Rejection after interview...can I appeal?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
jathan007

jathan007

GreatDoctor
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Members do not see this ad.
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
 
Why not try e-mailing the dean of admissions Dr. Amerish Bera

I remember him mentioning that he'll even tell you how you can strengthen your application as well.
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

Contact the office of admissions and ask them if there is an appeals process.
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you would appeal. If the school decides other applicants are more qualified then how would you force them to accept you?

Unless of course you feel you were rejected on the basis of a minority quota.

See Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978) for more information.
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

There probably isn't any point. All schools have an appeal process but you can't really appeal a subjective decision of an interviewer or adcom, just things that are objectively problematic or discriminatory. Obviously if everyone who didn't get their first choice was able to appeal, the admissions process would never end -- everyone would want consideration and then reconsideration -- so most schools won't spend a whole lot of time entertaining such appeals.

"Feeling like you did well on the interview" is very different than actually doing well in the interview -- most people have no clue how they interview. And these folks see hundreds of people interviewing and so you can have done pretty well but still not measure up to the third to half of the people interviewed who actually got the nod.

So I wouldn't waste my time with an appeal. Pick a new number one choice and move on. In the end, it won't matter much.
 
Look around the forum and you'll find many people waitlisted/rejected after being told by the interviewer that they did well on the interviews.

Sometimes your application just isn't strong enough for a particular school
 
The only successful "appeal" story I've ever heard was the following in 2001:

A male student who suffered from a chronic depression was "asked to leave" by his undergraduate institution for a semester. This was all documented but his transcript apparently only reflected a withdrawal: i.e., there was no formal documentation in his AMCAS about his mental health. He returned the following year, status normal, and completed his undergrad in a timely manner. One semester late. He applied, was granted an interview at a state school that shall remain nameless, and waited like everyone else. Then he was called back for a second interview, during which it became painfully clear that the adcom interviewer somehow *knew* he'd been asked to leave for mental health reasons. He was rejected after this second interview, but was so bothered by the behavior of his interviewer that he registered a formal complaint with the admissions committee. Turned out the interviewer was friends or had some personal connection with a professor from his undergrad institution, and knew about his particular story OUTSIDE of his application. Whether or not the mental health issue affected the rejection became irrelevant: the applicant had an otherwise competitive record and the adcom was held to fault.

Result: he was offered admission and declined it. He is now a successful resident with an M.D. from a private institution.

The way it was explained to me by my mother, a former adcom herself, is that your interviewer is commonly like an "advocate"--when the admissions committee meets to discuss candidates, your interviewer's opinions and experiences with you are like the evidence in support (or in defense) of your existing paper records. That is, if you really gave a good interview. It's not the be-all-and-end-all of your admissions. But if other adcoms have questions about your performance/potential that your interviewer either did not discuss or cannot answer on your behalf--that's where it ends. And they have to move on to one of the other several hundred competitive applicants.
 
Divine Furor said:
The way it was explained to me by my mother, a former adcom herself, is that your interviewer is commonly like an "advocate"--when the admissions committee meets to discuss candidates, your interviewer's opinions and experiences with you are like the evidence in support (or in defense) of your existing paper records. That is, if you really gave a good interview. It's not the be-all-and-end-all of your admissions. But if other adcoms have questions about your performance/potential that your interviewer either did not discuss or cannot answer on your behalf--that's where it ends. And they have to move on to one of the other several hundred competitive applicants.
Click to expand...

Hold the press, are you telling me that what your interviewer doesn't ask will be held against you in the admissions decision? Please clarify.

Oh gods, the panic.
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

Isn't UC Davis so backed up right now that they still haven't notified everyone post-interview and aren't accepting any updates? They probably wouldn't get around to your appeal until next year.
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

Certainly you can appeal by following the required appeals process. In general, appeals are most likely to be successful when there was a mistake in the process such as something improper administratively. Not getting into your number one choice for medical school not likely to be something that you can appeal. I am sure the plenty of people were rejected from their #1, #2 and #3 choices for various reasons, most commonly, they just weren't competitive enough compared to others who were offered admission.
 
