No Interviews and Developing Anxiety

[biobeyotch]

—“-

 

[chemdoctor]

Not an adcom, but I think only start worrying if you haven’t heard anything by Thanksgiving. As the wise man somewhere West of the Misssissippi river states @Goro states, be worried if you’ve heard nothing by thanksgiving and patience is a virtue

 

[Catalystik]

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to get out of this post, but I feel like just writing things out and receiving feedback will help me feel better. I am applying to 23 MD schools this cycle and so far have received one rejection and silence from the other institutions. I am seeing my coworkers and friends get interviews and I'm starting to feel like I did something wrong or am not competitive enough. These feelings have manifested themselves in me waking up in the middle of the night and constantly checking the SDN forums throughout the day.

I am a Massachusetts resident and ORM. My AMCAS was verified July 30th. My cGPA is 3.74, sGPA is 3.78, and MCAT is 518 (130/128/130/130). I went to a top 5 undergrad institution in the US. My application is mainly focused on human rights and health justice, as those were my studies in college. I have some decent extra curriculars like being a resident adviser, teaching assistant for biology courses, and political activism focused on LGBTQ and racial identities. I have volunteered in hospitals and did research for two years. I currently work full-time as a clinical trials coordinator. I'd like to believe that my PS and secondaries reflect my experiences well and express my passions.

Below are the schools that I applied to with the complete dates of my secondaries:

George Washington - 7/31
USC Keck - 7/31
Tufts - 7/31
UPenn - 7/31
U Chicago - 7/31 (but got complete email 8/28 for some reason)
Georgetown - 8/4
Tulane - 8/4
UMASS - 8/7
Emory - 8/9
UCLA - 8/9
UVA - 8/10
Vanderbilt - 8/11
Harvard - 8/15
Stanford - 8/15
Weill Cornell - 8/15
Boston University - 8/18 (REJECTED mid-september, I added this school on 8/16)
Temple - 8/18
Penn State - 8/18
UCSD - 8/19
University of Rochester - 8/25 (added this school on 8/16 as well)
Northwestern - 8/25
UC Irvine - 8/26
UCSF - 9/4

I would like to continue building my application in case I need to reapply, but I'm not quite sure what else to do. When generating my list, I thought it was a pretty good mix of schools, but now I'm worried that the list is too top heavy. Does anyone have past experience with having no interviews at this timepoint or suggestions on how to cope/go from here? I feel like this thread can be a place for others to just post about their anxieties and let their frustrations out. Thanks in advance!

-Did you list any hands-on community service to those in need? (I wouldn't put political activism in that category.)
-Did you list Physician Shadowing?
-Top schools want to train Future Leaders in Medicine. Did you list peer leadership on the Primary?
-Could you have used an LOR that raised a red flag?
-Any past legal issues or Institutional Action?

 

[BOAO523]

It looks to me as though you have a strong application and if I had to guess I'd say your IIs are coming! I definitely understand the anxiety though and I really, really hope your hard work (as evidenced by your app) pays off. Consensus is that Thanksgiving is when you start worrying.

I was going to say that my only criticism is your school list in that it has 9 or 10 schools that I would consider to be very high-tier or receive an exorbitant amount of applications. But seeing your GPA and MCAT I don't think this criticism would be fair.

Perhaps as a way to try to help ease your anxiety (and if you have the funds) you can apply to a handful of lower-tier schools you'd be excited about to increase your II's on the off-chance that you're just having a very unlucky cycle?

 

[biobeyotch]

-Did you list any hands-on community service to those in need? (I wouldn't put political activism in that category.)
-Did you list Physician Shadowing?
-Top schools want to train Future Leaders in Medicine. Did you list peer leadership on the Primary?
-Could you have used an LOR that raised a red flag?
-Any past legal issues or Institutional Action?

