2012-2013 Med school applicants and their parents

<p>Congrats on the acceptance for Krug daughter and the interview invites for all!</p>

<p>Congrats to all with great news!
I will never forget the night, I believe it was Oct. 16. Although D. had a spot right from the start, it was very sweet when she woke me up 2 times. First, right after 1am, it was telephone call from Dean of admission, seemed to be some kind of tradition at this school. The second came after 2am via email. Also, acceptances might trigger more interviews at other schools. D. got one more acceptance after this night, and it was it. Less than 2 weeks!
MCAT2,
“MiamiDAP, For some unkown reason, DS has never studied aboard.” - Actually, D. has not either. But she visited a few palces and yes, she got 6 hrs of an UG credits from one of her visits (after completion of several projects back home, based on tons of pictures and journal entires). She did not need any addtional credits, but as always, the logic was “why not?”. She has already been abroad while at Med. School and mentioned that she could use it as one of rotations. This one was probably the most “educational” for her. I hope that she will not be tempted to go to yet another trip. But they had some MS3/4 with them, they used one rotation for this trip. She has always been drawn to other cultures, pretty good with languages and is in very diverse Med. School class currently.</p>

<p>I emailed the Dean of admissions at a Texas school that has not interviewed me yet with an update letter. The deam replied “Thank you for the update”. I don’t know if this was considered a ballsy move because it is the dean of admissions, but I felt like I had to get their attention. This school in Texas only has 4 more interview dates left, all the other slots are already booked! Hopefully the dean sees this as me taking initiative and not in as me being some annoying medical school applicant, lol. After my el paso II last week, all has been quiet. Now that it is October, I am starting to freak out about not having more interview invites, especially from Texas which moves incredibly fast, one school is already booked up to the first week of December!</p>

<p>one school is already booked up to the first week of December!</p>

<p>This can be so frustrating. It’s also frustrating when all the Monday or Friday dates are taken, which forces the student to miss more class days than needed. </p>

<p>One SOM only interviews on Mondays and Tuesdays, and all the Monday dates were taken. So, instead of being able to travel on Sunday, travel will be on Monday, Interview on Tuesday, and then (hopefully) get back on Tuesday night so won’t need to miss Wed classes, too. </p>

<p>(thankfully, profs and employer have been super supportive)</p>

<p>Miss classes, exams, Research, working, some sorority oblications,…still take them as early as possible, traveling in snow storms is not fun, D. had done those also. Sitting in a dark in your car for couple hours in unfamiliar city waiting for the host to show up, while she does not even reply is not fun either, it would be a bit better if it was lighter outside. The last one was a major turn off which resulted from withdrawing from highly ranked SOM. And, of course, it was a call to AAA, ended up very positive experience though. Any way, as early as possible while it is not so dark, so cold, so windy, so snowyyy, do not delay for no reason.</p>

<p>Congrats to Krug’s D!</p>

<p>BigredDawgie - Interesting experience with the fly in to inform you personally. I heard of USC hand delivering letters in LA neighborhood for undergrads.</p>

<p>Are you at the school where this person showed up? Wondering if that makes a difference in decisionmaking.</p>

<p>The adventures of med school interviews… Love those stories…<br>
m2ck - We have the opposite problems, interview on M & F only, she’ll end up missing 8 classes (may withdraw from a few scheduled for end of the year).</p>

<p>@texaspg I’m not at that school. I really liked that school before then, so it didn’t make a huge difference (it’s a top 10 school with lots of resources, awesome curriculum, and fun students). finances played a bigger role in my decision making. the school was too costly, even with scholarship.</p>

<p>Rejected from Tulane today…no word from any of my other IS schools…</p>

<p>I am having trouble keeping up and doing well in my classes this semester. I am taking 20 hours, doing research for 12 hours, keeping up with all my extracurricular activities, and writing a senior thesis. </p>

<p>I got back a test in one of my clases and ended up with a C- in it. There is still a chance that if I work hard, I can pull up to a B in the course, however, there is still a chance that if I continue at the pace that I am going, I might end up with a C in the course. It is not a science course. I was thinking about withdrawing from the course. The deadline for withdrawing from a course without failing it, and just getting a W is coming up. I don’t know what to do.</p>

<p>If I get more interviews later on in the season, and if I make a C in this course, how badly would it hurt my medical school chances?</p>

<p>I have never made a C in my life, I have never taken a W in my life. All of this is uncharted waters for me. </p>

<p>I decided to cut back on the research to just 5 hours a week, and I have decided to try and work harder in my class so that I can make at least a B in the course. I have also decided to put off working on my senior thesis until next semester, when I will be taking only 16 hours. However if I get more interviews and I am not able to devote as much time as necessary to do well in this class, how much would 1 C in a non-science class hurt? How much would a W hurt?</p>

