Pages

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

First rejection

It came in the form of a slim white envelope and was from a school that had yet to send me a secondary. Without even opening the letter I knew I was being rejected.

But it was my reaction to their decision that surprised me: I was completely at peace with this result. It was a top 10 school and while my MCAT was in line with their median, my GPA was woefully low (as it is for 95% of the schools I'm applying to...stupid undergrad!). All in all, my chances were really slim anyways and I wasn't really set on going there, so I guess I wasn't too invested in the result. That, and not even being offered a secondary didn't bode well for me and kind of set me up to expect rejection.

On the other hand, when I dreamt about being rejected from my in-state/DREAM school before even being offered an interview, I kinda sorta panicked when I finally woke up. I really hope I at least get a shot at interviewing, because I'm amazing at interviews.

All in all, I'm slowly starting to freak out a bit about this application process. Quotes like these from SDN don't help:
It sent a pretty strong message to the students to apply early (and also let them know what "early" meant -- basically be "complete" by the end of August and you're good as there is no difference in chances b/w June, July and August, but if you wait 'til September, your chances are basically cut down by like 1/3 and then another 1/3 by October with just a couple percent chance if you're complete in November and no chance after that).
That's because I wasn't "complete" at most schools until early to mid September and I need all the help I can get. I know I should've slacked a little bit less but I'm terrible when there aren't any hard deadlines and that's the best I could do.

So yes, I know it's early in the application season and I know people who apply when I've applied still get into medical school, but I'm not a regular applicant and it scares me that my procrastination will result in me having to reapply. And if I do have to reapply, the only thing I can really do to significantly improve my application is submit it earlier. That's not a convincing application argument.

Ay ay ay!

No comments:

Post a Comment