<p>Do you guys know if I have to let med schools know if I change a course I listed under “will take in the future” to pass/fail? I’m thinking that I don’t have to because the future courses are usually optional, but I was just wondering if it is necessary because I don’t want to seem dishonest.</p>
<p>I don’t know for sure but I can’t imagine it would matter either way. My advisor assures me that the “future courses” part is “just” so the schools know you’re serious/not going to slack off, and don’t really hold much bearing anyway. With this in mind, I listed one of my “future courses” vaguely as “upper-level humanities” because it’s the last thing I need to fulfill degree requirements but haven’t chosen a course yet. I was hesitant to do so, but multiple people at my school assured me it would be just fine, so hopefully it’s really not a big deal!</p>
<p>lollybo, I agree with kristin. I have also been told the same. Whichever courses are listed is not a big deal. If you have not met all the prereqs, then the school wants to make sure that you are aware of that and that you are planning on taking them. You may happen to change your mind about a particular course and take another one for a specific reason: scheduling conflicts, availability, etc. If someone asks, then you should have a clear explanation. That’s all.</p>
<p>Files complete at Mizzou, Creighton, Boston, and UVA–keep your fingers crossed I have some interview invites in my near future!</p>
<p>I received a complete email from Tufts yesterday and an interview invite today!..I love Boston, so I am pretty happy to have this interview.</p>
<p>Tufts seems to move pretty quick once you get the complete email. They have been one of the last schools to send me the complete email, although I should have been complete everywhere at the same time. This process is very different with each school! Good luck to those applying to Tufts!</p>
<p>Files complete at Mizzou, Creighton, Boston, UVa, and Georgetown–should soon be complete at Mayo and SLU. Submitted secondaries today to Harvard, Tufts, and Drexel–all I have left are Loyola, Duke, and Northwestern! Wahoo, what a productive day.</p>
<p>Charlie Brown and the football continues with S LOR. His self imposed deadline is today (with our insistance). The question is what is the best approach to advising the schools to complete his application without the LOR. He needs to go through AMCAS and tell them not to expect it any more. At that point does he also write an email to the schools explaining taht his PI is a jerk and not willing to spend the time to upload a supposedly written LOR (obviously without phrasing it like that)? Or alternatively, does he do nothing. He is currently only complete at 5 of his 17 schools because of the missing letter and obviously needs to do something. Thoughts and suggestions welcome.</p>
<p>Is his PI’s executor willing to upload the already written letter? If so, I would consider shooting the PI. Remember to double-tap just to be sure. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, well if you believe there really is a letter… So painful to watch.</p>
<p>The advising at my school recommends including a letter from a PI you have worked with for a long time. If he doesn’t include the letter, it might be a red flag.</p>
<p>sharonohio, I do not have a solid suggestion, but I sympathize with your S.</p>
<p>If DS were from a school that does not provide a combined committee letter, he might end up in the same situation as your S’s, i.e., he might not get all the required LORs out in time.</p>
<p>I heard his premed office offered him another interview practice (or warm-up?) session a week before his first interview. We are very grateful for what the school has done for him so far. We know less about his application status recently as it appears he thinks we do not have to. I believe he has completed more than 5 applications as he has had more invites than that. I do not know how many schools he has actually completed everything and how many he has given up. It appears he has applied to 3 schools in NY but has got neither an invite nor a rejection from there.</p>
<p>MCAT2 congrats on the boy’s interviews. Great job so far.</p>
<p>Thanks, curm. He will take a train rather than a flight for his very first interview so it does not cost so much. The trip will take more than 5 hours long one way though. As the interview is in the middle of a week, he will miss 3 days of work. He planned to work on both Saturday and Sunday this week to make it up (in advance.) He may miss more days in October. I do not see how he can make it up since there will be too many days. Hopefully, the PI or the postdocs he works for will give him some breaks.</p>
<p>I heard one postdocs will give birth soon and another one left not long ago so they are in a crunch mode. Two undergraduates recently joined the lab though (one of them can work 10-12 hours a week as he is doing his senior project there this year.)</p>
<p>Interviewing produces some serious issues. Not interviewing produces much more serious issues. ;)</p>
