Post Application File Review: What to Expect

[hopefuldogtor23]

Hi!

I unfortunately didn't get accepted this cycle and have scheduled file reviews with the schools I applied to. I have my first one tomorrow and was wondering what I should expect. What questions should I ask? Will the person just go over my application and tell me what areas to improve? Should I ask them if they have any advice on how I should proceed? Any advice helps! Thanks!

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[battie]

Its school by school dependent. I would have questions ready to go and if they answer them while going over your app, then great. This is the time to get all the information you need to be competitive at that school. Base your questions on that premise. I asked how I could improve, if I was competitive, etc

 

[erdoc111]

You might also ask what were your strengths and weaknesses and maybe if you should consider replacing any of your recs or if they were good. not sure if that is crossing the line but if you can eek out that info...

 

[PetVet23]

As mentioned these are pretty school-specific, I had different experiences with each of my reviews. The schools I interviewed at focused more on the interviews rather than my application and went through notes that each of the interviewers had made; they pretty much told me that because I got an interview there wasn't necessarily anything on my applications that I needed to change/improve on. One school didn't even do interviews, so that one was focused on my application. Absolutely don't be afraid to ask if there is something specific that you need to work on or if they have any suggestions, there's no harm in asking!

I know this is a tough thing to go through, it was my third year applying/interviewing that I finally got a yes, hang in there!!

 

[WonderingStudent]

It definitely depends on the school as people have said. In my experience the File Review I had from one school where I did not receive an interview told me that my grades were fine and that I did not need to retake the GRE. They advised me to improve my essays and gave me a general idea of what to focus on with them (ie Draw from the experiences you've gained and talk about them more in your essays). I didn't really need to ask many questions and the admissions officer didn't really seem to expect me to but did ask if I had any questions at the end.