No interviews from any schools?

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hlheels89

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Hey guys,

So it seems like everyone who actually has posted anything here has heard back or gotten an interview to a couple of schools even if they haven't been accepted. Has anyone not heard ANYTHING from any of their schools? I don't think I'm a horrible applicant but I've yet to hear from any schools I've applied to. Needless to say, starting to freak out a bit.

Ohio resident
current undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill
3.4 GPA, sGPA a bit higher (3.43ish?) with continuous GPA improvement from freshman to now.
Biomedical Eng. Major
8 VR, 11 BS, 11 PS

I've done:
one semester of undergrad research in orthopedic lab
gone to China for research/internship in life science lab for a summer
volunteer/shadowing at multiple hospitals
Swimming Club, Boxing Club, BME Club, Pre-med association (couple of committees within that)

Schools applied: Toledo, UCinnci, Ohio State, CWRU, Wright State, UNC (rejected), MUSC

The most stressful thing is not hearing back from any of the instate schools. Anyone have any advice or are in a similar spot? Or am I really that hopeless?
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hlheels89 said:
Hey guys,

So it seems like everyone who actually has posted anything here has heard back or gotten an interview to a couple of schools even if they haven't been accepted. Has anyone not heard ANYTHING from any of their schools? I don't think I'm a horrible applicant but I've yet to hear from any schools I've applied to. Needless to say, starting to freak out a bit.

Ohio resident
current undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill
3.4 GPA, sGPA a bit higher (3.43ish?) with continuous GPA improvement from freshman to now.
Biomedical Eng. Major
8 VR, 11 BS, 11 PS

I've done:
one semester of undergrad research in orthopedic lab
gone to China for research/internship in life science lab for a summer
volunteer/shadowing at multiple hospitals
Swimming Club, Boxing Club, BME Club, Pre-med association (couple of committees within that)

Schools applied: Toledo, UCinnci, Ohio State, CWRU, Wright State, UNC (rejected), MUSC

The most stressful thing is not hearing back from any of the instate schools. Anyone have any advice or are in a similar spot? Or am I really that hopeless?
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Definitely not hopeless. Keep your head up as many people are still receiving invites this late in the cycle.
If you don't hear anything back this year, I would recommend bringing up that VR a bit, taking some grad classes over the summer and acing them, and definitely applying more broadly. You may want to consider applying to 20+ schools. Think of it as more shots on goal. Hope that helps.
 
I would have applied to more than just 7 schools if those were my stats. Additionally, when did you complete your applications? It seems like there is undoubtedly truth to "completing earlier is better". I applied to 15 schools but submitted my application a little late. Still received 3 interviews and hoping I will get more.

I wouldn't worry yet. It seems like SDN are often the super applicants who apply and hear back very early. I was thinking I might be done and get no more interviews in December after reading the information on here. Then, within 2 weeks of each other, 2 more interview invites. SDN may give a sort of biased view of this application process.
 
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hlheels89,

First off, I am a Ohio resident who went to school in NC whose GPA had continuous improvement so I can relate to you on multiple accounts off the bat. It is extremely important to apply early in this cycle (i.e. primary sent in by end of July at the latest). As previous posts have mentioned, interviews are still being given out in January and February so don't worry too much. Continue to bust your tail at UNC in the time being and build on your medical and non-medical experiences just in case you have to go through the process again. You will have your primary application done if you need to apply again and definitely apply more broadly (10 to 15 schools and include NEOUCOM). I would be more than happy to share more specifics of my application if you pm me. I wish you the absolute best; don't let the process get you down. You will never get a senior year in college again and will miss it dearly when you have graduated.
 
newnimproved said:
hlheels89,

First off, I am a Ohio resident who went to school in NC whose GPA had continuous improvement so I can relate to you on multiple accounts off the bat. It is extremely important to apply early in this cycle (i.e. primary sent in by end of July at the latest). As previous posts have mentioned, interviews are still being given out in January and February so don't worry too much. Continue to bust your tail at UNC in the time being and build on your medical and non-medical experiences just in case you have to go through the process again. You will have your primary application done if you need to apply again and definitely apply more broadly (10 to 15 schools and include NEOUCOM). I would be more than happy to share more specifics of my application if you pm me. I wish you the absolute best; don't let the process get you down. You will never get a senior year in college again and will miss it dearly when you have graduated.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. Also, don't dread taking a year off after undergrad if necessary. It's a great time to blow off some steam with friends and live on your own before heading back to school.
 
