George Washington 2008 Alternate List

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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It take them two weeks to process things that come in the mail!?

Geez, that's why it took two weeks of me asking them to update me as to whether or not they had recieved my winter term grades...

Still holding out hope on the waitlist...

GW is my own and only choice/option right now.
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can someone who was recently placed on the alternate list type out exactly what their letter says? or if you received something via email, paste that here?

thanks!
 
Did I make a mistake here?

I replied to their email and just said that I'd like to accept my spot on the waitlist. Very simple. Was I supposed to make a whole letter of intent out of this?

I figured I would actually send one of those in the mail later on.
 
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I think you're fine. They just want to know how many people want to stay on the alternate list. That way, after the list is condensed with only those that are still interested, they can decide who they want to accept. You can send a letter whenever you wish.
 
i meant what did their letter to you say?

i'm trying to get a sense of if they were trying to say "no acceptances are given at this point in the cycle and you should be proud you're on the alternate list" or if it's just any ole wait list.

also, do they reject anyone post-interview??
 
I just got the waitlist email too which sucks because all of my plans for this summer kind of revolve around GW's decision.I was hoping for a definate no or yes. And now i'm not sure what move to make because the school I got into (which is out of state) requires me to start a summer program at the end of June which means I have to secure my housing by the beginning of June.BUT, I'm traveling to London for my cousin's wedding that I'm in, for 2 weeks. However, the wedding is on the weekend right before the summer program would start. Which means I would have to have my housing and buy my return plane ticket straight to go to my new state. I would hate to do all of that, just to get off of GW's waitlist by the time I move to another state ( I live in MD now so GW would be convenient). I like the school I got into but I really think GW would be a better fit for me. Sigh.......ok i'm done ranting. Does anyone know much about just how fluid the waitlist tends to be?
 
FYI I interviewed on the very last day of interviews, March 17th, and just got the alternate list email today. bummer.

They must be getting close to being done though so maybe they'll start taking off the wait list sooner?
 
bostonhopes said:
And, does anyone know how big the alternate list is?
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From what I have gathered, they don't keep track of the number because people are constantly being added and withdrawing. That's what they told me when I emailed with the same question.
 
jenks722 said:
They must be getting close to being done though so maybe they'll start taking off the wait list sooner?
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The waitlist won't start to move much (if at all) until May 15th.
 
Do u guys think that some people who are on the waitlist who don't get accepted into the 4 year MD program might get accepted into the 5 year decelerated program?

Does anyone know much about this program anyways? I found it hard to find info on it, since the admissions committee have to choose you to enter it, you don't apply for it. Anyone know how many people get accepted into this program?
 
I have been wondering how GW is going to choose people from the alternate list. There must be, at least 100 or more people on the list, considering they interview like 1200 or so, accept 300, out of the 900 left, maybe reject a couple hundred and the rest waitlisted. Some of course don't want to remain on the waitlist.

So what are they looking for now? Are they still looking at our grades as the main determinant for acceptance? I believe that I was never accepted in the first place because of my below average MCAT/GPA. I had great interviews and feedback from the interviewers later that they recommended me highly. So why interview me if my numbers aren't good enough. I guess it's nice to keep me in the pile in case enough slots open up, they'll start looking at the below 30 MCAT bunch.

Who knows nowadays.


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I'm also on the George Washington Waitlist and I'm a little confused about the whole waitlist thing.

I am already holding one acceptance already. They say that after May 15th, we're only allowed to hold one acceptance. If the waitlist doesn't move until May 15th, then I won't be able to get another acceptance? :confused: I'm quite interested in the program at GW.
 
mmmcat said:
I'm also on the George Washington Waitlist and I'm a little confused about the whole waitlist thing.

I am already holding one acceptance already. They say that after May 15th, we're only allowed to hold one acceptance. If the waitlist doesn't move until May 15th, then I won't be able to get another acceptance? :confused: I'm quite interested in the program at GW.
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by may 15th, you can only hold one acceptance. but, it doesn't mean that you can't change after that. i know of a uva grad, who was on the waitlist for hopkins. he accepted uva by may 15th, and once he got into hopkins later in the summer, dropped the uva acceptance and took the hopkins one. may 15th just means you have to have only one acceptance, in case you have multiple. this situation also explains why later-in-the-summer waitlist acceptances are a little fewer and farther between.
 
