Withdraw advice

[nater]

I'm writing for advice on whether or not to withdraw my application from certain medical schools. I've been accepted at Case Western and Mount Sinai, have completed the background check, and am now considering withdrawing my application from Georgetown, Tufts, BU, Dartmouth, Rochester, GW, and NYU. My (at least fledgling) medical interests are in infectious disease and global health. Does anyone have any particularly rave reviews of opportunities to study in my field of interest at any of those schools? Am I making a mistake withdrawing?

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[UpperEastSide]

if you already paid them their fee, why withdraw.. Actually yes withdraw so i can take that spot.

 

[nater]

wrong location for this thread.

 

[venacontracta]

Withdraw from schools as soon as you know there is no way you would conceivably attend them.

Georgetown comes to mind as more expensive than Sinai, Tufts even more so, and I don't think either of these schools offer any really unique global health opportunities unless you are really interested in public policy and advocacy, in which case you might want to hang on to Georgetown.

I am interested in global health as well (not sure if I'm going to end up pursuing it, but it's definitely my strongest interest within medicine right now). One thing which seems exceptionally important considering this interest is attending a school which will provide exposure to a very diverse patient population so you get used to seeing patients with odd diseases and from very different cultures. BU is good for this because Boston Medical Center is the safety net hospital for the entire city of Boston, and BU has a big commitment to service. I'd hang on to BU. All the NYC schools are better than average in this regard as well, and NYU has Bellevue, so I'd keep NYU. For the same reason, I would dump the schools that are in more rural areas - Rochester and Dartmouth (even though Dartmouth is an Ivy, considering its location, I'd much rather go to Sinai - but that's a rural vs. urban personal preference thing).

That being said, at this point, your chances of getting additional interview invites are dwindling, so you might not want to withdraw from anywhere and see what happens.

 

[eablackwell]

Once I received an acceptance I withdrew my apps from every school that was lower on my list. I did this because I knew if I was offered an interview, I wouldn't want to spend the time off/money to attend. In my mind, it was the courteous thing to do for those reviewing my file and those waiting for an interview.

Now many people will say that you won't be totally sure which school is lower on your list until you attend an interview, but if you researched your schools well before applying and you should have a nice idea without having to spend thousands on extra interviews.

 

[mdeast]

If you've already interviewed there...keep going on it. Don't withdraw. You might as well find out whether you got in or not, and there's always the possibility of some surprise scholarship or financial aid coming through and changing the ball game. That being said, if say you love NYC and would never in your life choose to live in NH over the big city regardless of price....then you're probably wasting everyone's time being an active applicant at Dartmouth.

For anyplace you haven't interviewed at, here's my advice. If you have any inkling at all that you might like the place, give it a shot. I was surprised to interview at some places through the trail that I thought I would LOVE, but hated....or other places that I thought I'd hate, but LOVED. The few hundreds dollars for travel are well worth finding the best place you'd like to spend the next 4 years.