- Through my political activism I have done community service such as volunteering a exit-polls, phone banking, and working at after-school programs for students from low-income households.
- I did not have the privilege of shadowing physicians, but I did work in clinical settings. In my job now I have opportunities to shadow physicians everyday, but I only discussed those in my secondaries and not in my primary application since my job started after submitting my primary. I'm worried that I maybe should have waited a year to apply for this reason...
- I was involved in various student organizations where I served in leadership positions. I listed these on my primary.
- I think all my LORs are find and no past legal issues or institutional action

 

[biobeyotch]

It looks to me as though you have a strong application and if I had to guess I'd say your IIs are coming! I definitely understand the anxiety though and I really, really hope your hard work (as evidenced by your app) pays off. Consensus is that Thanksgiving is when you start worrying.

I was going to say that my only criticism is your school list in that it has 9 or 10 schools that I would consider to be very high-tier or receive an exorbitant amount of applications. But seeing your GPA and MCAT I don't think this criticism would be fair.

Perhaps as a way to try to help ease your anxiety (and if you have the funds) you can apply to a handful of lower-tier schools you'd be excited about to increase your II's on the off-chance that you're just having a very unlucky cycle?

Thanks for your words of reassurance! I have thought about applying to a few more schools, but I'm worried that it's too late in the cycle to do so... do you have any suggestions for schools I could add?

 

[Goro]

Hi everyone

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to get out of this post, but I feel like just writing things out and receiving feedback will help me feel better. I am applying to 23 MD schools this cycle and so far have received one rejection and silence from the other institutions. I am seeing my coworkers and friends get interviews and I'm starting to feel like I did something wrong or am not competitive enough. These feelings have manifested themselves in me waking up in the middle of the night and constantly checking the SDN forums throughout the day.

I am a Massachusetts resident and ORM. My AMCAS was verified July 30th. My cGPA is 3.74, sGPA is 3.78, and MCAT is 518 (130/128/130/130). I went to a top 5 undergrad institution in the US. My application is mainly focused on human rights and health justice, as those were my studies in college. I have some decent extra curriculars like being a resident adviser, teaching assistant for biology courses, and political activism focused on LGBTQ and racial identities. I have volunteered in hospitals and did research for two years. I currently work full-time as a clinical trials coordinator. I'd like to believe that my PS and secondaries reflect my experiences well and express my passions.

Below are the schools that I applied to with the complete dates of my secondaries:

George Washington - 7/31
USC Keck - 7/31
Tufts - 7/31
UPenn - 7/31
U Chicago - 7/31 (but got complete email 8/28 for some reason)
Georgetown - 8/4
Tulane - 8/4
UMASS - 8/7
Emory - 8/9
UCLA - 8/9
UVA - 8/10
Vanderbilt - 8/11
Harvard - 8/15
Stanford - 8/15
Weill Cornell - 8/15
Boston University - 8/18 (REJECTED mid-september, I added this school on 8/16)
Temple - 8/18
Penn State - 8/18
UCSD - 8/19
University of Rochester - 8/25 (added this school on 8/16 as well)
Northwestern - 8/25
UC Irvine - 8/26
UCSF - 9/4

I would like to continue building my application in case I need to reapply, but I'm not quite sure what else to do. When generating my list, I thought it was a pretty good mix of schools, but now I'm worried that the list is too top heavy. Does anyone have past experience with having no interviews at this timepoint or suggestions on how to cope/go from here? I feel like this thread can be a place for others to just post about their anxieties and let their frustrations out. Thanks in advance!

UCI was a donation, as likely was UCLA (they seat only 0.5% of their OOS applicant pool). Temple, Penn State, Tufts and Gtown may resource protect,a s they'll likely figure based upon historic norms that a candidate of your calibre will go elsewhere.

I would have had some more Keck/Einstein class schools ont he list, but the rest of your list is mostly schools I'd recommend.

You may get an II on Monday, or in March.

in the meantime, work on your Plan B until you have that accept email in your Inbox.