Law2Doc said:
All schools have an appeal process but you can't really appeal a subjective decision of an interviewer or adcom, just things that are objectively problematic or discriminatory.
Click to expand...
Agreed. If you had a great app but a bad score in PS on your MCAT because you had appendicitis or somesuch, you could appeal a pre-secondary or pre-interview rejection on those grounds.

But you made it all the way to the Big Day. They obviously fully evaluated your application, LORs, and interview feedback and decided to go with others. I dont think you have much in the way of grounds for an appeal.
Law2Doc said:
And these folks see hundreds of people interviewing and so you can have done pretty well but still not measure up to the third to half of the people interviewed who actually got the nod.
Click to expand...
Ditto this, too. OP- you may have totally nailed your interview, but at schools like UC Davis (which accept only 1 out of 3 folks who interview) with their talent pool, lots of other folks probably nailed their interview too.

I know it's rough and I sympathize, but you may want to focus your energies on Plan B. It happens to most of us in this process...
 
Aynsl156 said:
Hold the press, are you telling me that what your interviewer doesn't ask will be held against you in the admissions decision? Please clarify.

Oh gods, the panic.
Click to expand...

No no no no breathe....not held against you. Let's say, like a certain poster elsewhere on these forums, you have a series of withdrawals on your adcom record. Obviously, your interviewer SHOULD and WOULD ask you to elaborate what happened, what the reasons were, etc. But let's say you expounded to the satisfaction, to whatever degree, of the interviewer at that moment, in that office, on whatever day. Two weeks later the adcom committee meets and they start talking about you. Two or three members want to know: did the applicant thoroughly explain the withdrawals? The interviewer thinks about you, considers, and says what you said and his/her impressions of what you said. The other adcom members are not satisfied with the explanation. Obviously, the interviewer can't say any more about you than they know....

That's what I mean.
 
Oh, ok. I can breathe now. I suppose the reason you give to your interviewer must be able to hold water under scrutiny by another adcom - not so hard to do if it's a good reason.

Thanks for clearing that up.
 
Ihateverbal said:
Why not try e-mailing the dean of admissions Dr. Amerish Bera

I remember him mentioning that he'll even tell you how you can strengthen your application as well.
Click to expand...


Does any know what's Dr. Amerish Bera's E-mail? Please post. I cannot find it on the UC Davis SOM website.
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

Yeah, your "feel" for the interview doesn't mean much. I had interviewers at two different schools tell me/ask me: "You have an excellent application and a lot to be proud of - how can I convince you to come here?" or "I really hope you consider coming to our school" etc., as well as one interviewer taking 15 min to walk me across campus to my next interview, where he introduced me to my second interviewer.

Waitlisted at both. 👎
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of applicants in your exact shoes. this is life. move on.
 
I wouldn't bother. Unless you have a reason beyond "I felt I had a good interview" they're just going to trash your appeal.

90% of premeds are (shockingly) socially talented enough to have good interviews. They still have to cut those applicants down to 1/3 or 1/2 of the interviewees. There were better candidates. Period. It being your number one choice unfortunately doesn't help you much.
 
jathan007 said:
I had an interview at UC Davis SOM in early Feb., but was recently rejected. I felt like I did well on the interview. It was my number one choice for med school. Is there anything I can do? Is there an appeal process and if there is what do I need to do?
Click to expand...

Why in God's name would you even bother? For whatever reason, they did not want to accept you and that is not going to change. Maybe your interview was fine, but something else in your stats failed to impress them. Or, more likely, you were acceptable, but they had hundreds of MORE acceptable applicants. Appealing would be an unbelievable waste of your time and would probably put a permanent red letter on your file for future applications to that school. Think about it...what is the best that could happen...they put you at the bottom of their waitlist instead...YOU ARE NOT GETTING INTO UC DAVIS...grow up and get over it. Go where you were accepted (if you got in anywhere), or start prepping your application for the next cycle. Maybe you could ask them why you were rejected so you can improve those elements for the next round, but appealing a rejection? Give me a break!!!!!!!!
 
