Waitlist Support Group

BU Medical Sciences
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I just got really excited because I thought I had an email in my spam folder that could potentially be from a medical school, but apparently I imagined it. 😛
 
bofocion said:
curious question @gyngyn. You ever pull someone off of your waitlist and then stumble over to SDN only to see that the person is celebrating their new acceptance?
At that point would you just sit back a bit on your chair with a smile on?
Click to expand...

... and what about the opposite? send out a post-interview rejection, see someone post "rejected OOS 3.9/35 🙁" in the school-specific thread and sit back in your chair with an evil smirk...
 
Hi everyone!

I've been following this thread for quite awhile now, and wanted to let you all know that I just got my first acceptance off one of my waitlisted schools!
I interviewed at 4 schools and was waitlisted at all 4 of them this cycle!

Don't lose hope and don't give up! 😍
 
masaraksh said:
... and what about the opposite? send out a post-interview rejection, see someone post "rejected OOS 3.9/35 🙁" in the school-specific thread and sit back in your chair with an evil smirk...
Click to expand...
Never. I have the utmost sympathy for the applicants. I was one once myself.
 
bofocion said:
curious question @gyngyn. You ever pull someone off of your waitlist and then stumble over to SDN only to see that the person is celebrating their new acceptance?
At that point would you just sit back a bit on your chair with a smile on?
Click to expand...
Hah! Funny!
 
gobigorgohome22 said:
I dont understand how you had to go through two cycles!! You have good stats and average EC.. You also applied to a good bit of schools! Have you started calling to get feedback?
Click to expand...

I think God just hates me lol.

Met with a head of admissions at a top/mid tier school and she said she thinks I'm just the worlds unluckiest applicant. Also met another adcom at the same school that thought I would have a 50% chance at that school, and a fanatstic chance of getting into a school in general.

I dont know I dont know :/
 
none of the schools I am on had any significant moves yet... frustrated and panicking at the same time. show me some love! :/
 
Mercer is moving apparently. According to the thread they have 300 on the waitlist and have accepted 24 and are expecting to only get down to 50 which means my chances are basically nil.

@nabilesmail you don't get that title, I am the world's unluckiest applicant. I was even rejected at an international medical school.
 
Ditto to the acceptance dreams. Been happening pretty often this month in general. The first time I woke up in the middle of the night and was so pissed I couldn't fall back asleep.
 
It's been hard to fall asleep these days, yet I find myself waking up in the morning to check my email every 5 minutes haha... I did find some solace in deciding not to reapply this cycle though. I want to take the time to prepare for a convincing reapplication... and to mainly accumulate enough savings to cast a wider net.
 
Solaire said:
It's been hard to fall asleep these days, yet I find myself waking up in the morning to check my email every 5 minutes haha... I did find some solace in deciding not to reapply this cycle though. I want to take the time to prepare for a convincing reapplication... and to mainly accumulate enough savings to cast a wider net.
Click to expand...
I like that idea! (If you're not older and can spare the time.)
 
Had a dream last night about receiving a call and got accepted off waitlist.....it was so real!
Woke up and checked my email....................of course it was just a dream :\
 
Turd_Ferguson said:
Hey folks, a week or so ago I was on 4 waitlists with no acceptances. This week I am at 3 acceptances. I know it's awful to be in waitlist purgatory, but try not to get too bummed out. Lots of movement still to happen!
Click to expand...

I approve of your name and your avatar. And the acceptances.
 
What's the deal with people sending in letters of intent and having success? I just don't see how that can work if you aren't holding any acceptances.

"Dear Dean,

I fully intend to matriculate at your school for various reasons. I know I'm not holding any acceptances, but let me tell you: I really will come to your school."

No ****.

Like, I can understand if you're holding an acceptance and using that as a bargaining chip. "Look Dean, I've already been accepted to this other program, but I assure you that I will come to your program." That seems like it would hold a lot more weight.

Really, I'm just mad I didn't send in letters of intent earlier.
 
Donald Kimball said:
What's the deal with people sending in letters of intent and having success? I just don't see how that can work if you aren't holding any acceptances.

"Dear Dean,

I fully intend to matriculate at your school for various reasons. I know I'm not holding any acceptances, but let me tell you: I really will come to your school."

No ****.

Like, I can understand if you're holding an acceptance and using that as a bargaining chip. "Look Dean, I've already been accepted to this other program, but I assure you that I will come to your program." That seems like it would hold a lot more weight.

Really, I'm just mad I didn't send in letters of intent earlier.
Click to expand...

I had no acceptances last year and sent in a LOI to my only waitlist because I thought it would help my case. Two weeks later, when waitlist movement began, they accepted a bunch of people on SDN who were already holding an acceptance. Most of them said they didn't send a LOI. It was then that I figured LOI's are probably useless.
 
