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Last cycle I commented frequently when people asked for advice about applying to top schools, and I said I would make a mega-post at the start of this cycle to provide advice about them. Here it is!
My credentials: will be matriculating at a T-10 school this fall. Stats were appx. 3.6 cGPA 3.7 sGPA 521 MCAT, with very good ECs. I will go into what "very good ECs" means for top schools.
Before I begin, please note that this guide is my personal opinion backed by research, anecdotes, and personal experience. It is not perfect, and it is only intended to apply to top schools.
Most of these guidelines do not hold true for schools outside the "T-20" so please don't flame me if you are trying to apply these guidelines to School X which focuses on rural primary care and is not affiliated with a major research institution. School X is looking for something different and that's OK.
To start off, defining top schools is important. I do not think that US News is a particularly effective way to stratify the quality of medical schools, but it does give a broad overview. Instead, I use the following system to classify the "T-20 (of which there are more than 20 lol)," which you might find helpful.
Please note that this ranking tier system I've created is 1) subjective, and 2) designed for a general approximation. Feel free to completely disagree if you want, but I think stratifying these schools in this way helps to elucidate how they vary in terms of admissions processes, and there definitely is a difference in how hard it is to get into, and more importantly what the admissions committees are looking between schools of largely different categories: for example, UNC vs. Stanford.
Research Powerhouses (no ordering within tiers). These are institutions which are leaders in biomedical research. These schools tend to offer very strong research opportunities, and many of them match high percentages of their medical students to specialties which value research.
Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, Duke, UCSF, Penn, WashU, Hopkins.
The Tier 1 schools are all world leaders in basic science as well as translational and clinical research. While I said there is no ranking in tiers, Harvard is bolded because it stands above the rest of this crowd in terms of its Clinical research, where it is clearly the world leader (feel free to ask me for the numbers that support this claim). While others may attempt to distinguish between these schools I think only very compelling evidence of a significant difference exists between Harvard and the rest.
Tier 2: Pitt, UMich, NYU, UChicago Pritzker, Cornell, Case Western, Columbia, UT Southwestern, UCLA
These schools all are excellent but tend to have fewer departments which are regarded as the best in the country, fewer Nobel laureates, less grant funding, etc. These institutions are all mostly still global research leaders.
Tier 3: Northwestern, UCSD, Emory, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Yale, Baylor, Sinai
These institutions still perform excellent research but they often do not have as many world-renowned researchers or world-renowned departments as the Tier 2 or Tier 1 schools. All however do have at least 2+ departments which are excellent on a global scale.
(Note, I can't place Mayo on this list particularly well because they are not affiliated with a major research institution which is not primarily clinical in nature, but Mayo is definitely just impossible to classify for these kinds of lists and just keep it in your mind as a "top school.")
Clinical Powerhouses: I define these schools as schools that provide access to a very extensive clinical network, are often affiliated with the largest and most established hospitals in the nation, and have a reputation for providing strong clinical education. Schools that are italicized have at least some meaningful primary care emphasis in addition to research emphasis.
Tier 1: Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, UCSF, Penn, Duke, NYU, UWash, Mayo, Hopkins, WashU
All of the above institutions are affiliated with the largest hospitals in the world, and each has several departments within the hospital that are global leaders both in research and in care. Several, in particular non-costal schools, have large outpatient networks of clinics which bolster their overall clinical throughput.
Tier 2: UCLA, Baylor, Sinai, Cornell, UNC-Chapel Hill, UChicago Northwestern, Case Western (Except Cleveland Clinic Program which is definitely Tier 1), UVA, Wisconsin, UT Southwestern, Ohio State
Tier 2 schools are also national leaders, and most are the epicenter of healthcare for an entire state or large geographic area. However, these schools don't have quite the "name brand" recognition for clinical care as the Tier 1 schools.
Now, why did I spend so much time producing a ranking for medical schools when this is supposed to be a post about how to get into them? Well, this ranking is really useful not because it tells you which schools are "better," but because it can guide you on how those schools approach their admissions philosophies, as I will detail below.
Before, the basics. Top schools are incredibly unpredictable across the board. So while I can't say a hard-and-fast rule that will never be broken (there are always exceptions), these are general guidelines which apply to the vast majority of the applicant pool. If you don't have these things, unless there is something really exceptional going on, you are very very very unlikely to get in: Note that many of these apply to all medical schools, with top schools just setting a higher floor.
1) Great stats. The definition of great stats is complicated. For White/Asian applicants, 3.8+/519+ is a safe bet that you should apply to top schools. For URM applicants, 3.6/515+ is generally a safe bet. However, having lower than either of these numbers is not a death sentence as long as you make up for it somewhere academically (ECs will not fix terrible stats, but they will fix mediocre stats). For example, a 3.5/523 is probably worth sending in top-tier applications if coupled with good ECs. In general, however, high GPAs make up for low MCATs less than vice-versa (i.e. a 4.0/510 does not look as good as a 3.5/528). Upward trends, high sGPAs, and great committee letters can help make up for a poor GPA. Very little helps make up for a poor MCAT in the eyes of top schools.
2) No red flags. As a rule, very very few top matriculants have "red flags" (i.e. criminal record, Institutional Action, very bad LOR). Again there are always exceptions but top schools are generally even less forgiving of these than other schools.
3) Polished primary and secondary application. Many schools just want to see an inoffensive personal statement. Not so for most top schools-- they want to get a solid view into what will make you a leader in medicine, and that needs to shine through in some way through your writing, activity section, etc.
4) Bare-minimum ECs. This will attract a lot of controversy and "well I know someone who didn't have X or Y" comments, but remember this is a general rule not an actual bare-minimum:
a) Clinical exposure. This generally includes either meaningful clinical volunteering experience, or clinical work in surplus of 250-300 hours at time of application. Shadowing of at least 25-75 hours in multiple specialties preferably is generally often also required.
b) Volunteering. Most successful top-tier applicants have at least 300+ hours of high-quality volunteering.
c) Research. For the research powerhouse schools in particular, research is a 'soft requirement.' Only truly exceptional applicants get in without research experience. Pubs are not required but are somewhat commonplace for Tier-1 research schools.
d) Hobbies/X-Factor. Most successful top applicants have something that sets them apart in some way which is non-academic.
e) Leadership. This is a highly underrated component of applications to all schools but especially top schools. Leadership can be defined more generally than being VP of a student club-- managerial roles in work experience, leadership in hobbies, etc. all can be leadership as well.
Going Beyond the Bare Minimums
If you truly have the bare minimums for all of these, you have a decent shot at the lower-end of the top schools, especially if you have very high stats coupled with bare minimums (for example, 4.0, 525, has all of the above but is otherwise a relatively boring applicant has a good shot of getting in somewhere to the tier2/3 schools listed above for research). However, for the very tip-top (tier 1s), bare minimums with high stats does generally not get you very far. Generally, people are "exceptional" in at least one major area and "unique" in at least one, or "exceptional" in three or more.
I define "exceptional" as something that, while attainable, is nonetheless very impressive and is not seen very frequently in the applicant pool. Here are some examples for major categories:
a) Volunteering (non-clinical)
Longitudinal experience over several years, 1000+ hours, leadership, coupled with a very strong personal statement tie-in and strong activities section.
Unusual volunteering experience which was transformative for the applicant and described well in the PS/Activities section (e.g. if a standard applicant serves food in the food kitchen, the exceptional applicant did social service work with visitors to a food kitchen)
Multiple independent high-quality volunteer experiences which are woven together into an actually convincing narrative relating to the applicant's path to medicine
b) Clinical Exposure
Clinical work experience for multiple years as a CNA, EMT, MA, or ED Tech/similar job. Prior experience as an RN also counts here as long as the applicant can successfully defend the career change.
Clinical volunteering that goes above and beyond the call of a typical volunteer, not in terms of scope of practice (which is a red flag) but in terms of dedication, genuine interest, and transformative effect on the applicant (in my experience this is seen most frequently in Hospice volunteers)
Clinical volunteering or work experience coupled with direct leadership and preferably a LOR (for example, running/founding a volunteer program, serving as a unit manager, etc.)
c) Research*
One first-author publication in a highly-regarded journal (not Nature/Cell level but very well known in the discipline) or multiple first-author publications in less well-known but still reputable fields
Co-author (non-first/corresponding) author in Nature/Cell/Science/NEJM/Lancet etc.
No publications but long research track record in a single lab substantiated by conference activity and impeccable LOR from PI and excellent writing in PS/Activities section.
d) Leadership
Founding and running (anyone can file papers to found a non-profit) a non-profit or small business
Serving as an executive member or high-ranking legislative member of a College Student Government for multiple terms.
Significant and substantiated "behind-the-scenes" work involved in running a major organization if not founding/"extroverted leadership"
e) Hobbies/X Factor
Semi-Professional to Professional level artistic pursuits with substantiated record of achievement (obviously if you're a renowned concert pianist that takes this from "exceptional" to "unique")
Collegiate varsity sports below the D1 level
Full-time work experience lasting multiple years (non-traditional students generally)
So there's some examples of what are "exceptional." The difference between "exceptional" and "unique" is not that only one person can do something for it to be "unique." When I use "unique" here, I mean that participating in such an activity makes it so that an admissions committee would likely immediately recognize you by that activity because it is extremely distinctive/impressive. Here are some examples:
a) Research:
First-author Nature/Cell/Science/etc. paper
b) Volunteering:
Longitudinal volunteering involving leadership for an underserved community, often involving founding/running a major organization
c) Clinical Exposure (This one is rare because there is hardly such a thing as "unique" clinical exposure, but the one thing I can think of is a career change from a late-career RN)
d) Leadership
Officer in the armed services
e) Hobbies/X-Factor.
This one is where most of these come from. Amazing life stories, etc. are the thing that most people who are "unique" for are "unique" for.
From a refugee family/refugee themselves
Well-known/field/court-time D1 College athlete at "name-brand" college sports or Pro athlete
Extraordinary international experience (no, not medical mission trips)
You get the picture.
Now some of you might be saying: "Hey, I know people who got into X school and they didn't have anything "unique" about them." And that's totally right! Most people don't have anything "unique" about them, that's why it's called "unique." However, plenty of applicants have "exceptional" experiences in multiple categories, or more importantly are able to portray themselves as having "exceptional" experiences in multiple categories, and that + good stats alone is a pretty good bet for getting into at least one school.
Another component that factors heavily into all this is the connection to what the school is looking for. This is why I spent the time on the "tiers" listed above. Some schools don't give a crap about whether you are interested in doing rural primary care (e.g. Hopkins), but other schools it can be a make-or break factor (UNC). The Tier 1 research schools tend to value research extremely highly, but will also want to fill their class with a lot of "unique" people. Tier 2 research schools love high-stat, high-research applicants but tend to attract less of the "unique" variety. Tier 3 research schools and certain particular higher-tier research schools which I call the "something to prove" schools (WashU, NYU, Northwestern, a few others) LOVE very high stat applicants (e.g. 4.0/525) even if nothing else about them is exceptional.
The schools which are high in the "clinical" tiers that I've made often have a large commitment to either strong clinical research or community service. Having a combination of service/research experience or more of a "well-rounded" package helps at both schools, with Tier 1 schools tending to value very "unique" things and Tier 2 schools valuing more of the "exceptional in many, unique in none" attitude.
Above all, there is one huge "X-factor" that is helpful for admission to top schools, especially the very top, and that is authenticity. The top schools really have their pick of thousands of very qualified applicants, so they are trying to build a cohort of students that they feel will contribute to each other's education and showcase a diversity of perspectives, beliefs, orientations to the world, and aspirations. In order to build this kind of class, schools look for people who are authentic about those perspectives, beliefs, etc. and who come across as genuine in their pursuits that have lead them to medical school. Generally, the best way to project authenticity is to be a great writer and to avoid "Cookie-cutter" activities and instead look for ways to do something that connects and resonates with you on a deeper level. This sounds very earthy crunchy but if you look at the students who make up the population of many top medical schools you'll see that the humanitarians are authentically driven to help their communities, and the researchers are authentically obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge, etc. etc. This is the hardest thing to add to an application unless you have it naturally, and it's also risky, because some schools, both in the T-20 and outside of it, will not jive with your authentic self and may reject you for it. Feel free to comment/ask if you have more questions about this.
As a side not, Interviewing is just as important for top schools as it is for all schools, so I'll leave that for another post.
I'll now just provide some thoughts on a variety of top schools which I am familiar of particular things they look for:
Harvard: The ultimate "unique" collector. They love finding unique students and will very rarely let in students who are not really that great because they believe them to be "unique in some way." They also generally find a few ultra high-stat students with good research chops and latch onto them.
Stanford: Interest in medical leadership, tech, or entrepreneurship is huge for Stanford, as a large proportion of their MD graduates don't even go into Residency (look this up if you don't believe me)
Yale: Yale System is number 1. If you can't explain why you are the perfect fit for the Yale System they will not accept you.
NYU: Ultimate stat-whore, friendly to traditional applicants.
WashU: Second-place stat-whore, loves strong basic science research and doesn't care as much for community engagement.
Duke: The ultimate "be yourself" school/adcom. Their gigantic secondary allows them to filter out inauthentic applicants better than most schools. They are more forgiving with stats than most of the rest of the T-10 schools but want more in ECs.
UCSF: Urban. Underserved. Research.
Mayo: Must fit the "mayo vibe." Has some of the strangest application process of all medical schools and is very unpredictable, even for top schools.
Penn: Loves students who have taken lots of gap years.
UChicago: Loves political activism and students who are interested in healthcare reform/social justice.
UWash: Don't apply here if you're not from Washington or surrounding states with a reciprocity agreement.
UCSD: If you're not from Socal you need to be able to articulate "why socal" in a way that doesn't sound like "because it has good weather."

