Interviews from your Alma Mater?

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MDRus

MDRus

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How are people doing at getting interviews/acceptances from their alma maters?

My alma mater's stats are quite a distance out of my league, but i got an interview. are they just being kind to an alum, or do i have a chance?

NOTE: I went to a top Ivy (ie, not Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell --JK!!!). Sorry, I couldn't resist.

But this is a serious question.
 
sorry i meant to say "what are your stats?", cause ivy's typically accept 34+,3.8+, either way im sure youll get in youve been getting tons of interviews, plus its your alma mater, they probably favor you over other applicants.
 
Team Zissou said:
sorry i meant to say "what are your stats?", cause ivy's typically accept 34+,3.8+, either way im sure youll get in youve been getting tons of interviews, plus its your alma mater, they probably favor you over other applicants.
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oh, sorry.

to stay anonymous, i'm going to round out my stats and my alma mater's. (i am so paranoid because i tend to be a tad obnoxious on SDN. i think i'm funny, but others disagree).

my stats: 3.5 GPA; 3.9 post-bac GPA; MCAT 33S

my school's stats: 3.8 GPA; 35 MCAT

At the end of the day, I just can't see them accepting me even tho the acceptance rate for alums is 10 times the rate for others. at a school like mine, most of the applicants will be off the charts with stats.

i don't know why i'm whining, because i have been very lucky so far in this process, especially considering my stats. but i would dearly love to go to my alma mater.
 
i'm gonna keep bumping this sucker. get used to it. i am really interested in responses.

this must affect all of you??? doesn't everyone apply to their alma mater?
 
i dislike the term "alma mater". it means nourishing mother. nourishing? maybe i just dislike my own undergrad institution.
 
How did you find stats for the rate of acceptance for alums vs other students? I would be interested in knowing what school you went to.

I would count myself incredibly fortunate to be accepted into my alma mater's medical school.
 
Did you have good ECs(research at the school and etc) or LORs from well-regarded individuals at the school?
 
my alma mater, also an ivy, hates its undergrads. not many get accepted. post bacs are guaranteed an interview from what i've heard though.
 
Yeah..I wonder if my alma mater might just auto invite since I got an invite about 12 hours after I received my "file complete" email. Although to be fair, it took almost a month for my file to be "complete" after I mailed in all my things, so maybe they did read it, and just send the complete email and invite together, who knows?

Although, another applicant I met on the interview trail told me that Harvard automatically invites it's undergrad applicants, and seemed pretty sure of it. make of it what you will I guess.

Hehe, I too would dearly love to stay another 4 years at my school!
 
batman1983 said:
Did you have good ECs(research at the school and etc) or LORs from well-regarded individuals at the school?
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yes, great ECs and LORs (believe it or not!! haha!!). BUT, again, well below their stats.

i like the way this is heading. i may get some hope off this thread. and SDN is all about hope.

to the other poster: my school's premed info site gives the stats for acceptance of all of its grads to various schools as well as itself. it was very, very useful because some med schools accepts tons of grads from my school, and some don't. one school allegedly boycotts my school because grads often decline the acceptance!! really mean, IMO.

you should all check your own undergrad to see if they have this. again, it was VERY helpful in selecting schools.

BTW, they also tell you what stats their grads have at each school which, in many cases, is lower than the overall.
 
i think u stand a decent shot at getting in.. u have to remember that just because a schools averages stats are 35, 3.8, that doesnt mean they dont accept people with 29-34. anyways, good luck at ur interview 👍
 
MDRus said:
yes, great ECs and LORs (believe it or not!! haha!!). BUT, again, well below their stats.

i like the way this is heading. i may get some hope off this thread. and SDN is all about hope.

to the other poster: my school's premed info site gives the stats for acceptance of all of its grads to various schools as well as itself. it was very, very useful because some med schools accepts tons of grads from my school, and some don't. one school allegedly boycotts my school because grads often decline the acceptance!! really mean, IMO.

you should all check your own undergrad to see if they have this. again, it was VERY helpful in selecting schools.

BTW, they also tell you what stats their grads have at each school which, in many cases, is lower than the overall.
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I can see that you do not go to my school unless I have somehow managed to not run into extremely useful page. I wish I knew where you all went to have an idea of how these things correlate... maybe the people that are are getting interviews at their Ivy almas can kindly PM the info?
 
sillydoc2230 said:
my alma mater, also an ivy, hates its undergrads. not many get accepted. post bacs are guaranteed an interview from what i've heard though.
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hates its own undergrads??!! isn't that self-loathing behavior? odd.
 
My alma mater interviewed me and accepted me. I did end up doing residency there though not medical school. I went with a full-ride at another school but would have attended my alma mater if the price had been right.

Hey, an interview is an interview and might be an acceptance (as it was in my case). Good luck and congrats!
 
Textuality said:
Yeah..I wonder if my alma mater might just auto invite since I got an invite about 12 hours after I received my "file complete" email. Although to be fair, it took almost a month for my file to be "complete" after I mailed in all my things, so maybe they did read it, and just send the complete email and invite together, who knows?

