HPME at Northwestern.

texaspg
Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:24:25 +0000

Sam - I have read some of your past posts and you seem to be very deeply involved with NU. So I suspect that you some serious influence with the school if you are not one of the adcoms and will be able to do something about this.

I was sure OP was interpreting an HPME waitlist (dont know that there is a waitlist but from past admittees I understood that people get admitted and even if a bunch turns the program down, no additional people will be picked). I saw there were ten people who were waiting on the results of HPME admission were waitlisted by NU it did make sense that these people may not show up and so waitlisting them to see if they are still interested before confirming made sense. If you look at the OPs first post, he/she is wondering if NU admission can get compromised by applying to HPME and the question does make one wonder.

So as a parent of a future applicant, I should tell you this whole waitlisting process of candidates who were invited for an interview at HPME reflects very poorly on NU. I personally know graduates of the HPME program, current students, and also people who have turned it down to go to Harvard and Stanford. My view is that NU has this program only to lure someone who might end up in HYPS otherwise because everyone who I know has been cross admitted to at least one school in HYPS (one who turned down HPME two years ago was admitted to HPS and waitlisted at Yale). So it is insulting to any student (and the parents) who has been interviewed for HPME (the student and parents probably spent a grand or two for this trip and I assume your medical school professors time is worth a lot more in interviewing them) to be considered waitlist worthy after all that.

To answer your other question - People already believe this to be happening in the ivy league. The kid I referenced above was accepted by every single program he applied to (HPS, Columbia, Penn, HPME, USC combined, Chicago, Wash U) but was waitlisted by Yale. It is hard to believe that Yale and Harvard would n’t have 500 or more cross admits each year - but mysteriously, it never happens! However, HPME is an integral part of NU and if someone was good enough to be interviewed, he/she should have been good enough to have been admitted before being called for an interview.