Should I withdraw to reapply? (urgent question)

[ohjohnk]

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Hello, I know it's been quite a while since anyone posted on this thread but I have an emergency question since I find myself in a similar situation as this person.

This year, I only got interviews from 3 schools. I got waitlisted at 2 schools, which I really liked, and I recently (two weeks ago) interviewed at the last school.

Upon visiting the third school, I didn't really like the school that much and don't think that I will be happy being there for four years. For this reason, I am thinking about withdrawing my application from this school before they give me a decision.

Reading through this thread, it seems like it's a really bad thing to reject an acceptance and reapplying. In my case, would it be ok for me to withdraw my application (before I get the final decision) and reapply next year?


You may think I'm just not a competitive applicant and that I shouldn't take the risk of withdrawing before the decision. Here are some more details on my situation in hopes to get more helpful advice form y'all:

I just have many regrets from this cycle. First of all, my MCAT was mediocre (34) and I submitted my application really late in the cycle (primary submitted 9/15, and I submitted ~95% of my secondaries on the deadline). Being an engineering major, I just had a very hard time writing those essays.

I received an interview from a top 3 school (MD) and a fairly good MD/PhD program (which I loved). So, I may be wrong, but I don't think I am not a competitive applicant.

For the next cycle, I am going to retake the MCAT, apply extremely early, and I also have a recent 1st author publication.

I'm not trying to say how good I am. I'm just trying to explain why I want to reapply next year and provide you a more detailed description of my situation... and I really do want to make the best choice for me. If I won't get into any med school next cycle, then I would definitely NOT withdraw my application from this school.

Do you still think it's not worth it to withdraw from this school?

 

[volcomx]

dude, you applied at the deadline? even if you got interviews, at that point it was more like you were interviewing for a waitlist spot. If a top 3 school inteviewed you, you are good to go for next year. no need retake the mcat. just apply at the opening date.

In terms of withdrawing, that's up to you. I'd advise not to. One thing to consider is whether you have something good lined up for next year. Do you have a flexible 1 year job that will allow you to interview? Is it something you want to do? Will it add to you application, and future career? Or will you be better off saving a year and going to your undesirable medical school?

 

[latebutterflu]

You don't need to retake a 34.

 

[gyngyn]

Your MCAT is excellent. Retaking a recent excellent MCAT gives the appearance of weak judgement (and gives off the faint but clearly detectable whiff of hubris).

If you are fortunate enough to be accepted you should attend. The stigma of the high scoring re-applicant is not worth the risk.

 

[QofQuimica]

My advice is to prepare to reapply this summer, but do not withdraw from any of the schools where you applied this year. If you get in at one of them, including school #3 that isn't your favorite, you should attend. No, it may not be the ideal, but don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better to spend four years there and be a med student this fall than to go through another round of apps with no guarantee of any acceptances next year. Med school is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. There's no inherent reason why you have to love your med school; plenty of people don't. I certainly don't love my residency, but I'd rather be here sucking it up than be unemployed. You follow me?

Also agree that there is no need to retake a 34 MCAT, and I would gently point out that your perspective is skewed if you truly think that's a "mediocre" score.

 

[volcomx]

It's often said on these boards never to retake anything about a 30. However, in my anecdotal experience (probably talked to 15 friends who applied to med school) getting a >3.8 and a >37 is the magic number for getting multiple acceptances and possible scholarships. Of course, I have friends with 3.5s and 33s who got in (but barely, 1 acceptance after ~35 apps). Even the applicants with strong ECs and awards and research weren't as successful as the applicant with the higher MCAT but weaker ECs. It's quite obvious that >30 MCAT will most likely get you in somewhere, but the high 30s is the key to get the acceptances rolling in.

That said, you still shouldn't limit your chances this year by withdrawing. Better to go to med school this year than have to apply and retake the mcat.

 

[RegisBioMedMS]

Wait and see what happens before you stress about this. It is all a moot point if you get another acceptance. I wouldn't withdraw. If that is your only acceptance, then do your homework... schedule another visit to the campus and contact admissions to be put in touch with current students. Maybe your first impression was just not that great but it will grow on you.

