The Medical school application process is trash, period.

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Should the application process become more regulated?

  • Yes

    Votes: 59 37.6%

  • No

    Votes: 30 19.1%

  • Smoke weed everyday

    Votes: 68 43.3%
  • Total voters
    157
Dagrimsta1

Dagrimsta1

Current Representation of PGY-4
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Excuse me if these sounds like a bit of a rant but it most definitely is..

The medical school application process is a load of trash. Poorly regulated nonsense that makes it unnecessarily difficult and expensive for applicants. I'm unfortunately one of the students who works full time and doesn't have the luxury of rich parents so I'm stuck funding myself 100% of the way.

This process should be much more highly regulated. AAMC and AACOMAS need to start putting some form of pressure on schools to actually respond to the damn applicants.

E.G. if you submit your application before a certain time, you WILL be given a notification of acceptance/rejection/II/ or wait list by a specific date. If not notified, we should be refunded at least our primary application cost. This will promote enforcement because obv. AAMC and AACOMAS doesn't want to lose money on apps. This will also encourage a more efficient system of weeding out poor apps. Yes I know this will cost money to introduce but there must be a change sooner than later.

The fact that applicants are out thousands (yes thousands) of dollars towards this process and have it unregulated like this is downright astonishing. The ones who receive aid shouldn't get this benefit because they have no legitimate beef.

Yeah I know, Dont bitch you've been accepted.
Nah I will bitch b/c I know there are people out there who didn't get the benefit of the doubt.

Yeah medical school may be a privilege but it's also a business and no one should forget that.
Anyone agree and/or have any other bright ideas?
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Healer@1994 said:
I would agree that silent rejections are total BS, hahaha.
Click to expand...
It's pretty hilarious to imagine the alternative, honest and transparent system tho

>submit my primary app to XYZ for $35
>spend hours crafting the perfect essays, pay another $100 to submit secondary
>receive an email in under a minute informing me that I'm rejected
 
Preface: I have 0 II's and, wait for it, 0 acceptances.

I agree that there should be more visibility, but I don't think anything is inherently wrong with the process. As I understand, the silence is a function of constant consideration. Your application gets grouped into its appropriate level of quality and undergoes periodic review until it is deemed worthy or not of an interview. I'd prefer this to a discrete cut off date because it doesn't force a decision.

As to the cost, I think it is justified. A school garnering $1,000,000 in secondary fees sounds like a lot but if you break it down, it could get spent quite easily between committee salaries, overhead, cost of hosting interviews, subsidizing salaries of reviewers and interviewers, etc. Without seeing a P&L for an adcom, there may be potential for decrease but not much.

Addition: I can only imagine the cost of implementing an application platform and the residual licensing fees.
 
I agree on the front that timelines should be standardized more or at least schools should be HONEST about them. For the most part I have had good experiences with this, but I've also had schools be off by over a month, with no communication in between. Not cool.
 
efle said:
Wait I don't get it.

You are mad that this process costs a couple grand? Or you are mad that some schools practice silent rejection?
Click to expand...

efle said:
It's pretty hilarious to imagine the alternative, honest and transparent system tho

>submit my primary app to XYZ for $35
>spend hours crafting the perfect essays, pay another $100 to submit secondary
>receive an email in under a minute informing me that I'm rejected
Click to expand...

For the couple of grand that I've been sweating my ass off, I'm not getting my money's worth, silent rejections w/o explanation and extremely poor service... I'm not blaming medical schools. I'm blaming the lack of restriction and regulations enforced by AAMC and AACOMAS. Sometimes it's nice to know whether or not a school is interested instead of pondering for months.

Also if you've paid for a secondary, a reason for why you were rejected (grades, essay, lack of EC, etc) would be nice. Give us beginner scientists constructive criticism so that we can grow damn it.
 
This might have been @Lucca 's idea originally but whoever it was, I liked it:

Have AAMC report the percentage of people with your numbers and demographics that get interviewed when you go to submit primaries.

