Rejections

[MIfutballfan]

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So, I thought I'd start a thread for official "rejections". With all the excitement over interview invites it gets me thinking about the opposite as well. When and how do rejections come? Do most schools send them? Is "silence" considered rejection?
If anyone hears they've been rejected feel free to post here - you don't have to specify where the rejection is from if you aren't comfortable.

I'll start. I did receive an email stating I was not a fit for a particular school. A bummer of a feeling for sure.

 

[seren1051]

It sucks and stings. but dont let it sit on top of you for too long - there'll be quite a few of them.

Rejections can come literally whenever. Some schools will reject you pre-secondary. Some rejects you soon after secondary (one school rejected me 4 days after submitting in July). Some will reject you loooong time after secondary. Some will reject you pre-interview, and some will reject you post-interview. Some will reject you early, but most rejections will hit your inbox next year between January and April, with quite a few coming between end of March and middle of April.

tl;dr: many, many schools will be 'silent' till March/August and send you an 'official' rejection then.

Some schools don't even bother sending rejections. Looking at you, Wayne.

 

[Robin-jay]

With all schools considered, I probably had a 95% rejection rate and 5% acceptance rate. Life is brutal.

Some schools had more pizzazz, and also mailed a paper rejection, in addition to an E-mail rejection.

 

[Goro]

Every applicant should consider themselves rejected and working on Plan B until they receive that accept email in their Inbox.

 

[Shunsui]

Don't have any expectations.

 

[Goro]

Everybody, Everybody listen up. Assume from the moment you apply that you will be rejected. Therefore right now you all should be enhancing your record by going t school, volunteering, prepping for MCAT, etc. Else you will not be in a position to reapply next cycle as most schools say reapplying again too soon, without adding to your application, is the biggest mistake of reapplicants. Here is the harsh reality

-At any individual school, there are thousands of applications reduced to hundreds of interview slots
-Therefore there is at minimum 80%+ rejection pre interview rejection rate at every school
-This is further reduced to a few hundred acceptances and WL position
-Finally a hundred of so matriculants for A 2%-5% matriculation rate

Overall in AMCAS
100% apply
60% get rejected
20% get a single offer of acceptance
20% get multiple offers of acceptance

Think about the above. You apply to 10-15-20-25 schools and most will get rejected. And that 20% with a single acceptance, how easy it would have been at any step in the process for it to have gone the other way.

There are people now from last cycle, who started filling out their AMCAS in May 2017, who are just getting off the WL today and will do so until classes start

Moderators, please sticky!!!

 

[MIfutballfan]

Bumping this up. Anyone seeing rejections yet?

 

[sillyxwabbit]

Bumping this up. Anyone seeing rejections yet?

Yep, I got my first from Mayo today. It was a pre-secondary. I didn't think I'd have rejections this fast. Kinda glad I did because it pushed me away from becoming complacent with the rest of the cycle.

 

[BostonGeorge]

Overall in AMCAS
100% apply
60% get rejected
20% get a single offer of acceptance
20% get multiple offers of acceptance

Overall the numbers may not paint a great picture but keep in mind that half the people applying have an mcat of 505 or less. In addition there are people applying with no clinical experience. Others send in late applications with poorly written essays. Many apply only to top tier places despite not being top tier candidates.

If you have a quality application and apply to a wide set of realistic schools in a timely manner then your chances are much higher than the overall 40% rate.

 

[BostonGeorge]

"Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong."
-HL Mecncken

This is one of the optimistic views that premeds take that is completely rational, perfect logical, and utterly wrong.

I looked at aggregate data from 2013-2015

I did a very brief analysis of aggregate applicant data from 2013-2015 with old MCAT score and found on average per year
1) Applicants who had BOTH below 3.4 GPA AND 26 MCAT or lower, had 400 acceptance out of 7,000 applicants (aka junk applications)
2) Applicants who had EITHER below 3.4 GPA OR 26 MCAT or lower, were 40% of total acceptances from 2013-2015
3) Taking out the junk applications and acceptances from aggregate, it raised overall acceptance levelfrom 41% to about
4) we cannot separate or determined upward grade trends, postbacc work, or SMP success in this group, we can speculate many had earlier poor work followed by successful later work.
(old MCAT 26 = about 501)

Therefore, on average, under 15% "junk applications" are in the applicant pool and even those had a 5%-6% of gaining an acceptance. So if you are trying to see what your "real" chances are by taking out the "junk" application, your are wasting your time and fooling yourself. Every application, even those initially screened out get read and evaluated. And even people with seemingly "junk" applications gain acceptance

Literally nothing you said refuted anything in my comment. I'm also looking at the gpa mcat grid from the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 AAMC data when I say half the people applying have an mcat of 505 or less.

 

[Goro]

Literally nothing you said refuted anything in my comment. I'm also looking at the gpa mcat grid from the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 AAMC data when I say half the people applying have an mcat of 505 or less.

Are you looking at the data for non-URMs?

Also keep in mind that those numbers get skewed by people living in very lucky states.

Then, as gonnif correctly pointed out, you can't account for people with killers ECs, those who fit specific missions (like at Loma Linda), veterans and graduates of SMPs.

