A great place to reveal what you have learned from your mistakes so others do not repeat them.
Here’s one for Dave’s challenge:
I’m pretty lukewarm about the experience of early decision. I picked a place, applied, had a very enthusiastic interview, and was judged “admissions quality” rather than admitted. So you wind up dispatching an AMCAS in mid-October to the long list of other schools. Looking back, the risk of having to basically slip an application into the bottom of everyone’s pile in the fall did not match the possibility of reward.
I am officially rejected from Indiana University.
I hesitated to include them on my AMCAS as I thought this would happen. But they’re 2 hours away - it would have been a shame not to.
Anyway, 1 rejection, 16 offers for secondaries so far. I’m probably not going to complete a few of them though. We’ll see.
I’m still trying to decide whether or not to apply to IU. I’ve lived in Indiana most of my life until about 3 years ago. Now, I am officially a North Carolinian, but I’m hoping I can make a case for wanting to go back there for medical school. I’ll be calling them soon to see if they will rent me a clue. =P
Sorry to hear they turned you down. Their loss…
Tim
Update: A call to the admissions office yielded some useful info. I would be considered a non-resident with state ties. This means my former residency would be taken into consideration for admission purposes, but I would still have to pay out-of-state tuition. That sounds fair to me. However, Indiana is still a very competitive school (even for state residents) to get into since it is the only medical school in the state.
Hang in there, MegBoo. Indiana doesn’t know what they’re missin’! Their loss.
p.s. I’m the guy that sat next to you at the Japanese restaurant in Chicago… 
- T_Forsythe Said:
Update: A call to the admissions office yielded some useful info. I would be considered a non-resident with state ties. This means my former residency would be taken into consideration for admission purposes, but I would still have to pay out-of-state tuition. That sounds fair to me. However, Indiana is still a very competitive school (even for state residents) to get into since it is the only medical school in the state.
Actually this is something that I hadn't considered. I'm planning on getting my bachelors degree at SUNY Stony Brook next year and up until 7 years ago, I had lived 35 years in NY and I do plan on making it my home again. Sometimes I kick myself for leaving NY to move down here to Florida, but at least I will be going back to NY with an AA which I completed with a GPA of 3.95 (hope to keep that once I finish with Physics and Organic Chemistry this year).
Kris
Tim demonstrates the key: when it comes down to it, you MUST make the call to any individual school where you have questions like this. You’ll get lots of different answers from different schools; you can’t extrapolate from one to another. It NEVER hurts to ask but it can definitely hurt to assume
Mary
My understanding was that it’s very cool to contact schools prior to throwing one’s hat into the ring, but once you’ve entered the application process, direct contact might be seen as favoritism.
For questions like this, would it be appropriate to contact a school during one’s app cycle?
Thanks for the info on Indiana. I am now out-of-state for them, but do have significant ties. I lived there until I was 30. My dad’s farm has been in the family for 100+ years. All my siblings are there, in addition to 15 or so aunts/uncles and 40+ first cousins (really!). I think that should be enough…
Angela
- pi1304 Said:
My understanding was that it's very cool to contact schools prior to throwing one's hat into the ring, but once you've entered the application process, direct contact might be seen as favoritism.
For questions like this, would it be appropriate to contact a school during one's app cycle?
For questions like this, would it be appropriate to contact a school during one's app cycle?
It will be better (and could potentially save you $$) to ask the question BEFORE the app cycle, but if you're in it already and you've got the question, it won't hurt to ask. The worst that could happen is they refuse to talk to you.
IF you can't talk to the school, AND you get rejected pre-interview, I'd take the opportunity to write/call and point out your connections, to ask them if they'd reconsider you as part of the in-state pool. It never hurts to try.
Mary
Thanks bodhi!
I remember you very well!
Even though I’m in IL, I have NO ties to Indiana except to drive through the state and maybe attend an SIU vs. Butler game.
So the rejection wasn’t much of a surprise. For those who actually lived there - that’s a better tie!
