is definitely not the case for you.

i have no idea how good or bad nyu is, i just added it since it was in new york. thanks for hte put down though

 

[Max8]

i was sincerely trying to be helpful... but only to a certain group of people i suppose... my take home point being dont apply to a school unless you would seriously go there, because it seems like somehow they can tell if you are not too serious -

if i was doing it over again and had already read this post, i would have saved myself some money and cut out a few schools

So....Mikeinsd, I think your intended sentiment was a useful one and I will add this item to the discussion table.

I recently met a doctor on the admissions committee at Mount Sinai. We were talking about the application process and, of course, he asked if I had interviewed at Mount Sinai--so I said that I had not received an interview with them. He replied that, and I quote, "Mount Sinai might have sensed it was more of a back-up school (his words, NOT mine) and we on the committee try to screen our interview offers so as not to offer them to candidates who wouldn't matriculate."

However, this doesn't mean he meant the committee was looking at only stats to determine if someone was serious about the school---as several people have mentioned, it is likely they use many factors in determining candidate's level of interest.

 

[Chulito]

So....Mikeinsd, I think your intended sentiment was a useful one and I will add this item to the discussion table.

I recently met a doctor on the admissions committee at Mount Sinai. We were talking about the application process and, of course, he asked if I had interviewed at Mount Sinai--so I said that I had not received an interview with them. He replied that, and I quote, "Mount Sinai might have sensed it was more of a back-up school (his words, NOT mine) and we on the committee try to screen our interview offers so as not to offer them to candidates who wouldn't matriculate."

However, this doesn't mean he meant the committee was looking at only stats to determine if someone was serious about the school---as several people have mentioned, it is likely they use many factors in determining candidate's level of interest.

I spoke with an ADCOM member at U of Rochester who said the same thing.

Also, in my case, an ADCOM member from my state school (U of Washington) happened to be friends with the husband of a doctor who wrote me a LOR. He got in touch with her to try to determine whether UW was really my first choice, as I had claimed. This was post-interview and was part of the process of deciding whether to offer me an acceptance rather than an interview, which is very different, given that the ratio of acceptances to matriculants is an important number that they seek to minimize for reasons of prestige and what not. Still, it is clear that they do consider the likelihood that an applicant will actually matriculate at some point in the process, so it still makes sense to me that at least some schools would do so before offering interviews.

 

[mikeinsd]

right, no adcom has ever publicly come out and said, "our school will reject some of the better applicants since we think they won't come here." no adcom can truly know that an applicant is applying to their school as a backup or as a school where they really want to go.

see above 🙂

 

[Stolenspatulas]

well - it is hard because this is supposed to be a forum for everyone, and we see threads they go over the whole spectrum, from stuff i cannot stand (of the type you mention, the woohoo i got in here!!!), to the stuff that simply is not relevant to hardly anyone (cant think of a good example - but it is certainly out there)...

i was sincerely trying to be helpful... but only to a certain group of people i suppose... my take home point being dont apply to a school unless you would seriously go there, because it seems like somehow they can tell if you are not too serious -

if i was doing it over again and had already read this post, i would have saved myself some money and cut out a few schools

that said
i see your point - i tried as hard as i could to explain myself clearly so as not to come off like a jerk, but in the end you are right. I have a number of friends with only one interview and one with none, and, as you point out, i would never talk about something like this with them, ever. If you knew me you would know i am not an ass, but with these forums you just see what i type, so it is hard to make that come accross.

so sorry if you were offended - that is not why i put up the post - but i see where you are coming from, so, sorry

no need to apologize at all. 🙂

 

[postbacdad]

👍 👍

Definitely agreed. If you look on mdapps you'll find that a lot of people with high numbers do get interviews at those places. The SDN sentiment that back-ups reject people with high numbers because those people are too good for them and won't go there is really just a bunch of neurotic pre-meds making themselves feel better.

Sorry, but I'm another case in point against your "neurotic pre-meds" hypothesis. GW is the only school to have rejected me without an interview and "coincidentally" also the one with the least reputation.

 

[Falco2525]

I dont know about "backups" but I did have "lower ranked" schools who did not interview me while higher ones did...I also had one lower ranked school reject me post-interview while the higher ones accepted me...thus I think most schools are focused on the "fit" of the applicant at the school

 

[alwaysaangel]

Sorry, but I'm another case in point against your "neurotic pre-meds" hypothesis. GW is the only school to have rejected me without an interview and "coincidentally" also the one with the least reputation.

Thats nothing against my point. They look for very particular things at every school. Your PS probably didn't make you look like someone GW thought would fit well there.

It wasn't your numbers being too high.

 

[mikeinsd]

It wasn't your numbers being too high.

are you on the admissions commitee there?

most of the people who attacked me on this thread yesterday basically said the same thing - that I was wrong, that nobody does that...

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

i am no expert, and I said all along that i was merely speculating, because i dont think i know everything

now there are a few people who say they have heard from at least one place or another that this actually happens...

and yet you persist in insisting that you are right, without supporting your case in any way...

just a thought

edit: i agree i do not think it is JUST numbers, but i think they might certainly come into play, at least, i can see that it might be a possibility

 

[maestro1625]

hmm, wow, 50+ posts, and no one has mentioned Michigan State. I dont personally know of a single person with an interview there and a 30+.

