I'm also doing the DO thing as well. I've already recieved 3 acceptances. I'm just curious to see what MD schools and the interview process is like.
So OHSU doesn't have rolling admission, I take it?
The answer is they have rolling admissions...sort of...
If you ask them, they'll say: "no, we don't do rolling admissions." Here is how it works at OHSU. After your interview, you will be reviewed by the adcom and assigned an admission score. This score never changes after it is assigned. At the END of the interview season, they work down a the list of applicants ranked by admission score until the class is full, EXCEPT that if your admission score is high enough that they know they will offer you admission, they will offer you admission a few weeks after your interview.
If you don't make that initial hurdle, you go into the "hold" pool (unless you are rejected outright - rare). The hold pool is NOT the waitlist. When the interview season comes to a close in the middle of April, the adcom will review and rank the remaining applicants and rank order the applicant list by admission score. When this is complete, about the middle of May, the remaining seats in the class are filled from the highest ranked applicants in the hold pool. The remaining applicants are then put on the waiting list or if they are too far down the list rejected.
The advantage of this method is that it doesn't matter when you interview, you will have the same chance of being admitted to OHSU. To the degree that any ranking system is even handed, this is a very fair way to handle the process. The downside is that most applicants will not know their final disposition until May 15 or later. This sucks. I interviewed in the middle of October, was put in the hold pool, and didn't find out that I had been admitted until May 13 of the next year. That's 7 months. Meanwhile, spent a boat load of money interviewing at other schools when I ultimately didn't have to, but I didn't know that at the time.
This year we got to position 100 on the waiting list. I believe they interviewed about 450 applicants so if you have an interview at ohsu, statistically you have almost a 50% chance of being admitted eventually. (120 initial offers + 100 spots on the waitlist = 220 positions out of 450)
Good luck on your applications. OHSU is a great school. I am very happy with my choice.
