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[MyOdyssey]

I called the admissions office of a school I’m interviewing at to ask about campus tours and the lady I talked to told me to email them, so I did. It’s been 2 weeks and I haven’t gotten a response. I figured they probably just forgot about, but as a neurotic premed I’m a bit stressed about it. Should I worry that it was poorly received and intentionally ignored?

Is the interview in person?

 

[MyOdyssey]

No it’s over zoom, but they sent out an email a couple weeks ago that they were trying to do in person tours in Nov

Then your email requesting an in person tour was entirely appropriate. No worries about impropriety assuming you worded the request politely.

There's not much of November left with Thanksgiving so they should be getting back to you soon.

Perhaps the school is having second thoughts about giving tours given the recent surge in Covid cases.

 

[KnightDoc]

I called the admissions office of a school I’m interviewing at to ask about campus tours and the lady I talked to told me to email them, so I did. It’s been 2 weeks and I haven’t gotten a response. I figured they probably just forgot about, but as a neurotic premed I’m a bit stressed about it. Should I worry that it was poorly received and intentionally ignored? I hope it won’t affect my admissions chances at all if that’s the case.

Yes, you are being neurotic. E-mails are read by staff, not deciders, and they are buried this time of year, so you shouldn't take slipping through the cracks (or being ignored for that matter) personally.

Bottom line -- if they doing interviews virtually, they are not that interested in hosting you in person. If they aren't offering campus tours to everyone (or everyone being interviewed), the odds of their accommodating your request are close to zero. If they are busy and are not going to offer you a tour, that's as good a reason as any not to get back to you, even though it is admittedly rude. Simply asking for a tour isn't going to hurt you.

Edit -- if they indicated they were trying to arrange in person tours, you should absolutely follow up expressing continued interest in the tour. As @MyOdyssey said, maybe their plans changed, maybe the tours are all booked, or maybe you just fell through the cracks. No reason not to follow up. Either way, nothing involving trying to get a tour is going to impact your chances in any way.

Have you had your interview yet? If so, then all the inputs for a decision are already in your file. And, if not, there is no way that expressing interest in taking them up on their offer is going to be held against you.

 

[KnightDoc]

Thank you for the reassurance! My interview is coming up in a few weeks. For my piece of mind I’ll probably just leave it be

TBH, if they offered tours and I wanted one, I'd follow up. I'd respond to the e-mail offering the tours, explain that I sent a request a few weeks ago, state that I realize they are extremely busy, and ask if tours are still available.

I seriously doubt it's a COVID thing. The spike is hardly a surge. The country is not shutting back down. Masks and vaccines are available, and in person instruction and other activities are taking place. Every day. At every school.

Your e-mail fell through the cracks. If tours were canceled due to COVID, that would have been the response to your e-mail. Not silence.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'd be patient. Maybe all the details haven't been worked out. Maybe they are thinking about tours but only to people who accepted offers. I'd politely nudge them, but your email will garner more attention if you have an offer from the school.

 

[LizzyM]

Unless schools have a way of checking the vaccine status of visitors, they may be hesitant to have visitors, even if the visitor wears a mask. Furthermore, in before times, tours often included clinical areas (or at least the hallways of the clinical spaces, hospital cafeteria, etc and the hospitals may be hesitant to have visitors who do not need to be there.

 

[LizzyM]

I have a similar query here - I wanted to send thank you notes to one of the schools I interviewed at, but they don't have a portal to upload them to. I emailed the admissions office asking where I could send them, and they never responded to that. So they never got sent. Does that mean anything bad?

It might mean that they don't want to be burdened with hundreds or thousands of thank you notes even if they are electronic and uploaded.