<p>Someone has asked me for advice. Not sure how to respond. Student is on a waitlist for interview at 2 schools but has not been interviewed yet. He has sent in his first semester grades which were excellent and an e-mail update to the admissions office indicating he will be a co-author in a paper to be submitted at a well-regarded biomedical journal. He hoped that his applications at these and other schools where has not heard anything yet would get read again; however, so far no response. He wonders whether he should make inquiries directly to the dean of admissions at these schools with the hope that his application may get read again by committee. He feels calling the admissions office will only get him to a secretary and will not lead to relevant information or exchange. Not sure whether this might be perceived as irritating by the dean to be contacted by a prospective student. On the other hand, this is getting near the tail end of the interview season and I am not sure whether he has much to lose, provided he makes his inquiry and appeal in a respectful manner. The student feels that a call may be more effective than an e-mail as he already cced his update to the dean of admission. He would like to make his best case without sounding desparate or be irritating. Any suggestions or advice?</p>
<p>I can see pros and cons each way, but if I were in his shoes I would make the call to the admissions office (yes, it will be an administrator) and talk things through with the person on the other end. Particularly if his numbers are above that school's means -- by a noticeable margin -- I would make sure to hit them hard with a great deal of interest. Retrospectively, I would not have used e-mail, and a "paper to be submitted" is probably not something that would tip him over the edge in any case. The most important thing he could have said would be a reaffirmation (and explanation) of interest, not of his actual accomplishments.</p>
<p>The phone call is unlikely to help much, as I suspect most schools have a pretty efficient method of scanning through their waitlists anyway and can't possibly re-review the applications based on requests alone. In any case I think it's moot, since I am having a hard time picturing a way to contact the Dean without going through a secretary.</p>
<p>But you're right, I suspect that so long as he is polite and respectful, there's not a lot he can lose here.</p>
<p>Probably won't help.</p>
<p>The only place I've heard of this sort of thing happening is Columbia P&S. If waitlisted post-interview and you didn't interview w/ him the first time, you used to be able to request a second interview with Dr. Frantz, who is the dean of admissions and makes all of the waitlist decisions. However, he has said that in recent years so many people have requested second interviews that he no longer grants them to whomever asks.</p>
<p>BTW: If he has been formally and officially put on hold for an interview, then his file will probably get read a second time. The only reason it wouldn't be would be if the school simply ran out of interview invites. For example, Michigan decided to cancel its last two interview dates and rejected everyone on hold on the same day because it decided that it wasn't going to interview any more people.</p>