I’m interested in knowing about your experiences and your thoughts on this subject: Are those who gain admission into med school off the wait list successful; do they excel or are they, more often, inferior students?
I know one who is convinced a wait listing means she won’t succeed and one who is excelling in med school but the fact that admission was gained off of the wait list is still troublesome.
What is this the norm? Anybody know of research on the topic?
I did a quick & dirty search in PubMed for articles regarding the success of students admitted to med school off the waitlist, but there doesn’t seem to be any.
ETA: See p. 9 of this AMCAS document
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/267622/data/mcatstudentselectionguide.pdf
It has 4 and 5 year med school graduation rates based upon GPA and MCAT.
I don’t think it’s exactly what you’re looking for, but it might be a place to start.
The adcomms over at SDN have all said the the difference between a waitlisted student and an accepted student is mostly a matter of degree, that waitlisted students are fully qualified to attend the school, but weren't a "first string" choice because some other student brought something slightly more appealing to the class make-up. Remember that just like undergrads, med school admissions committees are trying to build a diverse class.We used to say that medical school admission = MD. I suspect it’s still the case without checking to make sure. WayOutWestMom appears to be on the right track. The weak students in the class end up as fifth year students, or delaying Boards.
Thanks WOWMom.
Just wondering if they are truly weaker students. There are obviously so many variables related to admission, including desired diversity, etc. Perhaps certain intangibles weren’t readily visible in application and interview but served the wait-listed matriculant well in their work.
Curious about how many of them go on to obtain AOA membership, for example. Do they go on to be successful, even in the most competitive specialties?
No, I don’t think they are. I was just giving you some tools to use if you were able to put the two data sets together. Sometimes, they make some of the finest physicians in the class, but they typically aren’t Junior AOA, either.
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Are those who gain admission into med school off the wait list successful; do they excel or are they, more often, inferior students?
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Anyone who’s been WL’d has been interviewed. If they’ve been interviewed, then the school has ALREADY determined that they have what’s needed to succeed. The fact that they were WL’d could be for many reasons not related to “potential success”… The student may have been a late applicant, med schools have way too many qualified applicants, the school may have WL’d a desirable candidate simply to help with gender balance (too many boys already)
Many med schools pull a good number of students off their WLs. The WLs seem to move in the spring. I think someone here on CC told the story of a student who was literally driving his car to his northern Calif med school destination (I think Stanford?) and he got a call pulling him from Harvard SOM’s WL…he turned around, went home, and then went to HSOM. Was he an inferior student? not likely.
“I’m interested in knowing about your experiences and your thoughts on this subject: Are those who gain admission into med school off the wait list successful; do they excel or are they, more often, inferior students?”
As med schools want to fill their dance cards they will continue to pull from waitlists. Although I suspect med schools will be constantly fine tuning their admission decisions, this fine tuning will IMO be an internal matter and not be published. If someone gets acceptance, whether accepted outright or off waitlist, the school has concluded applicant can be successful. And although some do not, med schools tend to get it right.
My experience is as follows: S applied after graduating, put on 3 waitlists, and eventually got accepted. He graduated med school (very high Step scores and elected senior AOA). So although biased, I’d say he was successful as a student who had been waitlisted, and as he matched at his first choice, I’d say S and PD agreed. Funny thing, at this point, nobody cares if he was waitlisted, or how he did in med school. His performance as a resident is what matters now.
MSTP admissions is a little different since the limit on class size is so much stricter and thus waitlist movement is more common but our director has flat out said the difference between admission and the waitlist is infinitesimal.
Many WL students have multiple acceptances at other schools— it seems weird that one would assume they are less qualified. My D has both acceptances and WL- and she’s ridiculously qualified by any metric. I won’t lose one minute of sleep worrying about her succeeding if she gets into any of her WL schools and goes.
At least to my knowledge, frequently the difference between acceptance and waitlist is just the time of application. An equally strong student as someone accepted early on is much more likely to be waitlisted if they applied later just because there are fewer spots left to offer
I really don’t think it’s a big deal. My school accepts XX students and places XX (identical number) on the waitlist. They claim the difference between the students at the top of the waitlist and at the bottom comes down to hundredths of a point on their rating scale. I personally can’t tell who had been waitlisted and who wasn’t. Throughout school it’s come up occasionally, and I’ve learned of a few friends who had gotten in off the waitlist. In no way do I think they are inferior students; they are interested in (and competitive for) ridiculously competitive residences and top programs within traditionally less competitive specialties, based on their assessment of their residency interview invites. They are equivalent to all other students on wards. Off the top of my head, my 2 close friends who were accepted off the waitlist (whereas I was accepted “early”) have higher boards scores and better grades than I do. Of the few people who have failed out or chosen to leave med school, none who I knew well were accepted from the waitlist.
There will always be people who think they are better than you. There will always be people who think you are better than they are. Being a med student is a difficult and thankless job. It’s easy to get wrapped up in feeling like you’re not worthy of being there when things are rough, which they often are. They wouldn’t have accepted you if they didn’t believe in you and want to make a huge investment into your future!
Our experience was more straightforward - D. withdrew from both that put her on hold despite of creat selectivity and higher rankings. She said that after interview that gave her a chance at closer look she did not see herself there. She considered them untill after she got acceptances at 4 other schools and she had enough on her plate to choose from and there was no reason for her to be thinking about these 2 and she better give somebody else a higher chance to be accepted. Both schools were known for a very high rate of puting applicants on “hold”
If you have been interviewed, you are qualified. It is like any job interview - some may be more qualified than you or might come across as a lot more personable or clicked better with the interviewer on that day. A different interviewer might rank the same people differently since it is very subjective.