Medical When should I email med school post-II for feedback?

[Question]

Hello! I recently received a rejection from a competitive MD school where I interviewed. I thought the interview went well, but am not that surprised given how many excellent applicants I am competing against.

I was hoping to email the admissions office to ask for feedback -- I am particularly worried that something went wrong with my interview, even though I felt like it went well, and hope to learn from my mistakes for residency interviews (which will come in 4-5 years).

Is it a good idea to reach out to the admissions office? Thank you!

— Experts please respond to this post —

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[Mr.Smile12]

Damn... that's disappointing. Do you have another acceptance on hand?

If it's the admissions office I think you want feedback from, I'm going to doubt they will say anything other than what is perfunctory. MMI format is a great format for the evaluators and for fairness to the candidates, but it also doesn't help in giving you any specific feedback. Ideally someone gets rejected after an MMI due to an overall performance across at least a few stations. It is also possible you did fine, but in final deliberations your application didn't make the grade. Of course, it is a luck of the draw; given a different set of MMI questions or evaluators, you might have done okay to avoid a rejection. But I have a pretty good idea that office and adcom leaders understand they reject a lot of great people who will likely be doctors. It's certainly an odd consolation prize to be interviewed, but it is.

 

[Dral]

I don't think it will hurt to contact them in a polite manner. They may not respond or may not give much helpful information, but I don't think it will hurt to reach out.

If you have a concern about your interview style, you could reach out to your school's premed program to see if they have any resources to help. I think people used to look into toastmasters to help with this sort of thing, but I'm not sure where they are at with the pandemic.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Won't hurt but as others have said I would not be surprised or offended if you get surface-level feedback.

 

[gyngyn]

A school can only lose by giving you frank feedback.
That's why it's usually generic advice that could apply to anyone without the risk of offending.
It helps avoid frivolous lawsuits and calls from angry parents.
The schools who do give feedback will often ask that you wait until the end of the cycle.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

You likely don’t get anything useful from them

 

[PerioDont]

you can ask if it makes you feel good, but they may or may not respond

 

[Goro]

Hello! I recently received a rejection from a competitive MD school where I interviewed. I thought the interview went well, but am not that surprised given how many excellent applicants I am competing against.

I was hoping to email the admissions office to ask for feedback -- I am particularly worried that something went wrong with my interview, even though I felt like it went well, and hope to learn from my mistakes for residency interviews (which will come in 4-5 years).

Is it a good idea to reach out to the admissions office? Thank you!

— Experts please respond to this post —

Do so at the end of the cycle.