Interview invite after January= interview for waitlist?

[LMBLBM]

Is it true that most medical schools fill their classes by December 30th, and the best outcomes for the people who are interviewing at these schools on/after January are to be placed on wait lists?

can anyone verify this? or at least heard this before?

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[wiloghby]

Is it true that most medical schools fill their classes by December 30th, and the best outcomes for the people who are interviewing at these schools on/after January are to be placed on wait lists?

can anyone verify this? or at least heard this before?

This absolutely isn't true at Michigan, for example.

But it absolutely is true at New Jersey Medical School.

It depends on the school, really. But I do not think you should assume that you are interviewing for the wait list no matter when you interview. If you do your best once you get to the interview stage, anything is possible.

 

[sinombre]

can anyone verify this? or at least heard this before?

If you're looking for anecdotal evidence, I interviewed at the school I go to in March (and I wasn't wait listed).

Like wiloghby said, it's true for some schools and not for others.

 

[Lya]

It depends on schools. Schools like SUNY Buffalo are an exception to this.

I think that as we get closer to January and beyond, it is just that some class spots are already taken and interviewees are competing for even fewer seats. In this case, rather than saying people are interviewing for waitlists, people just have to struggle more to get in and many good applicants don't make the cut. They are then placed on waitlists, and overall it looks like these people interviewed for waitlists, while they simply couldn't make the cut for those few seats.

Just my opinion.

 

[Plecopotamus]

This is an overblown if not mythical idea perpetuated by SDN and neurotic premeds, who apparently think their peers aren't suffering enough.

1) Applicants who have been waitlisted are plentiful at this point in the season, so they wouldn't be interviewing you unless they thought you might be better than those they have on the waitlist. That said, as mentioned above, the bar may be higher, b/c you have to be better than what's on the waitlist.

2) As schools are going to on average interview their top choice applicants earliest, those interviewed later in the season are probably ones they considered slightly lower caliber, so if there is an increased rate of waitlisting, I would not de facto blame it on the phenomenon of interviewing for waitlist spots, because it must in part reflect the applicants who are offered later interviews.

3) Schools over-extend offers of admission with the knowledge that not all acceptees will matriculate. Once you truly get late in the season I would assume there is a more delicate balancing act as far as making sure the class isn't over-filled, so there can be a need to put desired applicants on the waitlist.


When I applied, my friends and I all received one if not multiple interview invitations after this point in the season. Many of them resulted in acceptances and matriculations.

The amount of worrying that goes on in these threads due to hyperbole and hypotheticals has been increasing disproportionately in the 5+ years I've been on SDN, and so much of it doesn't reflect reality -- don't forget that it's pre-meds perpetuating and exaggerating the "advice" you're getting upset by.

 

[T3ckFr3s]

This is an overblown if not mythical idea perpetuated by SDN and neurotic premeds, who apparently think their peers aren't suffering enough.

1) Applicants who have been waitlisted are plentiful at this point in the season, so they wouldn't be interviewing you unless they thought you might be better than those they have on the waitlist. That said, as mentioned above, the bar may be higher, b/c you have to be better than what's on the waitlist.

2) As schools are going to on average interview their top choice applicants earliest, those interviewed later in the season are probably ones they considered slightly lower caliber, so if there is an increased rate of waitlisting, I would not de facto blame it on the phenomenon of interviewing for waitlist spots, because it must in part reflect the applicants who are offered later interviews.

3) Schools over-extend offers of admission with the knowledge that not all acceptees will matriculate. Once you truly get late in the season I would assume there is a more delicate balancing act as far as making sure the class isn't over-filled, so there can be a need to put desired applicants on the waitlist.


When I applied, my friends and I all received one if not multiple interview invitations after this point in the season. Many of them resulted in acceptances and matriculations.

The amount of worrying that goes on in these threads due to hyperbole and hypotheticals has been increasing disproportionately in the 5+ years I've been on SDN, and so much of it doesn't reflect reality -- don't forget that it's pre-meds perpetuating and exaggerating the "advice" you're getting upset by.

I feel like the amount of worrying over the last 5 years is due to the significant increase in competition among applicants. Most pre-meds assume throughout undergrad that if you have at least a 30+ MCAT and 3.5 GPA, you'll get in somewhere, but that's no longer the case w/o any notable EC's, rec letters, volunteering etc. So I assume the increased competition is leading to increased stress leading to increased neuroticism haha

 

[pietachok]

I feel like the amount of worrying over the last 5 years is due to the significant increase in competition among applicants. Most pre-meds assume throughout undergrad that if you have at least a 30+ MCAT and 3.5 GPA, you'll get in somewhere, but that's no longer the case w/o any notable EC's, rec letters, volunteering etc. So I assume the increased competition is leading to increased stress leading to increased neuroticism haha

5 years, not 50 years. Those of us who started med school in 2009 don't come from some dark ages when med schools didn't expect a good GPA and MCAT as well as ECs. I don't think the change in behavior is commensurate with the increased competitiveness. In 2008 the average matriculant had an MCAT of 30.9 & GPA of 3.66 , and the most recent data available (2012) has an MCAT of 31.2 and GPA of 3.68. You think the fear mongering among pre-meds is rationally explained by an increased avg MCAT of .3 & GPA of .02 (in contrast, the jump from the 5 years prior to 2008 was much greater -- 1.3 MCAT points and .04 GPA points)?

