5/14/06: My application process is complete and I will be matriculating at UNC-Chape Hill on August 7. I have written out my complete timeline below the Vandy saga, along with my 'Final Thoughts.'
For now, though, WOOHOO!!! I got my B.S. from Vandy and am gonna be a Doctor!
Vanderbilt Saga:
I sent my AMCAS on June 1, 2005. Secondaries started rolling in shortly thereafter. My first rejection letter came swiftly: on August 12, my alma mater, Vanderbilt University, rejected me. I was dumbstruck - I knew that my GPA was a bit low, but I should have been a competitive applicant for AT LEAST an interview, especially since I was a current undergraduate student there. Hell, they didn't even give me a secondary! (At that point I didn't know they do secondary and interview at the same time.)
The letter said that the decision to reject me was 'especially difficult in view of your Vanderbilt affiliation.' It also contained the following text: 'It is our policy that applicants associated in any way with Vanderbilt University be given every consideration. Although a personal interview is not likely to reverse the decision of the Admissions Committee, a member of the Committee will be happy to meet with you for purposes of counseling.'
At that time I was enrolled in a class on Narrative Medicine which required me to attend grand rounds in the medical school. One of my classmates had also received the same rejection letter, so we decided after grand rounds one day to swing by the admissions office together and set up appointments to receive this 'counseling' they offered. I figured I should at least make SOMETHING of the situation; if I found out why Vandy had rejected me, I would be better equipped to address the situation with other schools.
We went to the admissions office and spoke to Dawn about our situation (Dawn is the receptionist at VMS Admissions, and she is a wonderful person if you ever get the chance to meet her). She said she would check with the director of admissions, Pat Sagen, who was free at that time. Dr. Sagen agreed to speak briefly with us (separately, of course). I went into her office, and she gave me 'the runaround':
Her: 'I don't have access to your personal file right now, but maybe your GPA or MCAT were low?'
Me: 'My MCAT is very good, and my GPA is close to your average.'
Her: 'Oh, well maybe your extracurriculars were lacking?
Me: 'Absolutely not, that's the strongest part of my app.'
Her: 'Hmm. I don't know, then. Let's make you an appointment to talk with Dean Helderman.'
(Hal Helderman is dean of admissions at VMS.)
So I made an appointment with Dawn to come back in two days. When I went back, I was in for several surprises.
First, Helderman explained the admissions process at Vandy. Each application is given to three committee members. Each committee member votes on whether to give you an interview. If 2/3 say yes, you get an interview. If 2/3 say no, you get rejected. However, each rejected application goes to Helderman himself for a final review, and he has the final word. In the case of myself and my classmate, said Helderman, our rejection letters had mistakenly been sent too early, BEFORE he had personally reviewed our files. In fact, VMS had been waiting to send letters to ALL Vandy undergrads, and ours were accidentally released about two weeks early. ON TOP of this screwup, HE OFFERED ME AN INTERVIEW! He told me that my GPA was the only part of my entire application that he could call a 'weakness', and that I should be aware of it in case an interviewer brought it up, but that I was a strong contender for admission otherwise.
Now, don't get me wrong: I was very happy to have an interview. But I was also very pissed, because I got the distinct impression from talking with Helderman that they were aware of the error and had done nothing to correct it until I started asking questions. If I hadn't shown up at the office, no one would have alerted me to the mistake, and I would have slipped through the cracks and been ignored as 'one less application to deal with.'
He printed me out an official letter for the online secondary and the interview invite. I set my interview date with Dawn, and because of my troubles, she even allowed me to read profiles of ALL the Vandy interviewers and select my own interviewer (a luxury not normally afforded to VMS applicants).
In the next month, I had to change my interview date THREE times because interviewers kept cancelling their commitments. This struck me as very unprofessional, and I ended up interviewing on 10/25/05 with a doctor I didn't want (an ER doc who specialized in ultrasound, who was fairly hostile towards me in the interview). I was up front with her about my GPA; she said 'I'm surprised you brought up your GPA. Most people will tell you not to draw attention to your weaknesses.' I responded, 'If I can't be my own advocate, no one will do it for me.' In retrospect, I think she had already decided that by bringing attention to it, I had made a mistake. She was also harsh on my course selection, particularly the Narrative Medicine seminar I mentioned earlier (look up NM if you're interested, it's an interesting movement which she declared 'impractical').
Given that my interview wasn't particularly enjoyable, I can't say that I was surprised to receive a waitlist letter on 12/12/05. It still stung, and I am still a bit confused and bitter about this whole saga. I will keep my waitlist spot for now, but I doubt I will get in (Vandy has good yield, so the waitlist is not particularly mobile). I got into my first choice, UNC, 8 days after the waitlist letter though, so it was easier to handle. Update: I have now tried three times to withdraw from Vanderbilt's waitlist, and they still keep sending me update letters confirming that I am still on the waitlist. Vanderbilt has mismanaged my application from day one. A very disappointing experience.
