Turned down waitlist offer to reapply

[PlzHalp005]

I was on the bottom portion of a waitlist at one of my schools, with almost no chance at acceptance according to the dean of admissions; however, I was asked on the phone this morning "would you like to join our class for next fall?" and I declined on the phone. I unfortunately had to decline due to very personal reasons that I do not want to delve into.

Nothing was ever set in stone, it was simply a question over the phone asking me if I wanted to join the class from the waitlist and I said no. There was no email record, and even my portal page shows that I am just on the waitlist still. Does this count as a formal admission that can get me blacklisted if I apply again? I am thinking of calling the dean of admissions and seeing if I can have the records show I withdrew from the waitlist (which I did immediately after).

From what I am aware of, schools no longer have access to the national acceptance report for next year, so if I decide to reapply next year, will these schools see that I was offered admission off of a waitlist? I will be calling AAMC first thing on Monday to ask if it shows that I have been admitted on my account or if schools can see this next year.

Please, please serious responses only. I have been having a panic attack all day about this situation and am a mess. I am not trolling. I could really use some honest and informed responses about this topic. Thanks.

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[bbdylan87]

From what I am aware of, schools no longer have access to the national acceptance report for next year, so if I decide to reapply next year, will these schools see that I was offered admission off of a waitlist? I will be calling AAMC first thing on Monday to ask if it shows that I have been admitted on my account or if schools can see this next year.

Please, please serious responses only. I have been having a panic attack all day about this situation and am a mess. I am not trolling. I could really use some honest and informed responses about this topic. Thanks.

AAMC is probably closed this Monday
Also, since most SDNers only mention the obvious and never answer the original question of any post, I shall mimic them by advising that you may want to get your panic attacks under control if you have not done so already. Hopefully this one annoying post will prevent one million users on here demanding that you seek help and counselling before you even think about posting on SDN

 

[bigeman101]

Why did you apply to med school in the first place? And why did you apply to a school that you didnt really want to go to?

 

[The Unburnt]

Them asking you "to join the class from the waitlist" is an acceptance, so I would think it would show up that you were accepted to a school if you reapply next cycle. From what I understand, at this stage in the cycle, a conversation over the phone is considered a formal offer of admission, which is what you turned down.

Schools not having access to the multiple acceptance report next year has nothing to do with your situation since you are required by AMCAS to indicate whether or not you have previously applied/been accepted- which you were from what it sounds like.

I wouldn't trust the portal at this stage in the game since a lot of schools are really busy with withdrawals and offering waitlist spots. I guess call AAMC tuesday.

 

[PlzHalp005]

Them asking you "to join the class from the waitlist" is an acceptance, so I would think it would show up that you were accepted to a school if you reapply next cycle. From what I understand, at this stage in the cycle, a conversation over the phone is considered a formal offer of admission, which is what you turned down.

Schools not having access to the multiple acceptance report next year has nothing to do with your situation since you are required by AMCAS to indicate whether or not you have previously applied/been accepted- which you were from what it sounds like.

I wouldn't trust the portal at this stage in the game since a lot of schools are really busy with withdrawals and offering waitlist spots. I guess call AAMC tuesday.

AMCAS only asks if you have previously matriculated to medical school. I will definitely call them first thing Tuesday.

 

[PlzHalp005]

Why did you apply to med school in the first place? And why did you apply to a school that you didnt really want to go to?

I want medical school, bad, but unfortunately life happens. Due to personal reasons, I cannot matriculate next year.

 

[donutzebra]

AAMC is probably closed this Monday
Also, since most SDNers only mention the obvious and never answer the original question of any post, I shall mimic them by advising that you may want to get your panic attacks under control if you have not done so already. Hopefully this one annoying post will prevent one million users on here demanding that you seek help and counselling before you even think about posting on SDN

Why did you apply to med school in the first place? And why did you apply to a school that you didnt really want to go to?

Wow, @bbdylan87 called it. In less than 15 minutes too.

