<p>Don’t worry Kristin, you will rock it!</p>
<p>Hey, Kristin, my D. used to be big time year around swimmer, but not anymore. She even started swim team at her HS. Nice to see similar interests here. You will do fine on interviews, just be yourself. It never occurs to me to worry about my D’s interviews, I worry a lot about her driving. And you are correct about being on foreign grounds. D. so far much prefer to be within our state. I do not care too mucn, she picked schools that are relatively close, even OOS ones are not too far. It was D’s criteria #1. D’s interview is in about 5 weeks. Best wishes!</p>
<p>I worry about DS’s driving too, as he has never had his car in college. So secretly, we prefer that he will go to a school in a city that is not too large, or where there is a relatively good public transportation.</p>
<p>This is a potential problem of sending a kid to a college where there is a lot of snow in winter. You really do not want an inexperienced driver to drive a car in winter there. As the time passes by, you find his driving skill has not improved much since high school days, while most of his high school friends who staying in a sunny state have been driving extensively for 4 years.</p>
<p>DS will have another interview in about two weeks. I think that will likely be his last one, unless he gets a new invite in the near future. It appears he mostly applied to schools which are either close to his college or in his home state. Only two are in “other” area. The west coast? Definitely “no” for him.</p>
<p>^Yes, D. has one last “silent” school. It is the closest one also (about 55 min. from our house), but in another state. She has experiences driving, had her car in school also, but we always worry anyway in a different way than we have worried about our S. in a past. Girl vs. boy thing. She already had experince calling AAA for dead buttery during one of her interview trip. Another one was waiting for her host in a dark in a car for about 1.5 hours in unfamiliar city after driving for 7 hours and host was not even responding to her calls. Everything has worked fine in both case, but we do not want any adventures any more, please, not. Also, frankly, I am happy with her choices now and just want whole process to be over. She is still in “exploration” mode though.
The best wishes (including driving) to your S on his coming interviews.</p>
<p>Hey guys, I have a question about changing coursework plans.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about taking psychology instead of Chinese for the next semester. I’m not sure which schools had a “future coursework” section on their secondary, so I’m afraid if I make the switch there will be an inconsistency. But on the other hand, I can’t forsee a med school saying “this dude took psych instead of chinese, let’s throw his app in the pile.”</p>
<p>This is not a problem on my AMCAS, because I only listed first semester future courses. </p>
<p>Can anyone remember which schools have a “future courses” part of their secondary? Thanks!</p>
<p>I know the ones that will likely care: none of them. 
Just notify them of the change.</p>
<p>OK. It’s officially been 6-7 weeks since I was complete at Boston, Creighton, Drexel, Georgetown, Harvard, Loyola, SLU (9-10, actually), Tufts, and UVa. </p>
<p>Boston’s sent a letter saying “we’re swamped!”</p>
<p>Harvard’s email says “this is all you’ll hear from us unless we want an interview in which case we’ll ask you before the end of January”</p>
<p>SLU says “you’re under review, we’ll notify you if we want to interview you”</p>
<p>Creighton says “it takes 3-4 weeks for us to update our system”</p>
<p>Drexel says “no decision available yet”</p>
<p>Boston, UVa, Tufts, and Georgetown say that I have “no new messages”</p>
<p>I am EXCEEDINGLY happy with my offers from Mayo, Mizzou, and Northwestern. But I don’t want to neglect my other schools because I have these–because let’s face it, none of them is a sure thing. Is it time to call yet?</p>
<p>I don’t have much fodder for a legitimate update letter (which isn’t to say I’ve been slacking off–just that I’ve been continuing to develop things I’ve already told them, and there’s not much new to report besides general progress).</p>
<p>Personally I would wait until the end of November, because right now is generally considered to be in the “early-mid” range, end of November will be more towards the middle. You have been complete later than a lot of people, including me. It has been 2-3 months since I have heard back from many of my schools.</p>
<p>The reason I say this, is that if it is late in the cycle and you still don’t hear back by then, I’m not sure if it will be a good idea to have sent a ton of letters by then when you really need it. So, I’m holding off my letters until the end of November.</p>
<p>Sounds like a good plan, lollybo. I have a feeling that my mood will change considerably should I be granted a quick acceptance to Mizzou (if offered acceptance). According to the doc I shadow who happens to be last year’s chair of the adcom, there exists a possibility that I would fall into the category of quick acceptances based on various facets of my application.</p>
<p>And while I have been complete less time than you (and others) at some places, you also might bear in mind that you’ve had interviews and hold an impressive acceptance whereas I have absolutely neither of those. Perhaps that’s why I may seem more apprehensive about this entire process than you are?</p>
<p>Regardless, end of November seems like a reasonable time to wait. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!</p>