HaberdasherA is, for the most part, a proponent of higher education. In fact, he attended college for over a decade, first enrolling as a freshman in 2002 [A] and later confirming his status as a full-time student in 2013 [A1, A2]. Talk about a life-long learner!
Yet, HaberdasherA does not consider all higher education to be equal. No, there is a hierarchy among disciplines, where all fine and liberal arts stand vastly inferior to one: computer science. If you're a kid reading this right now, just remember one thing: learn to code.
I'm working a temporary job in New York for the summer doing construction and a lady passing by me told her son this. Her jaw dropped when I told her my wage was $70/hr. [Removeddit]

maybe 20 years ago she would be correct. But now "going to college" doesn't pay off like it used to. For one, you need at least 40K dollars just to get a 4 year degree (most of which are useless) then you can get suckered into taking one of the useless majors like sociology, art, political science, psychology, liberal arts, etc. and end up 4-6 years later with a worthless degree while working the minimum wage job you would have anyway minus 40 grand.
The safest bet that kid has right now is just doing some kind of CS. preferably going to college to learn programming or any kind of CS, or even teaching himself how to program and getting a lucky break in the shrinking job market.
Back when I worked retail a lot of my coworkers actually had college degrees, as a young kid i was really surprised because my parents always told me the older people you see working fast food/retail were people who didn't go to college. One guy graduated from Berkeley with a psychology degree two years prior, he was a cashier making 7 dollars an hour. this one girl went to grad school for a political science degree, she was in charge of making sure the mannequins looked okay. Another girl had a Masters degree in linguistics and her job was folding clothes all day every day for minimum wage.
Meanwhile, my friend from highschool decides he wants to study CS, he gets a 2 year associate degree from the local community college and he gets a job immediately after graduating starting at 60K a year. So if you're a kid reading this right now, just remember one thing TAKE COMPUTER SCIENCE IN COLLEGE AND LEARN TO PROGRAM. Don't end up like my old coworkers working minimum wage for decades while 100k in debt.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 24 Jul 2014 00:15:30

you don't seem to understand they don't have a choice in what they study anymore. its either go into CS (whether you hate it or not) or work at mcdonalds/retail for the rest of your life. There are NO jobs for people who love art, music, sociology, philosophy, etc. Even if they go to grad school and go far enough to get a ph. D (which no one has money for because of education inflation) then they still aren't guaranteed a job. Hell, the girl in charge of the mannequins where i used to work was in her doctorate program for political science and she was dressing up plastic dolls for a living for 9 dollars an hour.
I wish we still lived in a country where you got to choose what you loved and then got an education to make a career out of it, but we do not live in that kind of country anymore. It's either do CS or get used to saying "will you like fries with that". There is no alternative.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 24 Jul 2014 01:19:09

> So no one is teaching music in schools any more? (music) No one is a college professor teaching Nietzsche any more? (philosophy)
yes people are still teaching things like music and philosophy because people are still taking those classes. They get suckered into those majors by parents/counselors who tell them "do what you love". Hell, if i bet people would teach something as useless as "history of the legend of zelda timeline" if there were enough students who wanted to study it. College isn't a place for learning anymore, its a place to make money. Getting all these young liberal kids to take music and philosophy makes them big bucks.
> No one is becoming a social worker or therapist? (sociology)
Okay this one is a little different. You aren't going to get a job as a therapist with a worthless 4 year sociology degree. You need at LEAST a masters in psychology to get a good therapist/social worker job and thats 150k dollars right there. good luck paying off 100K+ debt with interest while making 30k a year as a social worker.
> No one is doing graphic design? (art)
If you're talking about the graphic design i think you're talking about then that falls under CS because you're using a computer. And even then, those jobs are extremely rare and hard to get one that pays well. But If all you do is paintings or sketches then you might as well fold your scrap paper up into a hat and start asking people if they would like fries with that.
> Nobody promised anybody that you'd be wealthy no matter what profession you choose
Woah, we aren't talking about being wealthy here. We are talking about making a living. With living expenses getting higher you arent even going to be making a living wage on most jobs these days. That is, living in perpetual poverty with no way out unless you learn CS.
> Make the adult decision to make less money doing what you love instead.
Personally I don't think living in crippling poverty is worth doing what you like. Since you're from one generation earlier than me, you might be a little out of touch but that is not the smartest decision to make. Jobs are not supposed to be enjoyable anymore, theres too many people and too little jobs for even most people to get what they want.
You don't believe me? the next time you're walking down mainstreet talk to some of the younger homeless people you see and ask them how "doing what they love" is working out for them. Or better yet, go to your local starbucks/mcdonalds and ask the recent grad behind the register is that art or sociology degree was worth it.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 24 Jul 2014 02:32:30
Student Life... [Removeddit]

if this is what you do, i got a spoiler for you. You won't be a student for much longer. See you at mcdondalds.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Sat, 30 Aug 2014 07:52:29
If your college major had a slogan, what would it be? [Removeddit]

Art - Would you like fries with that?

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 31 Jul 2014 07:21:18
Yes, you heard HaberdasherA correctly. Everyone who does what they love will end up at McDonalds and live in perpetual poverty. Those who choose to study art or sociology in college should prepare to work the register. Call HaberdasherA a gross, creepy, disgusting loser and you'll be cleaning the trash cans. You get the impression that

1. Nearly everyone HaberdasherA has ever known is now working at McDonalds
2. HaberdasherA is in McDonalds pretty much 24/7.

HaberdasherA actually reveals himself to be quite the ivory tower elite. In this sampling of comments, HaberdasherA is seen dismissing the comments of other redditors as 100-level knowledge they gained at a 'shitty community college'. Did HaberdasherA attend community college after he graduated high school or did go straight into a four-year university? Perhaps he, like his friend, got a CS degree from the local community college.
Been a lot of chatter about weight loss lately... Here's an update I just posted to twitter. [Removeddit]

im sorry but taking psychology 100 at some shitty community college doesn't qualify you as a therapist.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:56:50
TIL Women are statistically much less likely to watch the feminist encouraged "Female Friendly" porn, and are instead more inclined to watch mainstream hardcore porn or nothing at all. [NSFW] [Removeddit]

[..]
> Furthermore you did generalize by saying "the truth is feminists..."
Nice quote mining there. I think its really funny how you're trying to quote mine what i said, when what i said is right there just 2 comments away. In case you have selective reading or just terrible reading comprehension in general, what i said was "the truth is feminists, as well as many other women". You see, when i apply the word 'many' to that comment, it is also applied to 'feminists' because the comma distributes the adjective to the precursor noun. That's some English 101 for you, no need to tip, this tutoring session is on me.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Wed, 25 Jun 2014 03:23:27
Blonde girl fails miserably at getting Rory's attention. [Removeddit]

What you got some AA degree from a shitty community college? good joke.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 14 Aug 2014 05:42:37
After disparaging introductory level liberal arts classes and community college, HaberdasherA explains how a degree in computer science or engineering from 'some shit tier place like ASU' is worth more than a degree from Yale or Harvard. What are some things, besides 'connections', that individuals could learn at Yale or Harvard that they couldn't otherwise?
Worst Typo Ever On My College Diploma [Removeddit]

Even a degree from Yale or Harvard in something as useless as communications is still going to be worth less than a degree in computer science or engineering from some shit tier place like ASU

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 17 Jul 2014 03:06:55

I didn't say impressive, i said useful. having a PhD in ancient mongolian literature from Harvard is gonna be more impressive than a programming degree from ASU. But as for which one is more useful, theres no contest.
And that "kid you know" from Yale got that job through connections, not because he learned a language 50 million other people know.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 17 Jul 2014 04:23:11
How Chipotle owners must feel over the past few years [Removeddit]

Are you really that dense? The country for the last few decades has been losing high paying jobs while education is becoming more expensive and less valuable. Meanwhile everything else is going up in price and the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The burrito costing more is just one result of a much bigger issue.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Sun, 20 Jul 2014 07:32:54

lol you must be 16 years old. You responded with a lame immature joke, then you think you know how jobs work and make the idiotic claim that anyone can teach themselves CS and make a decent living. if that were the case then you wouldn't see millions of college grads working minimum wage while 30,000 in debt. I guess they should have just googled "how to program" and got themselves a 6 figure job in IT, right?

