What to do if you have no interviews [Show summary]

What do you do if you still haven’t heard back from medical schools by Thanksgiving? In this episode, podcast host Linda Abraham shares how students can pursue parallel tracks to expand their opportunities.

Linda Abraham's advice for med school applicants who still haven't received interview invitations [Show notes]

Welcome to the 445th episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Accepted's podcast. Thanks for tuning in. 

I decided to do a solo show today. This is my second in a row, but don't worry we're going to go back to normal interview programming next week. This show is aimed at our premed listeners, but I think there is value to other applicant groups as well in listening in. But the focus today will be on medical school this time. 

As I mentioned, this is Thanksgiving week, a short week, and I have something timely to discuss, so I'm going to share it. I'm also going to keep this podcast a little shorter than usual in honor of the short week and also because I think I can cover the topic in less time and I'm not going to keep you on the podcast for no good reason. I'm going to dive into our timely topic in just a second. 

The freebie we're offering with today's show couldn't be more relevant to today's topic. One common reason for no interviews or ultimately rejection for medical school applicants is that they simply aimed too high. And you have to ask yourself, were you really competitive at your target programs? If you're aiming ahead, are you competitive at your target programs? Accepted's Med School Admissions Calculator can give you a quick reality check. Just go to accepted.com/medquiz, complete the quiz, and you not only get an assessment, but tips on how to improve your chances of acceptance. Plus, it's all free.

Recent admission stats [2:38]

Now, let's face it. It's hard to get into medical school. The process is long, difficult and grueling. In my opinion, of all the graduate and professional programs, it has the most demanding process. One of the difficult parts of it, by the way, is the utter silence at this stage of the game. But leaving that aside for the moment, acceptance rates support my contention. The AAMC reports applicants aiming for the class that entered in 2020, where I strongly suspect acceptance rates were higher than this past cycle that entered in 2021, enjoyed a 41.9% acceptance rate overall. That means that most applicants were rejected. And the news from AACOMAS is even worse. The most recent data, which is only for 2018, shows that of 20,981 applicants to 20 DO programs, 7,415 were accepted. That’s a 35.34% acceptance rate. In other words, almost two thirds were rejected. Now, this data is all for the classes that applied before COVID. It is not for the class that applied through the pandemic when the so-called Fauci effect is believed to have contributed to a surge in medical school applications, the recession probably also had some role to play.

What medical schools are looking for beyond grades [3:57]

Most admissions directors whom I have spoken with are still seeing a high level of applications this year, but AMC data is not yet available for last year's cycle or for this one. Of course,