Informing other schools you're no longer interested in their program..

[doctor_swimswithfish]

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What exactly is the protocol on this?

I've been accepted to 2 schools and I'm waiting on the decision from another. I applied to a decent amount of schools and there are two off the top of my head that I know I wouldn't attend with the acceptances I have now. I am wondering if I just let my applications continue in their reviewing process and just wait for a pre-interview rejection/II, or just contact them and retract (is that even the right word?) my application?

Also, when I pick the program I want to attend, how do I inform the other program(s) that I've chosen a different school? I don't know how to handle rejection from any perspective.

Thanks y'all!

 

[costales]

Tell them you would like to withdraw your application from further consideration at their institution. That's it.

 

[samac]

Your acceptances you're not taking you can just let the clock run out if you don't want to contact them.
I'd inform the others you're no longer interested

 

[nhnative]

Yeah, I emailed the admissions departments of all schools where I was canceling interviews or withdrawing applications. Seems like the polite thing to do.

 

[doctor_swimswithfish]

Thank you all!

 

[trev5150]

IF you wait until the clock runs out you're indirectly hosing someone else waiting for a shot off the waitlist. Send them an email and build up some good karma.

 

[samac]

IF you wait until the clock runs out you're indirectly hosing someone else waiting for a shot off the waitlist. Send them an email and build up some good karma.

Heh, at this point not really. They over subscribe seats and as long as they're not paying the deposit letting the deadline deposit pass doesn't really hurt anything. Now paying the deposit and holding the spot till April is being a butt.

 

[Bubbab]

Heh, at this point not really. They over subscribe seats and as long as they're not paying the deposit letting the deadline deposit pass doesn't really hurt anything. Now paying the deposit and holding the spot till April is being a butt.

No. All of the schools get thousands of applications and they can't devote unlimited resources to everyone. Holding an application somewhere you won't go only hurts other applicants and is childish. An email or call withdrawing is common courtesy.

 

[22031 Alum]

IF you wait until the clock runs out you're indirectly hosing someone else waiting for a shot off the waitlist. Send them an email and build up some good karma.

Schools accept more than the number of spots. This early, nobody is getting pulled off the wait list because one person withdraws.

No. All of the schools get thousands of applications and they can't devote unlimited resources to everyone. Holding an application somewhere you won't go only hurts other applicants and is childish. An email or call withdrawing is common courtesy.

If OP is certain they wouldn't go to a school no matter what, they should withdraw. Otherwise, they have earned the right to hang on to as many acceptances as they want until they decide. The only childish thing is blaming someone else's success on holding you back. Don't want to depend on a wait list spot opening up? Be awesomer and get admitted outright.

 

[trev5150]

Schools accept more than the number of spots. This early, nobody is getting pulled off the wait list because one person withdraws.



If OP is certain they wouldn't go to a school no matter what, they should withdraw. Otherwise, they have earned the right to hang on to as many acceptances as they want until they decide. The only childish thing is blaming someone else's success on holding you back. Don't want to depend on a wait list spot opening up? Be awesomer and get admitted outright.

So just out of curiosity, what happens to the people that get an acceptance, decide they want to go there and then then don't get a seat? Travel and drink vouchers? Free hotel room for a flight and an upgraded seat the following day?

 

[22031 Alum]

So just out of curiosity, what happens to the people that get an acceptance, decide they want to go there and then then don't get a seat? Travel and drink vouchers? Free hotel room for a flight and an upgraded seat the following day?

Not sure I understand your question. Are you asking (snidely) what happens if a medical school overestimates how many people will decline their acceptance and ends up with more students than "spots" in the class?? That's pretty rare. Schools put a lot of time, effort, and money into perfecting their admissions process so that doesn't happen often enough to worry about.

Or are you actually asking about travel??

 

[Goro]

The Admissions Dean gets fired and the students have to be seated for free. Usually they're asked to defer for a year.

As my learned colleague 22031 has said, this is a RARE event (never happened at my school in the 15+ years I've been on the Adcom), and so I can only conclude that the wily old Admissions dean and his brethren has refined this process to an art form. Must have something to do with the Dark Arts.

So just out of curiosity, what happens to the people that get an acceptance, decide they want to go there and then then don't get a seat?

 

[trev5150]

Not sure I understand your question. Are you asking (snidely) what happens if a medical school overestimates how many people will decline their acceptance and ends up with more students than "spots" in the class?? That's pretty rare. Schools put a lot of time, effort, and money into perfecting their admissions process so that doesn't happen often enough to worry about.

Or are you actually asking about travel??

Snide? Cheeky maybe. That's my sense of humor. I've been at more than a few gates watching the show go down on oversold flights and that's the analogy I drew.

 

[22031 Alum]

Snide? Cheeky maybe. That's my sense of humor. I've been at more than a few gates watching the show go down on oversold flights and that's the analogy I drew.

Okay. So my answer stands. Somebody more intimately involved with admissions could probably go into more details, but it's not like the airlines.

 

[whatever5]

The Admissions Dean gets fired and the students have to be seated for free. Usually they're asked to defer for a year.

As my learned colleague 22031 has said, this is a RARE event (never happened at my school in the 15+ years I've been on the Adcom), and so I can only conclude that the wily old Admissions dean and his brethren has refined this process to an art form. Must have something to do with the Dark Arts.

My student host at Ohio State mentioned that something like this happened to her school a few years ago (more matriculants than seats). I think what ended up happening was that they offered the class the opportunity to do a free MPH if they agreed to defer their matriculation until next year and that solved the issue.