fever106 said:
Why in God's name would you even bother? For whatever reason, they did not want to accept you and that is not going to change. Maybe your interview was fine, but something else in your stats failed to impress them. Or, more likely, you were acceptable, but they had hundreds of MORE acceptable applicants. Appealing would be an unbelievable waste of your time and would probably put a permanent red letter on your file for future applications to that school. Think about it...what is the best that could happen...they put you at the bottom of their waitlist instead...YOU ARE NOT GETTING INTO UC DAVIS...grow up and get over it. Go where you were accepted (if you got in anywhere), or start prepping your application for the next cycle. Maybe you could ask them why you were rejected so you can improve those elements for the next round, but appealing a rejection? Give me a break!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Hey man, cool your jets--it can be totally emotionally heartbreaking to be rejected from your top choice school, especially when you invest as much as we all do in this heinous application process. Don't tell someone to grow up when what they're really posting about is how arbitrary this process seems.
 
bwells46 said:
I'm not sure what you would appeal. If the school decides other applicants are more qualified then how would you force them to accept you?

Unless of course you feel you were rejected on the basis of a minority quota.

See Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978) for more information.
Click to expand...

👎
 
Divine Furor said:
Hey man, cool your jets--it can be totally emotionally heartbreaking to be rejected from your top choice school, especially when you invest as much as we all do in this heinous application process. Don't tell someone to grow up when what they're really posting about is how arbitrary this process seems.
Click to expand...


First of all, I am just finishing my first year of medical school, and I know exactly how it feels to be rejected from your first choice school. I was rejected from all 6 med schools in my home state and had to move 3000 miles away from my family, my friends, and my boyfriend. Second of all, the OP didn't post about how arbitrary this process is (which by now should be a given), they posted asking whether they should appeal a rejection. The OP does need to grow up and learn that life is not always fair, and that you can't go complaining every time a subjective process does not swing in your favor. Part of medicine is having a tough skin and learning to accept disappointment...
 
fever106 said:
Part of medicine is having a tough skin and learning to accept disappointment...
Click to expand...

is another part of medicine taking your frustration with your own failures out on strangers over the internet?
 
trichomoniasis said:
is another part of medicine taking your frustration with your own failures out on strangers over the internet?
Click to expand...

I am actually quite happy with where I ended up...and considering that I am currently ranked in the top 10% of my med school class, I don't consider myself to be a "failure." Instead of trying to attack me personally, why don't you take a look at the OP's original post. He wants to appeal a med school rejection! Can you imagine what would happen if every applicant who got rejected from their first choice school tried to appeal?
 
fever106 said:
I am actually quite happy with where I ended up...and considering that I am currently ranked in the top 10% of my med school class, I don't consider myself to be a "failure." Instead of trying to attack me personally, why don't you take a look at the OP's original post. He wants to appeal a med school rejection! Can you imagine what would happen if every applicant who got rejected from their first choice school tried to appeal?
Click to expand...

you're the one who made it personal by using yourself as an example. You're acting like the OP ran over your dog or something. why the heck do you care if he "appeals" a rejection? How does it affect you in any way?

but thanks for sharing with everyone how well you're doing and how happy you are, it definitely makes you in no way sound insecure. 👍
 
alwaysaangel said:
There were better candidates. Period.
Click to expand...

😡 😡 😡
Are you kidding? How can you judge that those they accepted were "better" applicants and what exactly was better? They were lucky to have a better click with an interviewer? May be the interviewer even got attracted to them (like I personally feel I got into one school because both my interviewers were obviously attracted to me). Or were they "better" because they got a 39 MCAT score versus a 35 just because they got 6 more questions right when they guessed? How can one be sure that they will perform well in med school or be better doctors? How do you know? There is a girl at one school I interviewed at who got off the waitlist on the very day the classes started, and is now the top 3rd (as far as I remember) student out of the 250 that were well above her in their standing after the adcom reviews. I had interviews at 6 schools and was rejected only by one school, the one I might even be "overqualified" for in terms of stats, and where I also feel I had a good interview, and wrote a letter of interest. I might even have been rejected because I am a non-trad applicant and they are not friendly to post baccs, may be of some other reason, but apparently other schools that even rank higher and have more competitive applicant pool in terms of stats, research, etc. liked me. I am giving this just as an evidence that if a school rejects you this doesn't mean they had "objectively better" applicants.
 
trichomoniasis said:
you're the one who made it personal by using yourself as an example. You're acting like the OP ran over your dog or something. why the heck do you care if he "appeals" a rejection? How does it affect you in any way?

but thanks for sharing with everyone how well you're doing and how happy you are, it definitely makes you in no way sound insecure. 👍
Click to expand...