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Sun, 20 Jul 2014 07:47:37
Now, HaberdasherA, you claim that a degree in computer science from anywhere would be useful, but teaching it to yourself to better your employment prospects is idiotic? It sounds like HaberdasherA simply thinks of college as expensive job training, which is really quite sad. He really paints himself as this mindless drone going through the motions. Did HaberdasherA get a job after he finished his degree?
I wonder, what did HaberdasherA major in while in school? I will first suggest that HaberdasherA did complete college and received a degree in a liberal art. Here is HaberdasherA comparing salary prospects between liberal art majors and trade workers:
Saw this today, hits right at home [Removeddit]

starting salary: 50K
salary 20 years later: 50K
liberal arts: 25K
20 years later: 100K

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 14 Aug 2014 08:07:23

hell in 15 years welding jobs are gonna be replaced by robots which can work all the OT in the world at 10 times less the cost.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Thu, 14 Aug 2014 09:03:50
HaberdasherA himself admits to taking multiple psychology classes while in college.
Since we're on the subject of college freshmen, let's not forget about the Middle Aged College Freshman. [Removeddit]

I always would have at least one of these in my psychology classes. They always want to try to prove how smart/better than everyone they are by asking a shitload of pointless questions.
Like i can understand asking the prof how a certain thing works. but asking them 3 times whats the practical use of whatever and then trying to argue how you don't think thats very practical is just a waste of everyone's time.
I had this one woman in my class. she was probably around 35, she was always trying to act like a smartass overachiever. asking everyone who sat around her before class if they studied or did the homework. and not in a nice way either, it was more like:
"hey did you study? i studied because im responsible. I also did all the homework for the entire week ahead, how about you?"
One day she got completely humiliated though. She walked into class and she had an ankle bracelet on. I'm not sure if it was new or if she always had it because I never noticed. But this time her pants had gotten caught on it so it wasn't covered up like she thought it was. When we noticed it she immediately ran out of the room and covered it.
We knew it was there still so we asked her about it and she became so embarrassed and humiliated that she could hardly talk. She ended up dropping the class, probably out of shame. Last time i saw her she was washing trash cans in the back of mcdonalds.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Sat, 14 Sep 2013 20:10:29
InternetAristocrat rips through modern narrcisism and just where the new keyboard warrior "activism" is coming from. [Removeddit]

I was a psychology student and in almost every psychology class i took there was a huge number of female students compared to male students. I brought this up once in a group i was in, not even complaining, I just said "I wonder why more guys don't want to be psych majors".
The response I got from my all female group was something like "white males have dominated the field for the past century, we don't want anymore of their crap here".

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:25:00
SJW vs John Carmack (Oculus Connect Keynote) [Removeddit]

I think its funny how SJWs care so fucking much about how many women are STEM majors, but they don't give a shit about how many men are social science majors.
For example, I was a psychology student and in almost every psychology class i took there was a huge number of female students compared to male students. I brought this up once in a group i was in, not even complaining, I just said "I wonder why more guys don't want to be psych majors".
The response I got from my all female group was something like "white males have dominated the field for the past century, we don't want anymore of their crap here"
can you imagine the SJW outrage if somebody said its good we don't have more women as STEM majors because "we don't want their crap here"? oh wait, nevermind we're talking about men here and according to SJWs all men are evil sexist misogynist pigs on the brink of going on a raping spree.

Reddit [A] Removeddit [A] Mon, 22 Sep 2014 05:02:39
If you've been following along closely, we have a pretty big discrepancy to rectify. First, HaberdasherA could not stop extolling the virtues of a career in computer science. And now, he has a degree in psychology? My first question for HaberdasherA is: How do you like working at McDonalds?
Jokes aside, how come HaberdasherA didn't follow his own advice and complete a degree in computer science? Did he get suckered into psychology? Did he attempt to do a degree in computer science, but was ultimately forced to switch because he couldn't cut it?
There is an alternate theory that is consistent with HaberdasherA's comment history. HaberdasherA may have gotten a double major degree in psychology and computer science (shout out to based HazelFlame54), or perhaps a degree in a subject that combines the two fields.

Hi everyone!
After applying to med school this cycle and reflecting on the process, I found that there were times it felt a little overwhelming with the amount of information we have to know/jumps we have to go through/etc. There's a lot of really great guides out there to guide us through the process, but oftentimes it's not all gathered in one place. For the sake of convenience for future generations, I decided to compile a list of some of the things I found most helpful. Some of it comes from the advice of friends, health advisers, SDN and the world wide web, and others are just things I happened to learn by chance/personal experience while navigating the process on my own. Thought I'd share because it's handy to have a convenient summary/list of everything in one place, and also some things might not be as well known. (eg. I had never heard about the fee assistance program for applying, and didn't realize in-the-area requests were a thing).
​
Posted this info on SDN as well but re-posting on reddit on someone's request.
Also feel free to comment anything else you found helpful in this subthread. Would be happy to hear any more input!
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COST (GENERAL)
Putting this section first because it’s probably one of the most important but under-discussed aspects of the application process. We all know that medical school tuition can be super expensive, but one thing that may or may not come up unexpectedly is just how expensive the application process itself can be. At least for me, the topic of paying for the application process never really came up with advisers, and I only happened to stumble upon the issue of money once through a chance conversation with a friend.

• Save save save! Depending on what schools you apply to and whether or not you have to pay for primaries/secondaries, it’s probably a good idea to save up at least $2000-5000 dollars, particularly if you are applying to several schools out-of-state (this might be an overestimate for some people, but better to be safe than sorry). Whether this means saving up a little bit over 4 years of part-time jobs in college or allocating a chunk of your gap year salary, be prepared financially so that your ability to submit an app/attend an interview isn’t completely dependent on whether or not you have money in the bank.
• Fee Assistance Program: Probably the best advice I was ever given about med school apps was to apply to the AAMC Fee Assistance Program, especially considering how underprepared I was financially to apply to med school at the time. If your household has an income 300% or less of the national poverty level, then you may qualify for AAMC’s fee assistance program, which similar to the common app for undergraduate colleges, will waive up to 15 primary applications as well as most of your secondary application fees (Out of my 22 med schools, only Baylor required me to pay the secondary application fee). Information about FAP can be found here. Try to apply as early as possible, since funding is limited and later applications won’t guarantee waivers, even if you meet the eligibility requirements. I submitted my application in early February.
• Interviews: If you’re lucky, you’ll get a couple months of notice in advance before your interview. If you’re less lucky (of course still lucky since you got an interview in the first place), you may only get 2 weeks–maybe even less–of notice before your scheduled interview date. This is why, if you’re applying to out-of-state schools, the interview costs can eat up a significant chunk of your savings. Sometimes you might have to foot the costs of a $300 plane ride, but there are some things you can do to minimize costs as much as possible. These are listed in the “traveling for interviews” section.

PRIMARY/SECONDARY APPS

• The Primary in a Nutshell: Aside from your basic biographic information, coursework, school list and letters of evaluation, the primary AMCAS requires you to write a personal statement (up to 5300 characters) and up to 15 entries of work/activities, including a short ~500 character description and hours worked. Of your activities, you will also be asked to select 3 as the “most meaningful” and write an additional short answer on why. The work/activities and personal statement will likely be the most time-consuming part of your application.
  • When brainstorming what to write in the description for work/activities, consider the following questions:
    • What measurable impacts have I made with my organization?
    • What have I learned from this experience? How have I grown? What skills have I gained?
    • If relevant, what has this experience taught me about the field of medicine? What has the experience made me appreciate?
  • For “Most Meaningful Experience” blurbs, it may be helpful to jot down specific memories from your experience.
  • 15 spaces isn’t enough? Group things into categories! For instance, I clumped all awards/honors/distinctions into one entry. I also worked several part-time jobs during college to earn money, so I clumped those into one as well and just briefly listed all of the jobs in the experience description.
  • 15 spaces is too much? Don’t feel pressured to fill up the empty space. Just use as much as you need to get everything across.
• Personal Statement: Not going to say too much since there are a lot of great guides online, but in simple terms, your personal statement should be (1) concise, (2) humble, (3) reflect who you are (perhaps how you’ve grown) and (4) demonstrate your path and commitment to medicine.
• Submit early: After submitting your AMCAS, it takes a few weeks for your application to be processed and actually sent to your medical schools. Since many medical schools offer interviews and acceptances on a rolling basis, the earlier you get your application in the better. Try to submit your primary AMCAS as close to the first day as possible, ideally within the first two weeks if you can. (This doesn’t mean to rush to submit your app on day one; proofread every section, ensure quality and submit as soon as you feel ready)
• Send transcripts ASAP! You can send transcripts as soon as the application cycle opens, so don’t wait to send them. Even if your primary AMCAS is submitted, it won’t be considered complete and processed until your transcripts are in as well. To avoid unexpected delays, send your transcripts to AAMC as soon as they’re ready.
• Secondaries: The earlier you submit your primary, the earlier it’s verified and sent to schools, and the earlier you will receive your secondaries. Like the primary, strive to get your secondary applications in early (ideally within 2 weeks of receipt, although there is a little leeway). If you anticipate traveling/having limited internet connection/being busy between July and August, consider pre-writing some essays beforehand. It’s not necessary to prewrite your secondaries, but keep in mind that secondaries will flood your inbox in batches as soon as your application is verified. Having some prewritten essays on hand can really help take off some of the burden so you don’t burn out chugging 20++ essays in July and August. Medical school secondaries don’t change much from year to year, so you can search “X School of Medicine secondary prompts” online to get a headstart with the prompts. Some common prompts are:
  • Why X School? OR How do your experiences/interests match our school’s mission?
  • Describe a challenge and how you overcame it.
  • If you have taken gap year(s), describe what you have done since graduation.
    • Again, for this prompt, rather than simply listing everything, it’s okay to elaborate a little on why you’re doing what you’re doing and what you have or hope to have learned.
  • Describe yourself/Diversity Statement (ie what makes you you)
    • If you’re only going to prewrite one essay, this is probably the one to prewrite and refine. Many schools have an open-ended essay/describe yourself/autobiographical sketch/diversity statement prompt with word limits between 500-5000 characters, so if you write one essay that you can tweak the word count of, you’ll be set for a lot of schools.
• DON’T COPY PASTE FROM PRIMARY TO SECONDARY. Secondary applications might seem pretty redundant, but don’t use that as an excuse to copy-paste from your primary. Treat the secondary as an extra opportunity to show the medical school more of who you are. Write about different experiences than the ones you wrote about in your personal statement, elaborate in more detail on experiences only mentioned briefly, etc. Be consistent, but not repetitive. In other words, if you said you’re extremely passionate about teaching in your primary, it’s okay to talk about your passion for teaching in your secondary (in fact it might be weird if you abandoned your love of teaching and wrote about something entirely different instead). Just don’t tell the same story twice.
• Proof-read. Proof-read your primary, proof-read your secondary. Proof-read again. Make sure you don’t accidentally write about Cornell in an essay for Feinberg.
• Check fofinish any other additional requirements. For instance, many schools including Rutgers RWJ, University of Michigan, Drexel and Temple require all applicants to take an additional standardized test called “CASPer“, an online 60-90 minute examination designed to assess non-academic skills like collaboration, ethics, professionalism and problem-solving. It is designed such that you don’t need to prepare for it beforehand, so just sign up for the earliest convenient testing date and get it over with so that your med school app will be considered complete and sent to the admissions committee for evaluation.