Thanks for clarifying!!
 
I'm holding on for dear life onto this waitlist...
 
Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that I will be withdrawing my acceptance from GW today! Hope someone here gets my spot!

Good luck
 
I'm waitlisted and also confused about how the whole waitlist thing works, especially for an unranked pool of waitlisters. How do they decide who gets the spot if they have tons of people on the waitlist? Do they re-review each applicant? That seems like it would take so much time. Seems like GW has quite a bit of people on the waitlist at the moment. Just trying to gather some understanding on the situation.
 
I interviewed at GW, USA: Mobile, and FSU. I was accepted (USA), rejected (FSU), and waitlisted (GW). This is my second cycle, and it felt soooo good to finally got that acceptance letter... I had to read it three times before I believed it. I still have the annoying unknown, but we just have to wait until May 15th and the alternate list should start moving. Good luck all, and keep up your spirits.
 
i am sure it is ranked at some level... it has to be. But how we are ranked is proprietary I'm sure... All we plebians can do is wait... hence the name of the list.
 
I'm sure they have a general idea of where people are on the list, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that they simply find the person on the waitlist that is most like the individual that just withdrew, in order to keep the diversity of the class intact (assuming the person has indicated they are interested in the school). But that's just my guess. To me, how GW actually selects the class is shrouded in mystery.
 
PistolPete said:
I'm sure they have a general idea of where people are on the list, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that they simply find the person on the waitlist that is most like the individual that just withdrew, in order to keep the diversity of the class intact (assuming the person has indicated they are interested in the school). But that's just my guess. To me, how GW actually selects the class is shrouded in mystery.
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Don't know if this matters, but GW apparently accepted a lot more females than males (100 vs 77) last year. I don't know if this means that a lot more girls applied to GW or if they randomly pick people off the waitlist and end up with a higher portion of females. But if they were trying to preserve diversity, what kind of criteria would they be trying to keep intact (race, gender, school, state of resident)? I think it's impossible to find someone who is even similar to the next applicant because there would be so many variable to consider.
 
Yeah, I noticed that. That ratio doesn't bode well for me. I doubt it's completely random though, as I would wager that women perhaps more often exemplify what GW is really looking for: committed service to the undeserved, interest in public health and those disadvantaged internationally, etc. Or maybe not. Who knows. The above are just my own thoughts.

If they are in fact trying to preserve diversity when accepting off the waitlist, obviously they can't fill the spot with someone that's identical, but I was thinking along the lines of a Californian with such-and-such background and such-and-such talents withdraws, they would want to fill that spot with another Californian person with a similar background. I would think they want a balance of individuals from different regions, different experiences, different ethnicities, straight out of college vs. non-trad etc. Otherwise, how do they pick from a list of several hundred waitlistees, especially if it's really unranked?

Anyway, that's my $0.02. Back to studying I go... Maybe some of us will start hearing news in about a month (or less!).
 
PistolPete said:
Yeah, I noticed that. That ratio doesn't bode well for me. I doubt it's completely random though, as I would wager that women perhaps more often exemplify what GW is really looking for: committed service to the undeserved, interest in public health and those disadvantaged internationally, etc. Or maybe not. Who knows. The above are just my own thoughts.

If they are in fact trying to preserve diversity when accepting off the waitlist, obviously they can't fill the spot with someone that's identical, but I was thinking along the lines of a Californian with such-and-such background and such-and-such talents withdraws, they would want to fill that spot with another Californian person with a similar background. I would think they want a balance of individuals from different regions, different experiences, different ethnicities, straight out of college vs. non-trad etc. Otherwise, how do they pick from a list of several hundred waitlistees, especially if it's really unranked?

Anyway, that's my $0.02. Back to studying I go... Maybe some of us will start hearing news in about a month (or less!).
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Yeah, let's hope for the best (sigh) such a nice place. Too bad they don't like to accept people outright. I can't help but think that they haven't even begun considering who they're going to accept post-interview yet. Their letter sounded so enthusiastic. It's like they're congratulating you on being waitlisted and for having made it past another round of rejections. I wonder if they'll have another committee selecting applicants from the waitlist. Anyway, best of luck!
 
