Rejected but never received an official letter/email?

[ACSurgeon]

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Then you should call the school and demand that they refund your secondary application fee. It works sometimes and is worth the try. Maybe you should wait until August so that they don't say something like "Oh, your letter is in the mail." If you paid them the secondary fee and they never bothered emailing or mailing you an official rejection, then how do you know that they even looked at your application. Do be careful if they update your status online, because that probably counts as correspondence on their part. Hopefully for most of you this means you were accepted somewhere else, and you're just trying to get back some of that money that was taken from you. Trust me, you will need all the money you can get once school starts. Best of luck to all!

 

[LifetimeDoc]

You'll find that many medical school admission offices are very unprofessional with respect to this point. I'd say half of the medical schools I applied to never even bothered to tell me that I was rejected. With all of the "professionalism" they say you need to have, they definitely don't show it. You'd think with all of the funds they receive from application fees, they could pay a work-study student to sit there and fill out word document forms, hit a print button, and lick a few stamps and envelopes.

 

[Depakote]

It definitely varies by the school.

Some schools are a little quick, once they have your secondary check, you get that rejection letter so fast that it almost makes you think they made the decision by your primary app. But why would they wait for your secondary app fee? hmm. They must just be really efficient with their essay turnaround (looking at you Georgetown)

Some schools are very good about timely notification. They'll let you know as soon as the decisions are made. Occasionally this means they table the decision and you keep getting bumped and bumped to the bottom of the pile... this generally means a flurry of rejections in May. Lots of schools do this.

Then there are the guys that just don't tell you anything (Jefferson). I don't know that I ever got a rejection from them. I mean, if it's May/June and I haven't interviewed, I get the message... but it would be nice to have some something in writing for the secondary I filled out and the check I wrote.


Special bonus credit goes to Penn who rejected me 3 times in 2 application years (sort of). They have the lovely status-page rejection where you get the message to log in for your status page update... then the big bold:

REJECTED

is waiting for you.

Well I applied there 2x, didn't get in. Figured the 3rd time wasn't worth the effort so didn't apply in cycle 3. Still got the status page update e-mail when they sent out their batch rejections.

 

[pianola]

Hah. Rejection letters must be so obnoxious. Sounds like they come both at the beginning and end of the cycle just so that you're not left with a good feeling anywhere but in the middle. And maybe...after the whole thing is over if you get in.

👎 rejection letters 😡

 

[Calf]

LOL that sucks dude. You have to admit that's pretty funny though haha.

 

[HumidBeing]

Then you should call the school and demand that they refund your secondary application fee. It works sometimes and is worth the try. Maybe you should wait until August so that they don't say something like "Oh, your letter is in the mail." If you paid them the secondary fee and they never bothered emailing or mailing you an official rejection, then how do you know that they even looked at your application. Do be careful if they update your status online, because that probably counts as correspondence on their part. Hopefully for most of you this means you were accepted somewhere else, and you're just trying to get back some of that money that was taken from you. Trust me, you will need all the money you can get once school starts. Best of luck to all!

Do you have examples of specific schools that has worked for? I don't remember ever seeing a post from anyone who managed to pull that off.

 

[surfstarj]

I never got a rejection from Tulane. I'm thinking about calling to schedule my interview and acting really confused on the phone when they tell me the "good" news. 🙄

 

[da8s0859q]

Special bonus credit goes to Penn who rejected me 3 times in 2 application years (sort of). They have the lovely status-page rejection where you get the message to log in for your status page update... then the big bold:

REJECTED

is waiting for you.

... didn't apply in cycle 3. Still got the status page update e-mail when they sent out their batch rejections.

I feel so bad for laughing hysterically at this.

 

[ACSurgeon]

Do you have examples of specific schools that has worked for? I don't remember ever seeing a post from anyone who managed to pull that off.

Unfortunately no. I learned this after it was too late: last fall when a lady in my class (she is a bit older and married, so less likely to lie in my opinion) told me that she got refunds from every school that failed to at least inform her of their decision. If you are NOT accepted anywhere, I would NOT recommend you do that, as you might be applying to the same school again next year. If you are accepted somewhere, the cash will be nice, and the chances are you don't care what the secretary in the office of admissions thinks of you🙄.

 

[SmoothTalker]

Indeed. I was comparing the 2007 and 2008 rejection status pages for Penn and they were the same. I got a mailed rejection letter on my third app though, and it seemed somewhat personalized with mail merge.

Thanks for putting this up. I never thought schools would refund money, since they aren't obligated to disclose anything about the admissions process itself.