<p>My son is trying to decide on some interviews to pull out from, in light of his Vandy acceptance. Case, Northwestern and Mount Sinai are the schools involved in the decision. Case and Northwestern are scheduled in December, where as Mount Sinai is scheduled on Tuesday. He does have some interest in Mount Sinai but it has been a very difficult month with a lot of missed classes. Also, he is feeling bad about informing them just one day before the interview day. </p>
<p>I read a post by LizzyM on SDN, in which she essentially said cancelling an interview late is better than attending one reluctantly.</p>
<p>I canceled an MD/PhD interview at a school where they were paying for my airline tickets and hotel the day before. It was a non MSTP school and I had just gotten accepted to an MSTP that weekend meaning there was 0 chance I would ever enroll there. By canceling you free up time and resources of the school to focus on the applicants present who actually are still interested in attending. I don’t see any problem with canceling his tuesday interview this late if he wouldn’t ever attend, but I personally wouldn’t cancel for the reason he’s given.</p>
Can you elaborate? Are you saying that he shouldn’t cancel Sinai just because he has Vandy? He has done 12 interviews already and the interview fatigue has set in. He already has 4 acceptances. Off his NYC choices, he already interviewed at Cornell and NYU, he has Sinai scheduled on Tuesday and Columbia on Dec 7th which he will attend. He also has UPenn next Friday which he will attend also. Other than that, the idea is to consider only Harvard, Duke and WashU and Mayo, if they come through.</p>
<p>He doesn’t know anything about Sinai other than what he read about it. Therefore, he doesn’t have a whole lot to go buy as to why he should or shouldn’t continue to interview at schools like Sinai. Time is a consideration but expenses are not, in his decision regarding which interviews to attend.</p>
<p>I think northwestern does offer full tuition scholarships. my classmate got one 2 years ago but turned it down.</p>
<p>case offers merit as well, but they invite people to apply for it</p>
<p>for me, with that vandy acceptance, i would cancel all 3 of those schools. Vanderbilt better than all 3 of those schools in many aspects. (I went to 19 interviews. If i had a do over, I wouldnt have gone to so many)</p>
Let me correct it for you. It should be:
POOR Yale parents here brag about great FA.
But, do you refer to Yale as a college, or as a med school here?</p>
<p>I keep a realtime ranking system of the schools where I am applying (to help in the coming decision process) and ISMMS made the largest move UP in my rankings of any school I’ve interviewed at so far. The school was in the lower half before my interview and now is in my top five. IMO, (and I know everyone is different) I’d pick ISMMS(if I were lucky enough to be accepted) over Vandy. It would be an easy choice. The same could happen to your S, but he must attend the interview to know for sure. </p>
<p>BTW, I totally understand the conflict with current studies. It’s been a struggle,(quantum chem and advanced biochem :eek: ) but I only plan to do this app cycle once so I don’t want to do anything that might cause regrets later.</p>
<p>Kal, I seriously think that unless he really wants one of the other schools that he is interviewing at…stop now. I agree with IWBB, let others get the interview. My daughter was exhausted after 13, she turned down another 10. Was one of those ten a better fit for her? She will never know, but I really believe in that cheesy saying…They will bloom where they are planted. Let Kalson be done if he has options that he will be happy with.</p>
<p>"POOR Yale parents here brag about great FA.