Although, another applicant I met on the interview trail told me that Harvard automatically invites it's undergrad applicants, and seemed pretty sure of it. make of it what you will I guess.

Hehe, I too would dearly love to stay another 4 years at my school!
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Your alma mater gave me an interview very quickly as well, but I didn't go to your school. They must have just really liked us (or we got lucky and landed on the top of someone's pile of applications).

I don't think Harvard automatically invites it's undergrads... I can think of a few Harvard undergrads who were not invited to interview during the past few cycles.

sillydoc2230 said:
my alma mater, also an ivy, hates its undergrads. not many get accepted. post bacs are guaranteed an interview from what i've heard though.
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There seem to be a lot of people from your undergrad at the med school, so maybe it just seems like it hates its undergrads because so many people from your undergrad also apply to the med school?

I went to an ivy as well and I think almost 200 people from my undergrad apply to the med school every year, so the acceptance rate seems a little low simply because a lot of people from my undergrad apply there. (I personally didn't apply to my alma mater).
 
MDRus said:
hates its own undergrads??!! isn't that self-loathing behavior? odd.
Click to expand...
My alma mater didn't even give me a secondary. So much for the benefits of paying their increasingly ridiculous tuition.
 
as i promised, bump.
 
koko_eats said:
My alma mater didn't even give me a secondary. So much for the benefits of paying their increasingly ridiculous tuition.
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Oh my lord you applied to 51 schools? That must have been hell. Good luck man, you really want it.
 
bump
 
Pickles' alma mater: *chirp chirp*

Although - I think my school may be one of those that doesn't like it's own students. I think this is especially the case with the MD/PhD program. Oh well!
 
Anybody think they got a "pity" interview invite from their undergrad school?

again, my undergrad school is way out of my league for med school, stats-wise. trying to figure out if i have any kind of chance because they interviewed me.

i know the view, "if they interviewed you, you have a chance." but my gpa is .3 below and my mcat is 2 below their average. even if i aced the interview, i won't stack up against the superstars at the end of the day. and this school does not have a very active waitlist because it is a top school.

though, i guess many people choose their state schools over a top 10 at the end of the day for financial reasons??
 
MDRus said:
this must affect all of you??? doesn't everyone apply to their alma mater?
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You are kidding, right? "this must affect all of you?" How many people do you think actually go to colleges that have medical schools linked to them? There are 125 med schools (MD) in the country, But a whole lot more colleges than that. Yeah, because it affects you, it MUST affect everyone.....
 
NoUse4aName1286 said:
You are kidding, right? "this must affect all of you?" How many people do you think actually go to colleges that have medical schools linked to them? There are 125 med schools (MD) in the country, But a whole lot more colleges than that. Yeah, because it affects you, it MUST affect everyone.....
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ouch!! does someone need a tad more sleep?

obviously, by "everyone" i meant those for which their undergrad has a med school. i do not expect people to apply to a med school that does not exist. that would be just silly of them.
 
Eh.. I don't want to go to my alma mater, time for some new experiences! I don't have an interview yet but, if I do get one, I'm thinking of declining it. I have an acceptance to a school about two hours away.
 
MDRus said:
ouch!! does someone need a tad more sleep?

obviously, by "everyone" i meant those for which their undergrad has a med school. i do not expect people to apply to a med school that does not exist. that would be just silly of them.
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Silly of them??!! 😱 I do it all the time!! Stewart University all the way!

(sorry, btw, my earlier comment was uncalled for).
 
Ivy's are traditionally kind to their own. Being an alumnus would help during their admissions cycles. Some might have policies for their undergrads; ie they automatically interview the top 50% of alumni who apply. Or whatever.

But I would take the interview and run with it. No sense in looking the gift horse in the mouth here.
 
MDRus said:
ouch!! does someone need a tad more sleep?

obviously, by "everyone" i meant those for which their undergrad has a med school. i do not expect people to apply to a med school that does not exist. that would be just silly of them.
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....except for Stewart Med, of course 😀


Edit: Oh man! Someone beat me to it!
 
Without bothering to read the majority of the replies,

These people are serious. They aren't just attempting to applease you or your deans or anyone else. They would not give you an interview without at least giving you serious consideration.

Your chances with your school are probably enhanced, due to the medical schools familiarity with many aspects of your education, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. You should also have the advantage of being able to better prepare for this interview, so don't blow it.

I also have an interview from mine, which came rather quickly. I've heard that about 1/3 of applicants from our undergrad will make it in to our medschool, but I don't know how accurate this is. (I've had trouble finding the time to meet with my advisor.)
 
MDRus said:
again, my undergrad school is way out of my league for med school, stats-wise. trying to figure out if i have any kind of chance because they interviewed me.

i know the view, "if they interviewed you, you have a chance." but my gpa is .3 below and my mcat is 2 below their average. even if i aced the interview, i won't stack up against the superstars at the end of the day.
Click to expand...


Why do people always assume that they are not going to get in just because their stats are below the average? You do realize this is an average so unless everyone entering the school has the exact same GPA and MCAT score there must be people who got both above and BELOW the average.

