One of my state schools, which I'm very interested in, pre-screens heavily before secondaries. Should I reach out to the admissions committee?

[j_diggity]

Hey all, I'm applying to one of my state schools which is known for doing a heavy pre-screen before sending secondaries - only about 1/3 of IS applicants receive a secondary.

I think I fit well with their mission, as I'm from the geographic area they focus on and they'll see this in my primary. However, if I don't get a secondary, I'll never get a chance to tell them why I'm so interested in attending their school. One of my concerns is about yield protection, as the school has a significantly lower MCAT range than my score. However, as I said, I align strongly with the mission and it's close to my family.

There are also a couple of small areas where I wish my primary application were better, such as not mentioning that a free clinic I volunteered at was rural in nature (which matches the school's mission), and in my pre-med neuroticism I'm wondering if I ought to just reach out via email to the admissions team and let them know of my sincere interest, to increase my chances of getting a secondary.

If I were to reach out, any tips on how to approach it?

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[wysdoc]

Hey all, I'm applying to one of my state schools which is known for doing a heavy pre-screen before sending secondaries - only about 1/3 of IS applicants receive a secondary.

I think I fit well with their mission, as I'm from the geographic area they focus on and they'll see this in my primary. However, if I don't get a secondary, I'll never get a chance to tell them why I'm so interested in attending their school. One of my concerns is about yield protection, as the school has a significantly lower MCAT range than my score. However, as I said, I align strongly with the mission and it's close to my family.

There are also a couple of small areas where I wish my primary application were better, such as not mentioning that a free clinic I volunteered at was rural in nature (which matches the school's mission), and in my pre-med neuroticism I'm wondering if I ought to just reach out via email to the admissions team and let them know of my sincere interest, to increase my chances of getting a secondary.

If I were to reach out, any tips on how to approach it?

I think you should give it a little time and see if they offer you the secondary.
Most schools don’t look at updates or extra interest letters at this very early stage

 

[Goro]

Don't waste your time or theirs

 

[GoSpursGo]

If you fit, hopefully that shines through in your app or at least there’s enough there to get them interested. They are clearly choosing to be very selective about who they want to hear more about, and trying to curry favor by going outside of the usual process may make you stand out in a not good way.

 

[j_diggity]

Alright, well here's to hoping! Thank you all for the advice.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Ideally, this should have been done 6 months ago before applying. If your primary application signals a sufficient reason with geographical fit, this helps you a little. But again, you never know about how the "great sorting" is done unless you ask.

Noting of course, things change year after year.

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