"Keeping in touch" with Adcoms

[badgerinchina]

A lot of posts mention in passing "staying in touch" with adcoms or contacting them for updates/let them know you're still alive and an applicant... I was just wondering if any of you could share what kind of things this entails? Do you call/write/email? When? Who?

Appreciate any insight you have...

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[nekrogg]

A lot of posts mention in passing "staying in touch" with adcoms or contacting them for updates/let them know you're still alive and an applicant... I was just wondering if any of you could share what kind of things this entails? Do you call/write/email? When? Who?

Appreciate any insight you have...

I would also like to know. Some adcom offices seem waaay too busy while others seem to really want to hear from applicants (wake forrest). How do I tell if I am going to get hung up on (Ive been hung up on twice already) or if they will be receptive to me calling?

 

[alwaysaangel]

Actually, I'm an alum of UC Berkeley and our career center ADAMANTLY says DO NOT DO THIS! They say its a rumor thats been going around pre-meds for years and its wrong. They have asked committees and they say they do not like being harrassed. Once they have made a decision on you (waitlist or acceptance) do as they say and be done. If you have something REALLY substantial to add (You won some very prestigious award since being put on the waitlist) or something like that.

But granted someone here is going to go off on me and tell me I'm wrong. But if I were an adcomm and I accepted 300 people and put 50 on the waitlist after reading through THOUSANDS of applications - the LAST thing I would want would be more letters about you. They have everything they need - don't harrass them.

 

[Ashers]

I wrote thank you notes after some interviews, when I remembered. Then if I was allowed to call and find out where I was on the waitlist, I did (basically MCW). I also emailed the admissions director at MCW occasionally to ask questions that I had.

 

[nekrogg]

I guess contacting adcom offices is really dependent on the school... Ive read mdapplicants profiles were adcom offices compliment the student for keeping in contact with them and that it shows interest (rosalind franklin comes to mind). people have been getting interviews by keeping in contact with wake forest.

I got hung up on twice already by schools (probably the ones that dont want you to call them) and just got off the phone with the nicest lady ever from another school.

i figure if you are rejected, you have nothing to lose. in terms of LOIs, etc, I would give them a call to see if they are receptive..


PS: I read somewhere that Mike Itswan (did I spell it right), director of admissions at MCW, is a very nice guy and checks his email often.

 

[LizzyM]

It does depend on the school. Generally, it only applies after you are waitlisted at a place that does not have a ranked waitlist. (It is annoying prior to interview, and after interview but before decision.)

With an unranked waitlist, the adcom does like to know who is still interested - although being interested and expressing it is no guarantee of success. If you get off a waitlist at school A and are no longer interested in School B, then that should be communicated promptly so that no one wastes time calling to make you an offer.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

If you're like me and you're the last one out of your group of friends to get into medical school, fortunately you have alot of people scattered in medical schools that can find out for you (or maybe know already) if their school is receptive to that.

Better yet they can write letters of support for you. I had a bunch of my friends that were first years last year help their buds get in.

 

[kevster2001]

It does depend on the school. Generally, it only applies after you are waitlisted at a place that does not have a ranked waitlist. (It is annoying prior to interview, and after interview but before decision.)

With an unranked waitlist, the adcom does like to know who is still interested - although being interested and expressing it is no guarantee of success. If you get off a waitlist at school A and are no longer interested in School B, then that should be communicated promptly so that no one wastes time calling to make you an offer.

What about interview thank you notes. Does the advice still hold true in terms of sending them to schools with ranked/unranked waitlists?

 

[LizzyM]

What about interview thank you notes. Does the advice still hold true in terms of sending them to schools with ranked/unranked waitlists?

It is never wrong to send a thank you note. It is a nice gesture to send one to the person who interviews you and it is nice to send it to the Dean of Admissions, too, to say thanks for facilitating the visit. It should be sent asap after you interview. It will have ZERO effect on the decision (the interviewer will have written an opinion of you within an hour or two of the interview and adcom members who vote on your application never even look for the presence/absence of a thank you letter.

 

[etf]

It does depend on the school. Generally, it only applies after you are waitlisted at a place that does not have a ranked waitlist. (It is annoying prior to interview, and after interview but before decision.)

With an unranked waitlist, the adcom does like to know who is still interested - although being interested and expressing it is no guarantee of success. If you get off a waitlist at school A and are no longer interested in School B, then that should be communicated promptly so that no one wastes time calling to make you an offer.

i was on a seemingly "unranked" waitlist this year (we all know that that's bs). i sent updates/letters of intent via snail mail, email, and fax, and never even received acknowledgement that they were received. at this point, i haven't even received a rejection letter, even though school started 3 weeks ago. adcoms can be so cruel, sometimes.

