Who has the worst med school admissions office?

[zurned]

So, which school do you guys think have the meanest, most unhelpful, most unreliable, rudest, ppl working in the admissions office? Any bad experiences from calling them up to ask a question or during your visit to the school?

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[doctorFred]

temple more or less tells you to shove your status inquiry up your ass.

 

[zurned]

I vote for stony brook btw. They just sound cold and unwilling to help, even though they're still among my top choices.

 

[-Goose-]

temple more or less tells you to shove your status inquiry up your ass.

hahaha! so true!

 

[justskipee]

most of them have serious issues: understaffed, undertrained, and overly gum-drop shaped.

 

[DNM503]

temple more or less tells you to shove your status inquiry up your ass.

This is even better...I interviewed at Temple (was actually A LOT more impressed than I thought I would be), and I was accepted. A few weeks after the acceptance letter, they sent me a letter with a "password" to their online system. But the online system also requires a user name. The letter did not give me one, and my user name for the application process didn't work. So...I called the office to see what it was, and they told me that they had too many other things going on at the moment, and it wasn't important for me to be worrying about it right now. Basically...they totally blew me off AFTER they accepted me. Needless to say, I will not be Temple Med Class of 2010.

 

[tkdusb]

I saw the title and immediately thought Temple. Lo and behold I'm not alone in not loving them.

P.S. - NYU is worse than Temple.

 

[angietron3000]

I never had any problems with Temple but UCI always seemed really mean on the phone and in emails. Plus, it took them 4 months post secondary to put me on hold! meanies!

 

[C.P. Jones]

i didn't apply to temple

penn state

 

[bigdan]

Z-

Maybe you got the wrong office...SB's folks are fantastic. (Disclosure: I go to SB).

Howard has by far the worst admissions office that I dealt with. They sent me my letter saying "You must submit your secondary fee for your file to be complete"...and in the same envelope was a letter thanking me for my secondary and my money, asking me to come interview. BOTH the letters had the application year crossed out and re-written in ink. I called to ask about it, and that was a debacle.

dc

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Penn State definitely gets my vote

 

[jon0013]

definitely temple....rude as can be

 

[PurpleHaze]

Toss up: Penn State and Howard

 

[drmota]

temple duh. penn state is trailing temple's ass though...
-mota

 

[Faust]

mount sinai.

columbia too, i told them rat bastards to withdraw my application and told them that I hate rugby while I was at it.

 

[silas2642]

temple more or less tells you to shove your status inquiry up your ass.

I second temple. They're mean and completely unhelpful. Makes me NOT want to got there.

 

[medhacker]

the letters had the application year crossed out and re-written in ink. I called to ask about it, and that was a debacle.

dc

Crossing out and rewriting would be the least of my worries. They seem seriously understaffed, it worries me

 

[gdbaby]

Hmmm. I am putting Colorado up here because (1) they don't contact you and (2) when you contact them, they only tell you to check the status page, which is useless. I am not sure what definition of "status" they are using, but they should beat the crap out of the company that sold them their "status" system. it won't even post that your letters are in until after you have been offered an interview--and it certainly doesn't post that.

I feel better now.

 

[bubbleyum]

i have been too afraid to call up temple after all the stories i've heard here, so have no personal experiences.
but the most UNREACHABLE from my own personal experience seems to be tufts. every time i call it goes straight to voicemail, even during their "calling hours."

 

[tacrum43]

Penn State definitely gets my vote

Really? When I called the lady I talked to was very nice.

I haven't tried calling Temple, and I don't plan on it now.

 

[chaeymaey]

i have been too afraid to call up temple after all the stories i've heard here, so have no personal experiences.
but the most UNREACHABLE from my own personal experience seems to be tufts. every time i call it goes straight to voicemail, even during their "calling hours."

I had the same experience with Tufts. Although, after I called them they sent a response via snail mail about my question. It seems like it would have been easier to just call me back.

 

[RayhanS1282]

I vote for stony brook btw. They just sound cold and unwilling to help, even though they're still among my top choices.

I would like to add Downstate as the second sucky SUNY admissions office.

 

[Vizsla]

I had the same experience with Tufts. Although, after I called them they sent a response via snail mail about my question. It seems like it would have been easier to just call me back.

HAHAHA..they really are serious when they say all correspondence is via snail-mail...As for Temple, the woman I spoke with had a serious attitude problem. I asked someone at Maryland's admissions if an update letter I sent had been received and she told me to check my online status. Even after telling her that it wouldn't show up online because it wasnt a letter of recommendation, she stuck with her story of "check your status online" (I did check like a fool and it of course did not show up on my status page). What's the use of speaking with live human beings if they are just going to mimic recordings. Ive given up on checking my status at schools (except Ros Franklin bc theyre really good about it) since I just end up getting a "check youre status online" or "your file is in review"....my file must be pretty damn interesting to be reviewed that long...

 

[Jon Davis]

My vote goes to Penn State too. I think that lady is just plain cold.

