Official, Pre-Allo NOT ACCEPTED YET 2018 applicant thread

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Has anyone else been having crazy dreams throughout the cycle?? First I had a dream that I showed up to an interview at VCU in flip flops. Then I dreamt that the dean of Admissions for Albert Einstein personally responded to my ITA request but told me it had to be a 3 day interview. Then I had another dream about Albert Einstein - this time Hillary Clinton was applying there, I got her email, and convinced her to put in a good word for me so I could also get an interview lol.

And just last night I had another dream that I was invited to interview at Rochester, but I missed my flight or something, so I was going to drive the 8 hours up to the school (and for some reason in my dream, Rochester was located in a city called Maine, which was in Oregon) but I didn't leave the house until 7am the morning of the interview?? Man i woke up so stressed.

What have been all your wild dreams?
 
pewpew95 said:
What have been all your wild dreams?
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I just had a dream of being fired from my lab due to negligence and that it'll be filed as an institutional action (???) and that it'll be reported to all schools I've been accepted at. I was begging for mercy when I woke up and realized it's time for work...I'm typing this in the said lab. very happy that im still not fired
 
seren1051 said:
I just had a dream of being fired from my lab due to negligence and that it'll be filed as an institutional action (???) and that it'll be reported to all schools I've been accepted at. I was begging for mercy when I woke up and realized it's time for work...I'm typing this in the said lab. very happy that im still not fired
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At this rate we're going to have major psychological trauma!
 
pewpew95 said:
At this rate we're going to have major psychological trauma!
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I definitely already do. I've told several people that if I'd known how stressful this application year was going to be, I might have just gone for CRNA instead. :laugh:

One of my interviews went very poorly - as in, I got grilled about my lack of community service. Why didn't I do it, then when I responded that full time work, full time school, and clinical volunteering ate up my time, was told that not having enough time wasn't a good enough excuse because everyone else made time, blah blah blah. I replayed that interview in my dreams a couple of times for the next few weeks. I feel like I had some transient PTSD about that interview.

Still wondering why they bothered to interview me if they thought my app was so horrible. Still also wondering why they're just stringing me along and haven't given me the R yet, 12 weeks out from the interview... it was pretty clear they didn't want me when I was sitting right in front of them. 🙄
 
calivianya said:
I definitely already do. I've told several people that if I'd known how stressful this application year was going to be, I might have just gone for CRNA instead. :laugh:

One of my interviews went very poorly - as in, I got grilled about my lack of community service. Why didn't I do it, then when I responded that full time work, full time school, and clinical volunteering ate up my time, was told that not having enough time wasn't a good enough excuse because everyone else made time, blah blah blah. I replayed that interview in my dreams a couple of times for the next few weeks. I feel like I had some transient PTSD about that interview.

Still wondering why they bothered to interview me if they thought my app was so horrible. Still also wondering why they're just stringing me along and haven't given me the R yet, 12 weeks out from the interview... it was pretty clear they didn't want me when I was sitting right in front of them. 🙄
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Oh man that's horrible! Hopefully it was just the interviewer who wanted to grill you and that the adcom liked you as an overall applicant. Like you said, why would they interview you if they didn't like you??
 
calivianya said:
I definitely already do. I've told several people that if I'd known how stressful this application year was going to be, I might have just gone for CRNA instead. :laugh:

One of my interviews went very poorly - as in, I got grilled about my lack of community service. Why didn't I do it, then when I responded that full time work, full time school, and clinical volunteering ate up my time, was told that not having enough time wasn't a good enough excuse because everyone else made time, blah blah blah. I replayed that interview in my dreams a couple of times for the next few weeks. I feel like I had some transient PTSD about that interview.

Still wondering why they bothered to interview me if they thought my app was so horrible. Still also wondering why they're just stringing me along and haven't given me the R yet, 12 weeks out from the interview... it was pretty clear they didn't want me when I was sitting right in front of them. 🙄
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I once had a similar moment when an interviewer asked me about my stance on the opioid epidemic and due to lack of sleep and the stress of interviewing at one of my dream schools, I instead talked about the opioid epidemic that is going on with the homeless population in the town I live in. Completely forgot about the opioid epidemic going on in medicine (doh!) until my interviewer grilled me. Worst more, my interviewer brought up something I wrote about in my primary that already stressed my views on the medical epidemic. That has been a recurring haunting in my dreams since october. WL at that school aja
 
pewpew95 said:
Oh man that's horrible! Hopefully it was just the interviewer who wanted to grill you and that the adcom liked you as an overall applicant. Like you said, why would they interview you if they didn't like you??
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Well, it was at my low tier state school, and they interview almost half of their applicant pool but then accept about 1/10th of the applicant pool, matriculate a little less than that. I really have no idea why they interview so many people.
 