Yeah, I think LOIs don't mean nearly as much as we think/would like them to. But when every little bit helps, we might as well do it. (Of course, sense should be used so that that little bit actually does end up helping.)
 
Donald Kimball said:
What's the deal with people sending in letters of intent and having success? I just don't see how that can work if you aren't holding any acceptances.

"Dear Dean,

I fully intend to matriculate at your school for various reasons. I know I'm not holding any acceptances, but let me tell you: I really will come to your school."

No ****.

Like, I can understand if you're holding an acceptance and using that as a bargaining chip. "Look Dean, I've already been accepted to this other program, but I assure you that I will come to your program." That seems like it would hold a lot more weight.

Really, I'm just mad I didn't send in letters of intent earlier.
Click to expand...

Your logic is correct. A school that you're waitlisted at and sees that you have no acceptances won't be swayed by a letter of intent. If a person who sends that happens to be accepted, it had very little to do with the letter. They already know that you'll come if accepted.

Most adcoms on this forum feel that a letter of intent is not helpful since as the cycle goes on, applicants are willing to say anything to get in, even if it means going back on their word later on since a letter of intent is technically non-binding. There have been several school specific threads already about this where people wrote those letters to a school early on and now they are contemplating choosing a different school. And so an adcom's view of these letters is completely understandable. If I were an adcom and year after year, students "guaranteed" that they would come if accepted and them after getting accepted, chose someplace else, I'd stop taking those letters seriously.

Sucks that it is the way that it is, but don't beat yourself up about it. If you are currently on waitlists only, @gyngyn would probably agree that not sending in a letter of intent didn't hurt you at all.
 
Nearly a week since May 15th. Still no sign of being accepted off any of the 5 waitlists I'm on, even for one school that usually has a quick-moving waitlist.

It's only 6 days after the big day, but I'm already getting kinda bummed. The dreaded thought of reapplication has already crossed my mind a bit. 🙁
 
neilpryde21 said:
Your logic is correct. A school that you're waitlisted at and sees that you have no acceptances won't be swayed by a letter of intent. If a person who sends that happens to be accepted, it had very little to do with the letter. They already know that you'll come if accepted.

Most adcoms on this forum feel that a letter of intent is not helpful since as the cycle goes on, applicants are willing to say anything to get in, even if it means going back on their word later on since a letter of intent is technically non-binding. There have been several school specific threads already about this where people wrote those letters to a school early on and now they are contemplating choosing a different school. And so an adcom's view of these letters is completely understandable. If I were an adcom and year after year, students "guaranteed" that they would come if accepted and them after getting accepted, chose someplace else, I'd stop taking those letters seriously.

Sucks that it is the way that it is, but don't beat yourself up about it. If you are currently on waitlists only, @gyngyn would probably agree that not sending in a letter of intent didn't hurt you at all.
Click to expand...

I know it's anecdotal, but I'm matriculating at my top choice after sending a letter of intent (disclaimer: there were also significant research accomplishments in this letter). This was the only "top 10" school I even interviewed at, and I really believe that sending a letter of intent significantly helped with me getting off the waitlist.

I have a hard time believing that letters of intent are completely useless. That being said, I think they are exploited too often, which is a shame. I thought for a long time before sending mine, and only after I realized that I'd pay full price to be at my top choice over a potential scholarship at any other school.
 
Amba said:
I know it's anecdotal, but I'm matriculating at my top choice after sending a letter of intent (disclaimer: there were also significant research accomplishments in this letter). This was the only "top 10" school I even interviewed at, and I really believe that sending a letter of intent significantly helped with me getting off the waitlist.

I have a hard time believing that letters of intent are completely useless. That being said, I think they are exploited too often, which is a shame. I thought for a long time before sending mine, and only after I realized that I'd pay full price to be at my top choice over a potential scholarship at any other school.
Click to expand...

but you also already had several acceptances, which is a different scenario than the one they are talking about if you have no acceptances.
 
Turd_Ferguson said:
Hey folks, a week or so ago I was on 4 waitlists with no acceptances. This week I am at 3 acceptances. I know it's awful to be in waitlist purgatory, but try not to get too bummed out. Lots of movement still to happen!
Click to expand...

Grats dude.

I hope this happens to all of us. Multiple acceptances, multiple options, and then when we decide, we free up more spots for our fellow brothers and sisters who are also anxiously waiting.
 
Amba said:
I know it's anecdotal, but I'm matriculating at my top choice after sending a letter of intent (disclaimer: there were also significant research accomplishments in this letter). This was the only "top 10" school I even interviewed at, and I really believe that sending a letter of intent significantly helped with me getting off the waitlist.

I have a hard time believing that letters of intent are completely useless. That being said, I think they are exploited too often, which is a shame. I thought for a long time before sending mine, and only after I realized that I'd pay full price to be at my top choice over a potential scholarship at any other school.
Click to expand...