Once everything is submitted, the wait begins! If you have everything between July and early August, interview offers can start trickling in any time starting early August (or in very rare cases, late July). That said, don’t feel anxious if it’s August/September and you haven’t heard anything. More than half of my interview invites didn’t come in until OctobeNovember, and there are people who continue to receive interviews all the way until February/March! I think the general rule is not to start worrying unless you haven’t gotten a single interview by Thanksgiving, so until then, sit tight, enjoy life, and appreciate the free time while (if) you have it.
PREPARING FOR INTERVIEWS
Whether or not you’ve received your first interview offer, it’s never a bad idea to start preparing. If you’ve gotten your first interview, congrats! Wherever you are in the process, here are some tips for preparing for interviews.

• Know your application. Be prepared to answer any questions about your primary or secondary application. Unless you have a multiple mini-interview (MMI), a majority of your interviews will likely address-if not concentrate on-your application. If it helps, print and annotate your application with extra experiences, what you’ve learned from the experience, and how it has helped you grow. Questions about your application may come up in the following ways:
  • Elaborate on this activity
  • Why did you join this club?
  • Tell me about your research (for this one, don’t get too technical from the getgo. Summarize your research in layman’s terms and only elaborate further if the interviewer asks. For one interview, my interviewer actually asked me, word by word, “Explain your research to me as if I were an 8 year old.”)
  • Tell me about your clinical experience
  • How did you choose your majominor?
  • What was your favorite/least favorite course at Your University?
• Know yourself. This may sound silly, I know. But reflecting on who you are/the background you come from is a really great exercise for preparing for medical school interviews because chances are you’ll be asked about yourself. Think about how/where you grew up, the path you’ve taken to get to where you are, who you are outside of medicine, etc. Questions intended to get to know you include, but aren’t limited to:
  • So tell me about yourself
  • Tell me about your family/where you grew up
  • What do you like to do in your free time?
• Know why medicine. I would be surprised if any school didn’t ask some form of “why medicine?”. Be able to explain why you are going into medicine and not any other field. Reflect on any experiences that influenced you, summarize your decision-making process and the ultimate reasons behind your decision. Some points to consider that may or may not be relevant are:
  • Why pursue the M.D. degree, not nursing/PA/MA/any other field of medicine?
  • If you have research experience, why M.D instead of a Ph.D (or MD/PhD)?
  • If you have significant teaching/mentoring experience, why medicine and not a career in education?
  • Realize that “helping people” alone isn’t a strong enough argument for medical schools. There are a number of other jobs (social work, non-profits, education, etcetc) that achieve the same purpose.
  • Medicine is great, but also be aware of some of the limitations and drawbacks. Show that you’re realistic–though not cynical–about the profession and that you’re interested in medicine despite the limitations it may face.
    • On the issue of limitations of healthcare: Not everyone has the same experience, but at least I was asked during three separate interviews variations of “What do you think are the greatest limitations/drawbacks of American healthcare?” This might be a good topic to do a bit of research on or brainstorm beforehand, whether through drawing from examples from your clinical experience or reading news articles online.
• Know the school. Hopefully, you did some research before crafting your school list so you have at least a vague idea of what made you decide to apply. If you didn’t, now is the time to do that. In addition to knowing the general mission and values of the school, research opportunities that the school has that match your specific interests. For example, are you interested in social justice? Do you value a school’s emphasis on student wellness? What kind of opportunities do students have to get involved with x, y or z type of research? Whether through reading specific school website/handouts, skimming MSAR, talking to current students, looking at blogs or all of the above, be prepared to answer “Why X School?” and demonstrate why you would be a good fit. Personally, I typed up ~2 pages of notes for each school I received an interview from and found them useful to skim before interview day.
• Glance over some other common questions. These aren’t necessary to prepare for, but if you have some extra free time looking over them can’t hurt.
  • Name 5 strengths/weaknesses
  • Tell me about a time you failed (ie. tell me about a time you failed and how you learned from it).
  • Describe a challenge you faced and how you overcame it.
  • What problems do you anticipate facing as a future medical student/physician?
  • Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
  • What do you think are the qualities that make a good physician?
  • Why should we choose you?
  • What do you look for in a medical school?
  • What would you do if you didn’t get into medical school this year?
  • Just search “sample medical school interview questions” to find a bunch more
• Prepare to ask questions. When the interviewer asks “do you have any questions for me?”, it’s generally a good idea to ask a question. It’s also a great opportunity for you to learn more about the school, the profession, or anything else you want to know about. If you can’t think of any questions that come up during your conversation with your interviewer, here are some ideas of what you could ask:
  • What was your path to medicine? What brought you to X Medical School?
  • What do you like most about X Medical School? What do you wish could be changed?
  • (If the interviewer has been with the medical school for a long time) How has X Medical School changed over the years?
  • What kind of patient populations do you see?
  • How is your work/life balance?
  • What is it like to work as a physician in City/Town?
  • Can you elaborate on your involvement in X?
  • If you’re interviewing with a student, ask about student life, clinical rotations, receptiveness to student feedback, why they chose the school, what they do in their free time, etc. Other informative questions can be found here, although some of the questions are more to ask during/after the interview day rather than during the interview.
• MMIs: I was fortunate(?) enough not to have any MMI interviews during my application cycle, so I won’t talk too much about it aside from saying it’s good to prepare in advance. MMIs, or multiple-mini interviews, are short, timed stations that interviewees rotate through. In each station, the interviewee interacts with a different interviewer and is assessed on things such as cultural sensitivity, teamwork, empathy, etc. Interviewees may be asked about ethical scenarios, and one station might be a more traditional “tell me about yourself”.
  • A friend found the scenarios here to be particularly helpful. This presentation also has good advice.
• Need more tips? Here are some links. I also found Goro’s guide to be a particularly helpful read before interview day.

TRAVELING FOR INTERVIEWS

• Public transit v. taxi/ubelyft: Depending on where you are, the best mode of transportation will vary. This may seem like common sense, but I’ve talked to a few people who have had unexpected trouble getting to interview sites on time. If you know any students or people from the area, it would be a good idea to ask what they use for transportation. To give a couple examples, ubelyft is probably the better option in Rochester, MN where the airport-Mayo shuttle only runs every 3 or so hours until 6PM and is only a few dollars cheaper. Meanwhile, in NYC, there is usually a lot of traffic which means that ubelyft/via time estimates are often not very accurate. During peak hours in downtown Manhattan, a ~10 minute car ride could take an hour, so depending on how far you are from the interview site, walking or taking the subway is likely your best bet.
• Saving on travel: Last-minute flights are expensive, and sometimes there is no way around them. But by minimizing costs for other interviews, you can limit the amount of money you spend overall.
  • Compare costs–and check Southwest. Obviously, it’s good to compare prices online between different airlines. Make sure to take into account policies on baggage (eg. the cheapest United flight does not include a free carry-on bag). Another thing that isn’t widely known is that Southwest airlines doesn’t appear on most (if not all?) price comparison sites, so don’t forget to include Southwest in your airline comparisons. Two great benefits about Southwest is that they give you two free checked bags, and they charge no fee for cancelling or rescheduling your flight (you just have to pay the difference in ticket price). The option to reschedule a flight for free can sometimes make a huge difference (eg. if a school fulfills an ITA request–read more below).
  • Send “ITAs”: ITAs, or in-the-area requests, are great to send to schools as long as you send them at least a month or more in advance. Applying to med school is an expensive process both time and money-wise, and many medical schools (eg. Weill Cornell and Pritzker at UChicago) understand this and will try as much as they can to accommodate for you. If you are going to be in the area for another interview/family trip/etc, consider sending an email to other schools as well. As long as you’re polite with your request, an ITA can’t hurt you.
    • A quick blurb on wording ITA emails: From my own experience, I know that some medical schools are kind enough to take ITA requests into account whenever they can. However, it’s also true that they have no obligation to fulfill your request. Even simply getting an interview invite in the first place is a privilege, and it’s important to acknowledge this in your ITA email. For mine, I wrote something along the lines of “I understand that X school only interviews a limited number of the most competitive applicants. However, if I am fortunate enough to receive an interview, I was wondering if it would it be possible to schedule within Y time frame to reduce the costs of traveling and minimize time taken away from work”. As long as you’re humble in your request though, whatever wording you use should be fine.
  • Public transit can be convenient! Check if your area has buses/shuttles/etc that take you to and from the airport/medical school. For instance, the 55 bus in Chicago will take you straight (literally) from University of Chicago to the Midway airport. Pritzker SOM is only a ~7 minute walk to the bus stop. If you’re unfamiliar with the area and your transportation options, Google Maps is a life saver. And if you want to be safe, it’s okay to ask the people around you to make sure you’re at the right place.
  • Early bird specials and free rides: Look in your area to see if there are any transportation companies that offer mega-discounts or have a reward system for rides. For instance, if you book tickets 3+ weeks in advance, Megabus prices for certain times and destinations can be heavily discounted (eg. for one interview, I only spent $12 for a roundtrip bus ticket from DC to Philadelphia). Vamoose Bus, which travels between the DC/MD/VA and NYC, has a rewards system in which every ticket purchase adds up in credit that you can eventually redeem for a free ride.

