<p>kirstin, I so wish that the PI was as you thought. S even told him that he had an interview on Tuesday. Truthfully the guy is just a B… He is lazy and inconsiderate has S working 70+ hour weeks and paying him as a non-exempt for 35 hours and can’t even get around to writing the letter which he promised. Had he not promised S would have gone and done his app without it. He had enough LORs and didn’t need it although it would have been nice. S has been writing grant proposals, does tons of independent reading and research and the LOR really should have been a no-brainer. There is a part of S, H and I that truly believes that he doesn’t want him to get into medical school because he can continue the indentured servitude longer. As an aside, the PI is an MD himself so he is somewhat familiar with the torture of the process (although his MD is probably about 30 years ago if I had to guess). He is a very difficult man to work for.</p>
<p>Oh well finished venting. We’re all trying to keep a positive view on this but if these other schools aren’t even considering S because he’s missing this letter and delaying his app by more than a month, its really frustrating. Luckily S doesn’t care where he gets in as long as he gets in.</p>
<p>Perhaps you’ve already thought of this sharon, but here’s another idea for you (but it may be too late, I’m not exactly sure). How has he arranged his letters on AMCAS? Does he have all of his letters sent to his committee, and then his committee forwards them on? (That’s what mine does). If that’s the case, maybe the committee could go forward with all of their stuff, omit the letter from the obnoxious PI, and your S could create a separate letter (with a new letter ID) for the PI letter. That way, it would be your S’s discretion about including the letter or not, so that way he could go ahead and complete his apps at schools where the letter might not matter as much–and could wait to submit the PI letter (once it’s received) as a separate one.</p>
<p>Just doing some creative thinking. I’d be happy to mess around with my AMCAS to figure out the exact logistics of doing the above, if you’re interested!</p>
<p>And curm, thanks for the vibes! You’ll have to PM me that Hail Mary letter sometime soon–I’ve heard it’s legendary :)</p>
<p>In other, non pre-med news, kristin5792’s roommate made the mistake of substituting dish soap for dishwasher detergent tonight–the night of roommate’s big rosh hashana dinner! We are having quite the time cleaning out the kitchen and slipping and laughing. Hope your kiddos don’t do the same thing!</p>
<p>Recap of the letter…hmmmm.I don’t know how much help it would be. It spoke volumes about her but was very personal and matched up with the way she lives her life as shown by her app. Someone else? Not so much.</p>
<p>Time was running really short for invites at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. Like really, really short. She hadn’t sent any updates. She had 4 great acceptances she was keeping (UVa, Dartmouth, Baylor, and Southwestern). She had IMO a good app with no deficiencies and some pluses but her MCAT was a little light for those 3. </p>
<p>So she chose to send a letter that in brief and poorly paraphrased said : </p>
<p>“I don’t think any of this new stuff (list of random honors, awards, accomplishments) will get me an interview so I thought I’d tell you why I didn’t re-take my MCAT after my 11/11/11 after soph year. I paid for it. I studied for it. And then I got a invitation to visit a friend in Sicily over her spring break that conflicted with the test date . Hike Mt. Etna (a live volcano) at night. Go clubbing with the locals. Wander aimlessly around the ruins. Get hassled by sexist fishmongers. It sounded wonderful. I went. I made a choice and have no regrets. I had a ball. Now you have a choice to make about me. I know I’d be an asset to the class. Could you take a second look?”</p>
<p>Something like that (and she’d kill me for that less than artful paraphrase). But again, keep in mind that it worked for one kid at one school to get an interview. The others? Still crickets. </p>
<p>If there is a lesson, it would be to show yourself. If they don’t like you, well…maybe you shouldn’t be there. (BTW, she thinks she made the right call about med school. She thinks her fellow students are just hilariously awesome.)</p>
<p>kristin, thanks for the suggestion but this LOR is already separate and because it was promised S put it on each school’s list so they are expecting it. There’s no way to take it off once its put on. Lesson for anyone else. If you already have the minimal number of LOR’s don’t put any extra ones out there until they are in hand.</p>
<p>On a more positive note, S was told by the PI that he had written the LOR and S needs to help him upload it so hopefully all this fretting will soon be put to an end.</p>
<p>Ellen, she made some other interesting choices along the way that sent shivers down my spine. Literally everyone told her not to re-take the MCAT for the very rational and statistically valid fear of her doing worse. She signed up anyway. I was very happy to pay my part of that Sicily trip. ;)</p>
<p>The update letter was truly a Hail Mary so I was fine with it.</p>
<p>Curm, I relate to your use of “interesting choices”. The D ended her quirky road to med school with applications that were not sent out as early as they might have been because of her job that summer as a field hand on a small farm. While other applicants were getting their paperwork together she was starting her day at 5:30 AM and was so exhausted by evening that she would be non-functional by 8:00 PM. Forget about med school applications…God forbid the organic chard not get harvested!</p>
<p>The paperwork eventually got done. She got into a number of schools and was happy with her choices. What does a Mom know about med school application timetables anyway?</p>
<p>( So sorry 2010-2011 applicants for briefly stealing the thread :o )</p>
<p>haha Curm, that’s awesome. Great that she ended up attending one of the schools that received the hail Mary.</p>
<p>UPDATE TIME: Committee interview did indeed go as well as I thought; met with the head of committee today, he voluntarily read me a portion of my 4+ page letter (which sounded wonderful, I’m quite flattered he thinks so highly of me) that concluded with his enthusiastic recommendation of my candidacy for medical school. Overall, it was a nice ego stroke that I had (admittedly) been craving after much tough love from other places.</p>
<p>UPDATE 2: VirtualEvals has received my letter packet and has transmitted it to AMCAS which has transmitted it to my schools. Now for the waiting game of being complete at the 6 schools I’ve finished, and a renewed vigor to complete the other 7 (1 is almost done though!)</p>
curm, I think your D has made much more right choices than a wrong choice in the pasy N years. A Sicily trip was definitely a more fulfilling activity than sitting for a dull test that in the end turns out to be unnecessary for her due to the overall strength of her application. Like it is often said here: Great ECs will tromp everything else.</p>
<p>I only wish DS could make as many right choices in this application cycle as your D did in the previous application cycle. He might make even more interesting choices than your D that sent shivers down my spine.</p>
<p>An interesting planning: He scheduled one interview after Nov. 15. He said if, with some uck, he manages to get into one of the IS schools, he will likely cancel that interview. I even wonder whether he might stop doing anything related to medical school applications if he luckily got a pre-match offer.</p>
<p>Is there any hotel from which you can walk to BCM for an interview? I vaguely remember one of BCM buildings is very close to Rice University (maybe on Main street.) But we were there more than 4 years ago when we visited Rice as the parents of a high school student. So I may not remember it correctly. (Is there a Holiday Inn Express or a similar type of hotel there?) We even do not know which building BCM may interview their applicants and how many buildings BCM has. TMC is a maze!</p>
<p>You can walk or drive if raining which it was in the morning…I dropped off my S in the AM and picked him up after the interview and took him to Hobby for his flight.</p>
But I’d play it out to the end if it was me.</p>