Quoted: Action after a rejection

[Doodledog]

A member wishes to know:

I was recently rejected at one of my top choices for medical school. The committee told me that there were some concerns based on my GPA. I have an upward trend in my GPA and I have had great success outside of academics. Is there a way to meet with the admissions department of the school I was interested in and try to calm their fears and have them reconsider my application? Is this frowned upon? I would not be pushy, but I really liked the school, I made it through all of the screens and I felt I interviewed well, but the concern about my grades popped up again at the very end. Is it in poor taste to want to defend my belief in application? Can any good come of this? I am not looking for any guarantees of admittance, I just want to show that I am more than what my grades show and that I am ready and I am committed to this school.

There certainly is no harm in asking for a meeting with the dean or a member of the dean's staff. However, the chances of a successful appeal is extremely small. Ultimately, each school must make decisions and sometimes good applicants get rejected based on numbers as well as the overall sense that the school did not feel the applicant was a good fit for them. Although an upward trend is great, this won't be new news to the committee which would have been aware of that in making its decision. My personal advice is to move on, but there is no harm in asking for an appeal. Just don't expect much and don't be excessively pushy about it.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[dogsnme2]

A member wishes to know:



There certainly is no harm in asking for a meeting with the dean or a member of the dean's staff. However, the chances of a successful appeal is extremely small. Ultimately, each school must make decisions and sometimes good applicants get rejected based on numbers as well as the overall sense that the school did not feel the applicant was a good fit for them. Although an upward trend is great, this won't be new news to the committee which would have been aware of that in making its decision. My personal advice is to move on, but there is no harm in asking for an appeal. Just don't expect much and don't be excessively pushy about it.

Some med schools do offer the chance for you to get "admissions counseling," to find out why you were rejected, and to see what you can do to improve your application if you need to re-apply. However, those schools are more the exception than the norm. Your best bet would be to talk to your school's pre-med advisor. Also, another point to consider is that it is extremely unlikely that a medical school will overturn their admissions decision. If you read this particular school's admissions policies, I am pretty sure that you will see something somewhere that says "All admissions decisions are final." They may tell you why they were concerned with your GPA, but they will most likely not decide to admit you.