Learning from rejections?

[Gauss44]

First, I am applying for the first time this cycle so it's way to early to know which schools will reject and which will not. However, I'm already curious about why I would be rejected or accepted from the perspective of the schools I applied to.

Is it appropriate to reach out to the schools that reject you for feedback as to why you were rejected? If not, how would you go about doing so?

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[Lannister]

Yes, some schools are willing to talk to rejected applicants and help them improve. At my school they'll have a phone conversation with you and tell you where your app fell short. I'm honestly not sure if that's something they tell people in the rejection letter, or if it's somewhere on the website, or if it's not published anywhere. But I don't think it can hurt to ask via email.

 

[E.Hemingway]

I have gotten two rejections so far and both emails asked to please not contact them regarding reasons for the rejection. I guess there are just too many applicants. Maybe they're more receptive to that question post-interview, but I don't know. I am definitely curious about my rejections.

 

[Disciple of Sattar]

When there are 7,000 applicants competing for 100-200 seats, many qualified applicants cannot be accepted. If you are a competitive applicant with no red flags, schools probably aren't rejecting you. They are just giving the seats to other similarly qualified students instead.

This is why many competitive applicants only get into one school, but one is all it takes.

 

[MareNostrummm]

Keep in mind that even if you do manage to get into contact with someone at the school that rejected you they may not give you a full explanation of why you were rejected. Some will simply tell you "need more clinical hours" etc). They aren't obligated to help you. It's up to you to figure out what went wrong.

 

[fourandtwo]

I have gotten two rejections so far and both emails asked to please not contact them regarding reasons for the rejection. I guess there are just too many applicants. Maybe they're more receptive to that question post-interview, but I don't know. I am definitely curious about my rejections.

Ah, that's tough. I hear ya... I think that pre-interview rejections are often due to either stats and or fitness into their mission statement.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

Parity is rampant among applicants. Often with pre-interview rejections, the difference between an II and a rejection is slim. Programs aren't ranking you individually 1 through 7000. It's more like 90 applicants are tied for 800th place. You might not even have similar stats, but the collective score of your application places you in the same range. This makes it hard for admissions to really give you definitive ways to improve as a pre-interview applicant.