I am with Plecopotamus on this one. I think that SDN and the interwebs in general has contributed to this in no small part. While SDN is a wonderful resource for advice for people who have no/poor advising, those on non-trad paths, and those from communities where nobody else applies to med school, much of the advice has been grossly embellished in a decade long game of telephone. Pre-meds who've yet to even get through freshman year seem to regurgitate what they've heard with editorializing and sensationalism that has made a lot of people here irrational (if I get a C are my med school dreams over? interview invitations after December are worthless! Do I have any chance of getting into med school if I've never been published?)

 

[T3ckFr3s]

5 years, not 50 years. Those of us who started med school in 2009 don't come from some dark ages when med schools didn't expect a good GPA and MCAT as well as ECs. I don't think the change in behavior is commensurate with the increased competitiveness. In 2008 the average matriculant had an MCAT of 30.9 & GPA of 3.66 , and the most recent data available (2012) has an MCAT of 31.2 and GPA of 3.68. You think the fear mongering among pre-meds is rationally explained by an increased avg MCAT of .3 & GPA of .02 (in contrast, the jump from the 5 years prior to 2008 was much greater -- 1.3 MCAT points and .04 GPA points)?

I am with Plecopotamus on this one. I think that SDN and the interwebs in general has contributed to this in no small part. While SDN is a wonderful resource for advice for people who have no/poor advising, those on non-trad paths, and those from communities where nobody else applies to med school, much of the advice has been grossly embellished in a decade long game of telephone. Pre-meds who've yet to even get through freshman year seem to regurgitate what they've heard with editorializing and sensationalism that has made a lot of people here irrational (if I get a C are my med school dreams over? interview invitations after December are worthless! Do I have any chance of getting into med school if I've never been published?)

Point made. Of course I was just speculating but I stand corrected.

By the way, I wasn't refering to competition in just the GPA and MCAT sense. I was talking about the sheer numbers of total applicants. The number of applications are at an all time high this year according to AAMC. Although my post did focus more on stats, so I apologize lol

 

[Hemorrage]

Point made. Of course I was just speculating but I stand corrected.

By the way, I wasn't refering to competition in just the GPA and MCAT sense. I was talking about the sheer numbers of total applicants. The number of applications are at an all time high this year according to AAMC. Although my post did focus more on stats, so I apologize lol

Unfortunately this is a really rough time for us to be applicants in general. The financial crisis likely stimulated people to search for professions that have strong job security (health care). So you have quite a few non-trads going back to school to enter medicine, dentistry, etc and therefore making it more challenging for those of us applying straight out of college with less real life experience. Eventually i think this will settle back down once the economy is stable again and people become comfortable.

 

[pyrrion89]

Unfortunately this is a really rough time for us to be applicants in general. The financial crisis likely stimulated people to search for professions that have strong job security (health care). So you have quite a few non-trads going back to school to enter medicine, dentistry, etc and therefore making it more challenging for those of us applying straight out of college with less real life experience. Eventually i think this will settle back down once the economy is stable again and people become comfortable.

+1. It's sort of a corollary of Murphy's Law: That when you enter a situation it is terrible, but when you leave the situation, the situation begins to improve! It's like when you go to high school and it's all crowded and terrible, and when you leave you hear how they added a multimillion-dollar addition and now it's just the best.

 

[solitarius]

So you have quite a few non-trads going back to school to enter medicine, dentistry, etc and therefore making it more challenging for those of us applying straight out of college with less real life experience.

Don't forget:

1) the really talented people in your current class who would've chosen something else if the economy were great (business, law, engineering, etc.)
2) the premeds who are re-applying by default since the economy is so bad
3) people who wait to apply after school actually doing so because they can't stand their McJob

 

[Hemorrage]

Don't forget:

1) the really talented people in your current class who would've chosen something else if the economy were great (business, law, engineering, etc.)
2) the premeds who are re-applying by default since the economy is so bad
3) people who wait to apply after school actually doing so because they can't stand their McJob

The premed dean at my university claims that the traditional path is quickly becoming the non traditional..

 

[Goro]

It will be school-specific. At our school it's March that the AdCom members start elbowing each other for their favorite candidates to make it to the by-then limited slots.

Is it true that most medical schools fill their classes by December 30th, and the best outcomes for the people who are interviewing at these schools on/after January are to be placed on wait lists?

can anyone verify this? or at least heard this before?