Losing hope

[Sarak510]

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I thought I had a real chance at schools such as GW, georgetown and NYMC....I am a nontrad student, got my MPH from UCLA, but relatively low undergrad gpa (3.4) and 32 MCAT...3.83 in grad school....but GW put me on hold, georgetown rejected me, and nothing from NYMC (complete since 8/23)....I am getting paranoid and thinking one of my letter writers wrote poorly of me...but he had spent half an hour on the phone with me discussing the whole med school process, and what I should write in my personal statement...so I don't know what to think anymore. Anyone else gone through anything similar??...sighhh

 

[DrMidlife]

IMHO 3 schools means you gave yourself a 6% chance of acceptance, looking at acceptance rates only with no qualifications. The average school sees 5000 apps, admits 100 students, so that's 1 in 50. Apply to 25 schools and you'll have a 50% chance.

Man, that math degree keeps coming back to bite me.

 

[Sarak510]

IMHO 3 schools means you gave yourself a 6% chance of acceptance, looking at acceptance rates only with no qualifications. The average school sees 5000 apps, admits 100 students, so that's 1 in 50. Apply to 25 schools and you'll have a 50% chance.

Man, that math degree keeps coming back to bite me.

Ya...I've applied to 20 schools..I mentioned these cuz I actually thought I had the chance to interview at them... Thanks for the reply!🙂

 

[DrMidlife]

Ya...I've applied to 20 schools..I mentioned these cuz I actually thought I had the chance to interview at them... Thanks for the reply!🙂

Ok then you have 17 hope points left, right? Seriously, don't give up.

 

[QofQuimica]

I thought I had a real chance at schools such as GW, georgetown and NYMC....I am a nontrad student, got my MPH from UCLA, but relatively low undergrad gpa (3.4) and 32 MCAT...3.83 in grad school....but GW put me on hold, georgetown rejected me, and nothing from NYMC (complete since 8/23)....I am getting paranoid and thinking one of my letter writers wrote poorly of me...but he had spent half an hour on the phone with me discussing the whole med school process, and what I should write in my personal statement...so I don't know what to think anymore. Anyone else gone through anything similar??...sighhh

It's too soon to give up hope in November. I don't know why you thought you had such a great chance at those schools in particular, but considering how many applications schools in the big northeastern cities receive each year, they usually are not such a great bet. Did you apply to your state school(s)? How is that going?

 

[Sarak510]

It's too soon to give up hope in November. I don't know why you thought you had such a great chance at those schools in particular, but considering how many applications schools in the big northeastern cities receive each year, they usually are not such a great bet. Did you apply to your state school(s)? How is that going?

Ya that is true too....Im a CA resident which sucks, but I received screened secondaries from UCLA and UC Irvine which I'm thankful for, but no interviews...anywhere....🙁

 

[ForbiddenComma]

I didn't get an interview until January... and it was the only one I needed... so no need to hit the panic button just yet!

 

[njbmd]

I thought I had a real chance at schools such as GW, georgetown and NYMC....I am a nontrad student, got my MPH from UCLA, but relatively low undergrad gpa (3.4) and 32 MCAT...3.83 in grad school....but GW put me on hold, georgetown rejected me, and nothing from NYMC (complete since 8/23)....I am getting paranoid and thinking one of my letter writers wrote poorly of me...but he had spent half an hour on the phone with me discussing the whole med school process, and what I should write in my personal statement...so I don't know what to think anymore. Anyone else gone through anything similar??...sighhh

There are no "safety schools". You put your stuff out there and try to make it as competitive as possible. That being said, graduate GPA does not overcome a low undergraduate GPA. There is so much grade inflation in graduate school and you are expected to achieve a minimum 3.0 in a discipline that you want to study.

GW and GT get a huge number of applications (greater than 5,000) and have something of a national reputation. Every year, the number of applicants to these schools have gone up and GT (more so than GW) tends to accept a lower number of older students. I suspect, based on phone calls with colleages on the admissions committees at both of these institutions, that they will receive a record number of applicants this year. It takes a long time to process all of those applications and I do know that in the case of both GW and GT, that they process every application. I have no reason to doubt that NYMC does the same.

Being on hold at GW does not mean being rejected. You need to see how this plays out and it's still pretty early. November is not the end of the process by any stretch of the imagination so GW may still work out for you. You haven't heard anything from NYMC so they may not have fully considered your application. If they had and didn't want you, you would be holding a rejection by now. You only need one interview and one acceptance. If that interview and acceptance comes later in the year, it's still an acceptance.

I can tell you that your undergrad GPA is below average for matriculants for any of the above schools that you mention and your MCAT is just about average for these schools. That fact alone may add some time to when you get called for an interview. One LOR is not going to make or break your application unless your LOR writer mentioned that you were a child molester or axe murderer which is unlikely the case.

Chill out and work on your Plan B (What you will do if you don't get in this year). Do anything that gets you away from obsessing about acceptance versus rejection. The wait is the most difficult part of this process and it's hard not to be depressed since you can't really point to anything positive yet. My advice is to "fake it so you will make it". You haven't lost out this round, and until you have rejection letters from every school, you are still in the running (not the greatest shape to be in but not the worst either). A good number of people are already doing the reapplication process because they have received rejection letters from all of the schools that they applied to. You are NOT there so take it one day at a time and wait out this process. It may still work out in your favor.