But yeah, I'd call or email admissions and explain your situation. You don't have to tell everyone on SDN, but you might want to tell them the personal reasons you chose to decline the acceptance so they don't think you just flaked on them. Explain that you'd still be really interested in applying to their school in the future and verify that the phone call doesn't count as a formal acceptance.

 

[sadkmladkds]

can you explain the reason it's hard to answer without context

 

[bananafish94]

Does this count as a formal admission that can get me blacklisted if I apply again?

I would guess that it does count as a formal admission. If the dean of admissions offered you an acceptance over the phone, that's pretty formal, even if there's no computer record of it. It would be disingenuous to write that you've never been offered acceptance to a medical school in the future.

Whether or not it would get you "blacklisted" probably depends on the circumstances. I must say, it will look very peculiar to people that you turned down a waitlist offer with no acceptances. That being said, if you have really, really good reason then perhaps people won't care. Can you elaborate at all on why you turned it down?

 

[Oso]

OP, could you just take the acceptance but defer for a year? That way you could start in fall 2019.

 

[PlzHalp005]

I would guess that it does count as a formal admission. If the dean of admissions offered you an acceptance over the phone, that's pretty formal, even if there's no computer record of it. It would be disingenuous to write that you've never been offered acceptance to a medical school in the future.

Whether or not it would get you "blacklisted" probably depends on the circumstances. I must say, it will look very peculiar to people that you turned down a waitlist offer with no acceptances. That being said, if you have really, really good reason then perhaps people won't care. Can you elaborate at all on why you turned it down?

I was told by the dean that I would not receive any official email of an acceptance until Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. So this has me believing that my acceptance would become official by then, but I withdrew immediately after the phone call and was given confirmation by the dean that I have been successfully withdrawn. So basically I was asked if I wanted to get off the waitlist by word of mouth over the phone, how is that an official, formal acceptance?

And my fear is that I will not even get the chance to explain myself, that there will just be a black mark on my application that schools will see and just refuse to interview me or consider my candidacy because of it.

 

[PlzHalp005]

OP, could you just take the acceptance but defer for a year? That way you could start in fall 2019.

No, I am geographically bounded because of this personal ordeal. I will not reapply to this school in the future.

 

[chaim123]

I was told by the dean that I would not receive any official email of an acceptance until Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. So this has me believing that my acceptance would become official by then, but I withdrew immediately after the phone call and was given confirmation by the dean that I have been successfully withdrawn. So basically I was asked if I wanted to get off the waitlist by word of mouth over the phone, how is that an official, formal acceptance?

And my fear is that I will not even get the chance to explain myself, that there will just be a black mark on my application that schools will see and just refuse to interview me or consider my candidacy because of it.

Deep breathes. It's all going to be ok.

When the Dean of Admissions says to you, even on the phone, that they want you to join them, that is considered a formal offer of admission by AAMC traffic rules, to which you have at least 5 days to respond blah blah blah. You chose not to accept, and that is fine. But it's best not to try to craft a new story. In my opinion, whether you say "I was accepted and withdrew" or "I had no offers and withdrew" still leads to the same questions from future adcoms - why didn't you wait and see if you would get an offer?

In the future, you can indicate your applicant status in AMCAS, which occurs per school. So you are only a reapplicant to schools that you have previously applied to.

Now the big question - Is it possible that schools could see in this years Multiple Acceptance Report that you were offered an acceptance and then chose to turn it down? I have no clue. This will depend on how the Dean files this action, and perhaps the ever wise adcoms here can help you more. Maybe he marked an accepted action before he called you, and will withdraw it Tuesday. Or maybe he never got that far.

 

[Goro]

I was on the bottom portion of a waitlist at one of my schools, with almost no chance at acceptance according to the dean of admissions; however, I was asked on the phone this morning "would you like to join our class for next fall?" and I declined on the phone. I unfortunately had to decline due to very personal reasons that I do not want to delve into.