 

[shuey123]

I vote for stony brook btw. They just sound cold and unwilling to help, even though they're still among my top choices.

From my experience I actually thought they were very warm and helpful

 

[pallcare]

My vote goes to Penn State too. I think that lady is just plain cold.

ditto, penn state

 

[CerealBox]

the interview scheduler at georgetown was really rude to me. and then when i met him in person he was a total tool too. yuk. i don't like him or his school

 

[Em1]

Even though it's not a school, I'd like to add AMCAS.

I had questions about a number of things pertaining to unique situations of mine (meaning different from the help section descriptions). After reading the help section and not finding the answers I needed, I emailed them and got back... you guessed it... quotes from the help section! It's like a computer saw the phrase "study abroad" in my email and automatically sent the useless message.

 

[Flopotomist]

Temple wins, hands down. I wish their people would take a look at how horrible the people that answer the phones make the school look.

NYU I had 1/2 nasty, 1/2 nice people on the phone.

everywhere else has been at least reasonable.

 

[drmota]

HA. i just got an e-mail from Temple in response to an e-mail i sent them on NOVEMBER 3RD. thats 6 weeks ago. worst...admissions...office...EVER
-mota

 

[DrKitty]

While I have been too afraid to call Temple about my status due to all the rumors, NYMC has been the meanest to me on the phone. The woman I tried to talk to was an dingus, and kept repeating to me the same thing "applications are reviewed once a month". Bitch

 

[pagemmapants]

Col-freaking-umbia.

 

[jbrice1639]

Even though it's not a school, I'd like to add AMCAS.

I had questions about a number of things pertaining to unique situations of mine (meaning different from the help section descriptions). After reading the help section and not finding the answers I needed, I emailed them and got back... you guessed it... quotes from the help section! It's like a computer saw the phrase "study abroad" in my email and automatically sent the useless message.

i called amcas when i had some trouble with them back in the summer, and they were actually very pleasant and very helpful on the phone. i agree that the email "help" is a joke though...definitely best to bypass it and just call them in person.

 

[almost_there]

I wonder what some of these med schools would think if they knew their admissions office or handling of applicants was turning off potential students to the school... I'm sure that isn't what the heads of med schools want.

any comments?

 

[MollyMalone]

It would be interesting, to say the least. I'm all in favor of treating this thread as a nomination, moving on to an offical poll, keeping said poll open for a week or so, looking at the results, and then having somebody write anonymous letters to the dean of admissions and the dean of the school of the top three schools, including a hard copy of the results and any comments.

Seriously. There's power in numbers, we should take advantage of it. I bet it's easy to write off individual feedback as sour grapes, but it's harder to disregard a poll in which 75 premeds voted you the worst admissions office of all.

I think it would be fascinating to see if we got any kind of official response (heh). And I don't even have anything in this, personally, I thought all the offices I interacted with were lovely.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

i called amcas when i had some trouble with them back in the summer, and they were actually very pleasant and very helpful on the phone. i agree that the email "help" is a joke though...definitely best to bypass it and just call them in person.

yeah, I agree! the AMCAS guy I got on the phone was REALLY nice... I was really afraid that I'd be forced to resubmit my AMCAS due to errors, and so he told me what the top 10 errors were that caused them to not process applications... and that they allowed for up to 9 AMCAS corrections, etc. very reassuring guy.

 

[jebus]

i agree that the email "help" is a joke though...definitely best to bypass it and just call them in person.

It's not just the AMCAS email help, it's the AAMC.
I emailed them because I wanted to sign up for the August MCAT with like a week left in the "late-now-you-pay-extra-for-the-opportunity-so-grease-up-and-bend-over" signing period (that might not be the actual name) but the website wasn't working. I tried 4 computers, 3 OSs, 4 different web-browser programs and I couldn't sign up. So I emailed them and after like 3 days they told me "well, we only support windows and internet explorer so why did you try anything else?" And I still couldn't sign up! I emailed them again and I guess I got like the one decent guy who works there and he was like "yeah, we've been having database problems for the past few days, try now." Is it too much to ask to not to be jerked around? I mean, you've got the astroglide out, just get it over with and tell me what's going on! And be gentle, it's not like I'm going to enjoy it....

 

[tigress]

TEMPLE!!!! Hands down, no doubt about it. It felt SO good to write them an email withdrawing my application. I even mentioned in the email that their admissions staff is very rude. I can't say I'm the least bit sorry that I withdrew, either.

Penn State is pretty nice on the phone, and in person also, but what they actually SAY doesn't make any sense. They're willing to give you answers, but the answers are complete nonsense -- stuff like "The committee meets every 6 weeks. We have 2 committees and one meets every month." um...yeah. I was also told once that my decision letter would arrive "four to six or six to eight weeks" after my interview. Okay, which is it? lol...In the end it was 9 weeks, I think!

Still, Penn State was just exasperating. Temple is plain MEAN.