Dukes Anonymous :)

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nova1983 said:
Oh man, this is ridiculous. I am still waiting to hear, though I am not in the US so mail takes much longer to get to me. But thank god for SDN, bc otherwise I'd still be waiting to hear if I was accepted or not. Please, just let my letter arrive so that I can fully move on with my life. Sigh.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions as to what I can possibly do to get into med school in the next cycle (other than take more science courses, which is not really an option for many reasons), I am all ears. This is all so incredibly depressing....
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I definitely have some advice regarding next year, if it comes to that: Apply to some less prestigious American schools. You could have a better GPA, but your MCAT is very solid and your ECs seem great. Apply to some top tier schools, sure, but give some middle and lower tier schools a look, too. Good luck.
 
Rejection today in FL. I wish I had done some research in undergrad, and studied more than a month for the MCAT...but I never thought I'd be applying to Duke. The blow was softened by a nice thick packet from Penn State that was also in the mail. First acceptance!
 
nova1983 said:
Oh man, this is ridiculous. I am still waiting to hear, though I am not in the US so mail takes much longer to get to me. But thank god for SDN, bc otherwise I'd still be waiting to hear if I was accepted or not. Please, just let my letter arrive so that I can fully move on with my life. Sigh.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions as to what I can possibly do to get into med school in the next cycle (other than take more science courses, which is not really an option for many reasons), I am all ears. This is all so incredibly depressing....
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I'm kind of in a similar situation~ If I don't get off Duke's waitlist, I'm not going to med school next year, which sucks, BUT think of it as a year to do whatever you want. Once you start med school, ya gotta keep going for awhile, so take the year and do research in a lab that interests you, work for a service organization in Africa, be creative! If it is want you want, you will get there 🙂
 
Rejected today in Boston area. Duke was actually my only interview so I know I won't be at med school next year. But, I'm looking forward to reapplying. Does anyone know if already being interviewed and rejected hurts your chances of getting an interview when reapplying?
 
tangerine1584 said:
Rejected today in Boston area. Duke was actually my only interview so I know I won't be at med school next year. But, I'm looking forward to reapplying. Does anyone know if already being interviewed and rejected hurts your chances of getting an interview when reapplying?
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doubt it: you should just expect the question: "why do u think you weren't accepted last year" (and implicated...what did you do to change that?)
 
rejected today as well. very disappointed b/c duke was my top choice boooo.

thankful however that i have some acceptances. bol to the rest of you who didn't hear good news from dooooook.
 
Waitlisted in Iowa. So is 200 the official number on the WL. Did anyone actually ask RW or Dean Armstrong?
 
I am actually abroad and couldn't bear the suspense so I emailed RW and he very nicely forwarded me a copy of my letter.
 
argencolts said:
Waitlisted in Iowa. So is 200 the official number on the WL. Did anyone actually ask RW or Dean Armstrong?
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The number on the waitlist is more than 200. I don't know if/think that I am allowed to say how many exactly. But it's more than 200.
 
nevercold said:
The number on the waitlist is more than 200. I don't know if/think that I am allowed to say how many exactly. But it's more than 200.
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I can't help wondering if there's a point to trying to get off of the waitlist... I'm currently composing the cheesiest, most cliche letter of interest EVER.
 
nevercold said:
The number on the waitlist is more than 200. I don't know if/think that I am allowed to say how many exactly. But it's more than 200.
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Really? Wow. Without telling me the exact answer can you give me a yes or no answer if there are between 200-300 people on the WL? 🙂
 
who here thinks that duke's "jump" in the rankings (not that there's a lot of room to jump in the top-10) means there'll be even less wait-list movement? i know, i know, way to be a debbie downer. 🙁

p.s. i just realized that 🙄 is "sarcastic"! i always thought it was "coy." hmm.
 
argencolts said:
Really? Wow. Without telling me the exact answer can you give me a yes or no answer if there are between 200-300 people on the WL? 🙂
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If I am home between 11am and 12 noon on a weekday, then The Price is Right is on my television. I have seen the "high-low" game. 😉 (I will not be fooled into this game 🙂 )
 
haven't received anything here - Berkeley, CA. mmm...wonder if I should send a letter of interest or something. Many West Coast people have gotten rejections or waitlists by now.

ideas?
 
chemu said:
haven't received anything here - Berkeley, CA. mmm...wonder if I should send a letter of interest or something. Many West Coast people have gotten rejections or waitlists by now.

ideas?
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i'm in so cal and i received mine on Monday if i'm remembering correctly..
 
I haven't recieved any word either, one way or the other. Strange.
 
fyi, i interviewed in mid-december and my letter was a waitlist

when did you guys interview?
 
i haven't received anything yet either in CT...interviewed in early march. did my rejection letter get lost...? lol.
 
i interviewed march 10th, the last day of interviews. A friend who interviewed same day from Canada got a notification already. Wierd.

