multiple acceptances

[fun8stuff]

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I have a friend who is a year ahead of me and I consider him to be a very good applicat.... 4.0, 31 MCAT, worked at nursing home for 4 yrs, research experience, VP of a couple clubs, maybe some more stuff.... He has had 4 or 5 interviews, and put on hold by the ones he has heard from.

What I am wondering is if there are a lot of people with multiple acceptances holding all the spots. Do you think when these people are forced (march?) to make a decision a lot more spots will open up? I am mainly worried because I have about the same stats as this guy (accept I haven't taken the MCAT yet). If he doesn't get in, I don't know what I will do.... So what do you all think?

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by fun8stuff
I have a friend who is a year ahead of me and I consider him to be a very good applicat.... 4.0, 31 MCAT, worked at nursing home for 4 yrs, research experience, VP of a couple clubs, maybe some more stuff.... He has had 4 or 5 interviews, and put on hold by the ones he has heard from.

What I am wondering is if there are a lot of people with multiple acceptances holding all the spots. Do you think when these people are forced (march?) to make a decision a lot more spots will open up? I am mainly worried because I have about the same stats as this guy (accept I haven't taken the MCAT yet). If he doesn't get in, I don't know what I will do.... So what do you all think?

I think there is a good number of accepted applicants who have multiple acceptances, myself included, who have dropped many acceptances/interviews and are simply waiting for financial aid information before dropping any more. I think a lot of people start to drop extra acceptances en masse around March, when most people become aware of their financial aid situation.

So dont expect too much movement in this regards (though such movement will be hidden to us, only the adcoms will know) until after financial aid info starts coming out, meaning early in spring.

 

[fun8stuff]

What exactly about financial aid are people waiting for? To see if they qualify? Does the amount of financial aid someone will qualify vary from school to school? Sorry, I don't know a whole lot about this part of the process.

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by fun8stuff
What exactly about financial aid are people waiting for? To see if they qualify? Does the amount of financial aid someone will qualify vary from school to school? Sorry, I don't know a whole lot about this part of the process.

heck yeah.....

each school will offer differing amounts of financial aid....
since medical school is an expensive endeavor, you can imagine how important how much each school can offer us is in making our decision.

thats why people with multiple acceptances will usually drop schools they have no plan to attend but keep schools they feel very strongly about....and lets say i feel like i can attend both schools and enjoy them then my deciding factor is most likely going to be monetary.

 

[fun8stuff]

How can some schools offer more financial aid than others? Do the qualifying factors (for financial aid) vary from school to school? Again, sorry for the stupid questions... i really am clueless about this...

 

[Optimist]

Originally posted by fun8stuff
How can some schools offer more financial aid than others? Do the qualifying factors (for financial aid) vary from school to school? Again, sorry for the stupid questions... i really am clueless about this...

They can offer financial aid however they feel like. If they feel you're an asset to their school, they can give you an incentive to join. If they feel that you will have trouble affording the school, they can make it a bit easier. The process can sometimes be highly subjective, and it is always purely at the discretion of the school's financial aid department.

 

[fun8stuff]

Is there paperwork you fill out? What kind of information do they take into consideration besides "being an asset to their school"? I figure most students are quite poor, so it would be hard to make the decision based on need. Is the decision based mostly on stats and how you present yourself during the interview?

 

[Optimist]

There is paperwork, and it has a lot to do with your family's income. Despite this, most people have huge debts going out of med school. Don't worry about the specifics yet. Accept that different schools might give out different packages. There's also housing costs to consider (commuting versus staying at your own place, different parts of the country have dramatically different living expenses). So the "cheapest" school based on tuition may not always be the most financially viable.

Just do your best getting into med school. One step at a time!

At most, the people taking up multiple acceptances will only delay it for the rest. One human being can only take up one spot in the end. So other than make everybody unnecessarily nervous, it doesn't have much impact.

 

[mlw03]

perhaps some people (ie, me) are holding more than one spot because they haven't heard from their top choices yet, either because they just haven't or the schools aren't rolling admissions schools. in such a case, the schools they are holding onto may be fairly equal to them, so they won't decide unless they have to, or they may be waiting for the financial info. in any event, i would agree that there will be a lot of movement in march and april, as people get financial info or simply must decide because the may 15 is approaching. i would also venture there is a fair amount of movement in late may, with a kind of "trickle down" effect affecting at least 1000 people, either because they will change the school they will attend of will find out that they will in fact be able to attend somewhere.

so in short, waiting sucks, but there's nothing to do so ya just deal with it.

 

[HollyJ]

Well, keep in mind that med schools send out waaaay more acceptances than they have spots. For example, if a school has 200 seats, they may send out 350+ acceptances, since they know that not everyone they accept will attend. So there's not really a problem with people "holding" spots -- the schools don't send out another acceptance for every student who turns them down.

That said, it's early yet. I wouldn't get too worried.

 

[kito]

Originally posted by HollyJ
if a school has 200 seats, they may send out 350+ acceptances

Try 500.