Patience

[paramus]

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It’s finals week, but somehow that hasn’t prevented me from obsessing about applications. Does anyone know what the approximate response time is for certain schools? I turned in a batch of secondary applications for Stanford, Harvard, Nebraska, UAB, Duke, Penn and Mayo around mid-October. Since then I have heard from the first four, but I haven’t received anything from the last three. Applications that I turned in later also varied; Minnesota, UCSD and KU were lightning quick, but the University of Washington, Yale and Northwestern are still out there. Does the lag mean anything in particular, or do different schools just differ that much in how long it takes them to respond?

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I think what you're experiencing reflects the randomness of this whole application process. The only way to come close to making any sense out of it all is to hear what other people are experiencing with respect to those schools. That's why SDN is a great resource. However, even on SDN, the sample size is too small to make sense of anything.

I realize that not hearing from programs is frustrating. But all you can really do is sit, wait, and hope to hear from them soon. Schools are mad busy right now trying to coordinate interviews and conducting interviews. So programs may have designated a day to look at later arriving applications. That's my guess though.

The application process is far from over. I don't know which schools have a rolling policy regarding acceptances nowadays (I applied many years ago). Perhaps others who are applying now or who have just matriculated into MD/PhDs can provide more insight there. Regardless, this whole process will probably end in April or May. And I think there are schools that still interview up to March.

 

[javert]

I'd agree with Andy that this is just an indication of the randomness of the application process. As a current applicant who applied to many of the schools at about the same time you did, I can say that I've heard from some schools from which you have not (Duke, Penn, Yale, all within the last week or two), but I haven't heard from some schools in which you have heard from (Harvard), and I'm in the same boat as you with still others (UW).

If you haven't received a 'your application is complete' type of notification from a school, then I'd say to call them just to calm your nerves (I actually ran into a huge problem with Northwestern that I still haven't been able to resolve...damn FedEx 😡 ), and then just try to remember that the application process can be extremely erratic. Obviously, I'm not following my own advice since I'm posting on SDN (something I haven't done in months) while I should be studying for a final...