Reapplying after acceptance!

[charlie98]

Here's my situation... I've been accepted to a few medical schools and am thinking about declining and reapplying next year. I applied really late last year and didn't recieve my acceptances until last month. Since my acceptance came so late, there is no possibilty for deferral. I am planning to stay out of school for a number of personal reasons. Is this crazy?
Does anyone know someone who has done this?
Does it matter to the schools what your reasons are for declining?
Do the schools know that you have been previously accepted?
Any advice would be great.

 

[Trek]

Of course it matters, plus on the app you'll have to check "Applied/Accepted Previously". I hear it's NOT a good idea to do this, AT ALL. Do a search. --Trek

 

[Focus]

Hi,

Although many people may look down on this because it's so hard to get into medical school, I totally understand your dilemma. I believe that if the personal problems that you're having will make you unhappy in medical school or affect your progress in medical school, then by all means, take a year off, after all, a year isn't that long.

Also, if you decline the acceptance, you may be opening space up for applicants on the waitlist for those schools who are ready to go to medical school this year.

So my advice: Take a year off, do what you have to do. When you're ready for medical school, go for it. But also realize that it's a costly and risky process to reapply.

PM me if you have any questions.

- Focus

 

[Ripley]

have you tried asking for a deferral?

 

[Jalby]

I had a friend who turned down UCSD the day before orientation because he didn't like the vibe there. He reapplied this year, and didn't get in anywhere. I would say a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.

 

[Rezul]

I think it is very risky to decline and apply again. I agree - you should just ask for a deferral for a year. Most schools will give you one, no questions asked. This way you don't have to go through the whole application process again and you can take a year to sort out your issues. Do you have anything against the schools you were accepted to? Honestly, it is such a blessing to get into medical school, no matter which one it is. Hope things work out!

 

[USeF]

Originally posted by charlie98
I am planning to stay out of school for a number of personal reasons. Is this crazy?

yup, it is.
Are ANY of these personal reasons ones you would feel comfortable expressing to an adcom? I'm sure they're alot more understandable than you are willing to give them credit for... unless you wanna be a pimp for a year

 

[lake show]

reapplying after acceptances is probably the worst thing to do. not only are you subjecting yourself to the random process of med school admissions again, but all schools will know that you had an acceptance in the past that was declined.

i think it basically tells them that you didn't put much thought into the past application process...so why should they accept you this time! seriously, med school is a crapshoot, and i would not even think about declining.

 

[Bikini Princess]

If your reasons for deferral are serious and legitimate, an admissions committee will grant you a deferral. No code can cover all contingencies; the deferral code is one of them. My understanding is that almost all adcoms grant deferrals if pressed hard enough, this must be true for at least one of your schools.

 

[charlie98]

Thanks for all the responses. I 'm having a really difficult time figuring out what to do. Does anyone actually know someone who has declined an acceptance and got in the following year?

 

[BushBaby]

I would just defer....you might change your mind later on in the year. Acceptance to medical school is not guaranteed and if you already have an acceptance, I suggest you hang on to it with dear life.

Look what happened to Jalby's friend. Because you were lucky enough to get in this year, doesn't mean you'll get in the next time around.

 

[Jalby]

I want to know what exactly these personal reasons are. This is an anonymous board, so it's not like anybody would know who you are if you told us.

 

[silvercholla]

Defer!!!!! Do not decline!!!!!! Do you know what that is going to look like to other medical schools if you reapply? You will probably not be able to get in because they will feel that they are just wasting an admission on you. They will see other applicants who will seem more eager. Dude, just talk to the adcom and defer.

 

[relatively prime]

If I were an adcom, and I saw an applicant who had turned down not just one, but multiple acceptances for "undisclosed personal reasons" I would reject him/her right off the bat... I wouldn't even bother to look at his/her MCAT scores or anything... because like Silver said, I'd have hundreds of other applicants jumping up and down begging for an aceptance.

 

[ChicagoDude]

Do not decline.

 

[charlie98]

The reasons I am thinking of declining are related to work and family. I would like to stay another year to finish up some research publications. More importantly, it's been difficult to a make arrrangements to move my family in such a short period of time. Not knowing whether I was going to get in this year, I had to go ahead and make plans for the upcoming year. Do you think these reasons will matter to the committees or will they not even bother to look at my application?

