OCS advising hours, interview invitations, application and acceptance protocols, and updates
by Williams, Ellen Kathleen
Dear Applicants,
We know that at this point in time, there are many different experiences out there. Some of you have acceptances already and many of you do not. Some of you have had many interviews and some have had few. Wherever you are in the process, the advisers at OCS are happy to assist and advise you. We know it is a long and at times difficult process.
1) OCS Advising Hours. Our office closes for the week between Christmas and New Year's, but at least one and usually three premed advisors will be seeing students and alumni up until December 21 and then again starting January 2nd. Appointments can be made through Crimson Careers as usual.
2) Interview invitations. As a very rough estimate, about 20% of interview invitations have not been extended, but that varies dramatically from school to school and, of course, says nothing about the interviews still to come for a given individual.
3) Application and Acceptance Protocols. Once you have been accepted, many schools will ask you to send in a deposit and/or a written notice that you accept the spot. There are clear "Application and Acceptance Protocols" that govern acceptances (Application and Acceptance Protocols- Applicants<https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/applica…>; Application and Acceptance Protocols--Admissions Officers<https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/applica…>). As long as you are holding only one acceptance on April 30th, all of the deposits you have paid will be returned, except for the one at the final school that you plan to attend. As you get a first acceptance, you should withdraw in writing from schools where you do not intend to matriculate. Many of you may need and want to hold on to multiple acceptances until you hear about financial aid offers. That is completely appropriate. For many schools, however, you might know that you will attend school A over school B regardless of what the financial aid package looks like and in that case it is appropriate to withdraw from school B once you have been accepted to school A. Once you have an acceptance to any medical school, neither OCS nor your House will be able to advocate on your behalf at any school, but your House tutors and OCS premed advisers are both happy to discuss your choices with you at any point.
4) Acceptances into MD/PhD programs. The same rules apply for applicants accepted into MSTP slots. However, since you will know at the outset that you will be fully funded, it is usually not necessary for you to hold multiple acceptances for any period of time. At times, you may feel unable to decide without a re-visit or without further information about your research options. That may mean that some applicants need to hold spots at two or three programs for a period of time. If you are lucky enough to have more acceptances than that and while you are technically allowed to hold all offers until April 30th, we would urge you to go ahead and narrow down the spots you are holding so that you can free up spots for other applicants.
5) Zero to three interviews. If you have had zero to three interview invitations (or if you have had, for example four invitations, but have been rejected at one or two of those schools), then please get in touch with us and with your House tutors if you have not done so already. There may or may not be anything further to be done depending on what you have done already, but we would like to hear from you and help you strategize. Lots of people who were in your situation last December are several months into their first year of medical school at this point.
6) Updates. There is no clear right answer as to when and whether you update your schools but we can try to offer some guidelines.
* If a school tells you they do not want updates, do not send updates.
* It is fine to send an update any time you have truly major news-award of a major fellowship, publication of a paper, a major award, etc.
* If you had only a few interviews and sent updates to all your schools in early November, it would be fine to send them again about six weeks later-either late December or early January. You do not need to send updates to schools that have rejected you or accepted you already. The most meaningful updates are going to be to schools where you have not yet been invited to interview.
* If you have not sent updates at all, you may want to send some now or in early January. You can include your fall grades if you are still in school, can briefly tell them how you have spent your fall, can indicate continued interest in the school, and can tell them graciously that while you know not everyone is invited for an interview, you would be honored to be invited.
* We are happy to answer any questions you have about updates.
We hope you have some time to relax and enjoy the holidays with friends and family.
With all best wishes,
Ellen, Emiko, and Oona
Ellen K. Williams, MD, EdM
Premedical and Health Careers Advising
ellenwilliams(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:ellenwilliams@fas.harvard.edu>
617-495-2595
Office of Career Services<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
54 Dunster Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
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http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health
If you are applying to medical school in 2017 for matriculation in 2018, please subscribe to the Harvard OCS Medical School Applicant Listserv, by visiting https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/harvardocs-medschool-applica… and signing up using a @college.harvard.edu address, a @post.harvard.edu address, or an @alumni.harvard.edu address.