The fact that a thousand applicants to WashU last cycle had a 25 (equivalent) and below is ridiculous for example, as well as the countless people that apply to OOS schools that do not even consider OOS applicants. This process would be cleaned up a lot if you got a popup that said "less than 1% of applicants like you have been interviewed by this school in the last three years"
 
Dagrimsta1 said:
a reason for why you were rejected (grades, essay, lack of EC, etc) would be nice.
Click to expand...
Hmmm I don't forsee schools being all that honest here though. It will end up always being blamed on something objective like stats, nobody wants to tell you that your app radiated arrogance and a lack of compassion, or that you were a sweaty gross wreck during your interview
 
I think it would definitely help to add some more date deadlines to schools and applicants, e.g.

All completed applications must be in by Sept 1

All interviews sent out by December 1, everyone else is rejected and can start working on reapplication.

All interviews conducted in the fall and winter, and all post interview decisions made by March 1st.

There's still room for rolling admissions and waitlists, but there is some sort of deadline to keep people from just being strung along indefinitely
 
Also, the punctuation in this post title is interesting. Does typing period have the same effect as saying "period" at the end of a sentence whenever the reader can see the period? Is the comma necessary? Thoughts on this would be appreciated.
 
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Dagrimsta1 said:
Yeah medical school may be a privilege but it's also a business and no one should forget that
Click to expand...
This pokes a hole in your own argument. People buy lots of goods and services for which businesses disclaim liability. You're not paying the school for an email response to your application; you're paying them to read it and decide whether to let you in. As long as they're reading it, which I guess we just have to believe, but I do indeed believe, you are getting your money's worth.

As long as we're not forgetting it's a business, don't forget that there are thousands of other people paying the school to read their application who would rather you not submit yours. It doesn't matter to the school if you don't apply.
 
I want to know what these secondary application fees are going to. There's a huge variability. For some schools it $35 for others its $150. With even 6,000 applications at $150 a pop a school could make $900,000 on secondary application fees. Given that is the most expensive secondary I saw, but many schools get way more than 6,000 apps. Literally what is so much more expensive about reading why I want to go to your school?! Maybe there's a purpose but given the huge range of fees seems like nobody's app needs to be so exorbitantly high.
 
ScreenName23 said:
I want to know what these secondary application fees are going to. There's a huge variability. For some schools it $35 for others its $150. With even 6,000 applications at $150 a pop a school could make $900,000 on secondary application fees. Given that is the most expensive secondary I saw, but many schools get way more than 6,000 apps. Literally what is so much more expensive about reading why I want to go to your school?! Maybe there's a purpose but given the huge range of fees seems like nobody's app needs to be so exorbitantly high.
Click to expand...
This alone is the reason why the process will never be changed.
 
Dagrimsta1 said:
Excuse me if these sounds like a bit of a rant but it most definitely is..

The medical school application process is a load of trash. Poorly regulated nonsense that makes it unnecessarily difficult and expensive for applicants. I'm unfortunately one of the students who works full time and doesn't have the luxury of rich parents so I'm stuck funding myself 100% of the way.

This process should be much more highly regulated. AAMC and AACOMAS need to start putting some form of pressure on schools to actually respond to the damn applicants.

E.G. if you submit your application before a certain time, you WILL be given a notification of acceptance/rejection/II/ or wait list by a specific date. If not notified, we should be refunded at least our primary application cost. This will promote enforcement because obv. AAMC and AACOMAS doesn't want to lose money on apps. This will also encourage a more efficient system of weeding out poor apps. Yes I know this will cost money to introduce but there must be a change sooner than later.

The fact that applicants are out thousands (yes thousands) of dollars towards this process and have it unregulated like this is downright astonishing. The ones who receive aid shouldn't get this benefit because they have no legitimate beef.

Yeah I know, Dont bitch you've been accepted.
Nah I will bitch b/c I know there are people out there who didn't get the benefit of the doubt.

Yeah medical school may be a privilege but it's also a business and no one should forget that.
Anyone agree and/or have any other bright ideas?
Click to expand...

