Reapplying

[PreciousHamburgers]

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Still waiting on a decision from my only interview, but I am preparing to reapply. I have heard people suggest that re-applicants call the schools that rejected them and ask about any red flags, but I have had no luck with that and I have a hard time believing schools actually do that anyway...

When you fill out the AMCAS application, are you supposed to put the hours down that you anticipate completing in an activity, or only up until you submit the application? What about the date? Is there a way to indicate that the activity is ongoing? They make you put in an end date, but are you supposed to just put "June, 2014" if you submit your primary app in June?

Thanks

 

[WillburCobb]

Still waiting on a decision from my only interview, but I am preparing to reapply. I have heard people suggest that re-applicants call the schools that rejected them and ask about any red flags, but I have had no luck with that and I have a hard time believing schools actually do that anyway...

Yes, many schools will meet with unsuccesful applicants (I know from experience). At some schools you may have to wait until further out from the app season given the admissions office workload.

When you fill out the AMCAS application, are you supposed to put the hours down that you anticipate completing in an activity, or only up until you submit the application? What about the date? Is there a way to indicate that the activity is ongoing? They make you put in an end date, but are you supposed to just put "June, 2014" if you submit your primary app in June?
Thanks

I would only put how many you've completed up to the point of submitting, and use the end date as the date of submission. You can indicate in the description that its ongoing.

 

[Stoptheclot]

+1 above: you have to be persistent and set up an appointment with an admissions rep. The best is an adcom member, but each school varies; last year I specifically asked to speak with an adcom when they were available to review my application. This was met with varying responses, but I ended up speaking directly with three schools' adcom members and two schools' admissions directors about my app. I can't emphasize enough how this was a huge help for reapplications! The more opinions you have on how your app looks, the stronger it will be!

Also, for activities, I added in the description of the activity that it would be ongoing, especially for the ones that I started over the summer that I was beginning to apply. It helped with more substantial update letters come mid/late winter, since I could include new projects within the activity, new opportunities, etc. Good luck, waitlists are a pain but there's always a chance!

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

Would also add that if you only got one interview, you probably need a different/better school list unless there was something else going on, like a really low MCAT or GPA. The WAMC thread is very helpful for that.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

Would also add that if you only got one interview, you probably need a different/better school list unless there was something else going on, like a really low MCAT or GPA. The WAMC thread is very helpful for that.

Yeah, Lower GPA, high MCAT. Non-trad. I plan on applying DO as well this cycle.

 

[BlackBox]

Yeah, Lower GPA, high MCAT. Non-trad. I plan on applying DO as well this cycle.

I give this advice to all aspiring DOs: make certain you shadow one. A letter from a DO is a great thing to have.

gl

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

I give this advice to all aspiring DOs: make certain you shadow one. A letter from a DO is a great thing to have.

gl

Yeah, I finished the AACOMAS primary app, but I have not found a DO who is willing to let anyone shadow, so I wasn't able to complete the secondary app this cycle.

 

[Dare2Dream]

+1 above: you have to be persistent and set up an appointment with an admissions rep. The best is an adcom member, but each school varies; last year I specifically asked to speak with an adcom when they were available to review my application. This was met with varying responses, but I ended up speaking directly with three schools' adcom members and two schools' admissions directors about my app. I can't emphasize enough how this was a huge help for reapplications! The more opinions you have on how your app looks, the stronger it will be!

Thanks, this is extremely helpful! So did you basically just call their main admissions number when making this request? How long were each of these meetings with adcoms/directors? What kind of schools did you have most luck with and did you interview at all these schools or were some of them post secondary?

 

[WillburCobb]

Thanks, this is extremely helpful! So did you basically just call their main admissions number when making this request? How long were each of these meetings with adcoms/directors? What kind of schools did you have most luck with and did you interview at all these schools or were some of them post secondary?

n=1. When I did this last year (I only applied to one school fyi) I called the admissions secretary and she scheduled an appointment with the dean of admissions. I met with her for ~45min - 1hr. She had a packet for me that had my pre-interview rank, post-interview rank, how each adcom voted on a scale of 0-3, comments my interviewers made about me, and comments the entire adcom made when voting. She went over my strong points, my weak points, and each comment from the adcom. We spent a lot of time going over the comments individually, discussing what specifically we thought they meant or why they would think that and what I could do to address weakness as a reapplicant. We also talked about what my plans were for the coming year, etc. She took notes the entire time and placed them in a file that had my app and additional comments and papers from the adcom about me. I honestly think that information is looked at with your re-app at this school. Regardless, and it goes without saying, when contacting and meeting with admissions you should be just as professional and courteous as you would at an interview and send them a thank you for their time.

Edit - I'll also add that this was at smaller IS school that doesn't receive too many apps and only interviews ~130 applicants/cycle, so its probably easier for them to be so accomodating.

 

[Stoptheclot]

I give this advice to all aspiring DOs: make certain you shadow one. A letter from a DO is a great thing to have.

Also, an experience with/insight from a DO helps you understand the reasons WHY you applied DO. Even if it was your "fallback plan", some of my friends with fantastic stats were rejected post-interview because the admissions could see right through their lack of research/understanding of osteopathic medicine.

Thanks, this is extremely helpful! So did you basically just call their main admissions number when making this request? How long were each of these meetings with adcoms/directors? What kind of schools did you have most luck with and did you interview at all these schools or were some of them post secondary?

