the rudest and the nicest admission people.

[Arista.MD]

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Ok I though to start a thread on the rudest and the nicest admission people, so that we do not get too frustrated, surprised or upset when we call to inquire about our application and the person at the other end of the line is really mean.


I called Davis a little while ago, and talked to a man. He did not answer any of my questions, he could not care less for what I had to say. He was not polite at all, he was actually really mean.

On the other hand, Buffalo gets #1 in niceness, they are very, very, very nice, and they answered all my questions. Stanford is also pretty friendly too.

 

[gick]

I've only called a couple of schools so far.
But, I have to say that I was very impressed with Ohio State when I called them with a question about my secondary. Very helpful, very friendly.

Also, University of Washington kicks butt, too. Extremely nice. But. in my opinion, that's just Washington for you.

 

[dara678]

Columbia lady won't let you finish your sentences. She sounds very angry for some reason, even if you're asking a simple question.

 

[dmitrinyr]

I second the statement that Buffalo is the nicest admissions office that I have talked to. The answered all of my questions and even thanked me and told me to have a nice day at the end.

Albany people are pretty nice too. The lady that answered the phone was nice enough that when she didn't quite know the answer to my question she told me to hold on while she asked the other lady who worked there and in the end she came up with an answer.

I have to tell you that I have yet to come across a really rude person at one of these med schools. I guess you just have to catch them on a bad day or something.

dmitri

 

[Arista.MD]

Here is my conversation with Davis from about a week ago.

"hello"
"Hi I am____ I am calling about my medical school application."
Silence.
" I was working on the secondary application and I noticed that the school only requests activities from the last 4 years. I graduated two years ago and I have many activities I have done during my first 2 years in college which...
"the admissions committee cares only about activities in the last 4 years. They don't care about what you did before."
" but this is an important part of my applica..."
" they are on the AMCAS application, aren't they. So the commitee will have a chance to look at them."
"If I would be able to include my activities in my application, I would also be able to explain what these activities meant to me and what I have learnt ...."
"it does not matter. The committe only cares about activities in the LAST 4 YEARS."
" ok thank you very...."
The person hang up.

 

[Jalby]

Here is my experience with the Georgetown people like 2 years ago. I actually cussed them out after I found out I my interview offer withdrawn, but I didn't want to put that in the post b/c I was still applying to other schools.

 

[Jalby]

I mean here

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=117342#post117342

 

[Street Philosopher]

Davis really blows. That's one sh*thole I won't be applying to come residency time.

 

[ms. a]

Veronica at Yale is by far the nicest admissions person I spoke with. She remembered me each time I called and even when she was getting about 10 calls at once, she was always very friendly and extremely apologetic whenever she had to put me on hold.

 

[DW]

its a shocker jalby made his way onto this thread

 

[Lab-Rat21]

Best (5/5) admissions staff:
U of Chicago: I called and always spoke to someone, I even asked to speak to Sylvia and was put through...

Einstein: Though they interview SO many people, they were always very helpful over the phone; great office!

Loyola: same as the above, very helpful staff.

So-so (3/5) staff:
Mt Sinai: They are nice when you call, but the lady in charge is always out early or on vacation...hmmm. Not to mention the fact that they mail out your rejection 2 weeks AFTER classes started.
🙄 What if I assumed my acceptance got lost and showed up? 😉

NYMC: sweet, but they send you to voicemail so quickly..."can i please..." "hold on I'll get you his/her voicemail" (insert Austin Powers II "zip it" bit here...)

WORST: (1/5) staff:
Penn State: when you hear nothing for so long...then call and are awed by the crudeness...

me: "hi i just wanted to know the status of my application."
(silence)
pennst: "we have not made a decision."
me: "ok but is there any more info that you may..."
(dialtone)

They HUNG UP! WTF! So I call back...

me: "um, something must be wrong with the connection b/c it cut me off."
(i meant you jerk, you hung up on me.)
pennst: (chuckle) "we have not made a decision on your appl."
(dialtone)

So I call back again...

me: "um, it happened again. must be a bad connection."
(i meant wow you big big jerk, you hung up on me twice!?)
pennst🙁silence)
"anything else i can help you with."
me: "yes i wanted to know more about any post-bacc opportunities."
pennst: "well we have..."
(dialtone)
(YES, I clicked on you this time!!! and it was sooo worth it)

But as you can see, most offices are helpful, but be nice when you call, so you don't bring any evil on yourself. Good luck, we should tape some of them, really...