I just want to remind everyone that if you aren't having success with your application, it has nothing to do with your value as a person and everything to do with unfortunate realities that come with such a competitive process. I know firsthand how much of a toll it can take on you, and I also know firsthand that it does get better. Please talk to someone if you are ever struggling, and if you don't know who to talk to, you can always start with me!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Now sitting on 3 deferrals :sorry: and had to cancel an upcoming interview due to $. Rough times.
 
bananafish94 said:
I just want to remind everyone that if you aren't having success with your application, it has nothing to do with your value as a person and everything to do with unfortunate realities that come with such a competitive process. I know firsthand how much of a toll it can take on you, and I also know firsthand that it does get better. Please talk to someone if you are ever struggling, and if you don't know who to talk to, you can always start with me!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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Really appreciate you supporting applicants here on SDN! Your posts on last year's thread meant a lot to me and to others who were waiting to hear back. Thank you @bananafish94
 
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Soulful said:
Really appreciate you supporting applicants here on SDN! Your posts on last year's thread meant a lot to me and to others who were waiting to hear back. Thank you @bananafish94
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"This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.
A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole, can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'"

-The West Wing
 
Guess it's time for me to jump in here since today I received my 3rd waitlist in addition to a deferral at top choice. That makes 4/7 that I'm probably not getting into. I don't have a good feeling about the remaining three.

What is bothering me is how well I thought the interviews had gone. I know that us applicants often can't tell very well, but at at least 5 of my schools I was told something(s) during the interviews that were indicative of it having gone extremely well. I won't say here what those things were for privacy concerns, but they were extremely positive regarding both my character and ability to make a difference in the medical field.

I received the majority of my interviews pretty late (3+ months after marked complete) so I wonder if I was just borderline at the schools to begin with and the interviews didn't do much for me.
 
seedbrage said:
Guess it's time for me to jump in here since today I received my 3rd waitlist in addition to a deferral at top choice. That makes 4/7 that I'm probably not getting into. I don't have a good feeling about the remaining three.

What is bothering me is how well I thought the interviews had gone. I know that us applicants often can't tell very well, but at at least 5 of my schools I was told something(s) during the interviews that were indicative of it having gone extremely well. I won't say here what those things were for privacy concerns, but they were extremely positive regarding both my character and ability to make a difference in the medical field.

I received the majority of my interviews pretty late (3+ months after marked complete) so I wonder if I was just borderline at the schools to begin with and the interviews didn't do much for me.
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THIS +1. Nothing more demoralizing than finding out that not even with a great interview could you get directly accepted. If God forbid I have to reapply that just adds so much more pressure going into the interviews. Now if I think I did "alright" or "pretty good" on my interview, I wouldn't be able to shake the feeling that it would translate ultimately into an R.
 
seedbrage said:
Guess it's time for me to jump in here since today I received my 3rd waitlist in addition to a deferral at top choice. That makes 4/7 that I'm probably not getting into. I don't have a good feeling about the remaining three.

What is bothering me is how well I thought the interviews had gone. I know that us applicants often can't tell very well, but at at least 5 of my schools I was told something(s) during the interviews that were indicative of it having gone extremely well. I won't say here what those things were for privacy concerns, but they were extremely positive regarding both my character and ability to make a difference in the medical field.

I received the majority of my interviews pretty late (3+ months after marked complete) so I wonder if I was just borderline at the schools to begin with and the interviews didn't do much for me.
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I don't have any advice to give, but just know you're not alone. I'm waiting on deferred decisions from 3 schools. I've had similar experiences as you where I felt the interviews went really well, plus I got good feedback from/was able to connect with my interviewers. It sucks. Nothing left to do but keep your head up and go to your upcoming interviews with the confidence that you'll do well. Send updates if you haven't already. Good luck and keep us updated.
 
seedbrage said:
Guess it's time for me to jump in here since today I received my 3rd waitlist in addition to a deferral at top choice. That makes 4/7 that I'm probably not getting into. I don't have a good feeling about the remaining three.

What is bothering me is how well I thought the interviews had gone. I know that us applicants often can't tell very well, but at at least 5 of my schools I was told something(s) during the interviews that were indicative of it having gone extremely well. I won't say here what those things were for privacy concerns, but they were extremely positive regarding both my character and ability to make a difference in the medical field.