...not that I'm complaining, I actually think their admissions process is quite noble to find the students that they want. I guess it was the fact that none of us put the words "rural," "underserved," or "cow" in our AMCAS.

 

[Falco2525]

hmm, wow, 50+ posts, and no one has mentioned Michigan State. I dont personally know of a single person with an interview there and a 30+.

...not that I'm complaining, I actually think their admissions process is quite noble to find the students that they want. I guess it was the fact that none of us put the words "rural," "underserved," or "cow" in our AMCAS.

Michigan State is one of the ones that did not give me an interview...I got a 31 so maybe that is why?

 

[maestro1625]

Michigan State is one of the ones that did not give me an interview...I got a 31 so maybe that is why?

I dont really think it had anything to do with score, as much as the feel you give them on your primary app. At first, the thought of paying 50 bucks to not even write a secondary seemed like a ripoff, but the way they do it they can look for people who told all schools that they have a desire to work primary care, stay in michigan, live amongst the corn, etc, instead of bull****ting on a secondary solely to that school.

 

[mikeinsd]

I dont think a 31 kept you out, in this case above poster is probably right. I have never said i think there is a magic cuttoff for anywhere, so please, nobody try to put other peoples words in my mouth 😉

(this is just a pre-emptive post before someone gets mad at me for something i never said)

 

[mikeinsd]

the silence on this issue proves that some people on sdn just love to argue and to pretend they know everything... till you ask for a little justification 😉





game, set, match?
😎

 

[alwaysaangel]

are you on the admissions commitee there?

most of the people who attacked me on this thread yesterday basically said the same thing - that I was wrong, that nobody does that...

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

i am no expert, and I said all along that i was merely speculating, because i dont think i know everything

now there are a few people who say they have heard from at least one place or another that this actually happens...

and yet you persist in insisting that you are right, without supporting your case in any way...

just a thought

edit: i agree i do not think it is JUST numbers, but i think they might certainly come into play, at least, i can see that it might be a possibility

I don't know, for sure. And neither do you. And no where in this thread did anyone say "Yeah an adcomm told me that the first thing they do is take all the people with 40+ MCATs and 3.9 and put them in the reject pile."

Until someone says that you are still wrong. Claiming that back-up schools reject people with high numbers is saying that some schools do that. Which is ridiculous!

All people said was that schools try to screen out applicants if they sense you are using them as a back-up. A lousy secondary, not knowing anything about the school in your secondary essays, or having a PS that shows very different goals than those of the school will all do that.

Everyone is agreeing that its a combination of things.

But are you saying that in my analogy:

No I don't. I think if an adcomm had two applicants, both very similar ECs that match the schools ideals, very similar personal statements, and very similar future goals. But one had a 40 3.9 and the other had a 32 3.7. I think they would invite the 40 3.9 before the lower numbered person.

you believe they would give the interview to the lower numbered person - simply because they think the higher numbered person wouldn't go?

Is that what you're saying?

 

[alwaysaangel]

the silence on this issue proves that some people on sdn just love to argue and to pretend they know everything... till you ask for a little justification 😉





game, set, match?
😎

You wish. It actually just proves that we are away from our computers.

You are the one arguing for the sake of arguing. Everyone here has agreed that its a combination of factors and no one here has even given anectdotal evidence (which is all the "an adcomm member told me" stories are) that they cut out people with high numbers.

See my post above.

game, set, match? 🙄

 

[Jinterpol]

I considered Loyola and Rush to be my "backup" schools. My apps had a complete status by early september, and I thought I had these in the bag, since I'm an Illinois resident now...but I haven't heard a word.

 

[mikeinsd]

away from the computer? - you know for a fact that none of us leaves our computers... 😱
(thats a joke, despite coming accross as quite intense, I take the majority of this stuff with a grain of salt)

at some point this whole thread got very far from the point... I get frustrated when people on sdn speak as if they know things that others do not - angel you cant know what adcoms say, and neither can I, at this point it really is arguing for the sake of that, which is not what we are here for, so i guess that is the end of the story...

and the tennis comment - sometimes I think I am funny but I just come off as an ass - oh well 🙁

 

[DuckHunter]

I don't know what gave me the hubris to apply to Mayo as a back-up school. But being rejected pre-telephone hurt me deep, real deep 🙁 🙁

 

[Chulito]

I have just posted a question on the ADCOM: SEMI-SOLICITED ADVICE thread regarding interview invitations for students who seem suspiciously unlikely to ever attend, so an answer from at least one real participant in the process should be forthcoming.

 

[sunnyjohn]

I don't know what gave me the hubris to apply to Mayo as a back-up school. But being rejected pre-telephone hurt me deep, real deep 🙁 🙁

Mayo was my back up skool too!

I got no love from Rochester! BOOOOO!

 

[HumbleMD]

But are you saying that in my analogy:

you believe they would give the interview to the lower numbered person - simply because they think the higher numbered person wouldn't go?

Is that what you're saying?

Yes, it's known to happen. Wayne State, for instance, is burned every year by Umich pre-meds using them as a safety school (I regret to say I was one of them). I've seem some kids with similar ECs and incredible numbers not get interviews there. Same case with MSU. Could be a P.S. problem too, but didn't seem to be.