You do realize that many schools use a silent rejection system because they don't want to give you an outright rejection in case they decide to interview you later on. In reality, what exactly does it help you to get a notification of acceptance, rejection, etc by a certain date. Does it change what you will do?
 
ThoracicGuy said:
You do realize that many schools use a silent rejection system because they don't want to give you an outright rejection in case they decide to interview you later on. In reality, what exactly does it help you to get a notification of acceptance, rejection, etc by a certain date. Does it change what you will do?
Click to expand...
So why do so many places do rolling rejections , if it's a big disadvantage ? Would this process really suffer if that became a standard?
 
ThoracicGuy said:
You do realize that many schools use a silent rejection system because they don't want to give you an outright rejection in case they decide to interview you later on. In reality, what exactly does it help you to get a notification of acceptance, rejection, etc by a certain date. Does it change what you will do?
Click to expand...

For those who have zero II probably not. Those who are accepted or have had II, it will help with deciding which school to attend, planning for the future, accessing finances for the next couple of years and whether or not to uproot a life from one state to another. Some people have families that already have lives, it would be nice to give your kid a notice that your moving across the US because you decided to start med school instead of waiting until July to say, ok guys lets go to Cali..
 
efle said:
So why do so many places do rolling rejections , if it's a big disadvantage ? Would this process really suffer if that became a standard?
Click to expand...

Maybe they get enough applicants of a high enough standard that they can afford to do so. Maybe these others don't. I don't know, I'm not on their admission committees, but the idea of a silent rejection isn't a terrible business practice from a school point of view.
 
You are NOT a consumer in this process. Applying to medical school is not the same as you going to Walmart and buying a garden hose.

The process is also about patients, not you.
Dagrimsta1 said:
For the couple of grand that I've been sweating my ass off, I'm not getting my money's worth, silent rejections w/o explanation and extremely poor service...

Also if you've paid for a secondary, a reason for why you were rejected (grades, essay, lack of EC, etc) would be nice. Give us beginner scientists constructive criticism so that we can grow damn it.
Click to expand...

They go to defray costs of the admissions process, and also into the university's funds. Your app fees to, say, Vandy might go towards supporting their art school, or to scholarships, or recruiting.


ScreenName23 said:
I want to know what these secondary application fees are going to. There's a huge variability. For some schools it $35 for others its $150. With even 6,000 applications at $150 a pop a school could make $900,000 on secondary application fees.
Click to expand...
 
For me, I think the only issue I had was with the timeline of the applications since they overlapped. I got waitlisted to 4 schools and waiting for their decisions all the way up until their orientation put me in a very awkward spot. As someone who is financially struggling even though I understand why primaries and secondaries are so expensive, I hesitated to throw in another 2-3k into the next app cycle which began in June/July. I had to wait until late July to be rejected and then scramble to submit secondaries. So my complete dates were in mid-late August which is on time, but as an average MD applicant, I would've liked to have my file complete in mid-late July.

Another thing is, if we are looking to reapply, it's hard to interview for gap year opportunities in August. If you get the position, you'll probably start in September/October and be up to speed in November/December. Telling your boss that you'll probably be gone in June/July if you get in this cycle will automatically reject you unless it's volunteer. Then you get II's and they grill you about your gap year activities and why you can't account for 40 hours of activity when THEY screwed you over with the timeline...

Aside from that, I think the process is decent. Every system has flaws, but it's most likely not targeted toward a single group. That being said, there are some schools that tick you off from time to time... coughMIAMIcough.... Silent rejections and asking for more secondary submissions/$$$ in December. Then state that they don't have enough time to score and give decisions to applicants who submitted in July! Come on... cut to BS. You already put us in the silent reject pile. Stop it with the fake transparency if you're going to use a silent rejection system.
 
