Do schools communicate?

[phillybabe]

I was just told by a friend that schools communicate with each other regarding people on the waitlist. I was wondering if this is true? She advised me to write a letter of intent to only one school. It was too late for me since I had already written similar letters to all the schools hoping to get into atleast one of them. Guess my chances are really screwed now.

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[Mikado]

That's not true. Don't worry. Med schools probably trust each other less than they trust you.

 

[Popoy]

So that rumor still flying around huh?!

Med schools are busy enough as it is with all their applicants and administrative paper work I'm sure they won't waste man power on something as minute as this.... Then again I might be wrong....

 

[PeterY]

writing letters of intent to all your waitlist schools probably wasn't such a good idea. however i don't think the schools communicate with each other. i am not even sure if your waitlist schools know where else you are waitlisted. they do know if you have been accepted, and will ususally make a courtesy call to that school before taking you off the waitlist. so don't worry too much.

-Peter

 

[yigit]

Popoy, you are wrong again.

When I was accepted to one school a couple of the others sent me a letter saying "we heard you're accepted, do you still want us to consider you?"

This doesn't prove much, but it proves that they know something. I think that in your case you don't have too much to worry about.

 

[Popoy]

Thanks yigit. Though you admit yourself that it doesn't prove much.... Care to share which schools those were that you alleged had some sort of contact. Are they in the same state?

On a side note....
Who said I was always right. I've notice in some of your posting that you too have had your "wrongness".... So chill.... In several of my posting you've criticized what I have posted.... I've chosen to ignore it as much as I have ignored how stupid some of your postings have been. Is this becoming a personal vendetta to make comments about Popoy as much as yigit can? Were you brought up with any manners at all?.... Maybe your bluntness and I don't mix.... So chill.... You seem like an uptight person. So what if I've posted well over a thousand.... This is the way I chose to spend some of my time before med school starts.... Who the heck do you think you are?! Alright, my frustrations have been vented to this inconsiderate foo'.

 

[ckent]

I had one friend who was waitlisted at Duke and Wash U. He wrote letters of intent to both schools and got into Wash U. I was waitlisted at Wash U too but didn't write a letter of intent and I had a higher MCAT but a similar overall application and I did not get in, so I do think that it's good to write letters of intent to schools that you really do want to go to. Wash U actually told my friend that they had marked him down in their computer or something that they were his number one school. Schools do communicate, mainly through AMCAS I believe, but I don't think they communicate that much to the point that they know what you've sent different school. Better safe then sorry though, if you haven't done so already, I would only send letters of intent to 2-3 schools, one to your dream school and one to a safer school.

 

[Hopkins2010]

I looked at the medical school FAQ from AMCAS and seem to remember them talking about this issue.

If I remember correctly, the schools do know where you have been waitlisted at on the AMCAS software that is sent to the medical schools.

I dont know how much they look at this info, but I think it is available. So they dont have to contact the other schools because AMCAS provides the uplink to them.

 

[yigit]

Popoy,
It's nothing personal, I just wish you wouldn't talk so much.

 

[sweetz1180]

Med schools do communicate, from what a second year med student on the interviewing committee told me, they basically have a computer that tells them where you stand in regards to acceptances, rejections, etc...so if you're holding multiple acceptances and they ask you about it, say yes, i'm holding multiple acceptances.

 

[BeckyG]

It is true that when you are accepted at one school (school A) and are accepted off the waitlist at another (school B), that school B calls school A as a courtesy to tell A they are offering you an acceptance. They probably do not compare notes on letters of intent, but you should be really careful with letters of intent (if it is a true LOI). If it is a real letter of intent (i.e., it says "I will go if you accept me"), you should only send that to one school. Because, if you send it to all of them and two of them accept you, you are in a bind. The letter of intent (for all practical purposes) is a binding committment on your side. Of course, you can always rescind the letter, but it will look bad. Just my impressions. In reality, though, it probably won't matter if you sent the LOI to more than one school. Good luck!

 

[MRF1366]

Originally posted by yigit:
•Popoy,
It's nothing personal, I just wish you wouldn't talk so much.•

Ditto.

 

[Mikado]

Ha Ha - I see popoy's verbal diarhea is beginning to get him flamed all over the place.

Med schools all have access to a central amcas computer. This lets them know who you have applied to and what your status is at each school. That's all.

Your private correspondence to a school does not get entered into the amcas computer. Letters of intent are not shared with other schools on this system.

Admissions committees could concievably call each other up on the phone and compare notes. However they don't. Remember they are competing with each other for the best candidates and are not part of some impartial celestial co-op.

 

[ghettobird]

I have a feeling they might communicate as well, here's why:

I have a 34S MCAT, and applied to 13 schools. One of my first interviews was at Tulane. I was super swamped at work (i took a year off to do a research project), and couldn't go. Like an idiot, instead of calling, I just didn't show up. I think this pissed off "Fast Joe" (the dean) who is known for his eccentric attitude.

Well I have a feeling Joe called around to every other school I applied to and put me on the blacklist, because I only received 5 total interviews, and no acceptances (currently on 3 waitlists). I applied to PLENTY of backups for my stats (Loyola, U Miami, USC, etc.), so I think it's pretty likely that something "else" (the fact that it was known I had ditched an interview) played a factor. Maybe I being narotic, I don't know.

Later