Hi italianlove - Does your school have a policy of giving preference to its own undergrads/alumni?
Here's my story. My alma mater (unlike many public schools that prefer graduates of other schools) invites about 2/3 of its own to the interview each year while inviting less than 15% of other applicants. So you know that there's a heavy preference. Their med school also happens to be one of my top choices. I applied in 2000 with 3.6gpa, 27, tons of clinical experiences, not to mention engineering degree, previous high-tech career, etc. I've also been volunteering a lot in the school's high school recruiting activities. Although my MCAT score was not great, I found it hard to believe that I was in the bottom 1/3. Anyways, I waited and waited and eventually got rejected w/o an invite. I wrote an appeal letter but was promptly told that they don't reconsider decisions. I was pretty bummed out.
I reapplied in 2001 for the second time, this time with 30 MCAT. On recommendation from my advisor, I alerted the dean of admissions via email that I am an alumnus and that I'd really appreciate an interview this time around. I still heard nothing. ...for the longest time. So about a month ago, I wrote a pretty impassioned letter stating my frustration and how much I really wanted to go back to my alma mater to study medicine (all of it was sincere). Then, about two weeks later, I finally got the interview invite. It was for one of the school's last interview dates. Regardless, I was really happy. I still don't understand why it took all this nagging and appealing to finally get them to notice me, because I know for a fact that others with less life experiences and lower stats had been invited. But I guess what matters is that I finally got the invite from the place I really want to attend.
So, my suggestion is to do what I did and write them a very thoughtful letter. You should take that intiative instead of wait around frustrated by the unfairness of the process, because you really can't take anything for granted in this whole med school deal. But I certainly can empathize with you.