ScreenName23 said:
I want to know what these secondary application fees are going to. There's a huge variability. For some schools it $35 for others its $150. With even 6,000 applications at $150 a pop a school could make $900,000 on secondary application fees. Given that is the most expensive secondary I saw, but many schools get way more than 6,000 apps. Literally what is so much more expensive about reading why I want to go to your school?! Maybe there's a purpose but given the huge range of fees seems like nobody's app needs to be so exorbitantly high.
Click to expand...

Running medical schools is expensive (salaries, recruiting, etc. Everything is expensive); different programs use those funds for different things.
 
Dagrimsta1 said:
For those who have zero II probably not. Those who are accepted or have had II, it will help with deciding which school to attend, planning for the future, accessing finances for the next couple of years and whether or not to uproot a life from one state to another. Some people have families that already have lives, it would be nice to give your kid a notice that your moving across the US because you decided to start med school instead of waiting until July to say, ok guys lets go to Cali..
Click to expand...

If you have an acceptance somewhere, then I'd argue it's not a huge deal since you'll be a med student somewhere. Sure, it'd be nice to have an idea of where it will be as soon as possible, but that's not the med school's job. If you have an II, but no acceptances, you'll be going on that interview no matter how it was offered.

So yeah, it'd be nice for the applicant, but in the end I'd argue it's not an overwhelming hardship that should require intervention from the LCME or other bodies.
 
ScreenName23 said:
I want to know what these secondary application fees are going to. There's a huge variability. For some schools it $35 for others its $150. With even 6,000 applications at $150 a pop a school could make $900,000 on secondary application fees. Given that is the most expensive secondary I saw, but many schools get way more than 6,000 apps. Literally what is so much more expensive about reading why I want to go to your school?! Maybe there's a purpose but given the huge range of fees seems like nobody's app needs to be so exorbitantly high.
Click to expand...

See my above post. An Ad Com is a business, many non-profit, but a business none the less. It will have it's own set of line item costs and profits, separate from the medical school as a whole, just like any other company and it will have to balance those at the end of each year.

SaaS (Software as a Service) products are generally not cheap. This will include http://www.paperlessadmissions.com/purchasing - which seems to be the premier tool for an adcom. They don't list a price, but you can assume with terms like, "implementation" and "server set-up", that the initial and recurring cost of these systems is quite high.

The $35 schools are most likely state funded institutions. The Florida schools come to mind. They may have elected to divert state funding to the admissions process and passed the savings along to applicants.
 
So I get that it benefits a medical school to get $900,000 from applicant secondary fees. That parts pretty clear to me. I'm not thinking they're just paying the app reviewers super well.

If the secondary fees are currently all going to just paying the cost of applicant review software/systems as mentioned, then fine that makes sense.

But the idea that first I have to apply to 30 medical schools in order to ensure one acceptance and then each school wants me to contribute a fee that isn't necessarily just to cover the cost of my application but also to fund their arts program or the like?!

I'm not saying they don't have the right to do it, not saying they'll stop doing it. Just agreeing with OP's sentiment that there are some big flaws in the system. Like an applicant on food stamps that can't qualify for financial assistance but is told to apply to 30 schools (each with ridiculous secondary fees) because the process is such a shot in the dark.

I get that it's not going to change and it just keeps happening throughout life. That doesn't mean it's a good system or a system welcoming to all types of applicants.
 
edawgmd said:
For me, I think the only issue I had was with the timeline of the applications since they overlapped. I got waitlisted to 4 schools and waiting for their decisions all the way up until their orientation put me in a very awkward spot. As someone who is financially struggling even though I understand why primaries and secondaries are so expensive, I hesitated to throw in another 2-3k into the next app cycle which began in June/July. I had to wait until late July to be rejected and then scramble to submit secondaries. So my complete dates were in mid-late August which is on time, but as an average MD applicant, I would've liked to have my file complete in mid-late July.

Another thing is, if we are looking to reapply, it's hard to interview for gap year opportunities in August. If you get the position, you'll probably start in September/October and be up to speed in November/December. Telling your boss that you'll probably be gone in June/July if you get in this cycle will automatically reject you unless it's volunteer. Then you get II's and they grill you about your gap year activities and why you can't account for 40 hours of activity when THEY screwed you over with the timeline...

