What happens after I've sent my applications?
From Student Doctor Network Wiki
Dealing with Acceptances, Waitlists, and Rejections
Disappointments are far more common than happiness when applying to medical school. Given that only 1/3 to 1/2 of applicants get accepted each year, there is a very real chance that you will not get in. Therefore, before you ever even consider filling out the AMCAS, you must formulate a backup plan.
This chapter goes into detail about the aftermath of applying to medical school. At any point during the application process you might be rejected. If your GPA and MCAT does not measure up to the university’s standards, you could get a thin envelope within a few weeks of submitting your primary—$30 gone without even a second look. If you find yourself graduating without any prospects for acceptances in the fall, you are not alone. The goal of this chapter is to show you what happens next after an acceptance, waitlist or rejection.
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Acceptances
If you received a thick envelope and fall into this category, congratulations! If you received multiple acceptances, that’s even more of a cause of celebration. Each school has a different way of responding. Some will call. Others will email. But all will send a letter eventually. Offers can be made anywhere from two weeks after an interview to many months later. You will have to ask the admissions committee to see when you can expect to hear back from them.
Once you receive an acceptance letter, you will have two weeks to respond in writing to request that a spot be held for you. While not all universities mention this two week window, if you do not reply in two weeks, your offer will be rescinded. I have heard several stories of students who wait more than the allotted time, only to lose their only shot at going to a particular school. In most cases, the decision was final. If the offer is rescinded because of a lack of timeliness on your behalf, few colleges will even allow you to petition the decision.
Generally, you will have to pay a deposit when you request that a spot be held for you. This amount can be anywhere from $30 to up to $500. In many cases, these deposits are non-refundable. Therefore, you should only hold a spot if you a genuinely interested in attending the school. If you were turned off during the campus tour and interview, don’t hesitate to withdraw your application, especially if you have multiple acceptances. Keep in mind that for every spot you hold, you keep someone else from getting an acceptance. As a courtesy to others, relinquish the schools that you are no longer interested in.
As time progresses, you will then receive a package about immunizations and health records. At the very least, incoming medical students are required to be immunized against hepatitis, the flu, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox (varicella), tetanus, and polio.1 I suggest that you get these details taken care of early—and with ample documentation—to prevent time lags and headaches down the road. You will have to have a tuberculosis skin test to demonstrate that you have never contracted TB. If you fail this exam, you must then get a chest X-ray to show that your lungs are clear of the bacteria.
Multiple Acceptances
If you are one of the lucky few to gain multiple acceptances, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. You’ve worked hard to get to this point. Seriously, you deserve the rewards for your efforts.
According to AAMC guidelines, you can only hold onto one acceptance after May 15. While you may still remain on as many waitlists as you want, you must relinquish all of the other spots that you have. May 15 is an important date for deciding where to go to medical school. It’s when you have to seriously evaluate which school would be your best fit for the next four years. Wherever you end up attending will make a major life impact on your future residencies, research, and medical practice—more so than your decision to attend a particular undergraduate college.
To withdraw your application simply send a letter to the admissions office saying, “I have decided to attend another university. Please withdraw my application.” Schools are used to receiving withdrawal letters and will not be nearly as hurt as you were when you got your first rejection.
Waitlists
The majority of people who get to the interview stage are waitlisted if they are not offered an immediate acceptance. If you are interviewed in October and get a waitlist or hold letter three weeks later, relax. The school’s decision to put you on hold at this point is not something to be worried about. The admissions committee simply wants to interview more candidates before making a decision.
If the waitlist letter comes in April or May, however, now you’ve got a problem. Usually a university has filled its incoming class and cannot accept any more students. Recall that schools have a maximum number of students that they can accept. While the waitlist will begin to open up after May 15, there are some steps that you can take to getting a thick envelope of your own.
First, make sure that your contact information is kept up to date through AMCAS. You should not email or call the schools to tell them that your phone number or email address has changed. Just log into AMCAS and modify the background information section to reflect any changes in contact information. I cannot stress how important an up-to-date email address and phone number is. Every year, for whatever reason, a student drops out of medical school on or shortly before the first day. Since colleges are eager to fill their classes to the limit, the dean of admissions will immediately call the next person in line on the waitlist. If the dean is unable to reach that person, the acceptance then goes to the second in line. Every year some people are kept out of a medical school that otherwise would have accepted them if only their contact information was correct.
Make sure that your contact information is kept up to date.