First off, CONGRATS!! Not trying to be creepy lol but I've been reading your posts on the forum throughout the year so I'm happy for you!

I guess it was more in regards to the "waitlist" only letter of intent. I suspect that they treat Letters of intent like letters of interest in that it signals to them that there's a good chance that if accepted, this student will come here but they don't treat it as though if accepted, that spot is guaranteed to stay filled into the matriculating class. Whether the Letter of interest helps at all, that is more dependent on the individual school.

I think it comes down to the fact that if they don't like your app following your interview, no letter is going to get you in but if you are in a pool of applicants that they liked, then a letter of interest might give you an edge over someone who hasn't said anything. Still though, that is going to be among the applicants that they already were leaning towards accepting, not just anyone post-interview. Anyways, fingers crossed for everyone like myself on the waitlist!

Edit: also, shout out to @cybermaxx12 for making this thread to begin with. Hopefully we'll hear good news from UCLA this week!
 
Here's a question for @gyngyn: Do you even bother to read or even give a quick lookover to LOI's and similar letters?
 
MedGuy692 said:
Nearly a week since May 15th. Still no sign of being accepted off any of the 5 waitlists I'm on, even for one school that usually has a quick-moving waitlist.

It's only 6 days after the big day, but I'm already getting kinda bummed. The dreaded thought of reapplication has already crossed my mind a bit. 🙁
Click to expand...

Ditto. 5 WL, no significant movement, at least with SDN reports... I did have an interview for a post-bacc as my backup plan but I'm still stressed about not getting in this cycle. :scared:
 
pDeluxe said:
Ditto. 5 WL, no significant movement, at least with SDN reports... I did have an interview for a post-bacc as my backup plan but I'm still stressed about not getting in this cycle. :scared:
Click to expand...

Are you sure you want to do a postbac? Do you need it for your GPA?

I'm asking because if you got 5 IIs then perhaps you can strengthen your app (if you need to reap) without having to pay money for a postbac.
 
masaraksh said:
Are you sure you want to do a postbac? Do you need it for your GPA?

I'm asking because if you got 5 IIs then perhaps you can strengthen your app (if you need to reap) without having to pay money for a postbac.
Click to expand...
Well, my GPA is probably the weakest part of my application. I have tons of clinical experience, good MCAT, decent research experience, pretty good/interesting ECs. My primary app was submitted the first day AMCAS opened, verified within 10 days, although my MCAT score wasnt released until late July (but that's still reasonable). For awhile I though I was just a terrible interviewer (even though I used to interview competitively - where my Academic Decathletes at?), but feedback from schools tend to point to the idea that - as UC Irvine put it best - I need time to "get acclimated to the learning environment they will be faced with in medical school". I figure a post-bacc is my best bet to do that (and, if accepted, it would be at UCSF with a 92% success rate).
 
Hi,

What is the best way of getting feedback from schools? I'm on 5 waitlists right now, but am slowly putting together my AMCAS application. Did you email? Call? I've been in touch with the deans at two of the schools (sending them updates/interest letters), so maybe I should just email them letting them know I'm getting ready to reapply?

Best of luck to you!

pDeluxe said:
Well, my GPA is probably the weakest part of my application. I have tons of clinical experience, good MCAT, decent research experience, pretty good/interesting ECs. My primary app was submitted the first day AMCAS opened, verified within 10 days, although my MCAT score wasnt released until late July (but that's still reasonable). For awhile I though I was just a terrible interviewer (even though I used to interview competitively - where my Academic Decathletes at?), but feedback from schools tend to point to the idea that - as UC Irvine put it best - I need time to "get acclimated to the learning environment they will be faced with in medical school". I figure a post-bacc is my best bet to do that (and, if accepted, it would be at UCSF with a 92% success rate).
Click to expand...
 
eljois said:
Hi,

What is the best way of getting feedback from schools? I'm on 5 waitlists right now, but am slowly putting together my AMCAS application. Did you email? Call? I've been in touch with the deans at two of the schools (sending them updates/interest letters), so maybe I should just email them letting them know I'm getting ready to reapply?

Best of luck to you!
Click to expand...
I haven't asked for feedback from my WL schools, just from the ones that rejected me. I did so with a polite call to the schools asking if they were able to provide any feedback for my application; some obliged while others did not.
 
pDeluxe said:
I haven't asked for feedback from my WL schools, just from the ones that rejected me. I did so with a polite call to the schools asking if they were able to provide any feedback for my application; some obliged while others did not.
Click to expand...

I'm planning on doing this on Thursday or Friday of this week, I'll probably keep a list of who is responsive and who isn't for the reapp forum.
 
juliuspepperwood said:
I'm planning on doing this on Thursday or Friday of this week, I'll probably keep a list of who is responsive and who isn't for the reapp forum.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to your results. I haven't thought to ask for feedback from schools that didn't interview me since I'm not sure if they will offer much help.

