Guest drews97 Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 Just a question out of sheer curiosity. Why do most medschools take 2-4+ months to let you know after your interview the status of your applicaaction. For example, I had my U of A interview in February and we won't be hearing from them till the end of April at the earliest. It this to discourage successful applicants from 'slacking' off and not working for the rest of their term? or is there some other reason? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peachy Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 Presumably they are continuing to interview applicants over the next two months, and want to let everyone know at the same time, so that everyone has the same chances? I highly doubt that they are doing it because they care about whether we slack off. It's more likely that they are doing it because it is convenient for THEM! :lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 Hmmm... data on 400-500 interviewees... each of whom wants their application to be considered seriously... the members of the admissions committee generally having other things to do... like school... or teaching... or patients... and the difficulty of getting them all in one room... or writing the letters... or verifying final marks if your acceptance is conditional... would you really want your acceptance one week after your interview? The process in Ontario is also geared so that everyone is notified at roughly the same time, at the end of May, so that no one school jumps the gun and fills its class earlier than any other; nor do they have to sit through invitees waiting on the fence for another school to make up their mind... as usual, it's not perfect, but it works pretty well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MayFlower1 Posted March 10, 2003 Report Share Posted March 10, 2003 therealcrackers, ... would you really want your acceptance one week after your interview? ...ok...well, maybe one is a bit aggressive...perhaps they could get it done in two...with a weekend on either side... :evil Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peachy Posted March 10, 2003 Report Share Posted March 10, 2003 LOL Peter! I second that response. Seriously, though, if somebody in the medical admissions community made it their goal to move the whole process back by two weeks, I really don't think it would be that big a deal. It's not like May 31 is written in STONE somewhere!! And US schools somehow DO manage to tell students within a week or two, often. They may have a bunch of advantages over us, but I honestly don't believe that there is NO WAY that they could make things a little easier for us if they tried. I really think they just don't care all that much... with good reason. The extra month, say, makes their lives easier, they're going to get the students anyways, so why not wait and take it (relatively) easy? I don't mean to belittle what adcoms here in Canada do - they work very hard, and are probably overworked with not enough staff, etc. They do a good job. But if somebody cared enough to make this process end at a reasonable time of year, then they could do it. It's not impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MayFlower1 Posted March 10, 2003 Report Share Posted March 10, 2003 Especially since, in the end, I'm pretty sure they just throw the apps and interview notes up in the air and randomly select the top 100 or so for a first-round offer :lol (obvious tease). Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted March 10, 2003 Report Share Posted March 10, 2003 Shhhhhhh.... people aren't supposed to know that... PE-TER!!!! You're gonna give the whole game away!!! :rollin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted March 10, 2003 Report Share Posted March 10, 2003 I would say that it is basically a question of logistics....at UWO there are two interview weekends....but there is an 'off' weekend between them too...due to scheduling problems. It will also take awhile to go through and read the three 'interview scores' on each of ~420 interviewees and convert them into a composite interview score for each of the ~420 interviewees....then they need to go through and match those ~420 interview scores with ~420 GPA's and ~420 MCAT scores....and produce an overall ranked list of ~420 people....and decide who will be getting waitlisted vs rejected of those that are not in the initial top 133. And then, after that is done, they need to actually, physically put the acceptance, waitlist and rejection letters together and mail them out. Given that they can't start this process until after ALL of the interviews are over....ie start date of April 14 and the fact that ALL of the people on the ad comm have other things that they do as their 'real' job (like giving lectures, research, seeing patients, teaching residents, counselling students, etc) the process is slow and is often interrupted by other demands. Add to it the fact that this is going on at all 5 Ontario schools, and they all have their own unique scheduling quirks....and they have all agreed to a common release date so that they are not in competition with each other for students....and the deadline of May 31 to get all of this done at all five schools doesn't seem SO unreasonable anymore....So, if for example most of the Ontario schools have finished this process by April 30th but one particular school is still INTERVIEWING on May 12....well, this would be the reason that everybody has to wait until May 31 to get their letters.... Of course I more then appreciate where you are all coming from....having endured 'the wait' last year. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MayFlower1 Posted March 10, 2003 Report Share Posted March 10, 2003 Geeze, If they just used my staircase method it would make things a whole lot easier and quicker for all of us! Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest drews97 Posted March 10, 2003 Report Share Posted March 10, 2003 Well, I guess it makes the most sense that the schools want to all let people know at roughly the same time or else the first school to let people know would have to put about 200 people on the waiting list. It doesn't make the waiting any easier though!! Thanks for the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted March 11, 2003 Report Share Posted March 11, 2003 I know...why don't we forget the entire process and do like they do in Holland....they establish a minimum cut-off for eligibility and then they put all the applications in a big drum and they randomly draw names until they have filled all the seats....then you don't have to worry about the interviews either!!! (Mind you the staircase method would do nicely too....):lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MayFlower1 Posted March 11, 2003 Report Share Posted March 11, 2003 Ha ha... I personally like the staircase method...it gives us verbose people a better chance as the weight of our applications causes them to fall faster...and land on stairs closer to the top...whereas the drum method...well...inevitably, the heaviest applications will sink to the bottom and never get picked... If we can't have the staircase method...well...I'm afraid I'm going to have to vote for the 2.5 month wait method and take my "chances". Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Emila Posted March 12, 2003 Report Share Posted March 12, 2003 I worked in a lab with a medical student from Germany last summer and this is what she told me about her experience: Like us, she had to write essays and submit transcripts for med school. After waiting most of a year, she was rejected by the German schools she had applied to. The schools gave out a certain number of acceptances but they don't have waitlists to fill spots that are declined. So there are always spots at the end of the summer that need to be filled. This is done by a RANDOM LOTTERY, regardless of GPA or anything to do with the applications. Interested people submit their name to the lottery. This girl I met didn't make it through the application process but was one of the lucky few who got chosen by random lottery. She absolutely loves medical school and is in her second year now. She was doing a research elective in Canada when I met her. I think there are many people who don't get into medical school but would make excellent doctors. A lottery would give these people a chance to do what they really want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MayFlower1 Posted March 12, 2003 Report Share Posted March 12, 2003 Wow...what a great idea. I think I'd like to see some sort of criteria involved with respect to who is able to get into the lottery though. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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