I just got a rejection email from Wake Forest University School of Med. It is interesting as I just had a conversation with Irene (the director of admissions) yesterday on whether they took older pre-requisite coursework or courses from a community college. She said that the competition was so fierce that they usually did not take courses from a community college but that older coursework was fine if recent coursework from a university could be shown as evidence of preparedness for medical school. It certainly did not take them long to dig out my application and reject me 
This is pre-screen rejection as I did not even get a secondary application from them. It is definitely not boosting my confidence.
Quite honestly I wouldn’t assume that they dug up your application in response to your call, just to reject it. They are processing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of applications and to me it seems more likely that your application had already been handled and decided upon. Not that this take on things makes it feel any better, but I really don’t think your conversation made a difference. Sorry for the crummy news.
Mary
Thanks Mary, Perhaps you have some advice on how best to use this interim year waiting in case I need to reapply. I am complete with pre-requisite courses but I could take the same classes I took years ago (physics and gchem) in undergraduate over again or take some upper level bio classes such as immunology, genetics, etc. (already took bio, micro, biochem and org I&II last year) as I wait? I have soo many hours in undergraduate that even 4 more As will not change my GPA more than 0.05. Would you recommend that or pursuing a masters degree? and of course, if I don’t get in this Spring, I will retake the MCAT. It seems like you have to constantly be looking ahead to avoid wasting valuable time. I haven’t lost hope in getting in somewhere but I want to make the most of my time. I have lots of shadowing and volunteer experience so the choices are more education or just work more hours.
IMO, I would pursue upper level bio courses this year rather than gchem or physics. No, they won’t boost your GPA significantly, but doing well in them will help show that you are capable of handling med school level material. Master’s degrees in sciences CAN be helpful, but it is probably too late for you to get into a master’s program for this coming year. There are some other pros and cons to a master’s degree, but perhaps someone more knowledgable can address that.
Snowgirl!!!
Don’t worry ! I applied to Wake Forest last year (just in case), and the very first reply I received from any school was a rejection from them! I guess they just couldn’t overlook my poor Verbal score. And it’s their loss! I didn’t take it too personally and hoped to recieve some secondaries shortly! And after all they saved you around $100!
Kasia
Thanks Kasia! I am thankful for the encouragement! I DO like the fact that I saved $100, honestly I wish more schools would only send secondaries out to those they really will consider to help us on the $$ issue but I also like the idea of giving additional information to schools before they evaluate me so I guess it works out either way. I only have 4 more secondaries to submit and I am done unless more schools send me secondaries! I am still working on the DO schools. I am finding it hard to find a DO to shadow which is what I was waiting for before submitting AACOMAS! Let me know how your first few weeks of school go!!! how exciting!
Guys, make sure you DO COMPLETE AND SEND ALL SECONDARIES! I know this is WORK but until you start getting interviews do NOT get lazy! Once you get 20 interviews then maybe you can decide where to go or not go. Although, to be honest, I would go to ALL interviews UNTIL you get ONE acceptance. This worked well for me and after October 15th I could chill and then pick and choose where to go for interviews…
I do plan to submit all secondaries. I was just commenting how some schools pre-screen and don’t let you submit a secondary which saves you some $$ - which is always a good thing.
I am guessing there is no use in calling upper tier schools to see if they will even consider me since my numbers are below average at least for the MD schools. I called Stanford today and the admissions director encouraged me to send in my application because my experiences are unique even though my scores really stink. If I send a supplemental application to that “hail mary” school then I can send them to all the schools 
I got a little side tracked on my DO applications, so I have not finished 3 secondaries but I hope to this week!
Good luck to all!
So far I’ve been rejected by Indiana, Pritzker, Louisville, and some Ohio universities. None of this is really shocking and I guess comes with applying broadly.
My MCAT is lower than I hoped so that coupled with being out of state is a killer.
I’m getting love from the DO schools though, which is awesome.
We’ll see if I get any MD love after my MCAT retake.