What should I be expecting in the next few months?

[nevele08]

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[PatchA]

I think it's hard to say you should be "expecting" anything. You could very well get more interviews, but you could also not.

I do think you should currently be working to improve your application and should continue to do so until you have a 'yes'.

You don't mention your EC's. what are they like? You need research for the top schools you applied to. What about volunteering? Clinical experience? Shadowing? Have you done a significant amount of all of those? Did you match your application to schools that place importance on what you bring to the table or did you just look at statistics?

What was the outcome of the 1st interview?

What you can do now is work on a plan b and prep for those interviews. At the interview, you are competing with yourself. An interview means you have the stats to go to that school but you need to be a good fit for the program. Look up the questions they ask, figure out what you'll talk about (no canned answers, but prepping will help you sound prepared and articulate.)

"Interviews 3, a doctor you'll be." But, at the end of the day, what you can actually do now is prep for the interviews and for a new cycle until you get in or reapply.

 

[aldol16]

I was wondering what I should be expecting from these next few months. Will I receive more IIs? Should I be considering alternative options if I do not get accepted anywhere this cycle? Do medical schools generally disfavor students applying straight out of college? Was I in over my head from the beginning? Any feedback would be appreciated.

So as you admit, your list is pretty top-heavy - especially given your MCAT. Whether or not the February interviews are a bad thing depends on whether the school has rolling admissions and when you received the II. It's true that most of the top schools tend to hand out IIs to their top applicants early on in the cycle. So a Feb. date might not be bad if you got the II earlier on. If they were recent, is the school rolling? If so, you will be competing for fewer spots than earlier interviewees and it'll be inherently more difficult. But there are many people who interview past the new year and get in to great schools. And many top schools are still extending IIs. Remember, you only need one acceptance and you'll be a doctor.

Med schools don't really "disfavor" applicants applying straight out of college and at the top schools, the matriculating class is usually something like 1/3 straight from college, 1/3 with one year off, 1/3 with more than one year off. Your application is viewed holistically, so for many applicants, they are already very strong applicants straight out of college and taking gap year(s) would not strengthen their application substantially. So they apply straight through. For others, an added year of grades, honors, etc. as well as gap year(s) experiences will strengthen their application greatly. So they take those years and apply. If you applied when your candidacy was strongest, I don't think there's cause to worry about this because 1) you're only competing against yourself and gap years wouldn't help that much if you're already very very strong and 2) there's nothing you can do about that now.

 

[Goro]

You shouldn't be expecting anything, but starting your Plan B.

I applied to ~30 MD schools, with secondaries submitted between mid-July and mid-August. My stats are strong but not mind-blowing (GPA: 3.8, MCAT: 515), I go to a Top 10 college, and I have strong extracurriculars (hospital volunteering, shadowing, leadership positions, teaching, and research-- all with hundreds of hours).

My school list is admittedly quite top heavy. I applied to many Top 20 schools (Harvard, Penn, UCLA, UCSF, Stanford, etc), but I also made sure to add about a dozen schools where my GPA/MCAT was at or above the median (Stony Brook, Tulane, Albert Einstein, UMiami, Rochester, Dartmouth, etc).

So far, my process has been: 3 IIs, 14 rejections, 1 hold, and 14 silences (many of which are from non-rolling schools that silently reject).

This process has been quite discouraging for me. I was recently rejected from one of my top-choice medical schools post-II, and my other two interviews are not until early February, which is not a great time to be interviewing from what I've heard. Most people (advisors, professors, etc.) I've talked to told me about how I shouldn't be worried with the stats I have, but my many rejections seem to contradict that.

To be completely honest, I really did expect better results from the applications I sent in. I have strong secondaries and primary statement (all read over by several people), LORs from professors that I am extremely close with, and a comprehensive resume. Receiving all of these rejections has been incredibly disappointing to say the least.

I was wondering what I should be expecting from these next few months. Will I receive more IIs? Should I be considering alternative options if I do not get accepted anywhere this cycle? Do medical schools generally disfavor students applying straight out of college? Was I in over my head from the beginning? Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Pusheen]

Hey, just wanted to give some encouragement. My stats are identical to yours, I was complete in September and have had 4 interview invites, all in the first month after completion and nothing since then. I was honestly expecting a few more myself, but I think our experience is pretty common. Top schools have a lot of excellent superstar applicants, the mid tier schools you listed are quite competitive as well due to location and an abundance of good-but-not-mind blowing applicants like us.
Be patient for the next few months and do some interview prep for your February interviews, plenty of people get interviewed and accepted in the new year. Out of curiosity, what state are you from and what schools interviewed you?