I'm calling em tomorrow a.m.
 
I live in Chapel Hill, 20 miles from Durham. It should only take the postofficer a day to get the letter to me. I interviewed in November. I still have received NO word from Duke...its the last school I'm waiting to hear from. VERY strange because they said they'd send out decisions sometime in March...since this is the last day of March that is odd. I'm assuming this means I got rejected (fine, I'm going to UNC anyway), but I still find it strange that I haven't heard anything. I even called them after my interview to confirm that they had my correct address on file. I guess I will call tomorrow morning. I am still just curious - I did pay to apply!
 
2 years ago a bunch of us didn't get our letters... turns out they hadn't sent a bunch of them (or made decisions on us?) or something. We all called and then got them like 2 weeks after everyone else. Mine was a waitlist, and I ended up getting in. Although at this point it is HIGHLY unlikely that they're acceptances, I wouldn't count yourselves as rejected quite yet...
 
sailaway415 said:
I live in Chapel Hill, 20 miles from Durham. It should only take the postofficer a day to get the letter to me. I interviewed in November. I still have received NO word from Duke...its the last school I'm waiting to hear from. VERY strange because they said they'd send out decisions sometime in March...since this is the last day of March that is odd. I'm assuming this means I got rejected (fine, I'm going to UNC anyway), but I still find it strange that I haven't heard anything. I even called them after my interview to confirm that they had my correct address on file. I guess I will call tomorrow morning. I am still just curious - I did pay to apply!
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Haha yeah, the least they could do is send us a decision. I'mma call tomorrow as well. I'd do it now, but by EST it's too late!
 
thanks diosa! i guess we should all call to scold at them for forgetting about us lol. also, tomorrow's april fool's day so let's hope they don't observe the holiday.

good luck everyone!
 
I <3 you, Duke. Please admit me.
 
I second (more like fourth!) the frustration over still not hearing. My only thought is that maybe the Easter holiday had different effects on mail delivery in different parts of the country. Although it is exceedingly bizarre not to have heard in Chapel Hill.... Please update us all after calling tomorrow--I'm too chicken, and for no good reason since a rejection is all but certain now.

Also, thanks to those who replied with advice about reapplying. I will reply individually as I don't want to hijack (sp?) this thread for my own purposes.
 
got mine in the mail today! Waitlist. Much better than rejection. The mail had gone to another address somehow - despite correct address.

now going to craft my first and best Letter of interest to em.

question for everyone, letter of interest does not mean 'I will go if you admit me', right? that would be letter of intent.

I really love Duke, the 1 year of class is awesome, and was especially eyeing one of their full tuition scholarships. I'm from CA and also got into an awesome school here which location/lifestyle wise would be hard to give up, so ideally would go to Duke if their finaid package is superior.

good luck to fellow waitlisters.
 
I called today, and the lady who answered said that there seems to have been mail delays along the east coast (but not the west, interestingly).

She said she has a couple returned envelopes due to incorrect addresses, but everyone else's letters should have been mailed last week. Hope that helps!
 
My sympathies to all who still haven't heard. I got the same treatment from about 3 of my other schools.
 
I called today and the man I spoke to said he would re-send the letter. I then jumped in and asked whether it might be possible to send me the letter as an e-mail attachment since it would take a week + for the re-sent letter to reach me in Canada. He agreed and RW sent me my waitlist letter soon after. So for those still waiting, you might be able to call and request an e-mailed version.

So now, I have some waitlist questions:

1) I already sent a letter of intent; will an update letter help?

2) If so, what's the best time to send it? Now, or beginning of May-ish?

3) Why would Duke put 200+ people on the waitlist? I'm thankful to have another shot, but I really don't see why they'd need that many people to choose from. And if there are 200+ people, I find it so hard to believe that the list isn't ranked somehow. Otherwise, how on earth do they pick people? Any thoughts???
 
nova1983 said:
So now, I have some waitlist questions:

1) I already sent a letter of intent; will an update letter help?

2) If so, what's the best time to send it? Now, or beginning of May-ish?

3) Why would Duke put 200+ people on the waitlist? I'm thankful to have another shot, but I really don't see why they'd need that many people to choose from. And if there are 200+ people, I find it so hard to believe that the list isn't ranked somehow. Otherwise, how on earth do they pick people? Any thoughts???
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An update can't hurt, if you have something to update. I'd send it at the end of April to be sure it gets there when they're making decisions about the waitlist movement in the beginning of May. You can also just write a letter saying that you still love Duke and it's still your first choice.

No one really understands what admissions does. Who knows why there are so many people on the waitlist. Maybe they weren't expecting a lot of people to confirm their acceptances. The year of the lacrosse case a lot of people declined acceptances; perhaps with the wide publication of the shooting at UNC admissions was afraid that the same thing would happen if people assumed that the Durham/Chapel Hill area is unsafe. However, the class is apparently already 1/4 full. Good luck!
 
diosa428 said:
An update can't hurt, if you have something to update. I'd send it at the end of April to be sure it gets there when they're making decisions about the waitlist movement in the beginning of May. You can also just write a letter saying that you still love Duke and it's still your first choice.