<p>I am going to start sending in LOI’s to the texas schools that still haven’t interviewed me to see if this might help me with getting interviews. So far, I have sent one to UT-San Antonio. UT-H does not like pre-interview LOI’s so I can’t send them one.</p>

<p>How would the schools know about the grade? Do you plan on sending along an updated transcript with the LOI? I know schools ask for a final transcript, but I think that’s in May or so. A W might be cause for rescinding an acceptance offer (some more experienced posters might have more knowledge on this), but one C among a sea of A and A minuses is probably not too big of a deal. Definitely try and bring up the grade to a B if you can, though.</p>

<p>I can’t imagine 1 C or 1 W itself making or breaking your med school interviews or acceptances, especially if it’s not in a premed prereq class. While neither is ideal, neither is the end of the world.</p>

<p>However, continuing to stress yourself out and stretch yourself thin might have a huge impact on things because you need to personally be on your A-game if you’re going to rock these interviews. You can’t go into all these interviews and meet all these impressive applicants and be expected to put your best foot forward if you’re cowering in the corner with your tail between your legs because you’ve bitten off more than you can chew this semester. Getting through school on top of applications is tough, and stroking your ego is important because charisma and confidence are major players in interviews. </p>

<p>I think you have a few options.</p>

<p>The first is to do what you’re suggesting–work harder in your tough class, back off on your research hours, and postpone your thesis until the spring. </p>

<p>The other is to take the W, back off on your courseload, and adjust research and thesis as needed.</p>

<p>What you need to do is figure out which of these will leave you feeling better and more confident about yourself. When I was in a similar situation (not the same semester as applying), I went the route of withdrawing from the class (except it was early enough that it wasn’t a W). For me, I felt like I let myself down for a few days, but then realized that in choosing to drop that class I had time for my other classes and could really devote myself to those. Ended up doing great that semester and never looked back. </p>

<p>This isn’t to say you’re a failure or you’re stupid or you can’t handle academic rigor. It’s not saying you’re not fit for med school or you’re a bad person. The one and only thing this says is that you probably didn’t make the best scheduling decision for this semester, probably because you didn’t realize what a big job it is to apply to med school, and as a result you need to adjust. Not the end of the world. Make a decision, move on, don’t look back.</p>

<p>You’ll be fine! You have some great interviews coming up. You will probably collect a few more before all is said and done. It makes sense that this is stressing you out, and if you’re smart about it, you can figure out the best solution for you and can save your ego (critical to interview success, in my opinion) in the process. Good luck!</p>

<p>Son had an interview today and he said it went very well. He had a rocky start at the beginning because - for some reason - he didn’t hear his cell phone alarm and woke up MUCH later than he wanted. Luckily, he had laid out his clothes/shoes/socks/tie the night before so he just rushed, rushed, rushed to make it on time. Whew!!</p>

<p>There was some kind of Orientation meeting at first, and some bigwig said there was a good chance that acceptances would be known within a week or two. Wow…really?</p>

<p>Oh, and son said that there were about 24 students interviewed today and only 5 were boys. Isn’t that odd???</p>

<p>Congrats on your son’s successful interview.</p>

<p>Some schools have their adcom sit immediately after the first round of interviews and they release their results in waves after each round of interviews.</p>

<p>What do you make of the fact that only 25% of the interviewees were males today? do you think that was a fluke? I thought it was very odd.</p>

<p>I’m hoping it’s a good sign that they’ll want most/all the boys…lol.</p>

<p>This SOM accepts about 3/4 of their interviewees.</p>

<p>Unless it is the very first day of interviews it may not mean much. </p>

<p>It might mean a lot if this is towards the end, i.e., they have not interviewed enough female candidates and need more gender balanced class?</p>

<p>^^^</p>

<p>I don’t know when interviews started, but they aren’t close to the end. First round of acceptances will be this month.</p>

<p>Out of my 4 interviews…there were more guys than girls (6/2), about an even mix (10/10?), more guys than girls (8/5?), and about an even mix (7/7?) </p>

<p>Out of my state school’s demographics…my class was the first 50/50 split, but this summer we lost 3 girls and gained a guy, so now we’re M>F. The class above me is M>F (55/45), and the class below me is M>>F (65/35 I think).</p>

<p>I know that at one of my D’s interview, candidates were told that the first round of acceptances will be out on Oct. 15, which is the first day that AAMC suggested for regular (not early admission) applicants to receive an answer.</p>

<p>Houston, the Eagle has landed.</p>

<p>Happy, relieved and excited. :D</p>

<p>Many thanks to everyone for their expertise and support, couldn’t have done it without you all!</p>

<p>^^^^ Cheers and many congratulations!</p>