Interview concerns. Please respond!

[Liv4Life]

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Hello,

I completed my AMCAS and had it verified in August. I sent secondaries off in September and all MCAT's were received in early November. I haven't received an interview yet and was wondering if it is too late for one now? Will they notify me if they will not be interviewing me? My stats are close if not above the ones for the schools I applied to (MUSC and USC SOM). Any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

[Ativanigans]

You can call the schools and just ask what their interview schedule looks like and when you can expect to hear from them. It's not going to hurt your chances to ask.

Did you just apply to two schools? Or are those just examples...

 

[Liv4Life]

Yes, I applied to both of those schools.

 

[7starmantis]

Yes, I applied to both of those schools.

Did you only apply to those two schools?

 

[JJMrK]

If:
a) You only applied to 2 schools.
and
b) You indicated on AMCAS that you were retaking the MCAT and your scores were just sent in November.

You probably don't have a realistic shot at an acceptance this year. It's not impossible, but you stacked the deck against yourself pretty severely.

If you reapply, submit your primary in June, and apply to 15-20 schools.

 

[Liv4Life]

Correction, MCAT's were posted to AMCAS first week in October and confirmation from schools received in November.

 

[JJMrK]

How many schools did you apply to?

 

[mangomadness]

Correction, MCAT's were posted to AMCAS first week in October and confirmation from schools received in November.

well, the secondaries were a bit late getting to the school, and the MCAT was kinda on the later side (mine were too- i tested in august, and schools didnt get it til end of sept), but its still rather early in the cycle, so i wouldn't freak out. if they like you, they like you. 🙂
also, i don't think that applying to just two schools = worst thing ever, esp if those two schools are state schools, which they seem to be. i only applied to my state schools, and just received an acceptance!
have faith!

 

[wanderer]

Hello,

I completed my AMCAS and had it verified in August. I sent secondaries off in September and all MCAT's were received in early November. I haven't received an interview yet and was wondering if it is too late for one now? Will they notify me if they will not be interviewing me? My stats are close if not above the ones for the schools I applied to (MUSC and USC SOM). Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Did you just apply to two schools? Or are those just examples...

Yes, I applied to both of those schools.

Did you only apply to those two schools?

 

[OpalOnyx]

Hello,

I completed my AMCAS and had it verified in August. I sent secondaries off in September and all MCAT's were received in early November. I haven't received an interview yet and was wondering if it is too late for one now? Will they notify me if they will not be interviewing me? My stats are close if not above the ones for the schools I applied to (MUSC and USC SOM). Any advice? Thanks in advance.

call the schools. two of my friends had mishaps - one person's file was wrongly marked as incomplete (therefore wasn't reviewed when it should have been), another's file was marked for an interview invite but she didn't get the invite until February when she called to ask the school what was going on with her app.

don't be that annoying person who calls everyday... but when you get anxious and you know that enough time has passed, pick up the darn phone!

 

[slowbutsteady]

Have we yet elicited whether he only applied to 2 schools?

If so, OP, you received very bad advice this cycle.

Spend some time on SDN and get ready for the next cycle.

The basic rules of the game have been discussed ad nauseum on this forum, but they are TRUE!!!

1. apply early. As early as possible (June/July), but in no case later than August submission of secondaries.

2. apply broadly. Apply to 15-25 schools, with a wide range of average stats. Even 4.0/40 applicants will not get in everywhere.

3. choose wisely. For example, don't apply to state schools from out of state unless they typically accept lots of OOSers AND your stats are significantly above their average. Why would they take an OOS applicant with average stats over someone from their own state? Answer: they won't.

Somehow you missed these basic principles.

 

[vickpick]

obviously liv4lif dont wanna give away info abt how many school he/she applied to.. lol

 

[Liv4Life]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I will keep it in mind. Yes, I applied to 2 schools. If I get in, that's great. If I don't, I'll reapply and get in next year or sometime soon. I'm confident I'll get there.

 

[bannie22]

applause! you are very brave to apply to only two schools! good luck

 

[7starmantis]

applause! you are very brave to apply to only two schools! good luck

Brave is not the adjective I was thinking.