 

[WaitingImpatiently]

Ok, those sound like legit reasons to defer, but NOT to decline and reapply. When I hear about someone wanting to reapply, I immediately think that he/she only wants to get into a better school.

 

[FrankMD]

DO NOT DECLINE AND REAPPLY!!
Like everyone else is saying.... DEFER!!
You are one of the very few fortunate people who were offered an acceptance this year and don't let go of that acceptance!!

 

[Brandon]

Okay, my two cents. I also was accepted to several schools. However, the one that really wanted to get into waitlisted me and finally accepted me about a month ago. I immediately sent a letter accepting the position along with an attached 2nd letter asking for a deferral. It took three full weeks, meetings between the director of admissions and the admissions committee and god knows who else, and finally I was granted the deferral. So I'm not sure why everyone thinks it's so easy to get a deferral, but I can tell you it is not. I think it is because I wrote a strong letter AND have a very good relationship with the director and dean (through my interviews, not through connections!).

However, I agree with everyone else. I would not decline because you'll get blacklisted. Accept so that they know you want to go, send a letter of intent indicating they are your first and only choice, but also ask for a deferral with all your reasons. They sent me a form for AMCAS on steps to proceed for a deferral after the May 1st date. There were also steps for ppl who may have already filled out the 2003 application and have submitted (how to retrieve it and change it to indicate deferred status rather than repeat applicant), etc. I would send off the letter now and call up the admissions and ask them personally.

 

[yaoming]

you should check with the deferral. i remember ucsd saying during the interview day that their deferral has the contingency that you cannot reapply during the year of your deferral. you should ask the school before pulling that.

 

[Kimya]

FYI, I had similar reasons to yours and my deferral was denied when I thought it would be accepted. You should contact the schools that you were accepted to and find out about their deferral policy first before turning down any acceptances. Sometimes this late in the game they don't allow deferrals. Also, call some deans of schools you want to go to and find out what they think about your situation.

If you can't defer than you're in a tough spot. I know that it is risky to turn down an acceptance, but only you can decide whether it is worth it for you and your family to pull up everything and go on short notice. The advice I've heard that "you will be blackballed" because of turning down an acceptance has all been hearsay. Find out people who know and get the info from them. Don't rely on secondhand horror stories.

Best of luck in a tough situation.

 

[otter]

I don't think that reapplying after rejecting an acceptance will necessarily put you on a blacklist, as long as you have legitimate and sensible reasons. I know of a girl who turned down an acceptance from NYMC, then reapplied and ended up faring much better in her application the following year. Mind you, she was declining just one acceptance which was from a third-tier school.

The thing you do have to remember is that the whole process is a crapshoot and things could conceivably go wrong next year and you might find yourself with zero acceptance. If you got multiple acceptances this year, you should consider yourself fortunate and you should not assume that you'll get the same results next year. As others have said on this thread, hold onto those acceptances. Ask those schools for deferral. Some schools will grant deferrals more readily than others.

If you cannot get deferral, then I think you will have to choose between making the sacrifices to start med school this fall, or to possibly setting yourself back a long ways in your goal of becoming a physician. If you were like me and many other applicants, before securing your first-ever acceptance, you probably had the mindset that you'd do anything to get into any one med school. Now that you've gotten your first acceptance and then the second and the third, it's natural to start thinking of better options, to start seeking flexibilities and start demanding more ideal situations. But you need to be very careful not to lose sight of how precious a medical school acceptance is, how long a road it was for you to get to this point, and how a post-acceptance change in mindset might be affecting your thinking.

 

[charlie98]

Otter. Thanks for the reply. It gives me a little hope that it may be possible to get in if I reapply. Do you know what reasons your friend gave the schools for declining her acceptance. Did she include this in her personal statement or secondaries, or did she mention it at the interview? Anyway I went ahead and wrote letters to the schools asking for deferral. hopefully they'll respond soon.

