reapplication with acceptances

[DudeMD]

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I have a dilemma here and hoping that some of you good folks can help me out. Going into the application process, I had a totally different philosophy for getting into medical school. I basically just wanted to get into any medical school, regardless where, as long as it was a US med school. Since I didn't want to wait another year to apply. (its my first time applying). This was despite having a good application. I took the mcat the Sep. and got the result back in Oct. I got my letters of rec done by Nov. and started submitting applications in Nov finished them all by mid Dec.

I knew my chances of getting accepted to top tier med schools was going to be harder, since I was applying so late (although I didn't know just how important applying early was) My friends constantly told me to apply early and its important, I thought they were exaggerating.

Despite this applying late business, I have couple of interviews (haven't interviewed anywhere yet) at some top tier schools, and some not so top. Most schools I haven't heard back from , but I know the good ones only send interview invites until the end of this month.

Now that the process is almost over, I regret my decision of "wanting to get into any med school". I realized that its really important where you go to medical school and you should feel comfortable with where you attend. It is 4 years of your life ! I would certainly attend the top ones if accepted, but I would like to reapply (this time early) if not accepted to them.

Now my question is this, if I do interview at the ones I don't like, and get in, but decided to reapply next year, would schools know that I am reapplying despite having acceptances ? Would they hold that against me? Should I withdraw from the schools I don't want to go ? The interview practice is good though, can I withdraw right after I interview? Can I, for instance, accept an offer, deffer for one year, and reapply ?

I'm new to SDN, I don't know if a thread like this has been posted, the ones I looked at didn't discuss this type of situation (they discussed how how to make your application stronger). Would appreciate your help.

WOW this is long ...

 

[variablistic]

Oh man, I can see where this is going already...

Just take the acceptance if and when you get one.

 

[Law2Doc]

I have a dilemma here and hoping that some of you good folks can help me out. Going into the application process, I had a totally different philosophy for getting into medical school. I basically just wanted to get into any medical school, regardless where, as long as it was a US med school. Since I didn't want to wait another year to apply. (its my first time applying). This was despite having a good application. I took the mcat the Sep. and got the result back in Oct. I got my letters of rec done by Nov. and started submitting applications in Nov finished them all by mid Dec.

I knew my chances of getting accepted to top tier med schools was going to be harder, since I was applying so late (although I didn't know just how important applying early was) My friends constantly told me to apply early and its important, I thought they were exaggerating.

Despite this applying late business, I have couple of interviews (haven't interviewed anywhere yet) at some top tier schools, and some not so top. (UCSF, NYU, SUNY SB, NYMC and Drexel). Most schools I haven't heard back from , but I know the good ones only send interview invites until the end of this month.

Now that the process is almost over, I regret my decision of "wanting to get into any med school". I realized that its really important where you go to medical school and you should feel comfortable with where you attend. It is 4 years of your life ! I would certainly attend UCSF or NYU if accepted, but I would like to reapply (this time early) if not accepted to them.

Now my question is this, if I do interview at NYMC or drexel and get in, but decided to reapply next year, would schools know that I am reapplying despite having acceptances ? Would they hold that against me? Should I withdraw from the schools I don't want to go ? The interview practice is good though, can I withdraw right after I interview? Can I, for instance, accept an offer, deffer for one year, and reapply ?

I'm new to SDN, I don't know if a thread like this has been posted, the ones I looked at didn't discuss this type of situation (they discussed how how to make your application stronger). Would appreciate your help.

WOW this is long ...

The conventional wisdom is to take an acceptance over becoming a reapplicant. Reapplicants are not as favorably looked at in the process, as you generally have to show substantial improvement from the prior cycle, to get looked at. So applying early next cycle probably won't be enough of an improvement to get looked at at most schools. You become a worse applicant by just withdrawing and reapplying. If you absolutely would not attend a med school, you should probably withdraw, not go through with an interview and not wait to be accepted. But you should think long and hard about whether you would rather chance not getting any acceptance at all (half of all med school applicants get in no place.) Bad idea, IMHO. Go to med school, do well, and end up where you want to for residency.

 

[etf]

you aren't going to get accepted to ucsf, ever. there, i said it. so yeah, go to the place that you like best out of all the schools that accept you, and graduate with an M.D. (albeit with significantly more debt than if you had gone to ucsf).

 

[DudeMD]

If you do research, volunteer work, community service, publish couple of papers, how can you become a worst applicant? I wouldn't just sit on my ass until next year. I actually have couple of papers in preparation which will be published by the time I reapply next year.

I have a friend who only got 1 interview last year (didn't get in), reapplied, and has been interviewing at all the top schools.

 

[DudeMD]

you aren't going to get accepted to ucsf, ever. there, i said it. so yeah, go to the place that you like best out of all the schools that accept you, and graduate with an M.D. (albeit with significantly more debt than if you had gone to ucsf).