This post is not sponsored by Vamoose, Southwest, or Megabus.. just speaking from my own experiences trying to find travel options.

• **What I pack for the trip:**
  • Towel
  • Travel toiletry set: shampoo, conditioner (if needed), body wash, toothbrush, toothpaste
  • Interview suit and shoes, including black socks
  • Comfortable clothes to wear outside of interview day (eg. pajamas, tshirt/jeans, undergarments, comfortable shoes)
  • Binder with your AMCAS primary, secondar(ies) and notes specific to the medical school — almost every school I interviewed at had some variation of “Why our school?”, so having some handouts or quick bullet points on hand can be helpful to review.
    • Some applicants brought copies of their CV/research articles/etc, but I personally never did and don’t think it’s necessary.
  • Pen and small notepad; handy for taking notes in case your school doesn’t provide you with a writing utensil on interview day.
    • Keep the pen and paper with you during interview day to jot down notes about the school (and the conversations you have with your interviewers in case you have to write thank you letters later that night).
  • Phone charger
  • A book or something to do on the way
  • Emergency cash (ie money I’ll probably end up using on food at some cool cash-only market/food truck/street food cart)
  • Optional: basic makeup kit, hair ties, breath mints, contacts/glasses, earplugs, wristwatch, snacks
  • Never packed a pillow/sleeping bag, because I was fortunate enough to only have hosts that provided pillow/blankets/couch to sleep on.

THE WAIT

• Take notes! If you ever have time after an interview day, take time to journal and reflect on your impressions of the day. It might seem silly now, but it will be unbelievably useful when you realize in a few months that you barely remember details of the experience. Even making a bulleted list of things you liked/disliked about the school will be helpful when decision-making season comes around. Reading your interview day notes will also help in drafting letters of interest/intent later down the line.
• Write thank yous (unless they say otherwise). Within 24 hours of your interview, send a thank you to your interviewer(s) either directly to the admissions office/to the interviewers themselves, or by uploading to the application portal. If instructions on where to send thank yous weren’t given during an info session, your best bet is probably to send an email to the admissions office and ask them to forward your notes. I didn’t take my laptop with me when I traveled, so I just drafted and sent emails from my iPhone to thank the interviewers for their time and reaffirm my interest in the school. For some schools, the thank you won’t really be more than just a nice gesture, but for other schools (eg. Georgetown and Mayo), all communication including thank you letters are taken into account during the admissions process.
• Send updates: Once you’ve finished your interviews, consider sending a post-II update to your schools. While the update won’t be necessary for some schools like Stanford or Harvard, other schools like Columbia, Feinberg, Mayo, Jeff (SKMC), and Pritzker explicitly state during their interview day that they like to hear about what you’ve been doing since you applied. In your update letter, it’s usually appropriate to also include a blurb reaffirming your interest in the school and why you think it’d be a good fit.
  • Even if you haven’t heard from the school at all since submitting your application, it’s ~generally~ okay to send an update anyway. In fact, for some schools I’d encourage it because it demonstrates continued interest (eg. I know at least Feinberg and SKMC are very receptive to pre-II updates).
  • An example list of some schools that accept updates (NOT comprehensive, just some of the schools I applied to. Also note that this is based on information I found while applying in the 2018-2019 cycle so make sure to double-check that things haven't changed)
    • Emory – Accepts updates in text-format through the online portal. Go to “STATUS” -> “Update My Application” on the left side of the screen, then there should be a textbox where you can input your information.
    • Feinberg (Northwestern) – Email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) your updates either in the body of the e-mail or as a PDF. Make sure to include your AAMC ID#
    • Perelman, Columbia, NYU, Mt. Sinai, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown -Upload updates to your online application portal
    • Pritzker – Email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
    • Sidney Kimmel – Email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). I’ve also been told to CC the Dean of Admissions (currently Dr. Callahan, [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]))
    • Baylor – People who have not received interview invites can send updates to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). Baylor doesn’t accept post-interview updates
    • Case Western – Updates are only accepted from applicants who are (1) invited for an interview (2) on hold for a future interview or (3) on the alternate list. There will be a place to upload updates on the application portal
    • Stanford and Mayo only accept significant updates for applicants post-interview invite.
• Sit back and relax! If you’re done with interviews, now all that’s left is the waiting game. If you have some free time, read that book or binge that TV show you’ve been procrastinating on, take on a DIY project, start a new hobby, plan that travel you’ve been dreaming of for decades… whatever you want to do to enjoy life and distract yourself until the big day comes.

Good luck everyone!!

So, you were deferred
You were deferred from your dream school. You waited in agony for the email, logged into your portal, and saw something along the lines of: “While we were very impressed by your unique qualifications, we had a record-breaking pool of 22,000 applicants. Unfortunately, we cannot admit all qualified applicants, but we would like to reconsider your application during the regular decision pool.” Sound familiar?
Read the letter carefully—even if you’re attempted to toss it aside and vow that you never liked that university anyway. Sometimes, universities will include stipulations on the information they would like to receive from you (first semester grades) or how they would like to receive it (uploaded to your portal, perhaps). Once you’re done reading and carefully noting their preferences (if any), you need to put all thoughts of that university out of your mind for the next two weeks and focus on applying to your regular decision schools. I know it’s tempting to drop everything and focus on proclaiming your undying love to Stanford, but don’t do that for two reasons:
1) You have limited days left to craft dozens of essays for your other universities 2) Admissions officers leave for winter break after results are released and, trust me, they don’t want to be bothered. If you email them now, your email will slowly fall to the bottom of a long list of emails that, come January, they will open, glance at, and ignore (forever to remain in email purgatory).
What You Should Do Instead
In the remaining days of December, focus on your regular decision schools. Consider revising your college list. If you were denied to your dream university, carefully consider whether or not your targets and safeties are truly attainable universities. If you were denied from Stanford REA, no, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia and Penn cannot be considered your targets. Vanderbilt, Tufts, Northwestern, WashU and Duke are by no means your safeties. Make sure you have a well-balanced list of universities—including targets and safeties you would actually enjoy attending. Sure, you don't have to be as excited about those universities as you were about your dream school, but it always hurts my heart to hear that students weren't accepted to any universities (yep, happens every year here on Reddit) or they're only choice is to attend their safety that they don't want to attend because they chose not to apply to any targets. If you need to add more schools to your list, schedule an appointment with your college counselor ASAP to discuss what you need to do, processes wise, for your high school to send transcripts and letters of rec. Be polite and grateful, as many counselors are overwhelmed with requests this time of year.
Re-evaluate your existing application. Yes, things outside of your control could have impacted your application (something mentioned by a teacher in a letter of recommendation, the competitiveness of other applicants from your high school or region, or the slim chance of acceptance at schools like Harvard, MIT, Princeton, etc.). But, often times, I see things within a student's control that they overlooked, like maximizing their activities list with descriptions that appeal to admissions officers. For advice on revising your activities list, check out my post here.
Get a second opinion on your essays, like a trusted friend, teacher, parent or even me. How cliche are they? Did you focus on how you think, feel, or view the world differently as a result of your participation in an EC or life experience, or did you simply chronicle your entire life's participation in the EC? If the latter, add a compelling anecdote to put the reader in your shoes, and add much more reflection into how the experience has shaped who you are.
How personalized was your "Why I want to go to your school" or "Why I want to major in ___" essays? Often, universities defer an EA applicant they don't think really want to attend, or a student whose only reason for applying is that the university in question is prestigious. For your RD application essays, be very specific as to how the universities' programs, majors, classes, curriculum, etc. appeal to you.
Bad example: "I want to attend MIT and major in biology, as I want to be a doctor. MIT's world class education will prepare me for the nation's top medical schools. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a doctor to save lives. By majoring in biology at MIT, I'll be one step closer to my dream."
I worked with a student last year who was waitlisted to his dream university. When I reviewed his application, he had—no joke—written that the reason why he wanted to attend this university was because they had excellent placement for his dream medical school. That pretty much summed up all 250 words. I was aghast. Would you really ask someone to prom and tell them, "Going with you to prom is the fastest way to get close to this other girl I really like?" Of course not, so be specific into the university's offerings.
My 5 minute attempt at a better example: "What do most 6 year olds want for their birthdays? A puppy, a new video game, a trip to Disney World... Me? I begged my parents to let me shadow them at their jobs—in a cadaver lab. Unconventional, definitely, but indicative of my childhood curiosity for the biological sciences. At MIT, pursuing Course 7, I'll finally experience a cadaver lab within classes such as Human Physiology. Harnessing MIT's passion for collaboration, I'll conduct research at the Broad Institute and take a seat in front of the wormhole to Stanford at the Forbes Family Cafe. There, I won't just learn about the body but push the bounds of scientific knowledge on all that the body can do."
You should also consider refining your interview skills. Check out my massive Reddit post on preparing for interviews, or message me if you want to schedule a 1-on-1 mock interview.
Yeah, yeah, but I'm still obsessed with my early school
Okay, once you're done doing everything you can to get into other colleges, focus on doing everything you can to get into your early school now that you've been deferred.
You should write a letter of continued interest which, unlike how it sounds, is not just an affirmation of your interest in attending the school. Thus, don’t write something like this:
Dear Penn Admissions Office,
I wanted to thank you for your consideration of my application for early decision. Penn remains my top choice and I would love to join the class of 2023.
Sincerely, [Name]
Especially if you applied early decision, single choice early action or restricted early action, the university knows they are your top choice. As harsh as it sounds, you just aren’t their top choice. If they aren't one of those universities that defer a huge percentage of their applicants (cough Harvard and Georgetown), then they saw promise within your application. With a carefully crafted letter of continued interest, they can see even more promise in your application. Now is your chance to demonstrate how you would add value to their institution, to show how you embody the university’s values (known in admissions lingo as “fit”), and to prove your knowledge of the university’s unique offerings and how they align with your own interests.
How to get started writing a letter of continued interest
The key here is to not start writing; instead, you must start researching. If you had an alumni interview, contact the alum to update them. Thank them for their time in interviewing you and ask if they have any advice regarding your next steps. If you have friends at your dream university, contact them and pick their brain about their experience. Harness some buzz words that you can paraphrase in your LOCI to align yourself with that university's values. If you wrote a bad "Why I want to go to your school" essay, do more research on the university's unique offerings. In your email, describe how you'll pursue these opportunities. Perhaps even reach out to professors. For advice on how to do that, check out my Reddit post. For templates and examples on how to email professors, consider purchasing my guide for Writing Letters of Continued Interest.
Also write a list of recent accomplishments. If your grades were good first semester, you can obviously share that news. If you received a new and improved test score, great! Any awards? New leadership titles? Have you led any cool initiatives in a club? Won any games or achieved any personal bests in sports? You don't need a shiny award or certificate to count something as an accomplishment, so carefully consider what you've been upto recently.
Maybe you're thinking "New accomplishments!? I don't have time for ECs and competitions right now! I've been busy applying to college and studying for finals!" Totally understandable! You have two options: 1) Talk about your deepening interests, if you've learned anything in class or read any good books that have furthered your interest in a subject, or 2) Wait a few more weeks before you send a LOCI. If you think you can earn an award, lead a new initiative, or earn a personal best in late December or early January, it's totally fine to wait a few weeks so you have something special to convey to your dream university.
Which reminds me to remind you: Don't fire off a LOCI or fill out a deferral form (say, if you were deferred by Stanford) immediately. Take your time to craft your statement and put your best foot forward. I bet there are a few of you reading this that are like "Gee, Marcella, I wish you had told me that yesterday. I already sent Columbia a LOCI!" Well... sorry. In this case, the early bird doesn't always get the worm.
Need more help?
I'm hosting a webinar on Sunday, December 16 at 4 pm Eastern in which I will provide more tips on how to write a letter of continued interest. I'll even provide a template for emailing admissions officers and an example LOCI to get you started on writing your own. I'll also take questions and deliver personalized advice. If you can't attend but want the information, purchase a ticket and I will send you a recording of the webinar after it airs.
You can also check out my guide to writing a LOCI here or request my LOCI editing services. And, as always, if you want some free advice, post below and I'm happy to respond!

