Reapplication...a good thing?

[housefish26]

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What's the consensus on this one, is it ever advantageous to be a reapplicant? Do med schools look and say, "Wow, he really improved his application, that shows dedication and persistence!" or is there a stigma associated with it and they're all like, "Reapplication? Man if he couldn't do it the first time there must be something wrong with him!"

 

[codenamekris]

as a re-applicant, i never once had an interviewer ask me why i wanted to be a doctor...instead, they all said that it was obvious that i really, really wanted to be a doctor and that i would a committed physician. they also all commented on the fact that my 6 point MCAT score improvement really stuck out them...in this way, i think that being a re-applicant worked to my advantage.

 

[housefish26]

Thanks! That's very encouraging to hear! Can anyone else chime in with similar experiences?

 

[Looking Glass]

Thanks! That's very encouraging to hear! Can anyone else chime in with similar experiences?

The only thing bad about it is if you get rejected more than once. Some school (like Loyola and AECOM) prohibit you from reapplying if you get rejected twice. If you only have to reapply once, then it's not a problem.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

I and all of my reapplicant friends heard nothing but encouraging, enthusiastic, and sometimes shocked (in a good way) comments about reapplying after doing everything possible to better our apps.

Accepting rejection and spending a significant amount of time to correct any application deficiencies over a year or two are commendable actions, and ADCOMS generally feel the same way.

👍

 

[gman33]

Being a reapplicant is fine as long as you have made significant steps to improve your application.
The problem is many wait to hear back from schools and then just reapply the next year without doing much of anything. Just trying again and hoping for the best is what gets most people in trouble.

 

[Food]

EXACTLY!!! The points you made in this post is exactly what I illustrated with my friend's situation and in my friend's situation he probably wouldn't have done the Gtown SMP if I hadn't kept pushing for him to look into it and his wife also agreeing that it was a better option and not minding cuz she liked DC living. 🙂

Anyhow, I see a lot of people who are afraid to call admissions officers to ask and look at me in wonder instead of realizing that admissions officers don't bite and at a public school that isn't receiving 15,000 apps or 11,000 apps but more like 4,000 or so they will probably be more willing to talk then a school where there are too many apps for them to have time for every single one of those people.

it is always funny to me how people would rather ask me if I get inside information then ask themselves cuz they are too nervous to talk to these people. LOL.

Haha. Yeah, Guju's right about this one. I ended up calling some schools and getting a little bit of feedback. I'm not sure if my app has improved much, although you won't be able to tell from my MDapps, I tried to keep anonymous. I'm just using it to keep track of my progress.

Anyway, you'd be surprised how supportive physicians, medical faculty and even adcoms can be if you tell them that you are a reapplicant. I think in some weird way it shows that you are just paying your dues and not giving up on a dream, especially if you made a genuine effort to improve your application.

Also, Guju, why arent you a Mod, Asst Mod, Admin, or something with a cool logo if you have like 18k+ posts?! And why are you still pre-medical? What's your story?!!