At least in my experience, the IS public med schools usually are more receptive for feedback. For private schools, they're usually a little less willing because they often have 8k-10k applications to weed through. Offering that many followup app reviews would be absolutely exhausting. However, I still spoke with them. I called the office directly and asked to meet with an admissions committee member. I only applied to 6 schools last year, 5 of them agreed to have someone speak with me, 2 of them I physically went in and met with the adcom member. 1 of those I was accepted to this year. Both of the "in-person" appointments were ~30min, the other 3 (over the phone) lasted only 10-15min and weren't very helpful.

 

[Dare2Dream]

n=1. When I did this last year (I only applied to one school fyi) I called the admissions secretary and she scheduled an appointment with the dean of admissions. I met with her for ~45min - 1hr. She had a packet for me that had my pre-interview rank, post-interview rank, how each adcom voted on a scale of 0-3, comments my interviewers made about me, and comments the entire adcom made when voting. She went over my strong points, my weak points, and each comment from the adcom. We spent a lot of time going over the comments individually, discussing what specifically we thought they meant or why they would think that and what I could do to address weakness as a reapplicant. We also talked about what my plans were for the coming year, etc. She took notes the entire time and placed them in a file that had my app and additional comments and papers from the adcom about me. I honestly think that information is looked at with your re-app at this school. Regardless, and it goes without saying, when contacting and meeting with admissions you should be just as professional and courteous as you would at an interview and send them a thank you for their time.

Edit - I'll also add that this was at smaller IS school that doesn't receive too many apps and only interviews ~130 applicants/cycle, so its probably easier for them to be so accomodating.

At least in my experience, the IS public med schools usually are more receptive for feedback. For private schools, they're usually a little less willing because they often have 8k-10k applications to weed through. Offering that many followup app reviews would be absolutely exhausting. However, I still spoke with them. I called the office directly and asked to meet with an admissions committee member. I only applied to 6 schools last year, 5 of them agreed to have someone speak with me, 2 of them I physically went in and met with the adcom member. 1 of those I was accepted to this year. Both of the "in-person" appointments were ~30min, the other 3 (over the phone) lasted only 10-15min and weren't very helpful.

Thanks to both of you, this is incredibly helpful! I'm surprised they are willing to provide any kind of feedback since admissions is generally a sensitive topic with so many applicants these days. I'll definitely give it a shot and see if I can get any kind of feedback. Getting feedback probably also helps in general as well with those schools if one is a reapplicant as it shows a commitment to improve and achieve one's goals. From your comments, sounds like schools that interview and smaller in state schools are more likely to be willing to spend the time to help you. Really appreciate both your advice!

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

Also, an experience with/insight from a DO helps you understand the reasons WHY you applied DO. Even if it was your "fallback plan", some of my friends with fantastic stats were rejected post-interview because the admissions could see right through their lack of research/understanding of osteopathic medicine.



At least in my experience, the IS public med schools usually are more receptive for feedback. For private schools, they're usually a little less willing because they often have 8k-10k applications to weed through. Offering that many followup app reviews would be absolutely exhausting. However, I still spoke with them. I called the office directly and asked to meet with an admissions committee member. I only applied to 6 schools last year, 5 of them agreed to have someone speak with me, 2 of them I physically went in and met with the adcom member. 1 of those I was accepted to this year. Both of the "in-person" appointments were ~30min, the other 3 (over the phone) lasted only 10-15min and weren't very helpful.

Unfortunately my state school (the school from whom I am still waiting for a decision) explicitly said during the interview day that they do not offer anything like this.

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

Don't know your state of residence, but maybe they'd change that attitude once they make a decision about you. So far, you're only waiting, not rejected. Keep the faith.

 

[Stoptheclot]

Unfortunately my state school (the school from whom I am still waiting for a decision) explicitly said during the interview day that they do not offer anything like this.

Oh, and out of the five that followed up with me, 3/5 rejected me before an interview and 1/5 was an ii for their waitlist... and I did everything they told me to do!! I won't say that app review meetings are a foolproof strategy for acceptances, but I'm confident it was the reason why I was accepted to the school where I'll be matriculating in the fall. It totally relies on the school. The main reason I recommend app reviews if they are available is that they give you explicit goals to achieve for your reapplication (what they saw as a flaw, how it could be improved, what I could do to change it) AND motivation to find ways to make myself stand out during the reapplication. That may sound cliche, but I never knew how difficult it was to pick interviewees in an overwhelming sea of competitive applicants until an adcom member flat out told me it was like "throwing darts at a dartboard from 50 ft away."

However, I wouldn't worry about reapplication/app reviews yet because you're not at that point yet - you still have a school to hear from!

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

Don't know your state of residence, but maybe they'd change that attitude once they make a decision about you. So far, you're only waiting, not rejected. Keep the faith.

Yeah, I'm trying, haha. I just like to be practical. It would be pretty amazing to be flat out rejected by 29 schools and accepted to the only school that interviewed me. I've added hundreds of hours of volunteering and other activities, I might be published first author by this summer, and have improved my application in many other ways. The only thing I have not been able to do despite my best efforts is secure some shadowing. I have a couple leads that have yet to pan out, though.

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

Keep up your effort to find shadowing. That alone may have been a key factor as to why you're reapplying.

 

[TheShaker]

OP, I know from past experience that MCW and Dartmouth are pretty good about giving you advice on your application. RFU explicitly offered a consult with an admissions officer in their rejection letter to me and they gave pretty good feedback. Just ask, the worse would be a no. Or better yet, ask some experienced SDN members, they usually give good advice.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

OP, I know from past experience that MCW and Dartmouth are pretty good about giving you advice on your application. RFU explicitly offered a consult with an admissions officer in their rejection letter to me and they gave pretty good feedback. Just ask, the worse would be a no. Or better yet, ask some experienced SDN members, they usually give good advice.

Excellent. Thank you.