I applied to schools in Texas too (looking back I have no clue why) including Texas A&M, UT Houston, San Antonio, Galveston, Southwestern but I didn't list them because i thought I read somewhere they were done sending out invites so i just crossed them off the list.

Also I had sent in my primary in August and it was approved my AMCAS late-Aug since I took my MCAT July 30th or so which I realize was kinda late. I finished most of my secondaries in September which is a bit later than most of the people on this forum. I plan on applying to UNC and Dukes BME grad programs so if worse comes to worst, I'll just go to one of those schools but nonetheless, it still a tough process especially not hearing back from any schools and a tough pill to swallow if I really get completely shut out (you guys know what Im talking about).

And I agree matterotime, SDN does seem to have some of the most stellar applicants.

Either way I plan on living it up this semester though itd be much better (for me and the parents) if I knew that I'd be going to med school next year!
 
People have used the "SDN is biased" excuse for a long time. But after a few years on this site, SDN seems to be a pretty good mix of people. Not everyone is a stellar applicant, though many stellar applicants are on here because why wouldn't you use this resource. I really don't understand how anyone who applies does not, any edge helps and most pre-health advising is embarrassingly poor. But the main thing that is not overstated is how important applying before the end of August is for the process (that is being complete). By September, you are most definitely in the last half of applicants and maybe even the final third to apply. I have a feeling that some schools, with thousands and thousands of apps don't really even get to some of these, though there is no way to know for sure. Schools could easily use software to find some gems from that pool. But after the rolling admission schools have filled most of the class by the time they get to your app, they really only are interested in stellar applicants anyway. I also think SDN doesn't overstate how many schools to apply to. It seems like the middle 50% of students receive interviews from between 15-30% of school to which they apply, assuming they apply fairly broad and not top or bottom heavy. So applying to 20 schools would yield about 3-6 interviews, which would often result in at least a couple acceptances. But then some people still only apply to 8 or so schools. If on top of that you are not a stellar applicant, you should only expect about 1 interview that may or may not result in an acceptance. The admissions process is as much a game of probability as anything, though it is meant to seem more analytical and less of a coin flip. However, it may be less of a game of chance within one's own state.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Just another note:

I see now you applied to more than the original 7 schools. But it seems you applied to in-state schools in your home state of Ohio, but also in Texas. I am not familiar with the schools in these regions, but is it possible these Texas schools mostly look at in-state applicants? If so, you may have applied to some schools that basically took your app fee and you had absolutely no chance. For example (statistics from MSAR book):

Texas AM: 8/105 OOS students
Galveston: 9/227
UT Houston: 9/230
San Antonio: 22/220
Southwestern: 30/219

So really you wasted your money applying to all but arguably San Antonio and Southwestern. 9 schools is not enough when you are fighting against below average MCAT and GPA at most schools with a less than unique app.
 
anfleisch said:
People have used the "SDN is biased" excuse for a long time. But after a few years on this site, SDN seems to be a pretty good mix of people. Not everyone is a stellar applicant, though many stellar applicants are on here because why wouldn't you use this resource.
Click to expand...

Not so much that SDN is biased, but people are more prone to post about an interview invite or acceptance than a rejection. Looking through the threads, you will see that there seem to be as many, if not more, people posting that they got an interview as there are saying they got pre-interview rejection. We know this cannot be the overall case. This just gives a kind of inaccurate view.
 
+1 on applying to more schools. I have almost the same stats as you (29Q 3.5 cGPA 3.4 sGPA) and I applied to about 25, including some DO schools. Also Ohio resident.

