god forbit you're on the pot when the notice gets sent out...no G'town for you. That'll teach me not to put a first, second and ninth choice of dates in every reply to an offer.
Tough call with this one. I replied > 20 minutes after the email went out and received a spot, so obviously they stratify--or something like that--their invitations. Maybe they give X number to regional students, Y to everyone else, Z to students within a certain Step 1 score range.Regarding the chaotic method, on one hand I understand why they do what they do. They probably receive 400 applications because of their location and name. If you have to narrow that down to ~35, there is a point where you are just splitting hairs. So let's say you set a 225-230 Step 1 screen. That leaves you with 250 applicants. You set a research screen of at least some specific extracurricular urology involvement. That leaves you with > 200. You look for quality volunteerism, which only gets rid of like < 1/5 people. Now you have at least 150 qualified applicants. So now you weed out with red flags in transcripts, absurdly high Step 1 scores (going to go elsewhere), and gender/race ratios. You're still let with an insanely large number of people to interview. How do you cut the numbers? Do you read all the LORs? Read just 1? Do you read their personal statement?I don't think what G'town necessarily recruits a less qualified or less interested group of applicants, as some here have suggested. There are hairs on paper that people don't want to spend the time splitting. This is the reality of it all. Let's say they only offered to the exact number of applicants that they have room to interview. Some of the people who are unhappy on this board probably never would have received invitations in the first place.The flip side is that G'town ends up pissing a lot of people off. Although you have to question whether they should care about that.
Tough call with this one. I replied > 20 minutes after the email went out and received a spot, so obviously they stratify--or something like that--their invitations. Maybe they give X number to regional students, Y to everyone else, Z to students within a certain Step 1 score range.Regarding the chaotic method, on one hand I understand why they do what they do. They probably receive 400 applications because of their location and name. If you have to narrow that down to ~35, there is a point where you are just splitting hairs. So let's say you set a 225-230 Step 1 screen. That leaves you with 250 applicants. You set a research screen of at least some specific extracurricular urology involvement. That leaves you with > 200. You look for quality volunteerism, which only gets rid of like < 1/5 people. Now you have at least 150 qualified applicants. So now you weed out with red flags in transcripts, absurdly high Step 1 scores (going to go elsewhere), and gender/race ratios. You're still let with an insanely large number of people to interview. How do you cut the numbers? Do you read all the LORs? Read just 1? Do you read their personal statement?I don't think what G'town necessarily recruits a less qualified or less interested group of applicants, as some here have suggested. There are hairs on paper that people don't want to spend the time splitting. This is the reality of it all. Let's say they only offered to the exact number of applicants that they have room to interview. Some of the people who are unhappy on this board probably never would have received invitations in the first place.The flip side is that G'town ends up pissing a lot of people off. Although you have to question whether they should care about that.
I got rejected. And the rejection letter said they received "well over 200 apps." So I would assume that means much, much fewer than 400 apps. Probably in the 225-250 range. So, yes it is fair to ask them to pick their top 36. Every other program in the country does (with the exception of the very few other programs that use this unfair approach). I can assure you that many other programs receive a lot more invites than Georgetown, and they do not do this (MGH, JHU, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, etc). It is especially unfair to the person who would have been in the top offer group if they didn't half @$$ screen the applications and now doesn't have a spot because he/she didn't respond fast enough. If 99% of the programs do # of interview spots = # of invites, it's nothing but laziness on Georgetown's part, as far as I am concerned. (And no I am not bitter about no invite, it didn't fit in my schedule, and I wouldn't have canceled the current interviews for Georgetown. Not everyone wants to live in DC...) Poor form, Georgetown, poor form.
I got rejected. And the rejection letter said they received "well over 200 apps." So I would assume that means much, much fewer than 400 apps. Probably in the 225-250 range. So, yes it is fair to ask them to pick their top 36. Every other program in the country does (with the exception of the very few other programs that use this unfair approach). I can assure you that many other programs receive a lot more invites than Georgetown, and they do not do this (MGH, JHU, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, etc). It is especially unfair to the person who would have been in the top offer group if they didn't half @$$ screen the applications and now doesn't have a spot because he/she didn't respond fast enough. If 99% of the programs do # of interview spots = # of invites, it's nothing but laziness on Georgetown's part, as far as I am concerned. (And no I am not bitter about no invite, it didn't fit in my schedule, and I wouldn't have canceled the current interviews for Georgetown. Not everyone wants to live in DC...) Poor form, Georgetown, poor form.
i agree. plus it's not like Georgetown is the victim here for getting swamped with too many applications. they are choosing their future residents this way and getting paid for it. reading through PS, letters, extracurriculars doesn't sound like the most exiciting job but applicants are paying $25 an application for them to look at it. Noone would complain (well some might still) if they selected the top 40 applicants fair and square and offered 36 interviews. offering 75 interviews for 36 spots just seems unfair and shows a lack of follow-through to the applicants (this year and especially next year). this leaves te ppl with blackberries, iphones, etc. or obsessive compulsive traits with an upper-hand in the process. not sure if you want to have your candidates screened (+) for obsessive compulsive traits from the get-go. Georgetown may not care if they make someone mad or may feel like they're splitting hairs at one point or another and those are valid points...but they're basically cutting corners despite collecting on the application fees and not following through with due diligence. i don't mean to offend anyone...i also got a rejection from them yesterday. only reason to bring this up is in hopes that other programs don't follow in their footsteps (like UT Houston did last year and hopefully they dont pull this crap this year). if they are going to cut corners then future applicants should know about this....