I received the majority of my interviews pretty late (3+ months after marked complete) so I wonder if I was just borderline at the schools to begin with and the interviews didn't do much for me.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I got my first true accept shortly after this thread started, however, I'm still waitlisted at my top choice. During that interview, my faculty interviewer flat out said, "I really hope you chose us. You will fit right in and I'd love to get you in on my research". When I left, he gave me his card with his personal cell number and email so that we could discuss our similar research experiences further down the road. I haven't heard a peep since then other than waitlisted.
 
donutzebra said:
THIS +1. Nothing more demoralizing than finding out that not even with a great interview could you get directly accepted. If God forbid I have to reapply that just adds so much more pressure going into the interviews. Now if I think I did "alright" or "pretty good" on my interview, I wouldn't be able to shake the feeling that it would translate ultimately into an R.
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Yeah... I actually went into all 7 of my interviews really calm since I had no decisions yet and felt that it would allow me to be natural and charismatic - which it did. I wasn't nervous at all, I was excited and ready to talk about my experiences, why I liked the school so much and let it be like a normal conversation. All my interviews felt that way. I imagine if I had any more to actually attend (I don't), I would feel like you're describing.

NoMD4Me said:
I don't have any advice to give, but just know you're not alone. I'm waiting on deferred decisions from 3 schools. I've had similar experiences as you where I felt the interviews went really well, plus I got good feedback from/was able to connect with my interviewers. It sucks. Nothing left to do but keep your head up and go to your upcoming interviews with the confidence that you'll do well. Send updates if you haven't already. Good luck and keep us updated.
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Unfortunately I don't have any more upcoming. But yes, same for me again, I connected with all of my interviewers either extremely well or very well. Some of those conversations at my interviews were among the most profound and reaffirming conversations I have ever had.

Stuck on CCL2 said:
I know what you mean. I got my first true accept shortly after this thread started, however, I'm still waitlisted at my top choice. During that interview, my faculty interviewer flat out said, "I really hope you chose us. You will fit right in and I'd love to get you in on my research". When I left, he gave me his card with his personal cell number and email so that we could discuss our similar research experiences further down the road. I haven't heard a peep since then other than waitlisted.
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Honestly I feel like doing this should be prohibited at this point. So many people report their interviewers saying something to give the applicant false hope and it doesn't often work out in our favor.
 
Time for me to hop in! Of my first 3 interviews, all of which I thought went well and 2 of which I thought were a "sure thing" with a self-assessed stellar performance, I was waitlisted at all 3 of them. At one of them, I clicked so well with my faculty and student interviewers that we continued to converse via email following interview day. As was mentioned, it's a pretty awful feeling when the interview goes well and you don't get in, but much waitlist movement doesn't happen until the late spring so I'm going to continue sending research and volunteering updates and hope for the best!

I had 2 additional interviews last week and am extremely anxious to hear back from them. I had a dream 2 nights before the first of them that I overslept by 6 hours and tried to convince the ADCOM that my cat died so I had to miss it. I promptly went to Target later that day and bought 2 more alarm clocks to use alongside my cell phone alarms :laugh:

EDIT: accepted literally hours after posting this! Funny how life works sometimes.
 
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When your last interview said you'd have decisions by mid-January and you're still in silence on January 30th...

SxcIZHH.png
 
Just got my first post-interview rejection, but to be fair I wasn't a good fit for the school so I can understand it. That makes 3WL, 1R, 1 deferral. 2/7 left to hear from, definitely not optimistic.
 
seedbrage said:
Just got my first post-interview rejection, but to be fair I wasn't a good fit for the school so I can understand it. That makes 3WL, 1R, 1 deferral. 2/7 left to hear from, definitely not optimistic.
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I hope one of those WL/Deferral turns into an accept!
 
Stuck on CCL2 said:
I hope one of those WL/Deferral turns into an accept!
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Thanks. I actually have a letter of intent on file for one of the two schools I have yet to hear from. They are a top 10 with very low yield so here's hoping that pans out for me.
 
seedbrage said:
Honestly I feel like doing this should be prohibited at this point. So many people report their interviewers saying something to give the applicant false hope and it doesn't often work out in our favor
Click to expand...

I’m rooting for all y’all, but I disagree here. The interviewer is giving his opinion. You have to remember that his or her evaluation is just one piece of your application. When he states that he hopes you choose his school, all you can really read into that is that he will be giving you a good evaluation. That is certainly a good thing, but may not necessarily lead to a straight A.
 
2 WL here joining the club, hope everyone here the best!
I was a nervous wreck and bombed my first interview, and thought i did well at the second one 🙁 I know i should be focusing on preparing for another cycle but it's hard to give up hope just yet :/
 
2 IA (soon to be 3 in less than 24 hours) and 0 A reporting in. Then again the 0 A is more because they were fairly recent.
 
medschoolacceptmepls said:
2 WL here joining the club, hope everyone here the best!
I was a nervous wreck and bombed my first interview, and thought i did well at the second one 🙁 I know i should be focusing on preparing for another cycle but it's hard to give up hope just yet :/
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onyxbell said:
2 IA (soon to be 3 in less than 24 hours) and 0 A reporting in. Then again the 0 A is more because they were fairly recent.
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There will be a lot of movement in the next few months. It is not over yet! There is still a lot of hope🙂
 
3 IIs, 1 WL at top choice which I thought was an amazing interview. All very spaced out (early September, early Nov, early Feb). Waiting 13 weeks post interview at a school when many members who interviewed after me reported acceptances and wait lists (however my interview didn't go that well). Have my third interview in a few days... first MMI, hoping to get one acceptance at least AH.
 
