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Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Your interview skills need to be improved.
You're on 4 waitlists? You certainly still have hope!
erenyeager said:
  • Interview was positive, but work on thoughtfulness and empathy, more personal examples
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4 waitlists is huge... I wouldn't jump the gun yet, there's more hope for you than you know and traffic is about to start moving...
 
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erenyeager said:
I applied to 45 schools, got 6 IIs, 4WLs, and 2 Rs.

From CA, am ORM. I applied to a good mix of top 20s, top 50s, and lower schools. SDN said my school list was alright. I got interviews at top 50s only. I am WL at a top 10, top 20, and 2 top 50s.

I applied with 3.85+ gpa, 520+, LM 77

ECs I applied with:
  • 300 hrs hospital volunteering
  • 300 hrs research (no pubs in 3 diff labs)
  • 120 hrs charity work
  • 120 hrs tutoring (marked as non-clincial)
  • 30 hrs shadowing (in 3 specialities)
If I reapply, I'll add:
  • 300hrs more of volunteering at a different hospital
  • 300hrs research
  • 1 pub (and 2 currently under peer review)
  • 100hrs soup kitchen volunteering
  • 100hrs shadowing (in 2 diff specialities)
I contacted a school that R'ed me post-ii and this is what they said:
  • ps was well written, but didn't talk enough about past and journey to medicine.
    • looking back, my ps does mostly describe my interests in medicine and why medicine and what type of doc I want to be rather than how I got to medicine.
  • They said LORs were strong
  • Interview was positive, but work on thoughtfulness and empathy, more personal examples
    • I thought this was my strongest interview ironically. Looking back, I guess I did talk about myself a lot and maybe not enough about patients. I tried to relate my background to a patient they described, but maybe it looked like I was ignoring the patient.
  • They said 2ndary could be better
    • I admit it was kinda rushed
  • Could benefit from more independent research
So am I good to reapply? I am rewriting my ps and activities right now. Also, where did I go wrong? Part of me wants to say I was just too average. Average interview, avg writing, avg to below avg ECs. This year I think my ECs are better, and I am working on my writing, so all that is left is the interview.
Click to expand...
Most people are terrible judges of their own interviews. Therefore work on your interview skills.

Schools aren't going to come out and tell you that you were a bad interviewer
 
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erenyeager said:
Goro what qualities make a poor interview? And does a WL vs R indicate average interview or still more on the poor side? I agree I don't think schools will say that, but even then I think one of the schools hinted that I was too nervous lmfao. Also, do you think that sounding robotic leads to poor impressions? My voice is naturally robotic (been told this my whole life). I hope I don't come off as unenthusiastic or disingenuous, but I have trouble not sounding the way I sound.
Click to expand...
Read these:
 
erenyeager said:
I applied to 45 schools, got 6 IIs, 4WLs, and 2 Rs.

From CA, am ORM. I applied to a good mix of top 20s, top 50s, and lower schools. SDN said my school list was alright. I got interviews at top 50s only. I am WL at a top 10, top 20, and 2 top 50s.

I applied with 3.85+ gpa, 520+, LM 77

ECs I applied with:
  • 300 hrs hospital volunteering
  • 300 hrs research (no pubs in 3 diff labs)
  • 120 hrs charity work
  • 120 hrs tutoring (marked as non-clincial)
  • 30 hrs shadowing (in 3 specialities)
If I reapply, I'll add:
  • 300hrs more of volunteering at a different hospital
  • 300hrs research
  • 1 pub (and 2 currently under peer review)
  • 100hrs soup kitchen volunteering
  • 100hrs shadowing (in 2 diff specialities)
I contacted a school that R'ed me post-ii and this is what they said:
  • ps was well written, but didn't talk enough about past and journey to medicine.
    • looking back, my ps does mostly describe my interests in medicine and why medicine and what type of doc I want to be rather than how I got to medicine.
  • They said LORs were strong
  • Interview was positive, but work on thoughtfulness and empathy, more personal examples
    • I thought this was my strongest interview ironically. Looking back, I guess I did talk about myself a lot and maybe not enough about patients. I tried to relate my background to a patient they described, but maybe it looked like I was ignoring the patient.
  • They said 2ndary could be better
    • I admit it was kinda rushed
  • Could benefit from more independent research
So am I good to reapply? I am rewriting my ps and activities right now. Also, where did I go wrong? Part of me wants to say I was just too average. Average interview, avg writing, avg to below avg ECs. This year I think my ECs are better, and I am working on my writing, so all that is left is the interview.
Click to expand...
I don't whether to laugh or to cry at the fact that we have basically identical stats (3.8+,520+,100s of hours in the right activities,1 publication with more on the way) and that we are in the EXACT SAME OUTCOME: 4 WL's.

Here is the thing I think I am starting to realize from @Goro 's wisdom: I think we are close to either one of two outcomes--an impending A or an epiphany on how we can better ourselves. Now I know it and you know it--we both feel in our bones how we could do better and the inner winner is demanding that we give (heaven forbid) a re-application, should it be required, even more from us. It's like you said, the secondaries could've been better. Had we turned in extremely polished secondaries AND the admissions officer was lucid and in a good enough mood to be receptive to it then perhaps that II could've resulted in the A we need. There's an uncountably many little things we could have tweaked but the hungry person inside of us who have the potential to be great doctors hopefully is saying what are the uncomfortable facts that no one likes to openly acknowledge--we don't have an acceptance at the moment, so let us keep making our foundation even better. Maybe I'm hypoglycemic or maybe I'm woke but I am just satisfied to know I am not alone in this harsh world
 
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Like others have said, 4 WLs this early in the cycle leaves lots of room for hope...you could write a LOI to your top school(s) to show them that you're interested. Or maybe submit that with another LOR? Good luck! :)
 
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