So far I've had interviews at Case, OSU, Wright State, Wayne State, (all waitlisted, except waiting to hear back from Wright) and have been admitted to MSUCOM.

Think about it, what if I had applied to 20 schools and happened to not apply to those 5? I'd be in the same situation as you. Interview invites is kind of a crapshoot if you don't have stellar stats. You really need to apply early and apply broadly. I'd wait out this year and definitely reapply to at least 20+ places next year.

I definitely feel your pain and applying to a lot of schools does get super expensive/time consuming, but its definitely worth it not to have to reapply. GL with the rest of the app season though, hopefully you will hear something soon :luck:
 
Hmm, seems like I just didn't realize I needed to apply that early but would that really have made a difference? I mean if they read a mediocre application at the beginning, wouldn't they have just as likely placed it aside anyways? Of course theres always the argument for just working harder and getting a better GPA/MCAT/ECs.

End of the day lesson: Should have been a business major...:laugh:
 
hlheels89 said:
Hmm, seems like I just didn't realize I needed to apply that early but would that really have made a difference? I mean if they read a mediocre application at the beginning, wouldn't they have just as likely placed it aside anyways? Of course theres always the argument for just working harder and getting a better GPA/MCAT/ECs.

End of the day lesson: Should have been a business major...:laugh:
Click to expand...

UNC = grade inflation. It might not have been your major.
 
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iniquus said:
UNC = grade inflation. It might not have been your major.
Click to expand...

This is completely incorrect. In the sciences, everything is curved to a B-.

Some schools within UNC are easier graders but North Carolina is not known for grade inflation - at least it wasn't when I was there.
 
Time to send in letters of interest. OSU interviews are already being scheduled way out in March, and NEOUCOM has only certain dates they interview, etc.

Good luck.
 
curlytop said:
Time to send in letters of interest. OSU interviews are already being scheduled way out in March, and NEOUCOM has only certain dates they interview, etc.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

This. Plus, you should have another semester of grades for them, right? Regardless, send in thoughtful update letters/letters of interest to every school. You have nothing to lose.
 
Cster0905 said:
This is completely incorrect. In the sciences, everything is curved to a B-.

Some schools within UNC are easier graders but North Carolina is not known for grade inflation - at least it wasn't when I was there.
Click to expand...

You must have been there a long time ago then. I'm just going off this NY Times article and from what Duke students had to say (gasp!) specifically for UNC-Chapel Hill.

"A’s have become the most frequent grade, and together, A’s and B’s accounted for 82 percent of the 2008 grades."
 
I was a BME student at Duke about 10 years ago. We always viewed UNC as having grade inflation by comparison. However, I'm not sure how true that was and how much my "Go to hell Carolina" shirt had to do with it. ;)
 
iniquus said:
You must have been there a long time ago then. I'm just going off this NY Times article and from what Duke students had to say (gasp!) specifically for UNC-Chapel Hill.

"A's have become the most frequent grade, and together, A's and B's accounted for 82 percent of the 2008 grades."
Click to expand...

The graduating class for this year's BME class is roughly 15 people which is less than 1% of the 18% who are NOT As or Bs. Im guessing education, communication, business, history, art majors make up a big portion of those who receive As while those who are taking intro to mid level science classes especially pre-med prerequisites are largely not part of that curve. I would like to distinguish myself and my fellow BME-ers from that crowd :D.
 
eablackwell said:
I was a BME student at Duke about 10 years ago. We always viewed UNC as having grade inflation by comparison. However, I'm not sure how true that was and how much my "Go to hell Carolina" shirt had to do with it. ;)
Click to expand...

I would also like to express my opinion that "Go to hell Duke!" rolls off the tongue a lot easier than the phrase on that surely horrendous t-shirt which you own ;)
 
hlheels89 said:
Hey guys,

So it seems like everyone who actually has posted anything here has heard back or gotten an interview to a couple of schools even if they haven't been accepted. Has anyone not heard ANYTHING from any of their schools? I don't think I'm a horrible applicant but I've yet to hear from any schools I've applied to. Needless to say, starting to freak out a bit.