<p>My kid lost a major from it and really couldn’t compete with her Ultimate teams. Other planned activities suffered also. But the price was worth paying so…do what you need to do to get there.</p>
<p>Do some medical schools interview their applicants later than other medical schools? There is another related question: Do some medical schools give out their acceptance or rejection letters later than other medical schools?</p>
<p>I remember norcalguy once posted here the NE schools tend to give out acceptance (or interview invites?) late in the cycle. But Tufts seems to be an exception, even though it is a NE school. From last year’s thread, it appears UVA/Pitts may be early ones. Mt Sinai may not be early. Michigan may be early. How about NYU/Cornell/Columbia? Are they early schools or late ones?</p>
<p>Some schools reject their applicants very quickly and decisively – like Chicago in Illinois and Mayo in MN. But some (e.g., Texas ones) seem to reject their applicants very late in the cycle (Feb/March?) even though they may give out prematch offers early – with the exception of maybe UT-H.</p>
<p>All of this kind of information may be digged out from SDN if you are a diligent reader there. But do some of you, just on top of your head, have some insight on what schools may do in this regard? A constant stream of questions being asked by SDNers is “Has this school given out invites/acceptance?”, year after year. Most applicants every year naturally would like to know the answer to this kind of question.</p>
<p>So finally good news to report. After S left a note on the PI’s door saying I know u have a grant application due but this will take 10 minutes to upload the LOR and you’re being inconsiderate, that all the other professors had done their LOR’s in June, the guy finally uploaded it. It’s still in Interfolio but supposedly should hit AMCAS today. S is going to write emails to all the schools admissions offices saying the missing LOR is now available and hopefully this can complete his status in hopes of getting back complete emails. He’s also going to send a separate email to the one school he interviewed at explaining that the LOR is now available. It’s missing status did come up during the interview and he explained that the lab was currently in high writing mode for grants to preserve its funding and that is what was delaying the LOR and that it should be available within a few weeks (which thankfully it is).</p>
<p>mcat2, has he looked into bus instead of train? Frequently faster. 5 hours is an awfully long train trip.</p>
<p>Glad to hear your S has overcome this hurdle – I hope he did not have to post “you are being inconsiderate” literally.</p>
<p>Well…I thought the train trip on the east coast is faster and “classier.” DS has never been on a long train trip. He is kind of excited about this aspect of the interview trip. He dreaded and moaned whenever he needs to fly, as he has flied well too much in the past few years. He once said being a doctor may not require you too much. I hope he will not use such a naive answer in his interview when being asked “Why doctor?”</p>
<p>MCAT- yes the schools are different- some offer very early interviews and it seems the sooner your interview, the better candidate they consider you (GW); some offer acceptances on that magic Oct 15th date and then again later; some interview throughout the season and offer as they go to strong candidates and also decline those they feel are not ready, but hold aside a large group of applicants for a March large group admission (U,WA); some interview early and throughout the season, but do not seem to admit any one until a later date (Dec or Jan) like U,AZ.</p>
<p>It runs the gamut, that is the most helpful thing about SDN, the ability to check a particular school’s process.</p>
<p>mcat2 Just a snippet from the letter on the door: " Each day that you delay jeopardizes my future, and, frankly, it’s not fair to me to have even delayed it this long. For how much time and effort I’ve put into the lab, it’s exceedingly disrespectful to me to have had all of my other letters from professors done by June and to be still waiting in the middle of September for yours." </p>
<p>And, if this is just a train ride up the east coast, that’s not a bad ride especially relative to the bus it would probably be more pleasant. He should double check schedules though because there is quite a difference I believe between the slowest and the fastest trains.</p>
<p>somemom, Thanks for sharing your insight with us. I think the applicants seek this info because of its relevance to a personal question: “Does this school not invite me because I may not be good enough for them, or they may not have reviewed my application?”</p>
<p>sharonohio, Wow, it is quite confrontational! Just one observation (but it is over-generalized of course): DS once mentioned that, relatively speaking, more premeds (as compared to students on other track) tend to be more humble (or timid? At least they tend to not shout/argue as much) after the onslaught of many tough premed prereqs like orgo. If this is the case, your S definitely stands out on this aspect of personality, because he speaks up firmly for himself – It was good.</p>