Funny how you named yourself after an STD that causes a foul smelling vaginal discharge...Now that takes a great deal of self confidence!
 
Goldenhair said:
😡 😡 😡
Are you kidding? How can you judge that those they accepted were "better" applicants and what exactly was better? They were lucky to have a better click with an interviewer? May be the interviewer even got attracted to them (like I personally feel I got into one school because both my interviewers were obviously attracted to me). Or were they "better" because they got a 39 MCAT score versus a 35 just because they got 6 more questions right when they guessed? How can one be sure that they will perform well in med school or be better doctors? How do you know? There is a girl at one school I interviewed at who got off the waitlist on the very day the classes started, and is now the top 3rd (as far as I remember) student out of the 250 that were well above her in their standing after the adcom reviews. I had interviews at 6 schools and was rejected only by one school, the one I might even be "overqualified" for in terms of stats, and where I also feel I had a good interview, and wrote a letter of interest. I might even have been rejected because I am a non-trad applicant and they are not friendly to post baccs, may be of some other reason, but apparently other schools that even rank higher and have more competitive applicant pool in terms of stats, research, etc. liked me. I am giving this just as an evidence that if a school rejects you this doesn't mean they had "objectively better" applicants.
Click to expand...
I never said objectively better. And I'm sorry that you chose to read it that way.

The adcomm felt there were better candidates. Period.

Better?
 
Goldenhair said:
😡 😡 😡
Are you kidding? How can you judge that those they accepted were "better" applicants and what exactly was better?
Click to expand...

Simple. If a person comes away from an interview with the interviewer deeming them better, they are better by the only barometer that matters in this process.
 
fever106 said:
.....I was rejected from all 6 med schools in my home state and had to move 3000 miles away from my family, my friends, and my boyfriend.......The OP does need to grow up and learn that life is not always fair, and that you can't go complaining every time a subjective process does not swing in your favor. Part of medicine is having a tough skin and learning to accept disappointment...
Click to expand...

It sounds like the OP isn't the only one "complaining". Too often on the forums people get outraged by people simply because their opinion or, in this case, reaction to a situation differs. You were rejected from your top choices, accepted it and moved on. Congratulations on the success where you ended up. If the OP chooses to take one more shot at their top choice, what possible difference could it make to you.
 
StrengthDoc said:
It sounds like the OP isn't the only one "complaining". Too often on the forums people get outraged by people simply because their opinion or, in this case, reaction to a situation differs. You were rejected from your top choices, accepted it and moved on. Congratulations on the success where you ended up. If the OP chooses to take one more shot at their top choice, what possible difference could it make to you.
Click to expand...

get out of here.

there is no room for reason on these forums.

facist.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
notdeadyet said:
That sounds like the post-9/11 american populace I sure know...

Sorry... /editorializing.
Click to expand...

We're dangerously close to a full hijack here, but your timely political comment reveals that not all med students are unaware of recent headlines, and we're grateful that myth has now been dispelled.😛
 
Divine Furor said:
We're dangerously close to a full hijack here, but your timely political comment reveals that not all med students are unaware of recent headlines, and we're grateful that myth has now been dispelled.😛
Click to expand...
... and therefore I think you'd have as much luck with asking Davis for a second chance as Alberto Gonzales would Congress.

(hijack averted.... phew...)
 
I don't recall what this thread was about.

sincerely, Gonzo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
If someone who interviewed after me got accepted but I didn't, should I take that as a rejection/waitlist?
Replies
4
Views
1K
Dragonite7
D
Slapprs
After a post-II rejection, interview feedback indicated that one of my LoRs said negative things about me
Replies
7
Views
2K
doctorendgame
D
kingkong6712
Can I wait in silence after an II for a decision? How important are updates/letter of interest? Do I have to continue begging...
Replies
6
Views
2K
GoSpursGo
GoSpursGo
R
Should I send an update letter soon after already sending one?
Replies
2
Views
360
RagingBolt34
R
Y
can I include links to websites in my letter of intent?
Replies
13
Views
516
doc_J61
doc_J61
Top