Due to length I figured that anyone who's into splicing may enjoy critiquing my work, there's 4 different ropes in here 1/2" to 3/4" from tight eyes to Safebloc sling, feedback is welcomed! Lock stitching is underway now, wanted to 'set' them with people hanging from them before doing so, also doing tapered backsplices free-hand since I can't find instructions :P Album *of my splices, all using Samson's video on Class 1 DB's and using aluminum bonsai wire as my wire-fid, a new length every splice or two! (also has some comparison-shots showing the 3/4" polydyne versus 3/4" tenex tec on X anchors, I'm strongly of the opinion that that, not tenex, should be the go-to sling cordage & cannot get an answer why it's not!)
I love the idea of having 1 leg of a sling split-off (V-splice) to 2 legs, like on one side of my 5', 3-ringed sling but that's hollow-braid so it's simpler....
Can you do a V splice in double-braids? I'm looking at some of my works (am only able to do class1 DB ropes so far) and can't help but think "couldn't you just cut the eye at its apex and then have 2 'legs' to start splicing from again?", I expect it's not as simple as that because...whatever it is that's inside the core-braiding of that spliced-eye, so far as I can discern it's NOT regular cordage so I don't think it's something where I could simply: - make a 5' long spliced-eye, - cut that 5' eye at its top, giving me 2 legs (my V!) coming from the 1 length of rope, and then - splice each of the 2 legs created by cutting the original eye in half, resulting in a rope that V's into 2 ropes, with each of those 2 ropes terminating in its own splice.
Am sure you can guess, but am picturing double-heading a sling - actually would like to double-head BOTH SIDES of a ~4' sling to make it a super-heavy-duty, crotch-only anchor (using 3/4" steel rope thimbles instead of x-rings, would cost $120 on just the (4) rings - using the smaller ones - while my approach would cost a scratch under $35 for the entire thing IE the rope, 4 steel thimbles and the splices (at $0 obviously since I'd be doing them, but if I tagged $15/hr onto my time for doing the 4 it'd probably still be ~$50 for the splices so $85 for the finished 4', 4-ringed sling, still just 3/4th the price of just the rings if I went with the branded gear!! Really wish some company would just come out and undercut all these arb-specific rings, casting metals isn't expensive someone should just make like 5 sizes, price them at barely-above-cost, and they'd dominate the market (make 2 lines, 1 with hardcoat anodization and another as pure alum or steel, so people can choose if they wanna pay for that resilient, friction-reducing treatment or not - it's not always a desirable trait in a ring!)
Thanks a ton for any advice on this!! Also any other 'fancy'/'advanced' things that can be done with double-braid I would be very eager to hear, want to splice so much more but don't have the cordage to do so just double-braids (am trying to figure out the most-dynamic hollow-braid out there, seems to be Yale's XTR line, so I can not only get into the neat world of hollow-braid splices but, from a practical perspective, I can totally see the desire for a loopie/yippie type sling I just couldn't imagine choosing to use Tenex, I only have it because the sling came that way and I didn't know any better when I was purchasing it, odds are that sling will get cut-up and the pieces taken from it, the tenex itself will just be spliced into itself and be a 5' loop-sling (well 4' after additional splicing I'd imagine, dunno loss%'s for hollow's yet :P )
PS- Anyone have ANY tips on back-splicing? I'm 100% boned-up on Samson's standard/classic double-braid back-splice, however I saw pictures of Teufelberger's take on it, where they've got this (stiff?) tapered end, supposed to make tying knots easier - sounds reasonable - so since I've got these (2) super-long-tailed slings, I figure I shouldn't do regular backsplicing but rather do the Teufelberger style, problem is I can't find any info, anywhere, have googled it to death and nobody's got instructions....I promise I will post the content after I'm done so the next person has something to go from but would love a starting-point that's a bit closer than Samson's fully-stuffed backsplice, that thing looks better and is surely more resilient but for knot-tying I want things as smooth-as-possible since I'd bet that's linearly correlated with your average 'slop' (slack in the sling, creating more inherent free-fall distance for the log before the rope takes-action)

Last updated: July 6, 2020
See also Why did my FET / embryo transfer fail
Endometriosis is a topic that’s come up on the forum and unexpectedly found itself into my life as well so I’ve been learning more about it. Celebrities like Lena Dunham have opened up about this problem that many don’t want to discuss. Because endometriosis combines so many touchy topics (Women! Periods! Pain! Infertility!) usually no one wants to talk about it. And it pisses me off that so little is known about this common disease, and that treatments are inadequate. This seems like as good a place as any to talk about the long-standing misogyny in the medical profession as it relates to the origin of the word hysteria and history of mental health.
Note that I have no medical training whatsoever, but this what I’ve learned and hope that some of it will help others on this forum because endo and infertility overlap.
What is endometriosis and why does it happen?
Basically, it’s uterine lining (endometrial tissue) growing outside of the uterus. Scientists aren’t totally clear why this happens -- start with this helpful and accessible overview article.
There’s this theory about “retrograde menstruation” though other explanations exist -- but why does that happen? It’s not totally validated or agreed. Misplaced endometrial-like tissue acts up in response to changes in estrogen (explanation) and may actually create its own estrogen. It’s also becoming clearer that the immune system is involved and makes things worse. (I’m no medical professional but I’m personally betting $20 that autoimmune fun is involved.) Endometriosis is estimated to affect 176 million people and about 10-15% of reproductive-aged women worldwide. It tends to run in some families so there is likely a genetic component, but actually newer research indicates epigenetics is involved.
What are the symptoms of endometriosis?
If you’re hanging out here on /infertility, this could be you, even if you don’t think so yet.

• Painful periods are the classic symptom. People (like me!) are frequently told by actual doctors that they couldn’t possibly have endo if they don’t have painful periods. Here's a classic story about period pain.
• Infertility is actually also a primary symptom of endometriosis. Sometimes people with painful periods are also infertile and other times people are infertile without having painful periods. If you have unexplained infertility, I encourage you to explore this hypothesis.
• There are actually many other symptoms (one list - there are many).
• An interesting article, now unpublished, lists these as indicators: shortened cycle intervals (less than 27 days), moderate to severe PMS (mood changes, bloating, headaches), mother’s age at menopause < 46, family history of endo, early onset of gray hair < 35 years (this is often familial also). Another article about surprising symptoms.
• Sometimes there are no symptoms at all.

Does endometriosis affect fertility?
A good number of people with endometriosis are fertile and have children without problems. However, many experience mild to severe infertility. The severity and location of the endometriosis may determine the impact on fertility. Some say 30-50% of women with endo have infertility, and 25-50% of women with infertility have endo (citation).
How does endometriosis impact fertility?
The jury is out about a lot of things relating to endometriosis but from what I have read (this - includes breakdown for mild vs. severe disease, and this), endometriosis may...

• Reduce egg quality (perhaps by growing on the ovaries) - this can lead to lower quality eggs (lower fertilization, miscarriages). This may show up as lower AMH levels -- article, see discussion. Though a range of issues (immune, etc.) can affect the ovaries, lower AMH levels may be a sign that endo may be involved. endo and ovarian reserve.
• Contribute to autoimmune issues such as elevated levels natural killer cells and cytokines (citation). Create a “toxic soup” in the uterus (impacting implantation and some say encouraging miscarriages).
• Block your fallopian tubes (citation)
• Affect how your body processes progesterone -- thanks to progesterone resistance (2017 article), you may have luteal phase issues (spotting, short luteal phase) or may be more likely to require progesterone support during IF cycles. Awesome post on progesterone

