Number of spots?

[Guest Ragnar]

I'm pretty sure that this question has been asked before, but I can't seem to find the thread.

 

I just got an offer of admission to a med school (got the package today! Woo hoo!). In the invitation package, it states that I must accept the offer by April 12th to hold my spot. It also states that the school sends a list of "acceptees" to all other med schools in North America to facilitate decision making for wait-listed applicants.

 

The problem is that I have yet to decide which school is my first choice and I am waiting on answers from 3 more schools.

 

The question is: Will I jeopardize my chances at the other schools if I accept this offer? The other schools won't let me know until May-June.

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Guest medschoolboy]

I'm not too sure exactly how this works but I think you should accept the offer since you have till april 12, which is just the deposit. And when you get other offers from a higher ranked school (by you), then u can withdraw that deposit and accept the second school. call up the admissions office to clarify.

[Guest byjude]

You can also ask if that school offers conditional acceptances of an offer of admission. That's generally what happens with the Ontario schools, and I think is the case for most Canadian schools. In that case, you can conditionally accept at a school that offers early acceptance, while still waiting to hear from later schools - most schools in Canada are used to this situation since some schools offer acceptances earlier.

 

But I'm not sure how this would work if you're talking about an American school. I don't think accepting an offer from an American school would immediately cut you out of the consideration at Canadian schools - if all you are doing is putting down a deposit. As with Canadian schools, you're only allowed to accept one offer at a time - which is what I suspect they mean by communicating with all other North American med schools - but you can usually accept one offer unofficially while still remaining in the running for other schools. In Ontario, they set a date for conditional acceptances to become "firm" in order to start the waiting lists moving, but I'm not sure when your acceptance of an offer of admission becomes firm in other places - probably not until you register or send tuition payments.

 

Again - check with specific schools to be sure, but I don't *think* that putting down a deposit will affect later decisions. That's why it's a deposit - so they can benefit from your money if you choose to decline later .