All the schools where I interviewed are so far "waitlists", so I can't exactly get feedback from them yet either and I really want to ask these schools for feedback since I think it would be the most valuable. One of my WLs is UVA and I actually emailed UVA last week - since from what I gathered from the forums their WL is essentially a rejection - but they responded with a "you are the WL so you are still an active candidate! 🙂. can't give you feedback yet".C'mon... like they will randomly give me an acceptance.
 
Is it a "bad" sign if I have not received a response from an adcom operations specialist after sending an email about 7 weeks ago? The message was an inquiry about whether or not the school accepted LOI's, or any additional info (outside class grades, new scores). I had called the school twice before without being able to talk to someone who could give me info on that. I don't want to be the "annoying" applicant. Any advice/insight?
 
Dr Curitas said:
Is it a "bad" sign if I have not received a response from an adcom operations specialist after sending an email about 7 weeks ago? The message was an inquiry about whether or not the school accepted LOI's, or any additional info (outside class grades, new scores). I had called the school twice before without being able to talk to someone who could give me info on that. I don't want to be the "annoying" applicant. Any advice/insight?
Click to expand...

I would say it cannot hurt to try again or to just email one. It has been nearly 2 months.
 
Dr Curitas said:
Is it a "bad" sign if I have not received a response from an adcom operations specialist after sending an email about 7 weeks ago? The message was an inquiry about whether or not the school accepted LOI's, or any additional info (outside class grades, new scores). I had called the school twice before without being able to talk to someone who could give me info on that. I don't want to be the "annoying" applicant. Any advice/insight?
Click to expand...

Have you tried asking on the school specific thread?
 
Amba said:
I know it's anecdotal, but I'm matriculating at my top choice after sending a letter of intent (disclaimer: there were also significant research accomplishments in this letter). This was the only "top 10" school I even interviewed at, and I really believe that sending a letter of intent significantly helped with me getting off the waitlist.

I have a hard time believing that letters of intent are completely useless. That being said, I think they are exploited too often, which is a shame. I thought for a long time before sending mine, and only after I realized that I'd pay full price to be at my top choice over a potential scholarship at any other school.
Click to expand...

Dude how did I miss this??? Congratulations!!!! :clap: I know how much you wanted to go oos for med school and I'm psyched to see that you're headed to one of the best programs in the country!!! Congratulations on getting exactly what you've worked so hard for all of these years!!!
 
terp720 said:
but you also already had several acceptances, which is a different scenario than the one they are talking about if you have no acceptances.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I was just disagreeing with the general attitude of SDN towards letters of intent since the conversation was shifting in that direction.
 
neilpryde21 said:
First off, CONGRATS!! Not trying to be creepy lol but I've been reading your posts on the forum throughout the year so I'm happy for you!

I guess it was more in regards to the "waitlist" only letter of intent. I suspect that they treat Letters of intent like letters of interest in that it signals to them that there's a good chance that if accepted, this student will come here but they don't treat it as though if accepted, that spot is guaranteed to stay filled into the matriculating class. Whether the Letter of interest helps at all, that is more dependent on the individual school.

I think it comes down to the fact that if they don't like your app following your interview, no letter is going to get you in but if you are in a pool of applicants that they liked, then a letter of interest might give you an edge over someone who hasn't said anything. Still though, that is going to be among the applicants that they already were leaning towards accepting, not just anyone post-interview. Anyways, fingers crossed for everyone like myself on the waitlist!

Edit: also, shout out to @cybermaxx12 for making this thread to begin with. Hopefully we'll hear good news from UCLA this week!
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I really do appreciate it. Also, I agree with pretty much everything you said. There are actually some schools that explicitly state that when considering who to take from the waitlist, frequency of contact and interest is a potential factor (I know that Northwestern is like this).
 
cybermaxx12 said:
Dude how did I miss this??? Congratulations!!!! :clap: I know how much you wanted to go oos for med school and I'm psyched to see that you're headed to one of the best programs in the country!!! Congratulations on getting exactly what you've worked so hard for all of these years!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks dude!!! It's been almost a week and I'm still on cloud nine 😀 I'm just incredibly grateful to be able to matriculate at my top choice. Even though the waiting was terrible, I think I appreciated the acceptance much, much more than I would have if I had been accepted outright.

Good luck to both you and @neilpryde21 with UCLA! Where else are you waiting on?
 
with being on the waitlist and having to resist the urge to send continuous letters of interest or call every other day to check to see if things are moving, all in the interest of not wanting to be "that annoying applicant," I have actually begun to wonder if there such a thing as calling too much or "showing too much interest"?

@gyngyn @LizzyM could you maybe share a story or option about a past applicant who has been very interested/a little too pushy? what was your impression of them at that time and what was the outcome?
 
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