 

[Sarak510]

Thank you all for your words of wisdom🙂 I need to stop going to that Pre-Allo forum where everyone has a 3.6+ gpa and 30+ mcat😉

 

[QofQuimica]

I need to stop going to that Pre-Allo forum where everyone has a 3.6+ gpa and 30+ mcat😉

This is the best piece of advice in this entire thread. 👍 Best of luck to you, Sarak. 🙂

 

[Inkabellous]

Have you applied to DO schools? I think you'd definitely be competitive for them. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[relentless11]

Thank you all for your words of wisdom🙂 I need to stop going to that Pre-Allo forum where everyone has a 3.6+ gpa and 30+ mcat😉

We have a pre-allo forum?😉

Its a crap shoot, my friend has similar stats as you but minus the grad school part. She interviewed at 4 schools already (Harvard, GT, GW, and some other school that i can't remember). She is from the east coast.

My other friend has a 3.6 GPA from UCSD, a 33 on the MCAT, no grad school either. Similar EC's as my other friend, but so far, has been completely shut out of the east coast schools. UC's are being slow as molasses in replying too, but thats typical UC. This cycle has taught me, based on my friends experience that east coast schools tend to be somewhat slow vs. us Californians. I'm not saying they are biased, since clearly UC students get in all over the place, but its just slow. Is this a factor in your case? I have no idea. I'm just throwing out some potential causes. As others stated, just ride the wave. Its way to early to worry.

Clearly GPA/MCAT is only part of the equation. However it is true that we Californians get shafted in terms of med school. We need to perform better than national averages to get into the UC's, and lack residence in other states to apply to other state schools. That leaves the expensive and sometimes stuck up private schools to apply to. But hey thats part of the game. Why worry about something that is beyond your control now🙂

 

[FDoRoML]

Don't forget, also, that letters can be a big help in showing them you REALLY want to interview at (or get in, if you've corssed that bridge) their med school.

Letters can tell good news (updates to your grades if you're in school, recent accomplishments if you're volunteering or working, etc) and your reasons for knowing why their school is a good fit for you. And, um, most important of all... why you are a good fit for them. They're looking for you to show them what you can offer to their school, community, and your future classmates.

 

[remo]

Like FDoRoML said, update letters can be huge if you have been doing something interesting this year. In my case I was AMCAS verified on July 12th and did not receive a secondary from a single UC (I'm a CA resident but have a low gpa). I sent them an update three weeks ago when one of my research projects submitted a paper - within 2 weeks I got secondaries from all of them except UCSF. I am convinced that there are so many applications that the schools are sitting on that unless you are proactive you will get missed unless you have top numbers. If you can start contacting the schools and showing interest you might make something happen.

 

[NonTradMed]

I think you have a good shot with schools in the midwest. My Cali friends tended to get the most reply/acceptances from those schools because there is (relatively) less competition for schools in these 'less desirable' locations.

Your stats aren't bad. What was your major and undergrad school? Your sciGPA? These little details may tip you one way or another. You need to be patient. Plenty of people dont' hear anything until later in the cycle. And at my school, there are a big chunk of students that did not have their acceptances in hand until the following year (after Xmas of the application cycle). SDN tends to freak people out because people who post their stats tend to be self selective (really good and really bad people). Your stats are avg for matriculants (below avg GPA, above avg MCAT), so you stand a good chance of interviews. Good luck!

 

[Sarak510]

I think you have a good shot with schools in the midwest. My Cali friends tended to get the most reply/acceptances from those schools because there is (relatively) less competition for schools in these 'less desirable' locations.

Your stats aren't bad. What was your major and undergrad school? Your sciGPA? These little details may tip you one way or another. You need to be patient. Plenty of people dont' hear anything until later in the cycle. And at my school, there are a big chunk of students that did not have their acceptances in hand until the following year (after Xmas of the application cycle). SDN tends to freak people out because people who post their stats tend to be self selective (really good and really bad people). Your stats are avg for matriculants (below avg GPA, above avg MCAT), so you stand a good chance of interviews. Good luck!

Ya, I've applied to St. Louis... I did molecular bio at UC Berkeley and my sci gpa was a 3.38 🙁 Just got my rejection letter from GW today, I'm thinking that writing to schools and updating with my current activities and such. This process is kinda getting depressing, but I will keep on trying, thanks for the responses🙂

 

[LifetimeDoc]

I am in a similar situation with a 3.3 GPA, 33 MCAT, and a 4.0 Post Bacc undergrad GPA. I applied to 18 schools, have sent in 12 secondary but am still waiting on 6 secondaries to arrive. Hearing that this is a record application year lends me to believe my chances are slipping away as I haven't heard anything from the schools other than "You're complete".

 

[relentless11]

I am in a similar situation with a 3.3 GPA, 33 MCAT, and a 4.0 Post Bacc undergrad GPA. I applied to 18 schools, have sent in 12 secondary but am still waiting on 6 secondaries to arrive. Hearing that this is a record application year lends me to believe my chances are slipping away as I haven't heard anything from the schools other than "You're complete".

Its ALWAYS a record application year. Well OK I remember maybe 1-2 years where there were less relative to the year prior, but still it was way more than the amount that applied during the 80's or something.

MCAT and GPA will forever keep going up. When I first jumped into this "pre-med" game about 7 years ago, the mean MCAT for matriculants was 28. Now its more like 30. The meaning of a high GPA and MCAT score starts to gray out at some point. This is why schools look for unique individuals in addition to above average academic performance. I wouldn't let it get to you since this losing hope is apparently part of the game. The key is to be persistant, proactive, and positive.