Has anyone known of a situation where an applicant withdraws post-interview from programs they realized were not a great fit? I've interviewed at ~8 programs and realized that a couple of them I would not be very happy at (faculty I was interested in are retiring and/or the location isn't what I thought) but have yet to hear back from them. My family is suggesting I wait and see but I know getting an acceptance and then withdrawing is a black mark on a potential future application. I am wondering if its a bad idea to withdraw from the programs that are a bad fit considering I have a below average GPA which is definitely the biggest weakness of my application (3.55ish). I'm about to submit a first author paper and just received a top abstract research award, so if I had to reapply these would probably be the main changes to my application.
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Withdrawing before acceptance?
Started by SoberPony
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If it was your only acceptance, would you attend that program? If so, then don't withdraw. If you wouldn't attend there even with an acceptance, then withdraw ASAP. Once you get your first acceptance from the group of 6 programs that were better than the other 2, withdraw before acceptance (WB; or rejection), as it seems that any of those 6 is a better fit for you. At that point, you will send an email indicating that you are WB due to receiving an acceptance at a program that better fits your research interest (see a sample email in a prior post in Comments thread).
If you know you are not going to matriculate, we WANT you to withdraw. We have great applicants on our wait list and have very specific numbers that we have to hit. We know you can only go to one school and most of the MSTPs and MD/PhDs are great places. Please help us and withdraw if you know you aren't going.