 

[LizzyM]

i was on a seemingly "unranked" waitlist this year (we all know that that's bs). i sent updates/letters of intent via snail mail, email, and fax, and never even received acknowledgement that they were received. at this point, i haven't even received a rejection letter, even though school started 3 weeks ago. adcoms can be so cruel, sometimes.

Do the math. There are often several hundred on the waitlist. I agree that there should be more communication but it is an enormous task. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have a smaller waitlist and leave fewer people hoping all summer (if no more than a handful ever get off the waitlist, why do we need hundreds?) The thought by TPTB is that people feel that there is something wrong with them personally if they are rejected and waitlist is more humane (it's just saying 'you're great, we just don't have enough space ).

Thoughts? Would you rather have a "reject" or a <1/200 chance of getting off the waitlist.

 

[foofish]

The thought by TPTB is that people feel that there is something wrong with them personally if they are rejected and waitlist is more humane (it's just saying 'you're great, we just don't have enough space ).

Thoughts? Would you rather have a "reject" or a <1/200 chance of getting off the waitlist.

I think a smaller waitlist would be more humane....I have a few friends who were waitlisted and are now reapplying, and they definitely held off on getting this application cycle going because they still were hoping to get off a waitlist....and now might be at a disadvantage with rolling schools. Part of that is their fault, but I think that to some degree the hope of an unrealistically-huge waitlist lead them on. Also, does having ~200 people on a waitlist make sense when that's likely more than the actual class itself?

Maybe the solution is waitlisting the usual number of people, but cutting the lowest 100 people loose at the beginning of the summer when it's clear to the adcom that those people are never moving off the list...

 

[Depakote]

Do the math. There are often several hundred on the waitlist. I agree that there should be more communication but it is an enormous task. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have a smaller waitlist and leave fewer people hoping all summer (if no more than a handful ever get off the waitlist, why do we need hundreds?) The thought by TPTB is that people feel that there is something wrong with them personally if they are rejected and waitlist is more humane (it's just saying 'you're great, we just don't have enough space ).

Thoughts? Would you rather have a "reject" or a <1/200 chance of getting off the waitlist.

I only want to be waitlisted if I had a realistic chance of getting in.

This after having spent too long hoping for a waitlist to pan out last cycle and now I'm getting a late start this year.

 

[kevinp2]

Do the math. There are often several hundred on the waitlist. I agree that there should be more communication but it is an enormous task. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have a smaller waitlist and leave fewer people hoping all summer (if no more than a handful ever get off the waitlist, why do we need hundreds?) The thought by TPTB is that people feel that there is something wrong with them personally if they are rejected and waitlist is more humane (it's just saying 'you're great, we just don't have enough space ).

Thoughts? Would you rather have a "reject" or a <1/200 chance of getting off the waitlist.

I'd far rather have the rejection. It seems kind of cruel to keep someone's hopes of getting into medical school up through july, august. Besides, I would think (or at least hope) that most people don't base their self worth on the decisions of admissions committees.

 

[Oculus Sinistra]

I think a smaller waitlist would be more humane...

Humane? Yes. Effective for the institution? Perhaps.
The 'smaller waitlist' idea may backfire if the list is too small to fill in all the holes.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Do the math. There are often several hundred on the waitlist. I agree that there should be more communication but it is an enormous task. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have a smaller waitlist and leave fewer people hoping all summer (if no more than a handful ever get off the waitlist, why do we need hundreds?) The thought by TPTB is that people feel that there is something wrong with them personally if they are rejected and waitlist is more humane (it's just saying 'you're great, we just don't have enough space ).

Thoughts? Would you rather have a "reject" or a <1/200 chance of getting off the waitlist.

I would rather have a smaller waitlist as well, this process is already so depressing. The last thing I need right now is false hope.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Humane? Yes. Effective for the institution? Perhaps.
The 'smaller waitlist' idea may backfire if the list is too small to fill in all the holes.

But wouldn't it be pretty amazing to get a call from a school that you were previously rejected at to let you know that you are in. "Hey looks like our waitlist was to short, but you would have been next in line! Your IN!!!"

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Thoughts? Would you rather have a "reject" or a <1/200 chance of getting off the waitlist.

I'de much rather have a flat out rejection. I think most people would.

 

[Oculus Sinistra]

But wouldn't it be pretty amazing to get a call from a school that you were previously rejected at to let you know that you are in. "Hey looks like our waitlist was to short, but you would have been next in line! Your IN!!!"

That would be amazing.
But then I would start wondering if I should be looking forward to the same experience from any of the other "rejected" schools... can you imagine what that would be like on SDN?

"I just got rejected from UPenn... does anybody know how many people they take off the rejection list?"

Ughhh the threads don't even exist and already they annoy me.