God I hate interviewing

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>After 3 interviews, I have less than stellar results: 1 acceptance, 1 deferral, and 1 waitlist.</p>

<p>I have to travel to Chicago, California, Boston, New York, and Philly this month for more interviews. My PI doesn't like the fact that I'm spending more days interviewing this month than actually working so I'll be working on Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and probably every weekend. </p>

<p>Also, have to find the time to write update letters to all the schools I'm on hold, deferred, and waitlisted at (5 or so schools in all).</p>

<p>To those of you applying right now, good luck and let's hope that this process will be worth it.</p>

2

<p>??????? seriously??? lol just be happy that you got into med school, most people that apply dont.</p>

3

<p>Congrats. on your acceptance! Where was it?</p>

<p>GL on your other interviews</p>

4

<p>Persevere, and best of luck NCG. Congrats on the interviews and acceptance.</p>

5

<p>"??????? seriously??? lol just be happy that you got into med school, most people that apply dont."</p>

<p>Thanks. Didn't know that.</p>

6

<p>i'm blowing $800 just on air fair two weeks from now, that's the part of this whole thing that's really bugging me.</p>

<p>what do you think is a good timeline for writing update letters? I figured I was going to wait until the end of the semester so I could send an updated transcript as well.</p>

7

<p>what exactly do you put into an update letter and are you always supposed to send those to schools in which you are on hold/waitlist/deferred?</p>

8

<p>You update them on activities, but mostly you're just reaffirming your interest in the program. Every six weeks was what I did. Seemed to work okay.</p>

9

<p>Good times to write update letters: when you're on a pre-interview hold, anytime post-interview (but, I would do it as soon after the interview as possible so it gets there before they make their decision).</p>

<p>BDM is right that it's a combo update / letter of interest. Things to put in the letter include grades, research progress, any new activities, etc and obviously why you're interested in the school.</p>

<p>You don't HAVE to send letters to places you're on hold or waitlisted. They may or may not work but they can't hurt.</p>

10

<p>"i'm blowing $800 just on air fair two weeks from now"</p>

<p>philly -- you should be able to get better fares than $800. Several options exist.</p>

<p>Have you tried kayak.com or ebay (united voucher - lower 48 PMO DBC Free; usually go for less than $400, depending on expiration). </p>

<p>If you have already purchased your ticket, yapta.com could alert you to possible refund.</p>

<p>Credit card points can provide flights at 25-35K points for implied cost of $250-350.</p>

11

<p>that's 800 for two round trip flights actually, from philly to and from San Jose and St. Louis. so each flight in and of itself isn't too ridiculous, it's more just that the cost really adds up in a hurry.</p>

12

<p>is there any proper length and should the letter be formal? to whom to i write the letter? </p>

<p>none of my advisors ever mentioned doing this...is it the norm?</p>

13

<p>Two paragraphs, and reasonably formal. Address it to the director of admissions, for example,</p>

<p>"Dear Dean Armstrong and the Admissions Committee,"</p>

<p>It's formal in the sense that you want it to have a header and all that, but the tone of the letter itself doesn't need to be too formal.</p>

<p>I don't know how normal it is. I did it.</p>

14

<p>ncg, what med school did you get accepted to?</p>

15

<p>SLU. It's an alright med school. There are things I like about it and things I don't like. I've been finding trouble finding schools that have everything I want so I think I'd be relatively happy at SLU.</p>

16

<p>Congrats, norcalguy. I think you'll be fine. I hope my D has such a result.</p>

17

<p>It's still November.</p>

18

<p>Yeah. I'd don't think I'd be so quick to label the results as "lackluster". I, and most other people, would have been ecstatic to know that I had at least one sure place to go next august. </p>

<p>I have a friend who goes to SLU, and from what I've gathered from talking with him, it's a decent school, but not one that he necessarily would have chosen to attend if he'd had other options - especially if those other options would have been cheaper.</p>

19

<p>A very close friend and the head of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and the transplant team at a major hospital in Dallas in an SLU grad. He got top residency and internship opportunities as well. Don't sell it short it has a very good reputation for producing very fine MDs.</p>

20

<p>To agree with eadad above:
As we've mentioned, medical school (and residency) prestige within US allopathic programs has pretty small gradients when it comes to clinical evaluations. This isn't like an MBA, which can be given out by any idiot with a laser printer. The worst medical school in the country -- and SLU is far from the worst -- is still a very good medical school.</p>

<p>I don't think prestige is necessarily what BRM's friend was complaining about, although obviously I can't speak for him. SLU in particular has a very specific patient population, due to the combination of St. Louis's socioeconomics and having WUSTL just a mile and a half down the road. They've got a strong emphasis on primary care, which not everybody likes. Plus, private medical schools are really expensive.</p>