No News While People Complete Later Were Rejected

[krefetz1]

Following some school specific threads, some people who were complete after me were rejected and my app is still under review...does anyone have any insight on what that means? I hate to be neurotic but I'm sitting on 0 II's, a few rejections, and silence from a ton of schools. Thanks in advance.

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[Euxox]

I would guess that it means that you are on pre-interview hold. Not all schools tell you explicitly when they decide to put you on hold.

 

[sector9]

It could be that you're on a preinterview hold, as Euxox suggests, or they may not have looked at your application yet, or you may be in the "interview" pile but they haven't contacted you yet. As I'm sure you know, there's no rule that schools have to evaluate applications in the order they receive them

Those with higher stats than you may be looked at first. Or those with different last names may get looked at first (one school I interviewed at sent applications to a different reviewer based on sorting them alphabetically by last name, so if the reviewer for your name got behind, then your application wouldn't be looked at as quickly). Or any of a million other differences can explain it.

IMO, the best advice (and most frustrating) is to relax, hope for the best, keep schools updated about any improvements in your candidacy, and continue doing "pre-med" activities in case you need to reapply

 

[krefetz1]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your insight

 

[wiloghby]

They're interested, but not that interested. After people with 4.0/40+ and similar ECs to you turn them down, they will come to you. They may also be waiting for an update letter from you to push you over the interview threshold. This happens a lot at top schools, I hear.

 

[gyngyn]

They're interested, but not that interested. After people with 4.0/40+ and similar ECs to you turn them down, they will come to you. They may also be waiting for an update letter from you to push you over the interview threshold. This happens a lot at top schools, I hear.

Not really.

 

[nemo123]

Sometimes, some schools will review and cherry pick the tippy top applicants first and then work their way down into the stack of people. So theoretically someone complete later than you could have their app reviewed earlier simply because they have a LizzyM score of 80 while the rest of us have low to mid 70s. On top of that, when you app gets reviewed also depends heavily on your reviewers' timeline and how fast they are going through apps.

 

[Rulf]

They're interested, but not that interested. After people with 4.0/40+ and similar ECs to you turn them down, they will come to you. They may also be waiting for an update letter from you to push you over the interview threshold. This happens a lot at top schools, I hear.

Anecdotally, I don't think so. Having gotten a lot of silence, despite being complete for months at several schools that I know have sent rejections and having a LizzyM of ~80, I'm going with the pre-interview hold/re-review theory. If they cherry picked on stats, they would've gotten to me by now for sure, but I've heard from less than a third of schools I applied to and only 1 rejection.

 

[wiloghby]

Anecdotally, I don't think so. Having gotten a lot of silence, despite being complete for months at several schools that I know have sent rejections and having a LizzyM of ~80, I'm going with the pre-interview hold/re-review theory. If they cherry picked on stats, they would've gotten to me by now for sure, but I've heard from less than a third of schools I applied to and only 1 rejection.

I didn't mean to suggest they cherry pick purely based purely upon metrics/LizzyM. I was giving an example of a ridiculously competitive applicant, and it is easier to do that with numbers. But if people are getting rejected who are complete much later than you are, and you've heard nothing.. then it stands to reason that they must be holding onto your application for some reason. They may rank on initial review using a combination of factors in your application, such as GPA, MCAT, demographic information, unique ECS, etc.

 

[Azimuthal431]

Does anyone know approximately what percentages of II's are sent out in January?

 

[NickNaylor]

They're interested, but not that interested. After people with 4.0/40+ and similar ECs to you turn them down, they will come to you. They may also be waiting for an update letter from you to push you over the interview threshold. This happens a lot at top schools, I hear.

This makes so many blind assumptions that it's really nothing more than a poorly educated guess. s9's post is really all there is to it. The most likely explanation is that there is some kind of administrative issue that has resulted in your file taking longer to review rather than some devious plan by the school(s) to intentionally keep you in the dark. At my institution, many applicants receive additional consideration/discussion that results in their decisions coming later compared to some other applicants. It doesn't mean anything - just that the committee would like to spend more time with your app.

 

[nemo123]

This makes so many blind assumptions that it's really nothing more than a poorly educated guess. s9's post is really all there is to it. The most likely explanation is that there is some kind of administrative issue that has resulted in your file taking longer to review rather than some devious plan by the school(s) to intentionally keep you in the dark. At my institution, many applicants receive additional consideration/discussion that results in their decisions coming later compared to some other applicants. It doesn't mean anything - just that the committee would like to spend more time with your app.

I've noticed that about Pritzker... Some people will get rejected or invited to interview after being complete for like a day while others will have to wait 6-8 weeks to hear their decision on their app. So then, what separates these applicants who wait 6-8 weeks vs the ones who get put on hold right away at Pritzker?

 

[NickNaylor]

I've noticed that about Pritzker... Some people will get rejected or invited to interview after being complete for like a day while others will have to wait 6-8 weeks to hear their decision on their app. So then, what separates these applicants who wait 6-8 weeks vs the ones who get put on hold right away at Pritzker?

To be candid I'm not all that sure - for whatever reason the admissions office doesn't provide details to us on how the interview selection process works.

 

[nemo123]

To be candid I'm not all that sure - for whatever reason the admissions office doesn't provide details to us on how the interview selection process works.

Guess that will forever be a mystery then. Also, when you mean additional consideration from the committee (for people who hear back after 6-8 weeks), do those applicants get reviewed by more reviewers or is it just the dean sitting on the app (and comparing them to other apps coming in)?

 

[wiloghby]

Guess that will forever be a mystery then. Also, when you mean additional consideration from the committee (for people who hear back after 6-8 weeks), do those applicants get reviewed by more reviewers or is it just the dean sitting on the app (and comparing them to other apps coming in)?

I think the general vibe of this thread is that nobody really knows anything that can be said in this situation that can be applied to all schools in general, but some people have some limited information about their particular school.

<-- over here, it says that I'm a pre-med. That means that I'm not on any sort of admissions committee. As such, I can only share what I have been told by the Associate Dean of Admissions at my local school, as well as some current medical students with whom I work. But chances are, you haven't applied there, and they seem to do things very differently than many schools (e.g. their second look is in the Fall, and they typically finish making offers/waitlisting in December).

 

[NickNaylor]

Guess that will forever be a mystery then. Also, when you mean additional consideration from the committee (for people who hear back after 6-8 weeks), do those applicants get reviewed by more reviewers or is it just the dean sitting on the app (and comparing them to other apps coming in)?

Probably a combination of the two with respect to decisions about interviews. I know for final decisions "additional consideration" is just that - the applicant is discussed at additional committee meetings before a final decision is made.