If it truly isn't a fit for you, you still can't think you will be ok there, despite revisiting and learning much more about their program, I personally wouldn't attend. This is too big of an investment to be in the wrong spot. And if you refuse your only acceptance, then do your research for your list of schools to apply to much more thoroughly next year. I know this is too late for this advice for you, but for others reading this thread, don't make this mistake. Do your research. You should never apply to a school you wouldn't attend.

 

[QofQuimica]

Worrying about "fit" is for people who have choices. If you get one acceptance, then you dance with him (or her) that brung you.

I'd also point out that those of you who are premeds have no idea how well you will or won't fit in a certain med school. How could you? Until you get there and go through the program, you're basing your decision on a day or two spent at an interview and maybe a second day or two at a second look. The schools are projecting the image they think you want to see from them just like you're projecting the image you think they want to see from you. That image isn't necessarily in keeping with the reality....of them, or of you.

Again, I'd argue in favor of keeping your eyes on the prize. Do those of you thinking it would be better to reapply, rather than attend a med school you think you don't like as much, want to be doctors or not? If so, attending any American medical school (MD or DO) will allow you to accomplish your goal. So don't cry over not being the belle of the acceptance ball if you at least got an invite to the party.

 

[gyngyn]

Worrying about "fit" is for people who have choices. If you get one acceptance, then you dance with him (or her) that brung you.

I'd also point out that those of you who are premeds have no idea how well you will or won't fit in a certain med school. How could you? Until you get there and go through the program, you're basing your decision on a day or two spent at an interview and maybe a second day or two at a second look. The schools are projecting the image they think you want to see from them just like you're projecting the image you think they want to see from you. That image isn't necessarily in keeping with the reality....of them, or of you.

Again, I'd argue in favor of keeping your eyes on the prize. Do those of you thinking it would be better to reapply, rather than attend a med school you think you don't like as much, want to be doctors or not? If so, attending any American medical school (MD or DO) will allow you to accomplish your goal. So don't cry over not being the belle of the acceptance ball if you at least got an invite to the party.

I could not agree more.

 

[ohjohnk]

Thank you SO much for all your advice. I truly appreciate each and every one of your honest comments and they are all super helpful.

Reading your comments, I think I'm leaning more towards not withdrawing my application while still preparing for reapplying and retaking the MCAT.

However, I wanted to give y'all more details on my exact situation and the reason I had been seriously thinking about withdrawing from the 3rd school.

I am international student, and I applied to 29 schools (about half of them to the MD/PhD program). You may already know, but pretty much all schools do not provide any financial aid for international students, so I would have to pay full tuition, and in many cases, would have to deposit the ~200K into an escrow account to prove that I have secured the funding to complete my medical education. I am also not eligible for student loans (I don't have any relatives that have US citizenship, who can cosign the student loan).

I come from a upper middle class family in my country, and it is a huge commitment and sacrifice for my parents to pay for my medical education. With my family on my back, I have this pressure to go to a good/well known medical school.

Also, I have learned that as in the medical school application process, international students applying for residency in the US have many restrictions. I think that attending a higher ranked medical school would increase my chances of getting into my top-choice residency program and specialty.

My original plan was to attend wherever I was accepted with a grateful mindset, and of course, no medical school in the US is a "bad" school. However, my MCAT score was not as high as I would have liked, and I also struggled with writing my applications and submitted super late. I wasn't at my best this cycle, and that is why I would like to reapply--hopefully with a better MCAT score, and submitting my applications at the earliest dates possible (complete all my secondaries by late July).

Also, I applied to MD/PhD programs at schools where they allowed me to both MD & MD/PhD programs, or would roll over my application to the regular MD pool if rejected from the dual degree program. In this process, I learned that a lot of times, they roll over my application to the regular MD pool late in the interview season (around or after february), so I had a disadvantage in getting interviews from those schools (for their MD programs).
For this reason, I plan on applying to mostly MD programs for the next cycle.

Sorry for being so long-winded, but I'm still a little confused since, as explained above, I have these multiple things to contemplate on..

It would be great if you all could give me some more advice!!

Thank you so much!!

 

[gyngyn]

Your MCAT is competitive already. If you retake it, only three things can happen: 1) you do worse. 2). you do about the same. 3) you do a little better: (it is essentially impossible to do significantly better than your first score.

As you can see the odds that a re-take of a 34 will hurt your chances is high.

If nothing else there are the opportunities lost to studying for it.