Second, alert the schools of any changes in your application. Perhaps you were waitlisted in the fall because your grades were not so stellar. Thanks to your hard work, however, you got all A’s in your classes for two straight semesters and managed to write a thesis to graduate with high honors. Admissions committees would love to know this information. It shows that you are seriously committed to working hard and studying even while others are experiencing senioritis.
Or maybe you began working in a research lab, became an EMT, published a paper, climbed Mt. Everest, whatever . . . Again, let the schools know what you’ve done since initially applying—almost a year has passed since then. Lots of things could happen. Further, by contacting the university regularly, you show the admissions committee that you are very interested in their program.
Finally, you can try a letter of intent. In it, you make an appeal to the admissions committee saying, in effect, “If you accept me, I will drop everything and immediately move to your location without hesitation. You have my promise.” Be careful with letters of intent. Make sure that you only write it if the school is your top choice and you really mean what you say. You also need to provide a compelling argument for bumping you up on the alternate list. Simply wanting to go to a higher ranked school will not do.
Rejections
I’ll be the first to admit that getting a rejection is painful. Thin envelopes may start arriving on October 15 and will continue to pour in until April 15. Given that the last interview invites are offered in late March, you must go to your backup plan by the end of March if you have not received an acceptance yet. Waitlists don’t count. Future interviews don’t count. Waiting to hear back from other schools don’t count. If, by March 30, you have not received an acceptance, you must begin working on Plan B.2
Common backup plans that take 1–2 years include graduate school, post-baccalaureate classes, lab work, clinical work, Peace Corps,3 Americorps,4 teaching for a year or two—either through a local high school or Teach for America5 —and NIH research.6 Whatever your backup plan is, you must be sure that you are ready to go into that field. Ask yourself if you would really be happy with teaching in the inner city before committing to anything. As a caution, do not go to nursing school or train to become a physician’s assistant. The United States is already facing a critical shortage of nurses around the country. Please do not contribute to the problem by becoming an R.N. and then jumping ship in a moment’s notice.
Re-applying
Applying to medical school for a second time is often an embarrassing process. You will meet others who will constantly ask you, “What went wrong?” You will probably be wondering the same thing yourself. The good news is that you will already be familiar with the application process. Recall that only 35–50% of applicants are accepted each year. If you decide to re-apply, you won’t be alone.
Look back at Chapter 1. Did you follow the directions to the letter like I asked? If not, you should start working on correcting deficiencies. Also, call the dean of admissions of your top choices and ask what went wrong. Many deans or their associates are willing to sit down with you during the summer and honestly tell you what your weak points are. You should follow their advice carefully—they are the ones signing the acceptance letters after all.
The second bit of good news is that reapplicants generally have high acceptance rates. Because you will have to take off a year at minimum before re-applying, you will have a chance to beef up your resumé. Further, admissions committees generally look favorably upon applicants who have genuinely tried to improve their application. Your dedication shows that you are truly committed to becoming a doctor. There is no question about your desire to practice medicine.
If you go the graduate school route, you must pick something science-related. An M.A. in anthropology is not going to impress an admissions committee. At least a degree in biology shows universities that you can do research that is somewhat typical for academic physicians. If you want to take classes without the fear of meeting a research deadline, the non-thesis route is a viable option for most engineering and some science students. The non-thesis masters program is especially good for students who wish to work full time in something other than a lab. While graduate courses are often easier than undergraduate classes—meaning that you will get higher grades—the AMCAS does not factor your graduate GPA with your overall work. The only way to boost a sub-par undergraduate GPA after graduating is to become a post-baccalaureate student.
Post-baccalaureate programs
Post-baccs are non-degree seeking students who go back to college for the sake of taking classes—usually to prepare for graduate school or to learn skills necessary for employment. They are in a sort of limbo—they are too old to be undergrads, yet are not graduate students—meaning that they get the worst of both worlds. They get no privileges that graduate students receive such as longer check out times for the library. Some cannot even join campus organizations that are reserved for undergraduates. The post-bacc route is available for nothing more than taking classes. Many post-baccs will work full-time in addition to their studies. Use this option only if you need to boost your GPA, take extra pre-med classes such as biochemistry, or are advised to do so by someone on an admissions committee.
Almost all universities admit post-bacc students. Some even have programs that are tailored specifically for medical school rejects. Drexel, UPenn, Georgetown, and a bunch of others have some curricula that can help people to demonstrate their dedication to medicine and their aptitude for science. According to one of this book’s reviewers, Drexel has many options: an evening post-bacc program for professionals; a graduate program that has a first year of anatomy and some other grad level courses and a second year of first year med school courses; there’s a program where all you take is many first year med school classes; and then the last one is taking med school classes first year and then doing research plus some other optional classes the second year.
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