<p>Hey guys, unfortunately my only decisions so far have been to be put on “continued lists” or deferred decisions. </p>
<p>I was just wondering if it was appropraite to try to contact interviewers post these decisions, to ask if there is any thing specifically we can do. At one school I haven’t heard back from, the interviewer specifically told me to make contact if not accepted, but I was curious if we could try something like this with an interview that went well but where that message was not explicitly stated. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>kristin, It appears to me several of your “currently silent” schools are at locations where many applicants like to go to (tufts, harvard, boston, maybe drexel). Therefore, there may be indeed more applications for their adcoms to go through. Also, I have the impression that NE schools tend to still interview applicants in January or even February. These may contribute a longer wait time for most applicants. (With this said, DS did get an invite from one of the schools you mentioned, but I think he has likely postponed his interview date till January.)</p>
<p>DS received another invite today. The interview date will be in early December, I think. So far, the tally is: have gone to 5, will go to another 2, likely cancel 4 interviews, 3 silent ones, about 7 incomplete applications. He has been very very lucky so far: 11 invites out of 14 completed applications. </p>
<p>jma, I vaguely remember DS said he wrote some “thank you” note to one of his interviewers. This is the reason why he noticed after one of his interviews that one of his interviewers seems to hold a quite senior position at the medical school he interviewed at. I am not sure whether he wrote this kind of note to all the interviewers who had ever interviewed him, or only to some of them.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info MCAT, but I guess I was more questioning whether we should contact interviewers after a decision was made to see if they could offer feedback on what sort of things we should try to update the schools on, or if there were specific concerns we could address. Not really sure if this sort of thing is appropriate, or worth trying, but if any others have advice, it’s appreciated.</p>
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<p>Except at the school where you were specifically told to do this, I would say no - after the interview and initial decision by the adcom, all your communication with the school should go through the admissions office, not the individual interviewers.</p>
<p>Kristin,
I do not know specifics of your “silent” schools. D. is not planning to do anything about her “silent” school although it was her top choice. At least, she did not get rejection from them. Which is the same with your “silent” schools. It is your decision, but I would be patient with them for now, see what happen after your interviews with others. </p>
<p>Lolly,
D. has changed her schedule for both semesters, for the current one and the next one, because one of her schools has added requirements. She did not update her application on advise from her pre-med advisor. Guess what, she has already been accepted to the school with additional requirements! Apparently did not bother them and another one that she got accepted. Nobody seems to care as long as all requirements complete before you start there.</p>
<p>D1 has her first interview next week. Yay! With our state medical school–which is her top choice. Her BF interviews tomorrow. BF has been rejected at the state school twice in the last 2 years. (Although he was accepted at Pritzker twice and to at least five other med schools during the same period–go figure!)</p>
<p>They applied to the same 10 schools and are hoping to both get accepted into at least school in common.</p>
<p>Wish your D and her BF a good luck in their upcoming interview.</p>
<p>Isn’t Pritzker one of the “happy places” for medical school students due to it pass/no-pass grading?</p>
<p>What is her BF’s motivation of going to the state medical school? (is it in New Mexico?) Is the cost-of-attending the major motivation?</p>
<p>Best wishes on interviews to both!</p>
<p>mcat2–</p>
<p>Cost is a big factor. He wants to go into primary care. </p>
<p>BF is a first gen from an immigrant family. (He was born here, but he and his twin are the only ones in family who were. His mom still speaks very little English.) His entire family lives in NM and he wants to stay close. His father was expelled from the home country for political reasons. Came to the US as a political refugee. His mother and older sibs were unable to move to the US for nearly a decade because dad couldn’t afford to pay their immigration expenses. (Plus the home country government were using them as leverage against the dad’s activism and wouldn’t issue exit visas.) Lots of family trauma there…</p>
<p>Plus he really doesn’t like Chicago, esp the weather.</p>
<p>I just got accepted to Northwestern!!! First acceptance and one of my top choices! I am sooooo excited!! I was in the middle of a tour at another school when I got the email on my smart phone, and I had to go to the bathroom so I could do some jumping up and down!!! ( I came out all flushed and everyone was looking at me kinda weird - lol, but I could not get myself to share the news)</p>
<p>I have had a bunch of interviews at great places but I really could not picture the end of all that !! OMG!! Best of luck to those that are still waiting for an acceptance! All we need is one!</p>
<p>Wow, big congrats MyOpinion! That’s some self control you have for not jumping up and down right then and there, tour or no tour.</p>