3 II's, currently sitting on one waitlist from an IS school and just got rejected from my top choice school post-II today. Pretty bewildered about that one because the interview was stellar - my interviewer said nothing but glowing things about me, frequently mentioning how I would be an excellent fit there along with other highly encouraging comments that suggested to me that the interview went as good as it can go. Definitely has me questioning if I have a red flag somewhere in my app (e.g. bad LOR, terrible essays).

Only have 1 II left to attend, which is an IS school with a pretty great post-II acceptance rate for IS students. Only issue is that this school seems to historically waitlist everyone after ~December, so there's evidence to suggest I'm interviewing for the waitlist. I won't be holding my breath any longer and will now strongly look into a reapplication for next year.
 
1 WL, 1 II to go. Thats all so far so lets hope some more of these silence schools pull through or my interview goes really well. Sent 2 updates and a LOR so lets see is anybody bites.
 
I'm officially not part of this group anymore. Hold strong guys, especially those with waitlists. I've got to imagine that come March 15th when schools have to accepted a number equal to their class, and then come the middle/end of April on traffic day there are going to be a LOT of people hearing some good news as people with multiple acceptances are forced to drop off.
 
chisox123987 said:
Sorry but what's the significance of march 15th/end of April? Schools have to fill their class by March 15th?
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AAMC Traffic Rules

Here you go! Schools don't have to fill their class by March 15th, but they have to offer at least as many acceptances as they have seats.

On April 30th, applicants are only allowed to hold one acceptance. So those lucky people that have been accepted to multiple programs will have to drop all but one acceptance by April 30th, meaning there is typically waitlist movement after this time as people with multiple acceptances drop out and the school suddenly doesn't have enough accepted students.
 
chisox123987 said:
When do med schools see your other acceptances and/or waitlists?
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We never see where you are waitlisted.
We will see where accepted students are holding acceptances on the 10th (or 12th, depending on whether they will release on a Saturday).
We will see where waitlisted candidates are holding acceptance on March 15th.
 
gyngyn said:
We never see where you are waitlisted.
We will see where accepted students are holding acceptances on the 10th (or 12th, depending on whether they will release on a Saturday).
We will see where waitlisted candidates are holding acceptance on March 15th.
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Thanks!

So... it's not a master list distributed to every med school?

Am I right here? Each school gets 2 lists. One, on Feb 10th(ish). For every student accepted by School X, School X will get to see where else that student has been accepted.

On March 15th, School X gets to see a list of all the students the put on their waist list, to see where else the students have been admitted?

Do these lists get dynamically updated?

Thanks for the insight into this fascinating process!
 
DSM_302.0 said:
Thanks!

So... it's not a master list distributed to every med school?

Am I right here? Each school gets 2 lists. One, on Feb 10th(ish). For every student accepted by School X, School X will get to see where else that student has been accepted.

On March 15th, School X gets to see a list of all the students the put on their waist list, to see where else the students have been admitted?

Do these lists get dynamically updated?

Thanks for the insight into this fascinating process!
Click to expand...
The multiple accepts list (available on Feb 10th) is technically available broadly.
The list that shows where waitlisted candidates are accepted helps schools evaluate the "real" waitlist.

Both these lists update every business day.
 
I had an interview earlier this week (my third MMI and fourth interview overall) and I got soooo nervous thinking about the fact that it was my last interview/last chance that I stuttered my way through the first station. Pretty sure I screwed up 2 other stations too. This magic 8 ball predicts my future pretty well.

IMG_4451.JPG
 
pewpew95 said:
I had an interview earlier this week (my third MMI and fourth interview overall) and I got soooo nervous thinking about the fact that it was my last interview/last chance that I stuttered my way through the first station. Pretty sure I screwed up 2 other stations too. This magic 8 ball predicts my future pretty well.
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It's hard to predict how well you did on a MMI. I thought I did well on my first one and got a post-II rejection. Felt good about the second MMI too and got hit with the waitlist.

Those MMI interviewers are trained to put their game faces on and not give anything away. Maybe you did better than you think! 🙂
 
guys, these waitlists are making me feel super demoralized as the spring drags on without any movement, and made much worse by the plethora of friends who act like I'm already accepted, or will inevitably be accepted, ("yeah, but you WILL get in!!") when that's just not guaranteed. could use a morale boost
 
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