But if you want to sing Pollyanna all day long, go right ahead.

 

[BostonGeorge]

Are you looking at the data for non-URMs?

Also keep in mind that those numbers get skewed by people living in very lucky states.

Then, as gonnif correctly pointed out, you can't account for people with killers ECs, those who fit specific missions (like at Loma Linda), veterans and graduates of SMPs.

But if you want to sing Pollyanna all day long, go right ahead.

I'm talking about the total numbers for all applicants in the mcat gpa grid when referring to overall mcat numbers. My point is that while 60% of people who apply don't receive an acceptance, you can't really use that number to judge people applying who are sending a quality application. Sure there are people who slip through the cracks but for most people who have a competitive application it isn't all doom and gloom like you might think. I brought up the 50% applying with an mcat of 505 or less because I would argue that outside of the URMs, veterans, mission specific people, that on average an mcat of 505 or less isn't particularly competitive and that's literally half the people applying. And by the way not all URMs and veterans have low mcats so it's not like they make up that entire group.

 

[solitarius]

Sadly, if you are a run-of-the-mill solid candidate, you should plan on multiple application cycles.

You have to be really good and really smart with your application planning to get in on your first cycle. Add desirability and some luck to get into a top-tier school. It used to be if you got six interview invites, you could count on getting in somewhere. Or if you were invited to interview at Harvard, you'd get into a Top 10 or 20. How much of that is still true? (I don't know the answer to this, but it was bankable when I applied not too long ago).

Very outstanding students who go onto outstanding careers can be found in "low-tier schools" that are panned on this message board.

 

[BostonGeorge]

1) Until you have data that is either all OLD MCAT or all NEW MCAT, and that new MCAT only started 2015, the data may be skewed
2) I am directly on point as 40% of the acceptees over a 3 year period had either about 500-502 MCAT OR a 3.4 or less trying to counter that the belief so many "junk" applications increase an applicant's chances really isnt the case
3) which leads to my standard advice that from the moment you submit your AMCAS, every applicant must assume that they will be rejected and therefore must continue to enhance their record thus making it possible to apply in the immediate next cycle if need be.
4) I do this as many medical school comment that a reapplicant's main problem is applying again before they have improved their application .
5) At least 1/2 of the advisees I take on are reapplicants and 1/2 of those are solid to great applicants.
6) Just another factoid: 20% of those with 517 MCATs or higher dont get an acceptance
7) And just under half all matriculants get a single offer of acceptance

This is an Olympic class event where most applicants are good to great. And in the Olympics, only the top 3 finishers get a medal. It really can be only a fraction of second from medal to ..... nothing. Everyone needs to go into this process with eyes wide open

If you actually look at the average mcat of applicants it's 504.7 which matches what the data shows in the aggregated grid. This makes sense because the 50th percentile of the mcat is 500 but clearly some low scoring people choose not to apply which pushes up the average applicant score to 504.7. I wouldn't say that someone necessarily has a "junk" app with a ≤505 mcat but it's certainly going to be an uphill battle for many of them, and this is 50% of the applicant pool. Clearly there are qualified enough people who don't get in but you can't really tell someone who has good numbers, good ECs, good letters, and applies early with good essays that they only have a 40% chance because that isn't true. Obviously if high stat people arent getting in it means that something in their application or in their timing or school list or interview skills wasn't optimal. And yes there are probably some cases of pure bad luck but I would say that's a small fraction of people.

Based on the mcat alone, someone with a 510 or above (which is the average matriculant score) has a 72% chance of getting in. Now clearly some of those people with really bad grades or no relevant ECs might have almost no chance but as a whole it's still pretty good odds.

 

[TheRealCookieMonster]

Yeah, despite all the numbers I have to agree with George. I feel like if I had been a more mature undergrad I'd be willing to bet my mothers life on acceptance to most usmd. If you know what you want and have the tools to do it in college med school is just jumping through hoops, like anything in life.

 

[Scrizzy]

Probably never. Many schools just leave you hanging until the end of time, never sending you an email of acceptance or rejection. I'm still waiting to hear back from the schools that waitlisted me over a year ago. I think I'll hear back any day now!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[Med Ed]

 

[DollyB]

So, I thought I'd start a thread for official "rejections". With all the excitement over interview invites it gets me thinking about the opposite as well. When and how do rejections come? Do most schools send them? Is "silence" considered rejection?
If anyone hears they've been rejected feel free to post here - you don't have to specify where the rejection is from if you aren't comfortable.

I'll start. I did receive an email stating I was not a fit for a particular school. A bummer of a feeling for sure.

got rejected from 3 already this cycle in pre-screening for secondaries! lol no real insights just yup its happening

 

[MIfutballfan]

got rejected from 3 already this cycle in pre-screening for secondaries! lol no real insights just yup its happening

Oh man that stinks! Don't give up hope though - at least that's what I tell myself. Coming to read these forums is often brutal -esp reading of folks getting multiple early interviews. Linear or not, amazing stats or not, it still is agonizing when you've poured a huge portion of your life into this and it's all you want to or can imagine doing.
Not ii for me yet. Just one sad rejection post secondary...