If a student applies ED to a med school, and is deferred, and then applies to other MD med schools, do those other med schools know that the student applied ED to another school earlier in the app season? It would seem so since they would see that the app was submitted to AMCAS in the summer, yet they are only receiving the primary in october.
No personal experience. I don’t know if I’m actually answering question but from quick reading (or perhaps misreading) SDN posts, it seems deferral is contractual in nature and whether one could even apply to other med schools would depend on terms of deferral, and may even require permission from ED school, which if true, then the answer is yes they’d obviously know. SDN posts seem to suggest to look at a school’s handbook about deferral policies.
ED to med school is a scam
Good question.
I was just assuming the rules were the same everywhere, and the same as undergrad…once an ED student is told that s/he’s deferred to the regular admission pool, s/he’s free to apply to other MD schools.
@WayOutWestMom what say you?
ED to med school is a bad, bad, bad idea. (Except in a very few, very unusual circumstances.)
ED applicants aren’t deferred; they are either accepted or rejected. An applicant that is rejected ED at a med school isn’t bumped to regular decision, they’re flat out rejected from that school. Period. ED and RD.
Until ED applicants receive a decision on Oct 1, they cannot submit a primary to any other school. AMCAS simply will not process any other primaries once an applicant has checked the ED box. (Not to mention that attempting to apply to other schools while an ED decision is pending is a major AMCAS traffic violation and will get anyone attempting to do so banned for life.)
Submitting primaries to other med schools post-ED rejection in mid October practically guarantees no interviews and nothing but rejections.
Med schools cannot see where an applicant has applied or where they have been rejected. They can only see where an applicant whom they already accepted (or waitlisted) has also been accepted.
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ED applicants aren’t deferred; they are either accepted or rejected. An applicant that is rejected ED at a med school isn’t bumped to regular decision, they’re flat out rejected from that school. Period. ED and RD.
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That is interesting. Is that written somewhere? The parent and student told me that the ED app was deferred, not rejected. Is it possible that med schools have flexibility here?
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Submitting primaries to other med schools post-ED rejection in mid October practically guarantees no interviews and nothing but rejections.
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While i agree that this likely happens 99.9% of the time, this student did then apply to a lower ranked instate med and was interviewed and accepted. I agree that this is not typical and probably only happened because this one small “lesser” public instate med seems to always do things a little later than other med schools. In another state, this would have likely failed.
Like you, i’m very against ED for med school…the only exception would be a student who cannot relocate for some personal reason.
It looks like ED applicants can be deferred…
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All EDP applicants accepted by a medical school must adhere to the tenets of the Early Decision Program. This includes, but is not limited to, applicants accepted to the current entering class, delayed matriculants from a previous entering class, and all other applicants who are required by the medical school to submit an ED application to the current entering class. Under these circumstances, application to other schools is prohibited. Any violation of these conditions will result in an investigation. Medical Schools agree: To notify EDP applicants of admission decisions by October 1; and To defer applicants to the regular applicant pool, if appropriate.
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So, this being so, wouldn’t a med school see that the primary was submitted in the summer? And if so, would they know it had been an ED application?
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ED to med school is a scam
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I strongly dislike ED, but why do you think it’s a scam? Do you think it’s because it largely benefits the med school?
The med school would see when the primary was submitted. The adcomm may assume the applicant applied for ED, but there would no notation on the actual application itself that would confirm or deny this. Although if the student applied ED to a particular school and was deferred to RD, then the info would be internally available to the admission committee.
Save for the situation above, an applicant’s entire application history is not viewable by adcomms, only the list of other schools that have accepted this applicant, and that is visible only after a school has accepted or waitlisted the student. (And actually the Multiple Acceptance Report doesn’t come out until February so that’s the earliest a med school will be able to see an applicant’s list of other acceptances.)
However, many secondaries ask if a student has ever applied to med school previously and if so when. A student would need to answer yes to this question if they had applied ED and been rejected or deferred.
IWBB thinks med school ED is a scam because it’s similar to BA/MD admissions in that students accepted thru ED decisions usually have higher (in many cases significantly higher) stats than those accepted through RD. It’s way to lock in highly competitive candidates at less competitive programs.
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However, many secondaries ask if a student has ever applied to med school previously and if so when. A student would need to answer yes to this question if they had applied ED and been rejected or deferred.
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I’m thinking that the question you indicate would be viewed as …did the student apply during a previous app cycle. I’m not sure that an ED app during the same app year would apply. It looks like adding more schools is just a variation to when an RD student adds more schools with a couple of more parts to complete.
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How do I designate additional schools once I’ve been released from my EDP agreement?
Should you receive either a rejection or a formal release from an EDP commitment, follow these instructions to designate additional schools:
After entering your username and password, visit the Medical Schools section of your AMCAS application;
Choose the Edit option for the school you have designated as your EDP designation;
Change your selection of the type of program to which you are applying from Early Decision toRegular, then click Next;
Designate additional school(s) per instructions provided on the screen and in Help;
Visit the Change Notification Process section of your application, then click Submit on page one of this section;
Select the applicable EDP release option from the provided selections, then certify the EDP release statement and click Accept;
Re-certify and officially update your application by clicking on the Update Application button on the Main Menu to save your changes.
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That said, I’m guessing that many med schools, particularly lower tier instate, suspect that they’ve been added on after Oct 1st because ED wasn’t a success. That’s usually too late for any success except for cases like the student I mentioned that later applied to an instate public who does everything later…maybe to catch the ED rejects? Lol
I’m curious as to how many applicants do ED. Is that written anywhere?
I strongly discourage ED to students, but there are some age 40+ doctors who seem to recommend this. Maybe during their years, ED wasn’t as risky (if it even existed then)?
Things have changed over the years. The admission process wasn’t always as standardized & regulated as it is today. As recently as 15 years ago, most med schools had their own admissions process, didn’t use AMCAS and certainly didn’t have any way of knowing if a student who applied ED had also applied to other schools. Every school had its own deadlines & its own policies. It was only once everything got centralized by AMCAS that a uniformity of deadlines and traffic rules came to exist. (Just think about how much college applications have changes since the Common App came into existence.)
Also med school admission used to be less competitive than it is today. I have doctor friends who talk about applying to 3-5 med schools (!!!) with the confidence that they would be accepted to a couple of them.
Med school ED provides 0 benefit to applicants at extremely large costs. Undergraduate ED is at least very much an “early decision” and provides no disadvantages from an admissions standpoint (it does provide an FA disadvantage). Many (most? Overwhelming majority?) medical schools are handing out regular admissions prior to the ED result deadline. It does provide medical schools with a guaranteed matriculant if accepted. I guess I don’t mean it’s a literal scam but I would actively advise any applicant to avoid it.
It’s way worse than BS/MD
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Many (most? Overwhelming majority?) medical schools are handing out regular admissions prior to the ED result deadline.
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I’m not sure that’s possible. I think ED notification is Oct 1st, and the earliest notification for regular admissions is mid october. But i could be wrong.
I do agree that undergrad ED is not nearly as risky. Actually for MD ED to reduce risk, then those apps should be submitted by mid June with acceptance notification by mid Aug.
No, I think you’re right. I don’t think that used to be the case though. I feel like I had friends who had acceptances well before mid october when I applied in 09-10. As stated already, ED applicants cannot apply to other schools until they hear from the ED school and interviews at the vast majority of schools are definitely happening before October 1st.