Aside from that, I think the process is decent. Every system has flaws, but it's most likely not targeted toward a single group. That being said, there are some schools that tick you off from time to time... coughMIAMIcough.... Silent rejections and asking for more secondary submissions/$$$ in December. Then state that they don't have enough time to score and give decisions to applicants who submitted in July! Come on... cut to BS. You already put us in the silent reject pile. Stop it with the fake transparency if you're going to use a silent rejection system.
Click to expand...
Does Miami silent reject?
 
As a small baby step in the whole process, how about standardizing secondary fees? I understand why they are there, but Dartmouth, come on.... $130??? At least take me out to dinner before you **** me. IF schools want to charge that much they should at least offer some fee waiver for travel/lodging to those who receive interviews. Again, not expecting this, but keeping a standard amount of say $75 for each secondary would likely limit application costs and provide applicants with the exact amount if will cost to apply to n number of schools.


Edit: Dartmouth, at least take me out to dinner before you **** me and reject me.
 
I know! We'll make a med school applicant union. Get every premed in the country to join, and then negotiate application fees / tuition.

But yes, it's an incredibly obnoxious system, particularly the silent reject bit.
 
I agree with you OP this whole application process should be fair for both sides. I think there should be deadlines for the schools to respond to the applicants especially since we pay them. Applicants already bust their behind to get to this point, I think It would be fair if we were responded to in a timely manner so we know what our next steps could be in regards to our application.
 
What most traditional pre-meds don't understand is that life isn't fair. Life isn't regulated. Life doesn't operate on your schedule. When you look for a job, their timeline for filling that position might be anywhere between now and the end of the year. Varies based on the job. They don't operate on a strict deadline. That's life.

But I do think that one way to save some money in this whole process is to be more selective with who schools send secondaries to. Schools like UCSF and Mayo are good at this. Don't send secondaries to applicants who stand no chance. Send them to only applicants you would be interested in. That way, the only toll exacted on applicants who would not be competitive for your school is the AMCAS fee.
 
aldol16 said:
What most traditional pre-meds don't understand is that life isn't fair. Life isn't regulated. Life doesn't operate on your schedule. When you look for a job, their timeline for filling that position might be anywhere between now and the end of the year. Varies based on the job. They don't operate on a strict deadline. That's life.

But I do think that one way to save some money in this whole process is to be more selective with who schools send secondaries to. Schools like UCSF and Mayo are good at this. Don't send secondaries to applicants who stand no chance. Send them to only applicants you would be interested in. That way, the only toll exacted on applicants who would not be competitive for your school is the AMCAS fee.
Click to expand...

There's no incentive to do this though. The school is acting against its own best interest by cutting down on secondary fees. The schools that are selective with their secondaries are special cases. This is why a better place to put the secondary bottleneck is on the applicant's end; i.e. by the schools, AMCAS, or anybody really just being more transparent about who has a realistic shot at each school. I'm not saying that anyone without a 78+ LM applying to WashU should get a laughing skull overlayed on an image of a flaming Wheel of Fortune while 'O Fortuna' plays in the background. I do think setting limits on the number of schools applicants can apply to while giving them immediate feedback on the quality of their school list is a fair and reasonable request. The change made to the MSAR that includes applicant as well as matriculant information was a step in the right direction, for example.
 
Agree with silent rejections being a pain in the butt, however, depending on the time of the cycle, no news is good news. As an above person as mentioned, they don't typically want to outright reject you yet, incase they decide to interview you late in the cycle. But if a school knows that they're not interviewing you.. a simple pre-automated rejection email as soon as they make that decision would be nice for the measly applicants.

Also, in an ideal world, secondary fees would all be standardized. BUT. The differences between private v. public med schools are vast in terms of funding alone. So it does make sense that some schools just jack up secondary fees. However, having a better estimate going into the cycle of how much it will all cost would help applicants significantly.