😎

 

[Catalyst]

So far, I'd have to say...

Columbia - Renee's very nice and goes out of her way to make applicants happy

Case - the secretary is also very nice, but it takes a million years to get a hold of her

No really bad stories yet, although it is still early september

 

[spumoni620]

Mayo, Duke and Baylor were quite helpful. baylor was especially awesome--they actually called me back to relieve my worries (there'd been a glitch w/my online app). very considerate...mayo put me on hold for quite a while...the lady at duke was super-friendly and seemed to understand the pre-med tensions quite well. only sore spot i've had is uscf: the lady at ucsf sounded kind of stressed/irritated...

 

[rjmst]

Originally posted by ms. a
Veronica at Yale is by far the nicest admissions person I spoke with. She remembered me each time I called and even when she was getting about 10 calls at once, she was always very friendly and extremely apologetic whenever she had to put me on hold.

i agree

 

[rjmst]

oh yeah...i called penn once in the summer of 02. i asked about their prereqs and they told me that one of them was calc based physics.

i called back a few weeks ago to ask about a math requirement and they said there is none. I was then told that only 2 yrs chem, 1 year bio, and 1 year english were required!?!?!?! no physics at all this time?!?!?!?

strange. i don't care anymore. i'll just take a lot of hard classes for everybody.

 

[KirsteenB]

Hi there,

I put my vote in twice: one for UNC-Chapel Hill and the other for Yale. I can't believe how friendly and helpful the UNC folks are--it's lovely and refreshing. As to Yale, the woman on the other end of the phone seemed to have all the time in the world to explain the strike situation and how it may impact the admissions process. Hats off to those two.

Cheers,
Kirsteen

 

[Paws]

Today I called all my schools to ask about completed application status and I have to say that almost everyone was incredibly nice:

Yale was excellent! Also Dartmouth was great and Ann spent a few minutes with me, chatting and looking up my records. The SUNY's were all really friendly too, and at Stony Brook the woman was offering me suggestions about my recently verified amcas application. Buffy definitely winns the nice prize, like everyone says.

UVM I had to leave a message which felt frustrating - will they really call me back ?!

And Jeff was also excellent; the woman there was very cool !

At Washington University I asked some questions and said that I hadn't sent the secondary yet because I felt intimidated by their score stats, and had chickened out and she laughed and said, no don't worry, and to still send it in. Pretty decent I'll say. I felt better ... 😍

 

[Jalby]

Originally posted by DW
its a shocker jalby made his way onto this thread

Every year about this time, this thread pokes up. I figure I might as well keep posting about Georgetown and their Admin staff. But I am so glad I cussed them out rather than just hanging up on them.

 

[deez4life]

So far into the application season, UVa and NYU are tied for most hospitable admissions offices.

The secretary at UVa went out of her way to find out what was wrong with the character count on the secondary app. She talked to the webmaster and other adcom members to find out what the exact problem was. I knew I was being neurotic, but she was a great sport. 🙂

I've called NYU a few times over some of their application semantics, since they're separate from AMCAS. The secretary, who had a really sweet NYC accent, was always helpful in interpreting their somewhat ambiguous directions.

Come to think about it, I haven't really had any negative experiences on the phone or email yet. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

deez

 

[bosco]

Mayo and Case were really friendly when I called. Couldn't have asked for nicer people!

 

[soonerpillow]

The woman at George Washington was incredibly rude. She never let me finish a sentence and didn't answer my question. So I didn't sent them my secondary and they didn't get my $90. I told my Mom (who wants me to go to med school close to home, in Oklahoma) about it, and she said, "Well, that's just how people on the East Coast are. They're just rude like that. Now, you wouldn't want to go to a school there, would you?"

On the other hand, April at Michigan has been really nice. Always answers my questions, lets me finish my sentence, etc. She even kept talking to me when the fire alarm went off (hope it was just a drill!).