On my interview day, there were only two guys there besides me. My faculty interviewer (a man) even said, "finally, a male!"

Did anyone else find that those interviewed were mostly female? Maybe that's why so many accepted were female.

In that case, being male and on the waitlist might be a good thing. Or maybe they just don't care about sex at all.
 
gplex86 said:
On my interview day, there were only two guys there besides me. My faculty interviewer (a man) even said, "finally, a male!"

Did anyone else find that those interviewed were mostly female? Maybe that's why so many accepted were female.

In that case, being male and on the waitlist might be a good thing. Or maybe they just don't care about sex at all.
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You should see the lecture hall when the PA students are in there too. It's like 75%+ female. :laugh:
 
gplex86 said:
On my interview day, there were only two guys there besides me. My faculty interviewer (a man) even said, "finally, a male!"

Did anyone else find that those interviewed were mostly female? Maybe that's why so many accepted were female.

In that case, being male and on the waitlist might be a good thing. Or maybe they just don't care about sex at all.
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Well it sounds likes Tacrum would have fun interviewing us ;)
 
Apparently, GW only accepted "a handful" of applicants off last year's waitlist, and absolutely zero from the waitlist the year before. At this point, they are still "over-accepted" for the class -- I'm praying there are a lot of withdrawals come May 15, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Does anyone have any insight on acceptance trends from year to year? For example, did a lot of schools find themselves with too many students who agreed to come last year, and thus might cut down their outright acceptances this year? I know I'm grasping at straws, here...
 
Sartre said:
Apparently, GW only accepted "a handful" of applicants off last year's waitlist, and absolutely zero from the waitlist the year before. At this point, they are still "over-accepted" for the class -- I'm praying there are a lot of withdrawals come May 15, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Does anyone have any insight on acceptance trends from year to year? For example, did a lot of schools find themselves with too many students who agreed to come last year, and thus might cut down their outright acceptances this year? I know I'm grasping at straws, here...
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n/a
 
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How do you know GW is over-accepted right now?
 
Sartre said:
Apparently, GW only accepted "a handful" of applicants off last year's waitlist, and absolutely zero from the waitlist the year before.
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Where did you hear this?
 
teachmed27 said:
Where did you hear this?
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I heard both statements from the dean. But who knows? I'm glad to hear that someone heard about the potential for waitlist movement this year!
 
Sartre said:
Apparently, GW only accepted "a handful" of applicants off last year's waitlist, and absolutely zero from the waitlist the year before. At this point, they are still "over-accepted" for the class -- I'm praying there are a lot of withdrawals come May 15, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Does anyone have any insight on acceptance trends from year to year? For example, did a lot of schools find themselves with too many students who agreed to come last year, and thus might cut down their outright acceptances this year? I know I'm grasping at straws, here...
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Um, I dunno what to tell you except that I know for sure of at least one person who got accepted off of the waitlist two years ago: me. And there's several others in my class who told me they were too. It might have been 3 years ago that there was very little movement.
 
tacrum43 said:
Um, I dunno what to tell you except that I know for sure of at least one person who got accepted off of the waitlist two years ago: me. And there's several others in my class who told me they were too. It might have been 3 years ago that there was very little movement.
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Yeah, and I read a few threads from last year of people getting in off the waitlist.
 
LilJay said:
Does anyone know much about this program anyways? I found it hard to find info on it, since the admissions committee have to choose you to enter it, you don't apply for it. Anyone know how many people get accepted into this program?
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i think that the 5 year spots are filled early on in the application cycle each year. I highly doubt that any students are pulled off of the alternate list for this. The 5 year program is not something you can opt to apply for or voluntarily participate in once accepted - THEY choose you for it. From what I understand, the 5 year program is designed for an applicant who they feel is a good match for the school, but maybe lacks just one thing or has one abnormality in their application which tells the admissions committee that the student is ready to start med school, but may need to ease into the first year.

tacrum or medstylee can confirm, but i believe that there are only like 7 to 10 students in the 5 year program (could be even less) - it's really limited

I think what happens is that these students take only half of the first year courses at a time, so they end up being 1st years two consecutive years in a row (different classes each semester, but just not as many as everybody else). After the second round through 1st year, they move onto second year (not with the class they originally started with, but the next year's class). So if a student starts this August as a 5 year, they're actually part of class of 2013.
 