How is endometriosis diagnosed?
Doctors will generally tell you that “a lap” (laparoscopy -- it’s a surgery) is the only way to diagnose endometriosis and yes, it’s the gold standard if your goal is to definitively prove that you have endo. If you have endo issues outside of fertility, such as pain, getting a lap may be worthwhile. Getting surgery has obvious downsides -- in addition to pain and recovery, diagnostic surgery has risks including making fertility problems worse. Certain types of endometriosis such as endometriomas can sometimes be diagnosed through ultrasound, but an ultrasound will miss a lot. If your ultrasound comes back clean, it doesn’t say much -- you may still have endo.
However, if your goal is simply to get a vague indication about whether undiagnosed endo may be compromising your fertility, laparoscopic surgery may be too invasive. There’s a new test called ReceptivaDX (see info, patent, study) that can test for elevated levels of BCL6. Keep in mind this is a new test, not yet well established, and not all doctors believe in it but some do. According to their research, when BCL6 is elevated, a follow-up laparoscopic surgery usually finds endometriosis. Specifically, the ReceptivaDX test comes back with a BCL6 score. The cutoff for endo is 1.4 according to their study: “Using this cutoff value, BCL6 was positive in 88% of cases with [unexplained infertility]. Laparoscopic examination of a subset of 65 patients confirmed abnormalities in 98% of cases; 61 (93.8%) were found to have endometriosis, 3 (4.6%) with hydrosalpinx, and 1 (1.5%) with a normal pelvis.” The higher the BCL6 number, the worse the endo. Usually this number will be used to determine how many months of Depot Lupron treatment or what other treatments you may be offered. Here is a recent study about Depot Lupron before FET leading to higher success rate, especially with non-PGS embryos.
ReceptivaDX tests both BCL6 and beta-3 integrin so it’s superior to the older E-tegrity test which measured only beta-3 integrin -- as a result, E-tegrity would give a valid conclusion only if your endometrium was in a perfectly timed receptive phase when your biopsy was done. ReceptivaDX can give a result even if your uterine biopsy is done when your uterus is in a non-receptive phase.
The uterine biopsy works like this: your RE takes a sample of your uterine tissue. If you’re doing other tests like an ERA or hysteroscopy you can group these together into one procedure to be super efficient and not waste more cycles. If you are getting a uterine biopsy and you aren’t being knocked out, I recommend sufficient pain medication for this (example: 2 tylenol with codeine + 3 valium worked for me).
I don’t want to do Receptiva or a lap (insurance/time/money/access/too-experimental) so what should I do?
Especially if you’ve had multiple IVF failures or some other endo symptoms, you may want to go ahead and treat it (details below). I have heard that several clinics give up to 3 months of Depot Lupron to “reset the lining” (maybe what they mean is “nuke the endo”) after multiple IVF implantation failures. It’s possible that your insurance may cover Depot Lupron even if testing isn’t covered so you may want to consider treatment even if you aren’t able to test. At the very least, tossing in some letrozole seems like low-risk.
Endo sounds lousy, how do I deal with my endo for fertility purposes?
Managing endo can be a lifelong challenge, especially if you experience a lot of pain or other symptoms. For fertility, basically, the treatment will depend on the severity of your issue. The main options are:

• Depot Lupron. This is the same drug (leuprolide acetate) that is used in much smaller doses as microdose lupron in some IVF cycles as a subcutaneous injection. However, Depot Lupron the equivalent of 30+ days of lupron in one shot, and is administered as an intramuscular injection, sometimes by a doctor, in increments of 1 or 3 or up to 6 months. It’s a GnRH agonist which means it stops your ovaries from producing estrogen and it’s serious stuff -- it can be like going into medically induced menopause though your doctor may put you on BCP to limit the symptoms. Some people have significant side effects -- but that seems to happen more often when people are on it for many months not just a few. It seems that side effects can be reduced in some cases by taking birth control pills or "add back." Some endo patients are given Depot to reduce endo pain. There is some research that suggests that Depot Lupron can help increase IVF success for endo patients but there is controversy here (2006 study and its summary - endo stage not noted, 2002 study with stages II to IV, more recent study on stage III/IV severe cases). I’ve heard of it being used both before egg retrieval and before FET, and this recent study showed a significant improvement on IVF success when Depot Lupron is used before a FET.
• Letrozole (Femara). This is a pill that can have a small impact on endo and endometrial receptivity. It can’t hurt to throw it in, but if you might actually have any endo, it’s probably not enough. For example, letrozole treatment took my BCL6 level down from 2.8 to 2.4. Nice try but not the 1.4 or lower that I wanted it to be so I did one month Depot Lupron before the next cycle.
• Assistive Reproductive Technologies (ART). This means IUI and IVF. Probably IVF. Many folks who have endo and experience infertility will need IVF. This helps deal with lower egg quality and can keep eggs and embryos out of the muck. If you’re doing IVF, you may also benefit from Depot Lupron. See IVF success rates for endo patients and decreased IUI success and mixed results for IVF. If you’ve already tried IVF you may want to read this post about failed transfers. As endo is often associated with elevated NK cells and other autoimmune signals, you may also want to try Intralipids with your embryo transfer. When doing IVF, you’ll want your doctor to keep endo in mind when choosing a protocol -- some doctors include microdose lupron in a long lupron, lupron stop, or lupron flare protocol.
• Continuous birth control pills. There’s some evidence that a number of weeks or months of continuous birth control pills before IVF may help with IVF success -- it helps suppress the estrogen.
• Surgery. This was thought to be the gold standard treatment, and is commonly used to relieve endo pain (sometimes only temporarily). But for infertility, some research says it could be helpful though there is now evidence that doing the surgery might negatively impact ovarian reserve as measured by AMH. Also, if you’re experiencing fertility problems, it’s not clear that getting surgery will prevent you from also needing IVF and IVF is is likely less risky to your overall fertility and health than endo removal surgery. If you’re considering surgery, you will likely want to consult several specialists and get second opinions before moving forward. There are multiple types of surgery (excisional and ablative) which may be applied to different types of endo. Surgery is usually not recommended for milder cases of endo.
• Diet (???). Some recommend that an anti-inflammatory diet or low FODMAP diet can help with endometriosis. This generally means no gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol or processed foods. Some say no meat. Soy is also thought to increase estrogen levels which feeds endo. If you’re having issues with fertility or endo pain, diet is probably an “in addition to” treatment rather than an “instead of” treatment. Using me as one tiny data point, I haven’t intentionally eaten gluten in many years and I eat very little dairy… I still have elevated BCL6 levels and infertility. No diet panacea for me.
• No smoking. Some research showed that endo patients who smoke have worse IVF outcomes than those who do not smoke.

Is this #&%! ever going to get better?
Some researchers are calling for more funding and a search for a real cure. Hooray! There are some organizations that are working on an ability to diagnose endometriosis through a simple blood test! (Here’s another and another, and another -- and another looking at autoimmune biomarkers.) That would be awesome. As far as I know, this is not really available yet -- it's just being developed. I hope that one day an accurate endo blood test becomes part of the standard infertility workup and maybe even well-woman checkup assuming a reliable test is developed. Some companies (like Evotec-Bayer partnership and AbbVie) are looking into making treatments that are more effective and less destructive.
Endometriosis myths (see more myths)

• You can’t have endo if you don’t have painful periods (truth: infertility is a primary symptom!)
• You a lap (laparoscopy) is the only diagnostic tool (truth: a lap is the gold standard but there’s a new non-surgical test that shows some promise)
• Pregnancy will cure endo
• Tampons cause endo (actually tampon use is associated with lower rates of endo -- insert disclaimer about correlation vs. causation here)

Other places to go for support:

• /endo and /endometriosis
  
• Facebook group Nancy’s Nook
  
• http://endopaedia.info/
  

Massive thanks to RockyBalboa84 for all of the awesome endo journal club articles! See also the original /infertility endo FAQ.
Did I get anything wrong or miss anything? I’ll try to keep this post up-to-date. Same disclaimer as above: I am not a medical professional, just a person who wishes the endo diagnosis and treatment situation was better. I will try to update this post as I learn more. If there’s anything you’d like changed or added, please let me know.