Apply early with a well written application to schools with a history accepting international students. This is really your rate limiting step (along with finances, of course).

 

[WillburCobb]

In my opinion, granted this differs GREATLY from the masses of SDN, there truly is no such thing as a "good" or "top tier" med school, these terms are subjective at best. My state (and dream) school has never really been ranked by U.S. News and would definitely be considered a "low tier" school by the arbiters of SDN. However graduates of this school consistently match into top residencies, and there are always several students every year who match into super competitive residencies (e.g., derm, optho, plastics, uro, ent, etc.). I think this shows that either school rankings are complete b.s. and/or that it comes down to the student to make their future and success (I personally believe its both).

In short what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't limit yourself just because you aren't accepted into a well renowned school for your family's sake, it's up to you, not your school, to be successful. Again this is just my opinion. Also, I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that even if you are a foreign student, going to a US school and rocking step I and II should negate most issues that foreign med school grads face securing residencies.

 

[QofQuimica]

Reading your comments, I think I'm leaning more towards not withdrawing my application while still preparing for reapplying and retaking the MCAT.

Again, retaking the MCAT is a total waste of time and money in your case. Best advice we can give you about this is, don't do it. Honestly, you're sitting pretty with a 34, and if English isn't your native language, even more kudos to you for getting into the top quartile of test-takers.

I come from a upper middle class family in my country, and it is a huge commitment and sacrifice for my parents to pay for my medical education. With my family on my back, I have this pressure to go to a good/well known medical school.

Your parents may need some education then concerning how medical education works in the United States. Unlike other graduate schools (law, business, science, etc.), where you go to medical school is not very important. The AAMC sets strict standards for medical schools such that all students at American schools are taught a similar curriculum, albeit with different window dressings like PBL versus lectures. For this reason, where you go to medical school is much less important than your individual performance during medical school. In addition, when you go to look for jobs, where you do residency is much more important than where you go to medical school.

Also, I have learned that as in the medical school application process, international students applying for residency in the US have many restrictions. I think that attending a higher ranked medical school would increase my chances of getting into my top-choice residency program and specialty.

There's a huge difference between being an international medical school graduate (i.e., going to a non-American medical school) and an international student graduating from an American school. You would be the latter, and you would be treated like any other American med school graduate, with the possible exception of visa issues. You'll have to get advice from others on how to navigate the visa issues; I'm an American citizen and have no experience with this.

 

[ShyRem]

I have to agree with everything Q says... as usual, Q is on target and gives darn good advice. (Hi Q !)

I would start working on a personal statement NOW in case you don't garner any acceptances. I would send in my primary FIRST DAY, and then start looking for essay prompts and get those done so you can send secondaries within one week of being granted same.

Lest you say "well, but if I get in, I don't want to do all this work"... it's rather like bringing the crash cart to the door of a patient who looks tenuous. It keeps bad juju away to be prepared. And if you do need to reapply you'll be ready.

 

[Goro]

I'd be very interested in hearing an update, OP. Frankly, you're making a very foolish decision to re-take your MCAT. As my colleague pointed out, the odds of your best case scenario happening are low, and you're more likely to hurt yourself than help.

As also pointed out, the perception of "my nearly perfect score isn't good enough", when you're scoring in the what, top 5th percentile, smacks not merely of poor choice making, it smells of obsessive perfectionism.

We tend to avoid students like that because they're the ones who are always in our office whining about how their 95 grade should really be a 96.

So, again,"a bird in the hand is worth....????"

Thank you SO much for all your advice. I truly appreciate each and every one of your honest comments and they are all super helpful.

Reading your comments, I think I'm leaning more towards not withdrawing my application while still preparing for reapplying and retaking the MCAT.

My original plan was to attend wherever I was accepted with a grateful mindset, and of course, no medical school in the US is a "bad" school. However, my MCAT score was not as high as I would have liked, and I also struggled with writing my applications and submitted super late. I wasn't at my best this cycle, and that is why I would like to reapply--hopefully with a better MCAT score, and submitting my applications at the earliest dates possible (complete all my secondaries by late July).

 

[ohjohnk]

Thank you so much to everyone who provided advice. It really helped me a lot in many ways.

I have been accepted to one of the two programs that I was waitlisted in, and I am really grateful since I really wanted to go to this program.

Thank you all so much