The bolded is your out right there for any prompt that asks for why you turned down an accept.

But a phone call offer doesn't sound like an official accept.

Very sorry to hear of your woes...I hope things turn out better.

 

[PlzHalp005]

Deep breathes. It's all going to be ok.

When the Dean of Admissions says to you, even on the phone, that they want you to join them, that is considered a formal offer of admission by AAMC traffic rules, to which you have at least 5 days to respond blah blah blah. You chose not to accept, and that is fine. But it's best not to try to craft a new story. In my opinion, whether you say "I was accepted and withdrew" or "I had no offers and withdrew" still leads to the same questions from future adcoms - why didn't you wait and see if you would get an offer?

In the future, you can indicate your applicant status in AMCAS, which occurs per school. So you are only a reapplicant to schools that you have previously applied to.

Now the big question - Is it possible that schools could see in this years Multiple Acceptance Report that you were offered an acceptance and then chose to turn it down? I have no clue. This will depend on how the Dean files this action, and perhaps the ever wise adcoms here can help you more. Maybe he marked an accepted action before he called you, and will withdraw it Tuesday. Or maybe he never got that far.

Can any adcoms on here comment about the portion I bolded? What is the general protocol that adcoms go through when admitting someone?

 

[PlzHalp005]

The bolded is your out right there for any prompt that asks for why you turned down an accept.

But a phone call offer doesn't sound like an official accept.

Very sorry to hear of your woes...I hope things turn out better.

It almost certainly isnt a formal acceptance; it sounds like the typical informal phone, especially since it would be for a deferral spot anyway

Thanks Goro, I really appreciate it. These answers ease my mind a bit, thank you. I'll still call and double check with AAMC and the school I withdrew from.

 

[PlzHalp005]

Update: I had a lengthy convo with the dean about my circumstances and he not only assured me that nothing was ever logged into AMCAS, but also offered me great advice. So it turns out that in my case, asking me if I wanted to join the class from the waitlist over the phone didn’t register as a formal offer of acceptance. Now if I would have accepted his offer over the phone and received all of the paperwork and what not, I’m sure my situation would be drastically different.

Thanks to those who offered accurate input and advice on here. The others who offered mere speculation and false input should be more careful in the future and do their research before commenting. If you don’t know the answer to something, simply don’t comment or spread false facts as truth.

 

[bluemamba7]

The others who offered mere speculation and false input should be more careful in the future and do their research before commenting. If you don’t know the answer to something, simply don’t comment or spread false facts as truth.

No one on here claimed to have known the answer or responded saying that you were screwd in any way. You are asking a question to a FORUM with many individuals, so you WILL be getting opinions if you ask a question of any kind. And btw, YOU’RE the one who needs to do more research, not US. The whole point of a forum is to ask the community what they think of your situation, any answer not from an AdCom will be mere speculation. I’m not sure you know how forums work but hopefully you are enlightened and know a bit more now than you did this morning.

 

[Master Thinker]

Is there any chance you can call admissions and see if they can defer your matriculation for a year? Many schools are able to do that.

 

[chaim123]

Is there any chance you can call admissions and see if they can defer your matriculation for a year? Many schools are able to do that.

OP has already commented above that she had a talk with the Admissions Dean at that school, and no formal acceptance was filed.

 

[deleted480308]

Update: I had a lengthy convo with the dean about my circumstances and he not only assured me that nothing was ever logged into AMCAS, but also offered me great advice. So it turns out that in my case, asking me if I wanted to join the class from the waitlist over the phone didn’t register as a formal offer of acceptance. Now if I would have accepted his offer over the phone and received all of the paperwork and what not, I’m sure my situation would be drastically different.

Thanks to those who offered accurate input and advice on here. The others who offered mere speculation and false input should be more careful in the future and do their research before commenting. If you don’t know the answer to something, simply don’t comment or spread false facts as truth.

If you share the reason you think cannot move, you might get some insight about ways it’s more possible than you think