Ohio resident
current undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill
3.4 GPA, sGPA a bit higher (3.43ish?) with continuous GPA improvement from freshman to now.
Biomedical Eng. Major
8 VR, 11 BS, 11 PS

I've done:
one semester of undergrad research in orthopedic lab
gone to China for research/internship in life science lab for a summer
volunteer/shadowing at multiple hospitals
Swimming Club, Boxing Club, BME Club, Pre-med association (couple of committees within that)

Schools applied: Toledo, UCinnci, Ohio State, CWRU, Wright State, UNC (rejected), MUSC

The most stressful thing is not hearing back from any of the instate schools. Anyone have any advice or are in a similar spot? Or am I really that hopeless?
Click to expand...

The med school application process is like this for many people that apply. I know some very strong applicants that still have no interview invites this cycle.

My stats aren't too bad, and I have one waitlist, one rejection and a couple of holds. It's still possible to receive invites for another month or so, so it's not over yet.

If you must reapply, try to expand your school list and consider D.O. schools as well. You will absolutely get in somewhere with enough persistence.:)
 
hlheels89 said:
Ohio resident
current undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill
3.4 GPA, sGPA a bit higher (3.43ish?) with continuous GPA improvement from freshman to now.
Biomedical Eng. Major
8 VR, 11 BS, 11 PS

I've done:
one semester of undergrad research in orthopedic lab
gone to China for research/internship in life science lab for a summer
volunteer/shadowing at multiple hospitals
Swimming Club, Boxing Club, BME Club, Pre-med association (couple of committees within that)

Schools applied: Toledo, UCinnci, Ohio State, CWRU, Wright State, UNC (rejected), MUSC
Click to expand...

Do you have any leadership? Start some kind of initiative or community service project at your school, or gain leadership position in an admirable extracurricular. From your short description, it seems that you're lacking community service.

Most of your clubs are for you: swimming, boxing, BME, pre-med association (the latter 2 I think are weak clubs in my opinion). In your year off, maybe you should consider AmeriCorps, or some other form of long-term community service.

Your GPA and MCAT are a bit on the low side too. I don't know if you necessarily have to do any postbaccalaureate work, or what good it would do, but I would definitely consider taking a year off to boost your MCAT score to 32-33+ to be competitive (more forgiving stats if you're a URM).

Make sure your personal statement and the rest of your AMCAS application was well-written, and that you solicited recommendation letters of top-notch quality. I think you should be fine in the next cycle if you apply broadly. Judging from your school list, you definitely want to be back home in Ohio. It makes sense to apply to your state schools, but take your chance on some other schools around the country if you really want to get an MD. Buy an MSAR book, which will reveal the schools that are "less selective."
 
iniquus said:
Do you have any leadership? Start some kind of initiative or community service project at your school, or gain leadership position in an admirable extracurricular. From your short description, it seems that you're lacking community service.

Most of your clubs are for you: swimming, boxing, BME, pre-med association (the latter 2 I think are weak clubs in my opinion). In your year off, maybe you should consider AmeriCorps, or some other form of long-term community service.

Your GPA and MCAT are a bit on the low side too. I don't know if you necessarily have to do any postbaccalaureate work, or what good it would do, but I would definitely consider taking a year off to boost your MCAT score to 32-33+ to be competitive (more forgiving stats if you're a URM).

Make sure your personal statement and the rest of your AMCAS application was well-written, and that you solicited recommendation letters of top-notch quality. I think you should be fine in the next cycle if you apply broadly. Judging from your school list, you definitely want to be back home in Ohio. It makes sense to apply to your state schools, but take your chance on some other schools around the country if you really want to get an MD. Buy an MSAR book, which will reveal the schools that are "less selective."
Click to expand...

I was looking around for schools around the country which had good OOS acceptance rates or didnt differentiate between IS and OOS. Do you have any good suggestions in case I decide to reapply in the future?
 
hlheels89 said:
I was looking around for schools around the country which had good OOS acceptance rates or didnt differentiate between IS and OOS. Do you have any good suggestions in case I decide to reapply in the future?
Click to expand...