Although you usually have to be average or above in at least one catagory, it's not that difficult to believe you'd get an interview because of other activities on your application. Also there really isn't that much difference between a 33 and a 35. I don't have the exact page right now but somewhere it shows that MCAT scores all fall into a range of +/-1, since a 33 and 35 have an overlapping range they are essentially the same score.
 
MDRus said:
Anybody think they got a "pity" interview invite from their undergrad school?

again, my undergrad school is way out of my league for med school, stats-wise. trying to figure out if i have any kind of chance because they interviewed me.

i know the view, "if they interviewed you, you have a chance." but my gpa is .3 below and my mcat is 2 below their average. even if i aced the interview, i won't stack up against the superstars at the end of the day. and this school does not have a very active waitlist because it is a top school.

though, i guess many people choose their state schools over a top 10 at the end of the day for financial reasons??
Click to expand...
I'd rather have a pity interview than no interview. I'd love to go to med school here. Sure, I'd like a change in environment, but I'd take this school over nearly any other if I was lucky enough to be accepted. That being said, I'm pretty sure they saw my application, laughed, and threw it away. Not to mention my school takes more than 50% OOS and it's a public schools. Not much chance for a mediocre IS applicant such as myself.
 
foster033 said:
Why do people always assume that they are not going to get in just because their stats are below the average? You do realize this is an average so unless everyone entering the school has the exact same GPA and MCAT score there must be people who got both above and BELOW the average.

Although you usually have to be average or above in at least one catagory, it's not that difficult to believe you'd get an interview because of other activities on your application. Also there really isn't that much difference between a 33 and a 35. I don't have the exact page right now but somewhere it shows that MCAT scores all fall into a range of +/-1, since a 33 and 35 have an overlapping range they are essentially the same score.
Click to expand...

wow, i like you. my typical SDN reaction: i like and wan to believe people who give me hope. thanks. you made a crummy day a bit brighter with your advice.
 
Didn't get an interview from Cornell. I know quite a few people from my graduating class (I graduated in May) who didn't get an interview at Weill despite good stats. I think that comes from the fact that Weill is a relatively small med school while the Cornell undergrad is relatively large for an elite school (and thus produces too many good applicants). Last year, 69 out of 232 Cornell applicants had a MCAT score above 35. Too many interview spots for Weill to compromise I guess.
 
BigRedPremed said:
Didn't get an interview from Cornell. I know quite a few people from my graduating class (I graduated in May) who didn't get an interview at Weill despite good stats. I think that comes from the fact that Weill is a relatively small med school while the Cornell undergrad is relatively large for an elite school (and thus produces too many good applicants). Last year, 69 out of 232 Cornell applicants had a MCAT score above 35. Too many interview spots for Weill to compromise I guess.
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While going to a certain school does not automatically mean a guaranteed interview, there is a higher tendency for med schools to accept students that did their undergrad there, especially at the top-tier medical schools that have competitive undergrad programs. This could be due to the admissions' famarilty with the applicant's undergrad program and its difficulty, famarilarity with the instructors, geographic preference, and so forth.

From my experiences of seeing the admissions data for the California schools, Stanford had the largest undergrad representation for their medical school, UCLA for its med school, UCSD for its school, and so forth.
 
I got rejected by alma mater (also ivy) but got interviews from similarly ranked schools (including a different comparable ivy). Don't think there are any predictable rules on this topic.
 
I already had an Interview at my Alma Mater! I love my alma mater!
 
LEdaddy said:
I got rejected by alma mater (also ivy) but got interviews from similarly ranked schools (including a different comparable ivy). Don't think there are any predictable rules on this topic.
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wow, that is just plain wrong. i'm sorry.

i love the term "comparable ivy!!!"
 
MDRus said:
wow, that is just plain wrong. i'm sorry.

i love the term "comparable ivy!!!"
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"comparable"? that's a laugh.

everybody knows princeton med school outranks all of them. by far.
 
MDRus said:
oh, goodie!! let's rank em!!:meanie::meanie::meanie:
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I thought US news already did this for us? Anyway I vote that mines the best and I've always been of the opinion that gaining acceptance to my school should guarantee me a lifetime of leisure and luxury without any more work.
 
Oh, US News ranks em for the outsiders. But the insiders have their own ideas. hehehe.

God, I can't stand myself. I'm stopping now.
 
MDRus said:
Oh, US News ranks em for the outsiders. But the insiders have their own ideas. hehehe.

God, I can't stand myself. I'm stopping now.
Click to expand...

Yeah they all think theirs is the best ;]. I don't though I'd rather be at a different ivy haha. Not that I don't love my school.
 
my school appears to be a tad bit more lenient with its alums than with other applicants from anecdotal evidence, but from what i've seen it's because most of the students that really flourish here already embody the characteristics they look for in applicants, like a passion for social justice and an interest in global issues, not to mention a lot of undergraduate research experience.

as hard as it may be to believe, your alma mater might just be interested in you because they know you already have the characteristics to fit in at their school!
 
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