How does the GW alternate list work? Any waitlist movement yet or anybody accepted off the waitlist? How many applicants are typically waitlisted? Any updates please...:)
 
1.) Supposedly, it's not ranked. No idea how it works.
2.) Admissions office said they are expecting movement May - Aug. I would speculate most movement after May 15th and trickling movement through the summer.
3.) They don't keep track of how many are on the waitlist (at least the office says they don't)
 
Just from perusing some old threads, it seems that most of the waitlist movement occurs in May and through the end of June. I've seen very little (at least on SDN) movement in July/August.

Anyway, May is here! Best of luck to everyone on the list! I wouldn't get my hopes up come May 15, since there will probably not be tons of movement on that one day. More than likely, people will start to hear towards the end of May and others will continue to hear into June. Although hearing in May would be nice. :thumbup:
 
PistolPete said:
Just from perusing some old threads, it seems that most of the waitlist movement occurs in May and through the end of June. I've seen very little (at least on SDN) movement in July/August.

Anyway, May is here! Best of luck to everyone on the list! I wouldn't get my hopes up come May 15, since there will probably not be tons of movement on that one day. More than likely, people will start to hear towards the end of May and others will continue to hear into June. Although hearing in May would be nice. :thumbup:
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Hey Pete, could you post the links to the threads that you are talking about?

I know I could search 'em but since you mentioned you found a few good threads they'd be helpful :).
 
getting so nervous - walking by the building every morning/afternoon now is making me jittery.
 
hsentar said:
getting so nervous - walking by the building every morning/afternoon now is making me jittery.
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Do live by the campus or go to GWU for school? What program are you in?
 
i live a couple blocks away from ross hall - i did my undergrad at GW and during this year off (second time on the alternate list :() i did some part time course work (some of the classes were taught in ross hall itself). I also did some clinical work with docs over at MFA, also on campus. My sister is a MSII, well now MSIII (as of last thursday), getting ready to take Step 1 in a few weeks.
 
so, does anybody think we'll hear anything tomorrow or friday? does anybody know from previous years if GW notifies via e-mail, snail mail, or phone call?
 
hsentar said:
so, does anybody think we'll hear anything tomorrow or friday? does anybody know from previous years if GW notifies via e-mail, snail mail, or phone call?
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I think it'll take them several days to sort through all of our files to see who has withdrawn to notify us. It's possible that they might notify us by tomorrow, but from previous threads, the waitlist doesn't seem to move much until after May 18th. Looking at previous post, they usually notify by e-mail early on in May and June. If your MCAT/GPA is above their average and you've regularly updated them, they'll probably get to you on the waitlist.
 
thnx! I saw Dean McQuail yesterday - she looked so busy, barely had time to say hi. In my mind I was saying, "I hope that's my application in your hand that you're putting into the 'accepted' pile" lol.
 
I'm just finishing up my first year at GW Med when I realized it's May 15th! I was in your exact position last year. I was on the waitlist or alternate list, whatever it's called, until Mid June. So have some faith because you can still get in.
My advice: Send them all relevant materials. If you won something let them know. If you were a runner up for something let them know. Even if you farted and you won an award for it, let them know.

LET THEM KNOW HOW MUCH YOU WOULD LIKE TO GO TO THEIR SCHOOL. Let it come from the heart.

That's my advice and I can tell you it worked for me (especially because I knew I wasn't on the top of the pile).

Good luck and hope to see you next year!
 
I was reading last year's tread here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=387693 and it seems that movement happened around May 14th and then again in June 22nd. I'm wondering if the same trend will happen again this year (meaning two waves of waitlist movement, one in May and one in June) or not. Either way, this waiting is excruciating.
 
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