 

[DocKwi]

Hey now! Don't make a generalization about East Coast people! haha..its all gravy. I am applying to GW myself, I haven't contacted anyone over there yet, but I'll keep you posted and let you know. Johns Hopkins has been extremely nice thus far. Goodluck with med school!😉

 

[matthew45]

Jane at Mayo was amazingly nice. I called to ask her about what she thought about a LOR question I had. I swore I was talking to my long lost aunt. She pulled up my AMCAS, complimented me on my grades and MCATs, and when we were finished she said "if you have any more questions, call back and ask for me." I was impressed.

On the other hand, I kindof got the shaft on the phone with Loyola, I asked them the above question (which was basically would I be better off with early LORs or more salient LORs) and there was just a looooong silence followed by something like, "That is up to you."

 

[Robz]

I just called Penn State today and they were very nice. Silly me, I cannot remember my SAT scores from 11 years ago and I thought it would be unethical to make them up. 🙂

 

[Lab-Rat21]

Jalby weren't you scared that G'town would write a negative letter to where you had been accepted? I mean I wanted to cuss some people out too, but that thought of it hurting me down the line stopped me...

I might indulge in some sarcastic "thank you" letters though...

 

[Jalby]

Originally posted by Lab-Rat21
Jalby weren't you scared that G'town would write a negative letter to where you had been accepted? I mean I wanted to cuss some people out too, but that thought of it hurting me down the line stopped me...

Naw, I wasn't scared of that. I never thought about it until after I had already done it, but I felt I was really justified and if they had written a letter to the school I was accepted to, I figured once I told them the story they would totally understand. Any other school wouldn't have had a problem letting me interview a month later, but GT was a bunch of ****s.

 

[DW]

Originally posted by deez4life
a really sweet NYC accent,

isnt this in merriam's dictionary as an example of "oxymoron"?

 

[Eraserhead]

What happens if you decide to apply for a residency program there? That would be my concern in writing such a letter...

Originally posted by Jalby
Naw, I wasn't scared of that. I never thought about it until after I had already done it, but I felt I was really justified and if they had written a letter to the school I was accepted to, I figured once I told them the story they would totally understand. Any other school wouldn't have had a problem letting me interview a month later, but GT was a bunch of ****s.

 

[Arista.MD]

I called Johns Hopkins and contrary to what I heard from other people, the lady that anwered was very nice, she aswered my questions and she was very friendly.

 

[DrWuStar]

everyone i have talked to at northwestern admissions has been polite, helpful, and great! i had to call them several times because they had not received a certain part of my application which i knew had been sent 10 days before the deadline and they were helpful. then, they found what was missing and actually left me a voicemail and an e-mail right away saying they found it and hoped i hadn't gone to any trouble re-sending, sorry for the confusion, etc.

i love northwestern. god bless 'em.

 

[deez4life]

Originally posted by DW
isnt this in merriam's dictionary as an example of "oxymoron"?

Heh, yeah I guess so. By "sweet," I meant cool, since all the New Yorkers down at UVa are too pompous and refined to revert to their inherent NYC accents. It was a breath of fresh air to hear a genuine accent, but I guess it could get played out real fast if I actually lived in NYC.

deez

 

[Jalby]

Originally posted by DoctorKevin
What happens if you decide to apply for a residency program there? That would be my concern in writing such a letter...

I would hope that I don't end up there for residency, in part b/c their hospital is having so many problems that they might have to cut the programs partway through (same goes for Mount Sinai nowadays) But fact of the matter is, where you go to school is the place you are most likely to end up getting a residency position, and Wash DC would rank about 7th in the cities I would most like to end up in, so I'm not worried about it, even if they do remember me roughly 5 years after I applied.

 

[emtji]

positive experiences: Albany Medical College and USUHS (specifically Nasheika Knight).

negative: BU (multiple negative experiences) (the only school out of 20 that i had issues with). save your money and don't apply there.

 

[Northerner]

UND has the most warm, pleasant admissions staff I think. Must be that good ol' midwestern nice. Bless your hearts UND.

 

[DW]

Originally posted by emtji
positive experiences: USUHS (specifically Nasheika Knight).

word, nasheika rox!!!! 😀

probably the coolest next to the incredibly wonderful, incomparably beautiful, Cathy Cabrera-Figueroa 😀 😉