Application Update - Withdrawal

          Shortly after your acceptance into a school you like, you're expected to begin withdrawing from schools that you are less interested in.  Most medical schools operate on a rolling basis with a finite number of interviews to offer.  If you have been accepted somewhere and are offered an interview at another school that you are no longer interested in, you are only hurting someone else's chances by going to that interview.  That's aside from the financial costs of flying out to the interview and missing a day of work as well as the fact that it can be a pain.  Even as I say that, I have to admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed interviewing and the interview day experience.

          Having been accepted into a medical school, I have had to begin the process of withdrawing from other schools, although I have kept my applications in at a few that are potentially higher up on my list.  I mentioned previously that I had two interviews scheduled in January, but over the course of the last week, I have canceled both of these.  My hope is that it is far enough from those dates that they will be able to offer those interviews to another applicant.  It's kind of an odd feeling knowing that there is a very real possibility I may be completely done with this cycle.  I still have yet to hear back from the other school I interviewed at and the third interview that is coming up, but what I am referring to is the highly likely scenario where I don't get another interview.

          The interview season is winding down.  It does last into March, but interviews are usually offered a month or two in advance, so realistically, the dates through February are already filling up.  Alone that means the chances of being offered another interview are low.  An added consideration, however, is that most of the schools I left my application in at are on the more selective side.  As I described in THIS post, I am by no means a perfect applicant.  With limited interview spots remaining, what are the chances they will offer a low-gpa candidate one of their last interviews?  I don't know, but I can't imagine that it is terribly likely.

          I still have one more interview in a few days, and I have yet to hear back from the second school I already interviewed at.  I am not expecting a response from either of them until late January.  The news that either one gives me could potentially be game changing.  Each of the three schools in play have different strengths that I am attracted to.  I can't wait until it's all over, so I can tell you all more about them.

          A last thought comes from a conversation I had with a friend who was also pre-med at Cornell.  He was a hard working guy, and he played all of his cards right.  He had a good, on the cusp of great, gpa, and he had all of the experiences you look for: volunteered in a third world country, shadows, internships, and high quality research.  But, bad luck struck, and he got blindsided by the MCAT.  He by no means did badly; scoring just higher than the average score of an accepted student, but it wasn't the score he wanted.  It would have left things "questionable" as to whether or not he would get in somewhere, which is a lot more doubt than there should have been for an applicant like him.

          That really sucked.  I felt terrible for him.  Worse, though, he panicked and didn't finish his applications, thinking he would re-take the MCAT and try again next cycle.  That was the last I heard about his applications.  Frankly, I felt kind of bad bringing it up or talking about how it was going for me.  I never told him I had earned a fantastic MCAT score, which I know would have hurt him.  Still, interviews had rolled in very quickly for me, and I didn't want to annoy him by telling him about how the process was going.  Whenever we met up or spoke, we talked about different things.

          Recently, I called him up to tell him about my acceptance.  To my surprise, he told me he had in fact decided to continue with his applications, completing them late in the cycle.  He also only applied to the schools most likely to let him in: his state schools and a few lower tier private schools.  He had decided to go forward with his application because he didn't want to delay and didn't care about how prestigious his school was.  He just wanted to get started on the path to medicine, which I think is admirable.

          Unfortunately filing your applications so late in the cycle can be very problematic.  It is a sad but true fact that the later your applications are filed, the worse your chances of getting accepted somewhere are.  By the time his were filed, most schools had likely given more than half their interview spots away.  With so few spots remaining but still a large applicant pool, obviously your chances of being the one they pick for an interview decrease.

          At this point, I was still sticking with one of my interviews in January.  I thought there was a very small but non-zero chance they could sell me on the place when I got there.  It is considered a lower-tier private school, but like my friend, the prestige levels don't really matter that much to me.  I liked the school's goals, and it's location was interesting.  Although I knew it was very likely I would interview there and not be interested, I thought there was a chance I could be swayed over.

          This place, however, was one of the few schools my friend put his late application into; moreover, it was one of his top choices on that list.  I was taking one of their interview spots, and it was a spot he desperately needed.

          I know it isn't as simple as it seems in my head.  When I withdrew, they didn't call him up and offer him that exact interview spot, though I obviously hoped they would.  But, it would clear up one of their spots.  It also reminded me: at these lower tier private schools, many of the kids they interview or accept might not have gotten an interview or an acceptance anywhere else.  By keeping a spot there, I could really but hurting someone else's chances.  Also, in a more selfish karmic sense, I'm hoping that applicants who have interviews they are not interested in at schools I am still hoping for will withdraw, perhaps giving me the opportunity to interview there.

          I never told him I had been offered an interview there, and I will never tell him I withdrew from that interview immediately following our conversation.