 

[FroYoOreo]

- Through my political activism I have done community service such as volunteering a exit-polls, phone banking, and working at after-school programs for students from low-income households.
- I did not have the privilege of shadowing physicians, but I did work in clinical settings. In my job now I have opportunities to shadow physicians everyday, but I only discussed those in my secondaries and not in my primary application since my job started after submitting my primary. I'm worried that I maybe should have waited a year to apply for this reason...
- I was involved in various student organizations where I served in leadership positions. I listed these on my primary.
- I think all my LORs are find and no past legal issues or institutional action

I am not adcom but just based on WARS, not having actual shadowing experience might hurt your application.

 

[Catalystik]

1) Through my political activism I have done community service such as volunteering . . . . at after-school programs for students from low-income households.
2) I did not have the privilege of shadowing physicians, but I did work in clinical settings. In my job now I have opportunities to shadow physicians everyday, but I only discussed those in my secondaries and not in my primary application since my job started after submitting my primary. I'm worried that I maybe should have waited a year to apply for this reason...

1) How many hours did you give to after school programs? Did you specify this on the application?

2) All schools don't have unwritten expectations for shadowing, but a lot do (or at least, their adcomms do). For those schools that allow update letters, be sure to emphasize completed shadowing hours, along with other relevant information. Having shadowing opportunities doesn't count for much; accumulated shadowing hours might.

 

[biobeyotch]

UCI was a donation, as likely was UCLA (they seat only 0.5% of their OOS applicant pool). Temple, Penn State, Tufts and Gtown may resource protect,a s they'll likely figure based upon historic norms that a candidate of your calibre will go elsewhere.

I would have had some more Keck/Einstein class schools ont he list, but the rest of your list is mostly schools I'd recommend.

You may get an II on Monday, or in March.

in the meantime, work on your Plan B until you have that accept email in your Inbox.

Thank you for your response. Do you think it is too late to apply to some of those other schools?

I am not adcom but just based on WARS, not having actual shadowing experience might hurt your application.

Yeah, that worries me too. My WARS is in the range of 78-82.

1) How many hours did you give to after school programs? Did you specify this on the application?

2) All schools don't have unwritten expectations for shadowing, but a lot do (or at least, their adcomms do). For those schools that allow update letters, be sure to emphasize completed shadowing hours, along with other relevant information. Having shadowing opportunities doesn't count for much; accumulated shadowing hours might.

1. I definitely dedicated lots of time to extra-curriculars (~1000+hrs). I spoke extensively about my after school activities and leadership positions in my primary.

2. Will updates at this point in the cycle be effective? If so, would it be wise to wait until I have more substantial updates (i.e. I am taking on a new responsibility at my job in being part of a patient care and patient satisfaction task group, but that will not start until later this month).

 

[Catalystik]

1. I definitely dedicated lots of time to extra-curriculars (~1000+hrs). I spoke extensively about my after school activities and leadership positions in my primary.

2. Will updates at this point in the cycle be effective? If so, would it be wise to wait until I have more substantial updates (i.e. I am taking on a new responsibility at my job in being part of a patient care and patient satisfaction task group, but that will not start until later this month).

2) How many shadowing hours have you accumulated? What specialties?

I would not include the new job responsibility until you have at least 2 months of experience with it.

 

[biobeyotch]

2) How many shadowing hours have you accumulated? What specialties?

I would not include the new job responsibility until you have at least 2 months of experience with it.

I just tried to PM you, but it's not going through... Is there a way I can message you about this separately?

 

[Catalystik]

I just tried to PM you, but it's not going through... Is there a way I can message you about this separately?

Sorry, but my PM box is closed. If the accumulated shadowing hours were less than 20 and don't include a primary care doc (family med, internal med, pediatrics, OBGYN, Psych), I'd suggest waiting to update. If, OTOH, you've met these benchmarks, do go ahead and update.