No one really understands what admissions does. Who knows why there are so many people on the waitlist. Maybe they weren't expecting a lot of people to confirm their acceptances. The year of the lacrosse case a lot of people declined acceptances; perhaps with the wide publication of the shooting at UNC admissions was afraid that the same thing would happen if people assumed that the Durham/Chapel Hill area is unsafe. However, the class is apparently already 1/4 full. Good luck!
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Thanks for the info, diosa428!

Only 1/4 full 😕?
 
SBBunny said:
Thanks for the info, diosa428!

Only 1/4 full 😕?
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That's actually a lot considering second look hasn't happened yet and a lot of students are still waiting on their fin aid from Duke and other schools.
 
nova1983 said:
Why would Duke put 200+ people on the waitlist? I'm thankful to have another shot, but I really don't see why they'd need that many people to choose from. And if there are 200+ people, I find it so hard to believe that the list isn't ranked somehow. Otherwise, how on earth do they pick people? Any thoughts???
Click to expand...

Perhaps another way to think of this is that there were just too many people that interviewed that Duke was not yet ready to reject outright.
 
How do they select one student over another if all are unranked? I think it might have a little to do with the updates each student provides. What do you think?
 
thanks so much for the responses, diosa. much appreciated.

I guess that's a good way to look at it, nevercold. but I am still very curious as to how on earth they choose! anyway, I guess all that any of us can do is show interest and then just cross our fingers and wait....
 
nova1983 said:
I called today and the man I spoke to said he would re-send the letter. I then jumped in and asked whether it might be possible to send me the letter as an e-mail attachment since it would take a week + for the re-sent letter to reach me in Canada. He agreed and RW sent me my waitlist letter soon after. So for those still waiting, you might be able to call and request an e-mailed version.

quote]

Not fair. I called and they were like sorry, keep waiting. Ugh.
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Alright, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, nor am I trying to give anyone false hope but . . .

Holy Sh i t I just got accepted! 😀 😀 😀 RW called my around 9:20 AM and said that they had just made a decision on my file as of 20 minutes ago. He also said that there's been so much atypical stuff going on this year regarding admissions that it was taking a LONG time on some people. He was perhaps one of the nicest men I've had the pleasure of talking to in a long time. I'm so excited right now that I'm shaking. Wow.
 
beepbloop said:
Alright, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, nor am I trying to give anyone false hope but . . .

Holy Sh i t I just got accepted! 😀 😀 😀 RW called my around 9:20 AM and said that they had just made a decision on my file as of 20 minutes ago. He also said that there's been so much atypical stuff going on this year regarding admissions that it was taking a LONG time on some people. He was perhaps one of the nicest men I've had the pleasure of talking to in a long time. I'm so excited right now that I'm shaking. Wow.
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CONGRATULATIONS!
 
Congrats beepbloop! Were you waitlisted before you just got accepted? If so, does this means that the waitlist has already started to move!!
 
beepbloop said:
Alright, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, nor am I trying to give anyone false hope but . . .

Holy Sh i t I just got accepted! 😀 😀 😀 RW called my around 9:20 AM and said that they had just made a decision on my file as of 20 minutes ago. He also said that there's been so much atypical stuff going on this year regarding admissions that it was taking a LONG time on some people. He was perhaps one of the nicest men I've had the pleasure of talking to in a long time. I'm so excited right now that I'm shaking. Wow.
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Haha are you coming to second look? Better leave now! FCD is still looking for someone to host, since he was too late to sign up... although you might not want to stay with him, I hear his house smells like iguanas :meanie:

Oh yeah, and congrats!
 
woo hoo! Congratulaaations!

Lookin' forward to kicking off 2nd look tonight (even though am on call tomorrow booo)
 
Congrats bleepblop.

And nomorereplz, that isn't fair, but after bleepblop post maybe it means that they haven't yet made a decision on your file.... Good luck!
 
No, I wasn't on the waitlist. I had the immense pleasure of interviewing with a very distinguished, quite famous physician who, ahem, may or may not have forgotten to evaluate me 😳 RW said that they discovered this only upon manually scrubbing my record, then had to call him and present me to the ADCOMM. It was the last (but best) kind of news I expected to hear from Duke. Hope you guys are having fun at second look. RW offered me the option of visiting the campus on my own later and having some of the current students take me out to lunch, give me another tour, etc., so maybe I'll get to meet some of you guys later.
 
so what are ya'll doin to get off the waitlist...? does movement only start in may?
 
Jessie12 said:
so what are ya'll doin to get off the waitlist...? does movement only start in may?
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Historically I think a select few students have gotten off before May 15th (but in May, and close to the 15th). Most students don't get off until the 16th or later.
 
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