 

[silvercholla]

I may be wrong so don't flame me for this ppl. But, Charlie it seems to me that you don't want honest opinions from everyone, It is sounding like you just want someone to justify a decision that you have already made. The majority of the people here will tell you to defer (I was one) but it seems like you just want to hear that it's okay to go ahead with reaaplying.

Thanks for the reply. It gives me a little hope that it may be possible to get in if I reapply. Do you know what reasons your friend gave the schools for declining her acceptance.

Dude, honestly your family is more important than school. And since you have gone ahead and applied for the deferral then that's cool. But if by some chance they don't give it to you then do what you have to do and decline and reapply. You will be at a disadvantage and you will have to struggle harder to gain interviews, but if your reasons for wanting to become a doctor are strong then you should have nothing to worry about. Take care of your family man. And congrats on your aceptance.!!!!!

 

[otter]

Originally posted by charlie98
Otter. Thanks for the reply. It gives me a little hope that it may be possible to get in if I reapply. Do you know what reasons your friend gave the schools for declining her acceptance. Did she include this in her personal statement or secondaries, or did she mention it at the interview?

I don't know anything about what she included in her essays the second time around (I don't keep in touch with her). I assume her reason for declining the acceptance was that she felt she could do better than NYMC or that she didn't like the school when she visited.

Also, my previous post was not really meant to encourage you to reapply. You chose to take notice of a small particular portion of what was otherwise a cautionary post. I think silver cholla is right. You've already made a firm decision that you're not going to medical school this fall no matter what. That being the case, I'm glad you applied for deferral.

One last thing... if you're granted a deferral, do NOT even think about applying to other schools for the upcoming cycle.

 

[charlie98]

Okay, thanks for all the advice. It's true that I 've decided not to go to school this year. I'm just trying to find out what my options are and how risky it really is. I 've called the schools and asked about deferrals and they said it is absolutely not possible after May. I asked if I could write a letter and petition and they said no. I sent them letters anyway . So what now? I 've already submitted my applications for next year. What happens if I get my deferral. Do I just withdrawal all of my other applications?

 

[Brandon]

I don't know where some people are getting their information, but it's not entirely accurate. I indicated that an applicant gets blacklisted for turning down an acceptance. I meant blacklist at that specific school only. Of course you can apply to other schools and there would be no effect, but if one of the acceptances is from one of your top schools, then that's another story. How I know this is because I have sat down and asked the director and dean myself when I went through this. They didn't say "blacklisted" of course but it was indicated that "preference" would not be given. They assume that if you apply, you'll attend.

Anyways, sounds like all this is a moot point anyways since obviously the decision has been made to not attend this year...
Oh, deferring after May is entirely possibly as the school I deferred with sent me paperwork from AMCAS indicating procedures to follow after MAY 1st. FYI

 

[otter]

If you do get the deferral, then I would think that all you'd need to do is to withdraw your applications. Check with the school that grants you the deferral.

I'm a little bit surprised that all of your schools were firm about not giving you the deferral after May 1st. I've heard of people asking for and getting deferrals after getting pulled off the waitlist late in the summer (for example, one SDNer got a deferral from MCW last August). NYMC states that they are pretty good about granting deferrals to candidates, and they admit tons of people in May and June (including me). So, I don't think this policy of no deferrals after May 1st is a prevalent one. Maybe your schools happen to have such policy. I don't know. Did you explain your situation to the schools that accepted you?

Proceed with your reapplication if you have to. But you should keep fighting for a deferral.

 

[Anath]

Everyone keeps telling him to defer, but the problem people keep ignoring is that requests for deferals at most schools must be submitted by a deadline. If you're accepted after the deadline, you often have to just say "oh well!" and forget about taking a year off ... (Sadly, I had needed to defer a year, but was accepted past the deadline. HUMPH!).

But as everyone else said, it would be HIGHLY advisable not to decline. It might be tough for you, but yu just may have to be seperated from your family for the first half year or even year! I met this one woman at VCU (Richmond, VA) during my interview whose husband and 2 (or was it 3?) children were all in Maryland. She went to see them or they would go down to visit on weekends.

People often talk about the sacrifices that need to be made or will be made for the sake of getting a medical education ... this may just be yours.