Post-Acceptance Doubt?

[sector9]

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to their school? maybe in some schools... however I know that re-applicaiton can have positive effects. it shows you are dedicated and were not discouraged by a single disappointment. this is straight from the mouth of the admissions admin at my school

was this at a reapplicant seminar?

 

[SpecterGT260]

was this at a reapplicant seminar?

no. personal meeting with her to review my file after getting turned down my first attempt. Just so happened to be the school I ended up going with after a second application cycle


besides... I dont understand the logic that says a re-applicant is at a disadvantage over where they had been the previous year... the school is already aware of your scores, grades, and extra curriculars. it isnt like they need validation on their decision via all the other schools you attempted to reassure them to deny you again next year.

maybe some schools do pass up reapplicants on some principle, but that has not been my experience nor does it really make all that much sense to do so. if anything application # should have no bearing.

 

[sector9]

no. personal meeting with her to review my file after getting turned down my first attempt. Just so happened to be the school I ended up going with after a second application cycle

Interesting. I wonder if she was saying that just to make you feel better

There are some schools that seem to favor reapplicants (I think OHSU is like 30% reapplicants in their classes) but I don't get the feeling that most schools favor them

 

[SpecterGT260]

Interesting. I wonder if she was saying that just to make you feel better

There are some schools that seem to favor reapplicants (I think OHSU is like 30% reapplicants in their classes) but I don't get the feeling that most schools favor them

lol did u miss the part where I got in? you can reject my experience if you want. I had an admissions admin tell me this personally. my school also has a high reapplicant % as well.

what gives you the feeling that re-application hurts?

 

[Bojack Horseman]

I believe that if you bust your balls (a bit presumptuous with your flower avatar, but you catch my drift) in medical school (research, good grades, good letters, great step score, good sites/performance in sub-I's) you will be able to land a good residency. If you keep up the good work during residency, you will land a fellowship. Be grateful for your acceptance, some people don't get a single one.

 

[Shmemifly]

Don't listen too closely to SDN dogma. Be realistic to what you know. We have a close analogy in the application process from UG to med school, use it to feel out this decision. Of course school reputation will matter, but not because of differences in education (likely to be small) but because of what it says about you to have gotten into a top or bottom tiered school in the first place. But that is the purpose of standardized testing - to allow the kids who went to ASU on a scholarship to prove they can get a better MCAT than the kid who coasted to Stanford.

A few ideas:
1.) For the vast majority of cases, it doesn't help much to have gone to a top school. You get a slight benefit of the doubt, a raise of the eyebrows, but that's easily offset by the higher caliber of students you'll be competing with. Make no mistake, there will be differences, and it IS better to be a slightly bigger fish in a smaller pond.

2) But there are exceptions - think I-banking and consulting - it is taken as a prerequisite on wall street that you have gone to a top school where they recruit, with relatively few exceptions. The same may be true of top programs in top specialties. Probably not many, but do your research. I'm sure it exists.

3) Only the very top (top 15?) and the very bottom make an impression, almost ever. Programs that are somewhere in the middle and especially state schools are probably all about the same in most people's eyes. Going to a solid state program to save money and kicking ass will rarely be held against you. Going to Johns Hopkins or Harvard may make a difference in your career, but going to USC instead of UVM or UA PHX? Doubt it.

Obviously people here are not willing to admit that everyone has a threshold of what feels not good enough for them. Many would not go to the caribbean, how is that any different? And the argument that you shouldn't have applied anywhere you didn't want to go is moot. You did, and sometimes you don't know until you're there. Do what feels right. Investigate the extent to which schools you've already applied to (who will know that you had an acceptance come March via AAMC rules) would search that database next year and/or even care that you had previously rejected an acceptance. That hasn't been made clear to me ever.

And consider your life circumstances -- I believe there's a lot to be learned in the world by spending a few years and being a nontrad, so don't listen to the idea that you'd be "wasting a year of your life". Since when did not being a doctor mean your life was wasted?

Good luck!

 

[sector9]

lol did u miss the part where I got in? you can reject my experience if you want. I had an admissions admin tell me this personally. my school also has a high reapplicant % as well.

what gives you the feeling that re-application hurts?

lol chill out. I didn't say anything negative about you. You got in. Congrats.

I'll match your n=1 example with another

Applicants are discouraged from reapplying unless their qualifications have significantly improved.

Source:http://www.upstate.edu/com/admissions/reapps.php

That about summarizes the situation in my mind. Reapplicants are fine as long as they've improved their app. It really isn't more complicated than that.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Not unchill. Just saying you seem to be rationalizing away the advice in favor of SDN pre-med dogma. The pre-med facilitated advice around here is often quite off


But I see where you're coming from w the link. Yes, if you spend your year off jacking around and binge drinking you will not help yourself. The schools don't want to see the same app twice. So in that sense you CAN hurt yourself. Still though... If you were close in one year it won't take much to get in the next. Don't sit on your ass... Get a couple shadows going, and add a recurring volunteer with 2-3 non-recurring volunteer experiences. That alone moved me from below wait list last year to accepted outright. Under no circumstances should you veg out for a year and just resubmit the same app

 

[tsf3396]

Not unchill. Just saying you seem to be rationalizing away the advice in favor of SDN pre-med dogma. The pre-med facilitated advice around here is often quite off


But I see where you're coming from w the link. Yes, if you spend your year off jacking around and binge drinking you will not help yourself. The schools don't want to see the same app twice. So in that sense you CAN hurt yourself. Still though... If you were close in one year it won't take much to get in the next. Don't sit on your ass... Get a couple shadows going, and add a recurring volunteer with 2-3 non-recurring volunteer experiences. That alone moved me from below wait list last year to accepted outright. Under no circumstances should you veg out for a year and just resubmit the same app

Yes, I would obviously use the year wisely to improve my application as much as possible. But, the issue here is not whether reapplying looks bad or not, its whether reapplying for a specific reason (feeling like the school you got into last cycle wouldnt offer you with the opportunities you'd hoped for from a medical school) looks bad or not...

 

[SpecterGT260]

What I am saying is other schools will not know you are reapplying for any reason other than failed acceptance. You will obviously not reapply to the school you turned down....