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Hi all, I know already this title is a huge red flag, but at this point, I cannot find similar advice from anyone else.
To preface, I am a Texas resident who applied in the 2024-2025 cycle, and my stats were a 4.0 GPA and a 515 MCAT score. At the time I was applying, I had 96 hrs of research, 214 hrs of medical experience (all volunteer), 50 hrs of non-medical volunteering, and >100 hrs of shadowing. I submitted my primary mid-July, and finished my secondaries around the end of August/beginning of September. I applied to TMDSAS, AMCAS, and AACOMAS. From the cycle, I got 4 IIs (3 DOs and 1 MD), and I only got 1 A (DO).
However, that 1 DO acceptance was from KansasCOM.
Initially, I was eager to go, but after reading more about the school online, I saw major red flags. Horrible administration changes, student dismissals, students having to repeat a year, low pass rates, and even a rumor about a student committing suicide. After talking with someone online about their experience with the school, it really made me question whether I should go there and my future afterward. The fact that the tuition was 60,000 for a school that wasn't even fully accredited...I decided to recline my acceptance. I truly regret not doing my due research and looking more deeply into the school before applying.
Right now, I am preparing to apply to this current 2026-2027 cycle, aiming for 2 gap years. I believe the 2 main reasons I did poorly in the past cycle were: 1) late submission date, 2) poor writing, and 3) lack of experience (both medical and non-medical).
I truly believe that my submission date was the primary reason I didn't get many interviews, as the 1 MD interview I received was from LongSOM, a school that doesn't have any secondaries.
I decided to take 2 gap years, as by the time I finally rejected the offer, it was summer. I naively thought that I would get off the waitlist for Long, but that offer never came. I did not feel prepared to apply for that cycle, so I aimed for 2 gap years. Of course, over the past year, I have bolstered my extracurriculars, doing preclinical research at MD Anderson and working part-time as an EMT (along with volunteering in my hometown).
Writing this post, I realize I should have asked about this years ago when it happened, but better to ask now than to live with regrets. Now, for the real question I wanted to ask for this post: in TMDSAS, there is a section for reapplicants who have had previous acceptances, and it asks for a short description of why they didn't attend. What are some things I should avoid talking about when writing my explanation for this? Should I just write truthfully, talking about the horrible things I read about KansasCOM that made me change my mind? I haven't seen any example answers to this prompt online, so I am really stuck on what a proper response would be. There's always the choice to not mention the acceptance at all, but I don't think I could really live with that in the back of my mind.
I understand that I really shot myself in the foot applying for a school I really shouldn't have, in hindsight. But now that it's time to apply for the cycle, am I just ****ed? Rereading all these threads saying that rejecting a school gets you blacklisted and marks you as a red flag makes me feel like I just have extremely low chances of acceptance now. I would appreciate advice from anyone who was in a similar situation to mine.
To preface, I am a Texas resident who applied in the 2024-2025 cycle, and my stats were a 4.0 GPA and a 515 MCAT score. At the time I was applying, I had 96 hrs of research, 214 hrs of medical experience (all volunteer), 50 hrs of non-medical volunteering, and >100 hrs of shadowing. I submitted my primary mid-July, and finished my secondaries around the end of August/beginning of September. I applied to TMDSAS, AMCAS, and AACOMAS. From the cycle, I got 4 IIs (3 DOs and 1 MD), and I only got 1 A (DO).
However, that 1 DO acceptance was from KansasCOM.
Initially, I was eager to go, but after reading more about the school online, I saw major red flags. Horrible administration changes, student dismissals, students having to repeat a year, low pass rates, and even a rumor about a student committing suicide. After talking with someone online about their experience with the school, it really made me question whether I should go there and my future afterward. The fact that the tuition was 60,000 for a school that wasn't even fully accredited...I decided to recline my acceptance. I truly regret not doing my due research and looking more deeply into the school before applying.
Right now, I am preparing to apply to this current 2026-2027 cycle, aiming for 2 gap years. I believe the 2 main reasons I did poorly in the past cycle were: 1) late submission date, 2) poor writing, and 3) lack of experience (both medical and non-medical).
I truly believe that my submission date was the primary reason I didn't get many interviews, as the 1 MD interview I received was from LongSOM, a school that doesn't have any secondaries.
I decided to take 2 gap years, as by the time I finally rejected the offer, it was summer. I naively thought that I would get off the waitlist for Long, but that offer never came. I did not feel prepared to apply for that cycle, so I aimed for 2 gap years. Of course, over the past year, I have bolstered my extracurriculars, doing preclinical research at MD Anderson and working part-time as an EMT (along with volunteering in my hometown).
Writing this post, I realize I should have asked about this years ago when it happened, but better to ask now than to live with regrets. Now, for the real question I wanted to ask for this post: in TMDSAS, there is a section for reapplicants who have had previous acceptances, and it asks for a short description of why they didn't attend. What are some things I should avoid talking about when writing my explanation for this? Should I just write truthfully, talking about the horrible things I read about KansasCOM that made me change my mind? I haven't seen any example answers to this prompt online, so I am really stuck on what a proper response would be. There's always the choice to not mention the acceptance at all, but I don't think I could really live with that in the back of my mind.
I understand that I really shot myself in the foot applying for a school I really shouldn't have, in hindsight. But now that it's time to apply for the cycle, am I just ****ed? Rereading all these threads saying that rejecting a school gets you blacklisted and marks you as a red flag makes me feel like I just have extremely low chances of acceptance now. I would appreciate advice from anyone who was in a similar situation to mine.