Not off the top of my head. Most of the Pennsylvania schools (Penn State, Drexel, Temple, Jefferson), Rosalind Franklin, New York Medical College, Albany Medical College. Some state schools are friendlier to OOS than others, and most private schools don't have significant bias.

Honestly, I highly recommend getting the MSAR book. Even an older edition (by 1 or 2 years) is still useful. It lists the GPA ranges, MCAT ranges for a school, and other useful tidbits like number of applicants, number interviewed, number matriculated. From there, you can determine which schools you are competitive for and calculate the IS/OOS matriculant ratio.
 
With regards to the Texas medical schools (which since I am a TX resident I am very familiar with). They are only allowed by law to take 10% of their class from out of state, which is one reason why the MSAR lists so few out of state students and why it is hard for out of state students to get in unless they have a stellar GPA and MCAT scores. Also Texas schools really stress applying early and even if you are in state, if you apply as late as august your chances of even getting an interview are reduced pretty dramatically. just my 2 cents.
 
curlytop said:
Time to send in letters of interest. OSU interviews are already being scheduled way out in March, and NEOUCOM has only certain dates they interview, etc.

Good luck.
Click to expand...


Definitely agree. send the letter of interest, it can only help.
 
jusgeo89 said:
Definitely agree. send the letter of interest, it can only help.
Click to expand...

I had not previously not known about letters of interest but from what I've been reading and googling, is it something you send in once your on the waitlist or would it be alright if i sent one in even without an interview?
 
hlheels89 said:
I had not previously not known about letters of interest but from what I've been reading and googling, is it something you send in once your on the waitlist or would it be alright if i sent one in even without an interview?
Click to expand...

From what I've read it's often done when placed on a waitlist but more generally it's the kind of thing you'd only really do once. So most people try to save them for when they're most helpful (i.e. for that extra push at the end of the process) but in your case you could use them now to try to get the adcoms to take a second look at your application.

On the other hand, perhaps you could send in an update letter with new experiences and/or grades, and then include a paragraph of why you're a good fit for the school. That might be more timely. Just a thought though.
 
Hey everyone,

I submitted my application mid January, and wonder:

1) How far out into the year Miami does interviews
2) How far in advance of the interview they make interview requests?

Eager to know. Anything would be helpful. Thanks in advance!
 
gujuDoc said:
I think March or April is when Miami interviews til. I know April is when USF interviews til.
UCF interviews til March 11
FAU med app is to come out soon, i suggest you apply there.
FIU I don't know.
FSU I'm not sure either.
UF I'm not sure either
That's Fl. summary.

I will tell you that you submitted really, really, really late. Are your numbers very high?? Do you have strong ECs, strong letters of recommendation, strong essays??? If not with this late in the game I'm not sure what kinda chance you stand..

If you don't get in this cycle I suggest you submit AMCAS June 1st, get your secondaries out as soon as you can in July/August but no later then Septemberish if possible because the later you apply the worse chance you stand for interview invites esp. at Fl. schools where everything is nonrolling admissions.
Click to expand...

I have very strong extra currics, and a lot of medical shadowing experience (I'm 28, so I've had a laundry list of shadowing experiences)... I did below avg MCAT (27Q), but I presume my LOR are excellent. I realize I applied late, and am thinking of reapplying like you said, but that would hinge on retaking the MCAT...but I am trying to stay hopeful. I thought most medical schools are rolling admissions....?
 
gujuDoc said:
Yes and that is precisely why applying late is bad because at some schools by this point there are only a handful of seats left and most are interviewing for waitlists. Rolling admissions also means that in a stack of 4000-10000 applicants at most schools. at least 4000 on the low side at Fl. schools that yours will get buried under the stack of those who are completed before you unless you have a strong GPA/MCAT and extracurricular profile.

My advice to you as you may very well not get in this year is that you retake the MCAT and try to score 32+. I'd aim to start studying as a backup plan and try to take it in May or June so you get amcas out early and secondaries rolling in July.

