Question about Sending Updates to ADCOM

[bkgirl123]

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Hi everyone, I am a current applicant this cycle and submitted my secondaries for many schools in mid-late July. I've had a couple research updates since then, like a manuscript accepted for publication, abstracts accepted for presentation at conferences, recently giving an oral presentation, and other manuscripts and abstracts submitted (I know these submissions are less important). These are all first-author pieces, not that that matters that much but maybe it is good for context. It just all kinda happened in the past month. I was wondering when you would think it would be appropriate (or if I even should) to update schools about this. I do not have IIs yet. Thank you.

 

[PickaGodnPray]

First author pubs are a big deal, congrats. I would wait until next month to send, possibly end up getting decisions on your other manuscripts before submitting. For the abstract submission at the conference, I would also just say you are presenting at X conference instead of saying your abstract was accepted (sounds better). Don't know the setting of the oral presentation but if it is at a conference or department meeting, absolutely add it.

 

[wysdoc]

Hi everyone, I am a current applicant this cycle and submitted my secondaries for many schools in mid-late July. I've had a couple research updates since then, like a manuscript accepted for publication, abstracts accepted for presentation at conferences, recently giving an oral presentation, and other manuscripts and abstracts submitted (I know these submissions are less important). These are all first-author pieces, not that that matters that much but maybe it is good for context. It just all kinda happened in the past month. I was wondering when you would think it would be appropriate (or if I even should) to update schools about this. I do not have IIs yet. Thank you.

Only the ones accepted for publication, not the submitted ones.

 

[bkgirl123]

First author pubs are a big deal, congrats. I would wait until next month to send, possibly end up getting decisions on your other manuscripts before submitting. For the abstract submission at the conference, I would also just say you are presenting at X conference instead of saying your abstract was accepted (sounds better). Don't know the setting of the oral presentation but if it is at a conference or department meeting, absolutely add it.

That makes sense, I'll plan for that. It was at an international conference. Thank you!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What rules does each program issue about updates? Some don't want any updates as you are evaluated on the snapshots of your primary and secondary applications only (plus letters if they look at them). Some will allow updates prior to or just after you interview with the school. Some only allow updates through their portal rather than risking getting it lost in the overflowing email box.

Among publications, we would "care" only about the first-author (or any-author) peer-reviewed journal articles. Presentations and abstracts are nice currency for a CV when you are an academic, but it only has a minuscule impact for research-focused applicants (+PhD). I expect you might have mentioned your first-author peer-reviewed article was submitted or under review; if so, telling me it got a PMID number won't impress me as I know that's just part of the process. I'd give you a celebratory cookie, but it won't move the needle in holistic review (for me).

Of course, shoot your shot if you aren't patient. I assure you, a first-author peer-reviewed journal article (especially when you said its publication was pending) would not influence (my) decisions to interview (for or against).

P.S. Nowadays an "international" conference can be run on Zoom. If someone paid to fly you to Oslo to present your work for the Nobel Prize committee, that would catch my interest. But again, that alone won't be enough for me to interview you.

 

[bkgirl123]

Thanks for your reply. I did not think that submitting this update would significantly impact my application outcome, and of course it would only be to schools that allow for updates. Just wanted some general feedback from the adcom side about how updates are viewed, which you provided. I did not indicate this submitted paper on my primary since it was only submitted at the time. I think I will just lean towards holding off. The international conference was in person in another country but yeah it wasn't anything super significant like you said, just presenting some of my research results. I'm an MD applicant. Apologies if these are dumb questions, I am first-gen going through this process, so I am unsure about what is seen as valuable or not and honestly just found out about update letters. Thank you, your input helps to put it all in perspective.

 

[notEinstein]

Some don't want any updates

Learned this the hard way as I got a somewhat surprisingly stern response from one school when I sent an update.