Replied 3 minutes after getting email...asked for Nov 5 (impressive, since I don't have a smart phone!)Told 12 minutes later that Nov 5 was full, only Dec 3 available. Replied 3 minutes after email and asked for Dec 3.She replied 16 minutes later, said Dec 3 was full, and I was on Nov 5 wait list.Hah
I feel for ya. This type of competition, to be the first one to reply to an interview invitation just to get a spot, is rediculous and not something I expected at all. I also lost an interview in this same fashion. I assumed that once you are offered an interview you are guranteed a spot. Had no idea it was a mad dash to call, email twice over, fax, and tweet to secure a spot. As mentioned earlier, this method doesn't allow the most qualified applicants to receive interviews. It gives preference to those with smart phones, easy rotations, and off time. In my opinion don't send me an interview invitation if I have to check my phone 30 times a day and reply the second I get it just to get a spot. It's like inviting 300 people to your wedding and only letting the first 200 in.
was just bored and looking around...apparently Georgetown pulled the same stunt last year and noone called them out last year. i hope they take notice this year. http://www.urologymatch.com/node/800
I got rejected. And the rejection letter said they received "well over 200 apps." So I would assume that means much, much fewer than 400 apps. Probably in the 225-250 range. So, yes it is fair to ask them to pick their top 36. Every other program in the country does (with the exception of the very few other programs that use this unfair approach). I can assure you that many other programs receive a lot more invites than Georgetown, and they do not do this (MGH, JHU, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, etc). It is especially unfair to the person who would have been in the top offer group if they didn't half @$$ screen the applications and now doesn't have a spot because he/she didn't respond fast enough. If 99% of the programs do # of interview spots = # of invites, it's nothing but laziness on Georgetown's part, as far as I am concerned. (And no I am not bitter about no invite, it didn't fit in my schedule, and I wouldn't have canceled the current interviews for Georgetown. Not everyone wants to live in DC...) Poor form, Georgetown, poor form.
If you think JH, Duke, NW, Mich etc. read every applicant's personal statement and LORs, you are fooling yourself. If you start with 225 and narrow to 75, you've isolated your top third. There isn't as much fat to cut from the top third, most likely. I'm not agreeing with what Georgetown does, but to think they are securing less qualified applicants is most certainly wrong. Top third of applicants to a surgical subspecialty is pretty good pick'ns, from any angle.
I got rejected. And the rejection letter said they received "well over 200 apps." So I would assume that means much, much fewer than 400 apps. Probably in the 225-250 range. So, yes it is fair to ask them to pick their top 36. Every other program in the country does (with the exception of the very few other programs that use this unfair approach). I can assure you that many other programs receive a lot more invites than Georgetown, and they do not do this (MGH, JHU, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, etc). It is especially unfair to the person who would have been in the top offer group if they didn't half @$$ screen the applications and now doesn't have a spot because he/she didn't respond fast enough. If 99% of the programs do # of interview spots = # of invites, it's nothing but laziness on Georgetown's part, as far as I am concerned. (And no I am not bitter about no invite, it didn't fit in my schedule, and I wouldn't have canceled the current interviews for Georgetown. Not everyone wants to live in DC...) Poor form, Georgetown, poor form.
If you think JH, Duke, NW, Mich etc. read every applicant's personal statement and LORs, you are fooling yourself. If you start with 225 and narrow to 75, you've isolated your top third. There isn't as much fat to cut from the top third, most likely. I'm not agreeing with what Georgetown does, but to think they are securing less qualified applicants is most certainly wrong. Top third of applicants to a surgical subspecialty is pretty good pick'ns, from any angle.
If you actually read what I said...I did not say that other programs read every application. I said they finish screening and only offer interviews to people who will actually be able to have an interview. Screening can be whatever the program desires, but as long as they are not lazy and screen down to the number of interview spots. They can use whatever ERAS filters they please. That was my point. I also never said that they were getting less qualified applicants. I said they were pissing a lot of people off, and potentially screwing over someone who would have been in a fully screened group of 36 (as opposed to a half @$$ed screen of 75).
god forbit you're on the pot when the notice gets sent out...no G'town for you. That'll teach me not to put a first, second and ninth choice of dates in every reply to an offer.
Tough call with this one. I replied > 20 minutes after the email went out and received a spot, so obviously they stratify--or something like that--their invitations. Maybe they give X number to regional students, Y to everyone else, Z to students within a certain Step 1 score range.Regarding the chaotic method, on one hand I understand why they do what they do. They probably receive 400 applications because of their location and name. If you have to narrow that down to ~35, there is a point where you are just splitting hairs. So let's say you set a 225-230 Step 1 screen. That leaves you with 250 applicants. You set a research screen of at least some specific extracurricular urology involvement. That leaves you with > 200. You look for quality volunteerism, which only gets rid of like < 1/5 people. Now you have at least 150 qualified applicants. So now you weed out with red flags in transcripts, absurdly high Step 1 scores (going to go elsewhere), and gender/race ratios. You're still let with an insanely large number of people to interview. How do you cut the numbers? Do you read all the LORs? Read just 1? Do you read their personal statement?I don't think what G'town necessarily recruits a less qualified or less interested group of applicants, as some here have suggested. There are hairs on paper that people don't want to spend the time splitting. This is the reality of it all. Let's say they only offered to the exact number of applicants that they have room to interview. Some of the people who are unhappy on this board probably never would have received invitations in the first place.The flip side is that G'town ends up pissing a lot of people off. Although you have to question whether they should care about that.
was just bored and looking around...apparently Georgetown pulled the same stunt last year and noone called them out last year. i hope they take notice this year. http://www.urologymatch.com/node/800
I didn't get an interview, but let's be honest, Georgetown can do whatever they want. They're Georgetown.
When it comes down to it, does screening really matter? We're all the same. We tested well, we pretended to do research, and we love the cock.