An adcom member or 2 at BUSM in Boston for instance told us at many schools they know of that as many as 70% of the interview invites are out by early fall at some schools. In florida that's not necessarily always the case but its still not good odds when you wait til january to apply.

I would however try to aim to apply to FAU's new med school as they will interview from march to july this year. But even so with 27Q on the mcat it could go either way unless u are like stephdadancer with her close to 4.0 from a top tier university.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice. I sincerely appreciate it.
 
aSagacious said:
Yeah, I must admit that I may have underestimated how competitive a process this was.

I would like to think that I have average stats for a matriculant (in a decent state-school anyway), yet I haven't received a single interview invite yet.

Perhaps there's a red flag in my app that I'm unaware of...
Click to expand...

I have a very similiar application to you. Same MCAT, but with a slightly lower GPA, and I applied June 1. Heck, many of my ECs are actually identical to yours. I applied to 30 schools on June 1, received one interview, but that turned into a waitlist. Lke you, I also have one D.O. acceptance. I think that this year will see a large rise from previous years in averages. It's just become really, really competitive. Good luck for the remainder of the cycle..MSU-DO is a great school if nothing else works out.
 
How do you know if a school is top, middle, or low tier please?:love:
 
livedie said:
How do you know if a school is top, middle, or low tier please?:love:
Click to expand...

Well, to me 'tiers' are a relative term. I compare the statistics of acceptees for a give school to myself. A fairly useful check that I use is called the 'LizzyM' score:

LizzyM = (10 * cGPA) + MCAT

Generally, here's my breakdown for tiers:

Low = My score => School + 5
Middle = My score = School
Top = My score + 5 <= School

Now of course there is more to a school than stats, but it's a fairly decent approximation for composing a list of candidate schools.
 
I still haven't heard from most schools. Been waiting over 6 months for UCI, UCLA, USC, Loma Linda, Florida State, UC Davis, Colorado, Cinncinati, or Oregon. I have a 3.7cGPA 3.66sGPA MCAT 10V 10PS 11BS... ? anyone else?
 
aSagacious said:
Well, to me 'tiers' are a relative term. I compare the statistics of acceptees for a give school to myself. A fairly useful check that I use is called the 'LizzyM' score:

LizzyM = (10 * cGPA) + MCAT

Generally, here's my breakdown for tiers:

Low = My score => School + 5
Middle = My score = School
Top = My score + 5 <= School

Now of course there is more to a school than stats, but it's a fairly decent approximation for composing a list of candidate schools.
Click to expand...


Thank you I like your system. When I was applying I just looked at places I wanted to live, tuition cost, and money for research. So I guess the schools that rejected me were Top Tiers. lol
 
If you feel that strongly why not reapply to MD schools again? If you really feel you are only going to attend DO because you do not have any other options you might not enjoy your 4 years at a DO school especially when you are doing OMM. I heard that MSUCOM is a really good school though.



aSagacious said:
Sure, I think I'll end up attending MSUCOM if I don't get into any others, it's probably better than going through this gauntlet for another year. Though, if I get into any MD school, I will definitely take it.
Click to expand...
 
I applied to DO schools as a back up and I'm in at WesternU in Pomona. I know the CA schools r a toss up but still... I feel like they should've at least looked at my secondaries by now and made a decision. I'm happy going to Western but UCLA is my dream school haha.
 
gujuDoc said:
I think March or April is when Miami interviews til. I know April is when USF interviews til.
UCF interviews til March 11
FAU med app is to come out soon, i suggest you apply there.
FIU I don't know.
FSU I'm not sure either.
UF I'm not sure either
That's Fl. summary.
Click to expand...

FIU usually stops interviewing a bit earlier. If I remember right late January, early Feb have been their last interview dates for the past couple years. Now, since expanding the class size that might have changed, but I haven't heard of any recent invites on the class thread. They start interviewing quite early. I could have interviewed 9/3 and I wasn't even in the first round of invites.
 
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