Wash U Waitlist???

[felipe5]

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Anyone else currently on the waitlist (or ever have been)??? If so, could anyone shed any light on how the Wash U waitlist works??? I'm currently on it, and even though I had lunch with Dean Walters (where he enigmatically explained the waitlist), I'm still confused as ever. All I know is that it is non-ranked, and thats about it.

Any thoughts???

 

[jjmack]

I'm on. I have no idea whether it is ranked or not though. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed I get the call. If not I may be reapplying.

 

[mlw03]

i'm on the waitlist too.

jj: if you've gotten in elsewhere, make sure you know what you're doing before reapplying. we've all heard horror stories of candidates getting blacklisted effectively for turning down a school just to try again at another one.

Originally posted by jjmack
I'm on. I have no idea whether it is ranked or not though. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed I get the call. If not I may be reapplying.

 

[jjmack]

Well if I get blacklisted I'll just do something else. I don't need to be a doctor to be happy. Quite honestly I want to be a doctor more than anything, but when I look at it honetly and talk to many friends who have been doctors for a long time or who just finished their fellowship I am almost certain it is not the best profession to be the happest. Also I haven't heard many blacklist storeis and if it ever happened to me the AMCAS would be very unhappy because there whole system in my mind is on very shakey ground like the match system which is being challenged in a class action.

 

[Lochmoor]

Wait JJ, so are you even certian you want to be a doctor?? To turn down an acceptance elsewhere because you didn't get into a top 5 school seems a bit extreme.

(If you are still waiting on an acceptance, that changes everything then and you can disreguard my message.)

As for the residency match, the current system is better than the previous system. Before people would get offers that were binding on a rolling basis. If you turned the offer down, you may never get another offer. If you took the position, you'd wonder if it was the best residency you could have gotten. Currently the major dispute is residency pay, there's no competiton among programs for getting the best by buying them. For the most part residents get paid the same.

You have obviously done very well in school to have gotten this far into the process.

Best,
Lochmoor

 

[jjmack]

It's not that I only want to go to a top five program. I'm actually an MD/PhD applicant (thought MD waitlister at Wash U) and got into one good program. I have a couple of problems with it though. I don't really want to live in the area where the school is and the research that is there while good doesn't suite what I want to study. I know it's probably my own fault for not researching the program enough. Why whould I want to force myself to go to a school I don't want to go to for 6-? years of my life when there are people who would cut off their own arm to have my seat? I don't see any harm in reapplying.

 

[Lochmoor]

I understand your point. I'm in a similar boat. The current school I am accepted to is a great medical school, but the location is horrible. It is extremely primary care oriented (~1/5 of each class year goes into family practice). There is no problem with primary care except I want to specailize in oncology. I'm going to attend next year, because reapplying would mean 1 more year not in med school--i'm taking a year off now and I would risk ending up going to same school anyway.

Technically there really is no harm in reapplying. However, med schools may not view it that way. They may see it as a lack of motivation to be a doctor--thus the blacklist idea.

I do not think there are many stories of people declining an acceptance and reapplying the next year because almost no one does it.

I hope you chose to go next year, but if not make sure you are absolutely absolutely certian you understand and are willing to take the risk. Also, call your school your accepted to and see what their policy is--they may have no problem with you reapplying while deferring.

Anyway, I just hate to see someon make a decision that has the potential to wreak havoc on their future.