Once I got my rejection letter from Tufts on Wednesday, I wrote to them asking if I could get some feedback on my application, now that my file was closed. Honestly, any comments from an admissions committee would be infinitely helpful, and certainly more useful than the minimal feedback I get from my undergraduate advisor.
As the rejections came rolling in last year, I was really left on my own to figure out what went wrong with my application. My premed advisor was not entirely helpful (and for a while, I believed he was part of the problem), and you absolutely cannot request or receive feedback from any admissions committees while you have an active file at their institution. Left to my own devices, I made some educated guesses as to the red flags in my application. Here are some of them:
- I have research experience, but no clinical experience.
- I didn’t get a committee letter from my pre-health advisor.
- My letters weren’t from enough people with science backgrounds.
- They didn’t like my picture.
- They didn’t like me in my interviews.
- I didn’t communicate myself clearly enough.
- My answer for “why do you want to be a doctor?” was trite and weakly supported.
Who’s to say which, if any, of those reasons are right? Maybe it was one deal-breaker in my application, maybe it was a mix of a few little issues. Whatever the case, I would like some feedback or suggestions from anyone actually involved in medical school admissions. And given that I’m going to reapply, I want to make sure that I’m doing the right things with my time. I can always try my best to improve any holes I see in my application, but again that relies on my own judgment, and I am not an adcom member.
That brings us to my letter. A simple request for some feedback from Tufts. Well, today, they responded and kindly turned down my request. I wrote back, asking politely once more, and thanking them for their time, but come on! Is it wrong for me to be asking for their thoughts on my application? I don’t see why it would be, now that the process is over and their class is full.
I’ll just be persistent. Respectful, but persistent.