In regards to @Lucca idea of having immediate feedback on school lists... I do feel as if that would be hurting the schools in the end. I mean, they want as many apps as possible right? What's the incentive for them to be like, "Whoops. Previous applicants with your stats have had a 1% chance of interviews in the past 3 cycles, do you wish to continue with submission?" I fully agree that having something like that come up in the primaries would help so many people in terms of applying to incredibly "reach" schools, but I just don't see an incentive for it on the medical school side.

In the end, I think the best and most reasonable thing pre-meds can ask for in regards to the application cycle is more transparency. It'd be nice to have schools publish up-to-date numbers during the cycle like some schools do (Wayne St for ex). Knowing how many II's have been sent, how many primaries/secondaries they received. You're not gonna make a private medical school put a cap on secondary fees, but increased transparency would be prime.
 
gyngyn said:
I would be perfectly happy to eliminate secondary fees if there were a limit on the number of applications an individual could send.
As it is, the only factor that reduces the endless escalation of applications is a secondary fee.
Click to expand...
*if they eliminated secondary fees*

2013: college freshman begins pre-writing secondary essays

2016: student applies to 141 MD schools and 31 DO schools
 
Healer@1994 said:
*if they eliminated secondary fees*

2013: college freshman begins pre-writing secondary essays

2016: student applies to 141 MD schools and 31 DO schools
Click to expand...
I actually know someone who did this.
 
Lucca said:
There's no incentive to do this though. The school is acting against its own best interest by cutting down on secondary fees. The schools that are selective with their secondaries are special cases. This is why a better place to put the secondary bottleneck is on the applicant's end; i.e. by the schools, AMCAS, or anybody really just being more transparent about who has a realistic shot at each school. I'm not saying that anyone without a 78+ LM applying to WashU should get a laughing skull overlayed on an image of a flaming Wheel of Fortune while 'O Fortuna' plays in the background. I do think setting limits on the number of schools applicants can apply to while giving them immediate feedback on the quality of their school list is a fair and reasonable request. The change made to the MSAR that includes applicant as well as matriculant information was a step in the right direction, for example.
Click to expand...

The problem with this is that individuals, even armed with population-level data, are extraordinarily poor evaluators of their own strengths vis-a-vis the population. This is why many pre-meds are surprised that they seemingly do everything right but fail to get into med school or get into a med school much lower than that which they had their sights set on. Similarly, many applicants to top schools apply broadly and are surprised to get interviews at the top schools even though their stats are relatively lower for that school. Stats do not tell the whole story - narrative is much more important for these schools.

In a perfect world, every applicant would know which bracket of schools they are competitive for and self-select in that manner. But in this world, the schools are still the best evaluators of where applicants fit in in their broader applicant pool. You're right - there's no current incentive for schools to do this. Which is why there is a problem in the first place.
 
I understand your frustration, but if the proposed regulations were put in place you would still have people all upset that the school didn't even give them a chance (if they got rejected right off)or just wanted their money (if rejected after secondary). It would also be possible that due to the lack of flexibility to add interviews later if not enough accepted students opt to go to a particular school that some would extend more questionable interviews (leading to even more expense for the applicant while still having the potential for rejection at the end). Until the day that only well qualified people apply to medical school there is always going to be disappointment and frustration in the process.
 
aldol16 said:
The problem with this is that individuals, even armed with population-level data, are extraordinarily poor evaluators of their own strengths vis-a-vis the population. This is why many pre-meds are surprised that they seemingly do everything right but fail to get into med school or get into a med school much lower than that which they had their sights set on. Similarly, many applicants to top schools apply broadly and are surprised to get interviews at the top schools even though their stats are relatively lower for that school. Stats do not tell the whole story - narrative is much more important for these schools.

In a perfect world, every applicant would know which bracket of schools they are competitive for and self-select in that manner. But in this world, the schools are still the best evaluators of where applicants fit in in their broader applicant pool. You're right - there's no current incentive for schools to do this. Which is why there is a problem in the first place.
Click to expand...

