Hey everyone! Just looking for some quick advice on a situation I have with secondaries. I received an email from one school (one of my top schools) in late July which said they were currently going over my file to see if I qualified for a secondary. The email said the would notify me when they came to a decision (even if I was denied) and so I’ve been waiting to hear back from them. It has been a little over a month, and I’ve still not heard anything from them, which has left me in kind of a weird spot where I don’t want to bug the Ad Com, but I also don’t want my file to have just randomly been lost or something. Should I interpret this as I’m probably not going to get a secondary, contact them just to follow-up, or just ride it out and wait to see if the ad com says anything? Thanks so much!!
Hey! Congrats on submitting your secondaries; no small feat!
Personally, I would wait it out. A month might feel long, but in the time span of admissions it is not. I know this is hard to believe, but we are only right now at the VERY beginning of the application cycle. You have so many months left where they can extend an invitation! Processing time for these schools can be anywhere from four to seven weeks. Also, remember that not hearing back is actually a good thing! Sure, it means that you didn’t snag an interview right away, but it also means you didn’t snag an R. Some of these schools will re-review your application throughout the cycle to see if they want to interview you yet (many reserve these really early spots for candidates they loved on the first pass, then reconsider candidates who were good a couple weeks/months down the line).
All this to say, I would hold off. I think it’s too soon to reach out. If you are in the same boat in about two months, at that point I’d say shoot your shot why not.
Also, heads up I’m not an expert, just an applicant like yourself so take what I say with a grain of salt. If you have a premed advisor at the school where you completed your science courses, a lot of times they extend advising past when you matriculate; feel free to reach out to them for more guidance!