 

[softmed]

If you were only going to apply to two schools you should have done early decision on one. Of course I know your MCAT scores were late so I don't think that was possible, but just saying.

 

[bannie22]

Brave is not the adjective I was thinking.

i prefer to look at this positively=P hahaha

 

[Steeler7588]

I honestly don't think this is as bad as most of you think. OP, you're a South Carolina resident, right? What are your stats?

On SDN, the standard advice is to apply early and broadly. Liv4Life should've applied earlier, sure, but South Carolina residents are very lucky in terms of how many seats there are relative to how many applicants the state has. If you're at their averages (3.6/29) then you have an excellent shot of getting in. I was fine applying with South Carolina and MUSC as my only safeties, and I'd say most SC students only apply to those two schools period.

Liv4Life, email Wanda Taylor at MUSC and Shelley Smith at USC and see if you can get an idea of how many interview spots they've filled. MUSC doesn't email you about their interview until a few weeks before the date they've assigned you, so it's possible they have you penciled in and just haven't told you yet. Don't worry about only applying to two schools, people say that as general advice for people around the country, it isn't necessarily true for everyone and I'd say it likely isn't true for you. You should've applied earlier though. If you don't get in this year, if you're set on going instate, apply ED to MUSC.

 

[7starmantis]

Just because something works out in the end (or even often works out in the end) doesn't necessarily make it the wisest decisions you could have made.

Just saying....

 

[Steeler7588]

Just because something works out in the end (or even often works out in the end) doesn't necessarily make it the wisest decisions you could have made.

Correct. This also applies to someone applying broadly when they don't need to.

 

[justinbaily]

I know that a lot of SC residents only apply to those two schools, but it's honestly a risky move. Your ~3.0 sGPA is probably a drag on your application.

 

[LizzyM]

I don't know the schedule at those 2 schools but at my school we are still reading and still issuing interview invitations. (Although we are close to the bottom of the stack of applications now.) This applicant is clearly at the bottom of the stack having been complete so late in the process. IMHO, a school would be guilty of fraud if it did not review applications that came in before the published deadline. There aren't many interview slots left but there aren't many applications left to review, either. It is not GAME OVER, yet and the school may not notify you until Spring that you will not get an interview but it might be worth calling before Christmas and asking if everything is complete.

 

[anon311]

I don't know the schedule at those 2 schools but at my school we are still reading and still issuing interview invitations. (Although we are close to the bottom of the stack of applications now.) This applicant is clearly at the bottom of the stack having been complete so late in the process. IMHO, a school would be guilty of fraud if it did not review applications that came in before the published deadline. There aren't many interview slots left but there aren't many applications left to review, either. It is not GAME OVER, yet and the school may not notify you until Spring that you will not get an interview but it might be worth calling before Christmas and asking if everything is complete.

Lizzy, if you don't mind explaining (somewhat tangential): how does the procedure that you describe lead to people who applied/were complete in August/September getting interviews around this time of year? I've seen it happen on a number of the school-specific threads. If schools generally read through the stack of applications once, isn't it fair to assume that they've read and decided to interview/not interview those who applied early?

 

[LizzyM]

Lizzy, if you don't mind explaining (somewhat tangential): how does the procedure that you describe lead to people who applied/were complete in August/September getting interviews around this time of year? I've seen it happen on a number of the school-specific threads. If schools generally read through the stack of applications once, isn't it fair to assume that they've read and decided to interview/not interview those who applied early?

Sure, they've decided to interview some people after reading their applications but they have not yet issued the invitation... some schools find that if they issue invitations >6-8 weeks in advance of the proposed interview date, the applicants later cancel the interview or ask for a date change and usually too late to invite someone else to fill that interview slot.


Also, I'd estimate that 90% of the applications are complete by mid-September. We read applications at a steady rate until mid-December. Obviously, we are reading some applications complete in late summer in the last days of autumn. Keep in mind that the application readers are volunteers and most are practicing physicians, professors emeriti, and basic science faculty who do this an hour or two each day for months and months. Even if we could do it more quickly, the number of interviews that can be offered per week is another rate limiting step. Again, many of the interviewers are volunteers who do this in addition to their regular job.