I dont care if pre-meds are good evaluators of anything. They dont have the opportunity to have the most and best information available to them to make their decisions, and the admissions process should change to provide it and to reduce the cost both on the applicant and on the medical schools by limiting the number of applications. The problem is not just that applicants spend a lot of money on secondaries, but adcoms have too much stuff to filter through to make the best decisions they possibly can and, just by looking at MSAR data, it is not too strong a statement to say 30-50% of applicants to many schools have no business applying to them.
 
EspressoDrip42 said:
Agree with silent rejections being a pain in the butt, however, depending on the time of the cycle, no news is good news. As an above person as mentioned, they don't typically want to outright reject you yet, incase they decide to interview you late in the cycle. But if a school knows that they're not interviewing you.. a simple pre-automated rejection email as soon as they make that decision would be nice for the measly applicants.

Also, in an ideal world, secondary fees would all be standardized. BUT. The differences between private v. public med schools are vast in terms of funding alone. So it does make sense that some schools just jack up secondary fees. However, having a better estimate going into the cycle of how much it will all cost would help applicants significantly.

In regards to @Lucca idea of having immediate feedback on school lists... I do feel as if that would be hurting the schools in the end. I mean, they want as many apps as possible right? What's the incentive for them to be like, "Whoops. Previous applicants with your stats have had a 1% chance of interviews in the past 3 cycles, do you wish to continue with submission?" I fully agree that having something like that come up in the primaries would help so many people in terms of applying to incredibly "reach" schools, but I just don't see an incentive for it on the medical school side.

In the end, I think the best and most reasonable thing pre-meds can ask for in regards to the application cycle is more transparency. It'd be nice to have schools publish up-to-date numbers during the cycle like some schools do (Wayne St for ex). Knowing how many II's have been sent, how many primaries/secondaries they received. You're not gonna make a private medical school put a cap on secondary fees, but increased transparency would be prime.
Click to expand...

The point of my suggestion is that the onus is on the AAMC to make the change in the name of improving admissions. If you let medical schools do admissions however they choose to do it, they will 99% of the time opt for what is most beneficial for them.
 
edawgmd said:
For me, I think the only issue I had was with the timeline of the applications since they overlapped. I got waitlisted to 4 schools and waiting for their decisions all the way up until their orientation put me in a very awkward spot. As someone who is financially struggling even though I understand why primaries and secondaries are so expensive, I hesitated to throw in another 2-3k into the next app cycle which began in June/July. I had to wait until late July to be rejected and then scramble to submit secondaries. So my complete dates were in mid-late August which is on time, but as an average MD applicant, I would've liked to have my file complete in mid-late July.

Another thing is, if we are looking to reapply, it's hard to interview for gap year opportunities in August. If you get the position, you'll probably start in September/October and be up to speed in November/December. Telling your boss that you'll probably be gone in June/July if you get in this cycle will automatically reject you unless it's volunteer. Then you get II's and they grill you about your gap year activities and why you can't account for 40 hours of activity when THEY screwed you over with the timeline...

Aside from that, I think the process is decent. Every system has flaws, but it's most likely not targeted toward a single group. That being said, there are some schools that tick you off from time to time... coughMIAMIcough.... Silent rejections and asking for more secondary submissions/$$$ in December. Then state that they don't have enough time to score and give decisions to applicants who submitted in July! Come on... cut to BS. You already put us in the silent reject pile. Stop it with the fake transparency if you're going to use a silent rejection system.
Click to expand...


Two thoughts:

  • Always wait a year between application cycles. That removes the overlap issue.
  • Always assume you aren't getting off the waitlist. If you are hired for a job with the expectation that you will be there for two years, you are likely to be there for two years but employers know that life happens and for good and sad reasons people quit their jobs due to a change in circumstances Getting off a waitlist is akin to winning the lottery and employers have to expect those long shot things can happen but are unlikely. Would you tell your employer that you play the MEGA Millions every week and you might leave the job in a few months?
 
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