Alrighty, here's my complete, and very long, timeline:
6/1/05 - Submitted AMCAS application.
7/7/05 - Received Georgetown Secondary
7/10/05 - Received Yale Secondary
7/11/05 - Received WUSTL Secondary (Chose not to complete)
7/12/05 - Completed UPenn Secondary
7/12/05 - Received UPenn Secondary
7/14/05 - Received Case Western Secondary
7/18/05 - Received Northwestern Secondary
7/18/05 - Completed Georgetown Secondary
7/19/05 - Received Columbia Secondary (Chose not to complete)
7/19/05 - Received Dartmouth Secondary (Chose not to complete)
7/19/05 - Received East Carolina Secondary
7/24/05 - Received Tufts Secondary
7/26/05 - Received NYU Secondary
7/26/05 - Received Tulane Secondary
7/27/05 - Received Wake Forest Secondary
7/27/05 - Completed Northwestern Secondary
7/29/05 - Received Boston University Secondary
7/29/05 - Completed Yale Secondary
8/1/05 - Received Johns Hopkins Secondary (Chose not to complete)
8/1/05 - Received Stanford Secondary
8/2/05 - Completed Wake Forest Secondary
8/2/05 - Completed Stanford Secondary
8/3/05 - Completed Tulane Secondary
8/5/05 - Received Mt. Sinai Secondary
8/9/05 - Received Cornell Secondary
8/9/05 - Received Duke Secondary
8/10/05 - Received Drexel Secondary
8/11/05 - Received Emory Secondary
8/30/05 - Received Tulane Interview Invite
9/1/05 - Completed Case Western Secondary
9/2/05 - Received Harvard Secondary
9/3/05 - Completed Mt. Sinai Secondary
9/5/05 - Completed Boston University Secondary
9/7/05 - Received Vanderbilt Secondary and Interview Invite
9/7/05 - Completed Harvard Secondary
9/9/05 - Received East Tennessee State Secondary (Chose not to complete)
9/13/05 - Received University of Tennessee Secondary
9/16/05 - Mayo Rejection (after I told them I did not plan to take the Biochem prerequisite)
9/19/05 - Completed University of Tennessee Secondary
9/19/05 - Georgetown Rejection
9/19/05 - Stanford Rejection
9/20/05 - Received UNC Secondary and Interview Invite
9/29/05 - Completed UNC Secondary
10/6/05 - Completed Duke Secondary
10/14/05 - Completed East Carolina Secondary
10/17/05 - Interviewed at UNC
10/24/05 - Completed Vanderbilt Secondary
10/25/05 - Interviewed at Vanderbilt
10/25/05 - Completed NYU Secondary
10/25/05 - Completed Emory Secondary
10/26/05 - Completed Tufts Secondary
10/26/05 - Completed Cornell Secondary
10/26/05 - Completed Drexel Secondary
11/4/05 - Boston University Rejection
11/7/05 - Received East Carolina Interview Invite
11/10/05 - Interviewed at Tulane (Originally scheduled for September; had to be pushed back due to Katrina)
11/29/05 - Accepted to Tulane
12/12/05 - Waitlisted at Vanderbilt
12/19/05 - Accepted to UNC
12/20/05 - Interviewed at East Carolina
12/22/05 - Duke Rejection
1/6/06 - Cornell Rejection
1/9/06 - Received Case Western Interview Invite (Declined interview)
1/19/06 - Withdrew from Drexel
1/19/06 - Withdrew from U. Alabama (Not a peep from them since I sent the AMCAS on 6/1/05. Slackers.)
1/30/06 - Received Univ. Tennessee Interview Invite (Declined interview)
2/9/06 - Northwestern Rejection
2/15/06 - NYU Rejection
3/2/06 - Emory Rejection
3/15/06 - Wake Forest Rejection
3/18/06 - Harvard Rejection
3/22/06 - UPenn Rejection
3/24/06 - Tufts Rejection
3/28/06 - Yale Rejection
3/31/06 - Mt. Sinai Rejection
4/13/06 - Withdrew from Tulane
5/19/06 - Waitlisted at East Carolina (Declined further consideration)
8/7/06 - Matriculated at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
WOOHOO!!! First choice!!!
If I could do it all over again (not that I'd want to) I would have pulled my head out of the clouds and back to reality. I applied to waaay too many 'reach' schools, and not nearly enough 'safety' schools. I thought my track record of exceptional extracurriculars would cover for my ho-hum grades. While it did to some extent, I should have known that top research schools care more about grades and MCATs than community service, despite their occasional claims otherwise. I was lucky enough to get into UNC, my first choice, but it was very lucky indeed.
Best of luck to all future applicants, and hope my story helps! If you need to contact me, you can send me a Private Message or Email through the studentdoctor.net forums, where I post under the name 'Conqueror.'
We help students become doctors. TM