Why do you say that ? I do have an interview with them, they do accept 1/2 of the interviewers?

 

[Law2Doc]

If you do research, volunteer work, community service, publish couple of papers, how can you become a worst applicant? I wouldn't just sit on my ass until next year. I actually have couple of papers in preparation which will be published by the time I reapply next year.

I have a friend who only got 1 interview last year (didn't get in), reapplied, and has been interviewing at all the top schools.

Everyone has "a friend" who beats the odds. But the odds are the odds for a reason. Presumably you have been updating schools on your various projects. So between now and June (when you would apply as an early applicant) isn't a lot of time to improve substantially. A couple of papers isn't going to make the difference to get you into UCSF, as etf suggested, if they reject you post-interview. It's just a bad idea, no matter how you slice it.

And if you have interviews with schools you would go to, why are you even contemplating reapplying yet? This is a silly thread.

 

[Bartelby]

Should I withdraw from the schools I don't want to go ? The interview practice is good though, can I withdraw right after I interview? Can I, for instance, accept an offer, deffer for one year, and reapply ?

Yes, withdraw from the schools that you do not want to go to! If you are accepted and you turn them down, you might well have some explaining to do next year. If you genuinely would turn them down if accepted, withdraw right now!

Should you interview just for practice? If you are fabulously wealthy, maybe. Otherwise, it is just to expensive to do so. And if you really have no interest at all in the school, don't waste their time.

Finally about deferring, wow. That would be pretty lame. Fortunately for other applicants, most schools want a good reason for deferring (much better than 'you guys kind of suck and I'm willing to risk losing a year for reapplication to avoid you'). You would have to come up with a good one.

 

[etf]

Why do you say that ? I do have an interview with them, they do accept 1/2 of the interviewers?

just messing with you best of luck on your interview - the fact that you got one shows that you are very highly qualified, so you'll have some tough decisions to make come may.

 

[CubaLibre]

i think this is a stupid idea, but if you want to do it, go for it. Your first step is to withdraw from all the schools that you wouldn't want to attend. If you keep your apps alive at all the top tier places and end up getting rejected, then you can reapply next year. If your willing to wait a year and commit to this plan, great. However, if you manage to earn an acceptance and reapply, it's not gonna be pretty.

 

[Alsips]

Thought I'd weigh in, as I confronted a similar situation.

I also applied late, and asked my school (pretty big, we send a good amount of students to med schools each year) pre-med advisor about the whole reapplying-if-accepted possibility. Their response was basically that while the extra year should be thought about carefully, the largest consequence was that I wouldn't be able to reapply to the school I rejected.

Maybe my advisor had it wrong, as I've read conflicting stories online. Just wanted to pass on what was told to me.

 

[Bond8204]

the largest consequence was that I wouldn't be able to reapply to the school I rejected.

This is the conventional wisdom.

Here's what it comes down to: it's an enormous risk. You could very well get into all the "schools you're not so interested in" and turn them down. Turning them down will close the doors for you at those schools (you've already indicated to them that they're not good enough for you, that you're not really interested in attending there, and believe me they've got a lot of people who really want to attend there). When you reapply to these higher tiered schools...maybe some OOS private ones that are lower tiered you risk not getting in. You'll also be asked why you're reapplying and "I applied late last cycle and didn't get into any schools that were good enough for me" will be looked down upon as a reason.

Look--you still have a decent chance of getting into these schools while you're interviewing with them. If you get into the lower tiered schools but not the higher ones, I'd absolutely take the acceptance. Anybody will tell you--where you go to medical school matters much less than how you do once you get there. And because you're new--I'm going to caution you with this whiney "I got into a medical school that's not good enough for me!" attitude if that happens in the future. There are a lot of people on this board who are not so lucky.

 

[Dawktah Rawkah]

if i recall correctly, the AMCAS app has a spot for "have you ever been accepted to a us med school?" on it ... or something to that effect. should you decide to go through with interviews/get accepted at schools you're not willing to attend, all schools you apply to next cycle will know. it will come up and might sink your chances at the schools you're hoping to score with. and i've heard that reapplicant's chances are NOT good at places they interviewed at previously.

 

[Depakote]

if i recall correctly, the AMCAS app has a spot for "have you ever been accepted to a us med school?" on it ... or something to that effect. should you decide to go through with interviews/get accepted at schools you're not willing to attend, all schools you apply to next cycle will know. it will come up and might sink your chances at the schools you're hoping to score with. and i've heard that reapplicant's chances are NOT good at places they interviewed at previously.

Unless the box has changed, it is not accepted, but matriculated. So it isn't guaranteed that other schools will find out that you had acceptances.

Either way, given the risks of the application game, it would be inadvisable to turn down a solid acceptance for the prospect of applying again while simultaneously alienating the schools that did accept you.