But, do you refer to Yale as a college, or as a med school here? "</p>
<p>Mcat - med school! Undergrad is a given but very few med schools consider parental income in awarding financial grants. The schools are expecting the students to borrow a lot of money instead. Many people who might be able to comfortably send one kid to private college find that 130-140k with two kids in college is a major stretch. Getting into a med school awarding grant money is a good thing in such cases.</p>
<p>I was wondering who this person was and trying to google - ‘Kalson’ :p</p>
<p>Last year, one of the Texas kids got into all the Texas schools, Stanford and kept receiving more interviews in December. He went home for Christmas, told his parents he will stay back at S, and cancelled every interview and then cancelled his apps where interviewed but no result was received. So if Kalson created a list and decided he would not choose any specific pending over those he completed interviews at, then there is no point wasting his time or money and he can enjoy the rest of the school year.</p>
<p>^ The decision about these 3 schools reminds me of a famous phrase in real estate: Location, location, location!</p>
<p>This could be more so in the residency application cycle - the importance of the ranks of residency programs could be even more irrelevant while the location factor trumps all other factors.</p>
<p>That is, the importance of the ranking:
UG >>>> Med School >>>> Residency Programs
Some who are practical may regard the first two are very irrelevant and only the very last one matters. We often heard of the same argument about UG and grad school for those who are not on the med school track: It is only the ranking of the grad school that matters so get the “free ride” while you can at the UG level. (Ironically though, those parents who “have” rarely think so. Some of these even firmly believe pre-college is very important.)</p>
<p>Kal,
You did get some good advice from IWBB and GAMOM2012. My kid’s acceptance resulted in withdrawal and cancellation of interviews to three schools. While those are three great schools, he knew within himself that there was zero chance he would enroll there over the one where he was accepted.</p>
<p>Since your son has kept Mount Sinai, it says that it has equal footing with the others where he has been accepted.</p>
<p>Like everyone else, it has been crazy with classes and travels for my kiddo. However, luckily for him, the completion of his interview travel is imminent. Even though his applications were not submitted at the opening of AMCAS, I believe he has been truly blessed in the cycle with early IIs.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone else. It’s not over until its over!</p>
<p>My point is I would only cancel an interview if I knew I wasn’t going to attend the school. If Sinai stands no chance against his 4 acceptances then by all means, abort the interview, I’m not saying anything about the actual schools involved in this decision because it’s your son’s choice. What I am saying is that quite frankly, we’re talking about choosing what school he’s going to launch his professional life from, so just because things are getting a little rough at school (which with 4 acceptances obviously doesn’t matter as much anymore) in my opinion is no reason to abort the interview at the risk of closing the door on a school he could end up choosing.</p>
<p>I got the feeling from your post that the only reason he was seriously considering canceling was because he’s tired and worried about his school work, not because of how he genuinely feels about the school in relation to the other guaranteed options he has. If your son is saying “I really really like vanderbilt and don’t foresee Sinai being a better choice” and this isn’t influenced by fatigue, then by all means cancel.</p>
<p>This is not a thread for medical care discussion. If someone wants to discuss it, they should go to the thread discussing ACA where it will be properly moderated.</p>
<p>Now to something totally unrelated… I have always been fond of some of the accelerated BA/MD programs like PLME and HPME, because of the fact they give the talented kids a relatively stress free and assured way to get into med schools while allowing them pursuing other academic interests. My son told me the other day, some stories he heard from some Brown kids on the interview circuit. Apparently, while the regular track kids are busting their rear-ends in hard science classes the PLME kids are busy having fun while taking courses like Orgo for pass/fail! I didn’t quite believe it, because I didn’t know if it is even allowed. Is it true, IWBB? If it is, that changes my opinion about these accelerated programs with no strings attached.</p>
<p>PLME (and to my knowledge HPME as well) is not accelerated, it’s still 8 years long.</p>
<p>With regard to the limitations, you are correct, you can take classes S/NC (what we call pass/fail at Brown) while being a PLME student. The only requirement to enter med school as a PLME is that you graduate with a degree and that you take a certain set of courses (basically the pre-med pre-reqs). PLME does offer a lot of flexibility and is quite the opportunity for students - thats why less than 100 are admitted each year (it’s very, very competitive). For every PLME who uses it as a chance to goof off, there is one who is working harder than all the regular pre-meds anyway (e.g. my frat brother PLME who still graduated magna cum laude, phi beta kappa, and had a 1st author pub in one of the top journals for his field)</p>
<p>8+ years ago when I was applying to college, Warren Alpert was a much less prestigious med school and my high school guidance counselor advised against doing PLME both because I wasn’t sure yet if med school was for me and because he said it’s for kids who don’t think they can hack it in college and remain competitive come med school app time. The fact is the kids getting into PLME are almost certain to be very successful 4 years later they essentially already have done all the pre-med stuff as high school students.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Brown switched one thing a few years ago which is that if you apply to any med schools while a PLME student, you forfeit your guaranteed spot and have to apply to Warren Alpert too. In the past you could basically apply to a handful of med schools with a guaranteed spot at Brown in hand and presumably leave the PLME program if you got in anywhere else. I’m surprised it took as long as it did to get rid of that. There’s a big difference in my mind between letting undergraduates explore without fear of ruining their med school chances and letting undergraduates use you as a safety net while they strive for other schools.</p>
<p>Of course the downside is that you’re committing to 8 years in one place and Brown in particular is very UG focused so being a med student there is VERY different from being an undergraduate.</p>
<p>Many of the kids taking bs/md slots are HYPS type kids. Sure some may be using these schools as safety nets, but these schools are also using these kids. They have the freshman stats these schools want and couldn’t get without offering these type of deals in the first place. Those who apply out most likely worked very hard and did all the things every other pre-med did. They then get to manage the app list very carefully, saving time, money, and stress. Win for them. The UG school got their stats and their talents for four years-- win for them.</p>
So that second kid going to college might come in handy.</p>
:)</p>