By E. E. Cummings V. A GROUP OF PORTRAITS (i.) WITH the reader's permission I beg, at this point of my narrative, to indulge in one or two extrinsic observations. In the preceding pages I have described my Pilgrim's Progress from the Slough of Despond, commonly known as Section Sanitaire Vingt-et-Un (then located at Ger- maine) through the mysteries of Noyon, Gré and Paris to the Porte de Triage de la Ferté Macé, Orne. With the end of my first day as a certified inhabitant of the lat- ter institution a definite progression is brought to a close. Beginning with my second day at La Ferté a new period opens. This period extends to the moment of my de- parture and includes the discovery of The Delectable Mountains, two of which——The Wanderer, and I shall not say the other——have already been sighted. It is like a vast grey box in which are laid helter-skelter a great many toys, each of which is itself completely significant apart from the always unchanging temporal dimension which merely contains it along with the rest. I make this point clear for the benefit of any of my readers who have not had the distinguished privilege of being in jail. To those who have been in jail my meaning is at once apparent; particularly if they have had the highly en- lightening experience of being in jail with a perfectly indefinite sentence. How, in such a case, could events occur and be remembered otherwise than as individuali- ties distinct from Time Itself? Or, since one day and the next are the same to such a prisoner, where does Time come in at all? Obviously, once the prisoner is habituated to his environment, once he accepts the fact that specu- lation as to when he will regain his liberty cannot pos- sibly shorten the hours of his incarceration and may very well drive him into a state of unhappiness (not to say morbidity), events can no longer succeed each other: whatever happens, while it may happen in connection with some other perfectly distinct happening, does not happen in a scale of temporal priorities——each happening is self-sufficient, irrespective of minutes, months and the other treasures of freedom. It is for this reason that I do not purpose to inflict upon the reader a diary of my alternative aliveness and non- existence at La Ferté——not because such a diary would unutterably bore him, but because the diary or time method is a technique which cannot possibly do justice to timelessness. I shall (on the contrary) lift from their grey box at random certain (to me) more or less astonish- ing toys; which may or may not please the reader, but whose colours and shapes and textures are a part of that actual Present——without future and past——whereof they alone are cognizant who, so to speak, have submitted to and amputation of the world. I have already stated that La Ferté was a Porte de Triage ——that is to say, a place where suspects of all varieties were herded by le gouvernement français preparatory to their being judged as to their guilt by a Commission. If the Commission found that they were wicked persons, or dangerous persons, or undesirable persons, or puzzling persons, or persons in some way insusceptible of analysis, they were sent from La Ferté to a 'regular' prison, called Précigné, in the province of Sarthe. About Précigné the most awful rumours were spread. It was whispered that it had a huge moat about it, with an infinity of barbed- wire fences thirty feet high, and lights trained on the walls all night to discourage the escape of prisoners. Once in Précigné you were 'in' for good and all, pour la durée de la guerre, which durée was a subject of occasional and dismal speculation——occasional for reasons (as I have mentioned) of mental health; dismal for unreasons of diet, privation, filth, and other trifles. La Ferté was, then, a stepping-stone either to freedom or to Précigné, the chances in the former case being——no speculation here—— something less than the now celebrated formula made famous by the 18th amendment. But the excellent and inimitable and altogether benignant French government was not satisfied with its own generosity in presenting one merely with Précigné——beyond that lurked a cauchemar called by the singularly poetic name, Isle de Groix. A man who went to Isle de Groix was done. As the Surveillant said to us all, leaning out of a littlish window, and to me personally upon occasion—— 'You are not prisoners. Oh, no. No indeed. I should say not. Prisoners are not treated like this. You are lucky." I had de la chance all right, but that was something which pauvre M. le Surveillant wot altogether not of. As for my fellow-prisoners, I am sorry to say that he was ——it seems to my humble personality——quite wrong. For who was eligible to La Ferté? Anyone whom the police could find in the lovely country of France (a) who was not guilty of treason, (b) who could not prove that he was not guilty of treason. By treason I refer to any little annoying habits of independent thought or action which en temps de guerre are put in a hole and covered over, with the somewhat naïve idea that from their cadavers violets will grow whereof the perfume will delight all good men and true and make such worthy citizens forget their sorrows. Fort Leavenworth, for instance, emanates even now a perfume which is utterly delightful to certain Americans. Just how many La Fertés France boasted (and for all I know may still boast) God Himself knows. At least, in that Republic, amnesty has been proclaimed, or so I hear.——But to return to the Surveillant's remark. J'avais de la chance. Because I am by profession a painter and a writer. Whereas my very good friends, all of them deeply suspicious characters, most of them trai- tors, without exception lucky to have the use of their cervical vertebræ, etc., etc., could (with a few excep- tions) write not a word and read not a word; neither could they faire la photographie as Monsieur Auguste chucklingly called it (at which I blushed with pleasure): worst of all, the majority of these dark criminals who had been caught in nefarious plots against the honour of France were totally unable to speak French. Curious thing. Often I pondered the unutterable and inextin- guishable wisdom of the police, who——undeterred by facts which would have deceived less astute intelligences into thinking that these men were either too stupid or too simple to be connoisseurs of the art of betrayal——swooped upon their helpless prey with that indescribable courage which is the prerogative of policemen the world over, and bundled same prey into the La Fertés of that mighty nation upon some, at least, of whose public buildings it seems to me that I remember reading Liberté. Egalité. Fraternité. And I wondered that France should have a use for Monsieur Auguste, who had been arrested (because he was a Russian) when his fellow munition workers made la grève, and whose wife wanted him in Paris because she was hungry and because their child was getting to look queer and white. Monsieur Auguste, that desperate ruf- fian exactly five feet tall who——when he could not keep from crying (one must think about one's wife or even one's child once or twice, I merely presume, if one loves them) 'et ma femme est très gen-tille, elle est fran-çaise et très belle, très, très belle, vrai-ment elle n'est pas comme moi, un pe-tit homme laid, ma femme est grande et belle, elle sait bien lire et é-crire. vrai-ment; et notre fils . . . vous de-vez voir notre pe-tit fils . . .'——used to start up and cry out, taking B. by one arm and me by the other: 'Al-lons, mes amis! Chan-tons "Quackquackquack."' Whereupon we would join in the following song, which Monsieur Auguste had taught us with great care, and whose renditions gave him unspeakable delight: 'Un canard, déployant ses ailes (Quackquackquack) Il disait à sa canarde fidèle (Quackquackquack) Il chantait (Quackquackquack) Il faisait (Quackquackquack) Quand' (spelling mine) 'finirons nos desseins, Quack. Quack. Quack. Qua- ck.' I suppose I will always puzzle over the ecstasies of That Wonderful Duck. And how Monsieur Auguste, the merest gnome of a man, would bend backwards in abso- lute laughter at this song's spirited conclusion upon a note so low as to wither us all. Then too the Schoolmaster. A little old fragile man. His trousers were terrifically too big for him. When he walked (in an insecure and frightened way) his trousers did the most preposterous wrinkles. If he leaned against a tree in the cour, with a very old and also fragile pipe in his pocket——the stem (which looked enormous in contrast to the owner) pro- truded therefrom—his three-sizes-too-big collar would leap out so as to make his wizened neck appear no thicker than the white necktie which flowed upon his two-sizes- too-big shirt. He wore always a coat which reached below his knees, which coat with which knees perhaps some one had once given him. It had huge shoulders which sprouted, like wings, on either side of his elbows when he sat in The Enormous Room quietly writing at a tiny three- legged table, a very big pen walking away with his weak bony hand. His too big cap had a little button on top which looked like the head of a nail, and suggested that this old doll had once lost its poor grey head and had been repaired by means of tacking its head upon its neck, where it should be and properly belonged. Of what hideous crime was this being suspected? By some mistake he had three moustaches, two of them being eyebrows. He used to teach school in Alsace-Lorraine, and his sister is there. In speaking to you his kind face is peacefully reduced to triangles. And his tie buttons on every morning with a Bang! And off he goes; led about by his celluloid col- lar, gently worried about himself, delicately worried about the world. At eating time he looks sidelong as he stuffs soup into stiff lips. There are two holes where cheeks might have been. Lessons hide in his wrinkles. Bells ding in the oldness of eyes. Did he, by any chance, tell the chil- dren that there are such monstrous things as peace and goodwill . . . a corrupter of youth, no doubt . . . he is alto- gether incapable of anger, wholly timid and tintinnabu- lous. And he had always wanted so much to know——if there were wild horses in America? Yes, probably the Schoolmaster was a notorious sedi- tionist. The all-wise French government has its ways, which, like the ways of God, are wonderful. But how about Emile? Emile the Bum. Is the reader acquainted with the car- toons of Mr. F. Opper? If not, he cannot properly relish this personage. Emile the Bum was a man of thought. In chasing his legs, his trousers seat scoots intriguingly up-and-to-the-side. How often, Emile the Bum, après la soupe, have I ascended behind thee; going slowly up and up and up the miserable stairs behind thy pants' timed slackness. Emile possesses a scarf which he winds about his ample thighs, thereby connecting his otherwise elusively independent trousers with that very important individual——his stomach. His face is unshaven. He is unshorn. Like all Belgians, he has a quid in his gums night and day, which quid he buys outside in the town; for in his capacity of Somethingorother (perhaps assistant sweeper) he journeys (under proper surveillance) oc- casionally from the gates which unthoughtful men may not leave. His F. Opper soul peeps from slippery little eyes. Having entered an argument——be its subject the rights of humanity, the price of potatoes, or the wisdom of warfare——Emile the Bum sticks to his theme and his man. He is, curiously enough, above all things sincere. He is almost treacherously sincere. Having argued a man to a standstill and won from him an abject admission of complete defeat, Emile stalks rollingly away. Upon reaching a distance of perhaps five metres he suddenly makes a rush at his victim——having turned around with the velocity of lightning, in fact so quick that no one saw him do it;——his victim writhes anew under the lash of Emile the Bum's insatiate loquacity,——admits, con- fesses, begs pardon——and off Emile stalks rollingly . . . to turn again and dash back at his almost weeping opponent, thundering sputteringly with rejuvenated vigour, a vigour which annihilates everything (including reason) before it. Otherwise, considering that he is a Belgian, he is extraordinarily good-natured and minds his business rollingly ad sucks his quid happily. Not a tremendously harmful individual, one would say . . . and why did the French Government need him behind lock and key, I wonder? It was his fatal eloquence, doubtless, which be- trayed him to the clutches of La Misère. Gendarmes are sensitive in peculiar ways; they do not stand for any misleading information upon the probable destiny of the price of potatoes——since it is their duty and their privi- lege to resent all that is seditious to the Government, and since The Government includes the Minister of Agricul- ture (or something), and since the Minister of Something includes, of course, potatoes, and that means than no one is at liberty to in any way (however slightly or insinu- atingly) insult a potato. I bet Emile the Bum insulted two potatoes. We still have, however, the problem of the man in the Orange Cap. The man in the Orange Cap was, optically as well as in every other respect, delightful. Until the Zulu came (of which more later) he was a little and quietly lonely. The Zulu, however, played with him. He was always chasing the Zulu around trees in the cour; dodging, peeping, tagging him on the coat, and sometimes doing something like laughing. Before the Zulu came he was lonely because nobody would have anything to do with the little man in the Orange Cap. This was not because he had done something unpopular; on the contrary, he was perfectly well behaved. It was because he could not speak. Perhaps I should say with more accuracy that he could not articulate. This fact did not prevent the little man in the Orange Cap from being shy. When I asked him one day, what he had been arrested for, he replied GOO in the shyest manner imaginable. He was altogether delightful. Subconsciously every one was, of course, fear- ful that he himself would go nuts——every one with the exception of those who had already gone nuts, who were in the wholly pleasant situation of having no fear. The still sane were therefore inclined to snub and otherwise affront their luckier fellow-sufferers——unless, as in the case of Bathhouse John, the insane was fully protected by a number of unbeatable gentlemen of his own nationality. The little person was snubbed and affronted at every turn. He didn't care the littlest personal bit, beyond being quietly lonely so far as his big, blue, expressionless eyes were concerned, and keeping out of the way when fights were on. Which fights he sometimes caught himself en- joying, whereupon he would go sit under a very small apple-tree and ruminate thoroughly upon non-existence until he had sufficiently punished himself. I still don't see how the gouvernement français decided to need him at La Ferté, unless——ah! that's it . . . he was really a super- intelligent crook who had robbed the cabinet of the greatest cabinet-minister of the greatest cabinet-minis- ter's papers, a crime involving the remarkable and demoralizing disclosure that President Poincaré had, the night before, been discovered in an unequal hand to hand battle with a défaitistically-minded bed-bug . . . and all the apparent idiocy of the little man with the Orange Cap was a skilfully executed bluff . . . and probably he was, even when I knew him, gathering evidence of a na- ture so derogatory as to be well-nigh unpublishable even by the disgraced Défaitiste Organ itself; evidence about the innocent and faithful plantons . . . yes, now I remem- ber, I asked him in French if it wasn't a fine day (because, as always, it was raining, and he and I alone had dared the promenade together) and he looked me straight in the eyes, and said WOO, and smiled shyly. That would seem to corroborate the theory that he was a master mind, for (obviously) the letters, W, O, O, stand for Wilhelm, Ober, Olles, which again is Austrian for Down With Yale. Yes, yes. Le gouvernement français was right, as always. Somebody once told me that the little person was an Austrian, and that The Silent Man was an Austrian, and that——whisper it——they were both Austrians! And that was why they were arrested; just as So-and-so (be- ing a Turk) was naturally arrested, and So-and-so, a Pole, was inevitably and naturally and of course (en temps de guerre) arrested. And me, an American; wasn't me arrested? I said Me certainly was, and Me's friend, too. Once I did see the Orange Cap walk shyly up to The Silent Man. They looked at each other, both highly em- barrassed, both perhaps conscious that they ought to say something Austrian to each other. The Silent Man looked away. The little person's face became vacant and lonely, and he tip-toed quietly back to his apple-tree. 'So-and-so, being a Turk' moved in one night, paillasse and all——having arrived from Paris on a very late train, heavily guarded by three gendarmes——to a vacant spot temporarily which separated my bed from the next bed on my right. Of the five definite and confirmed amuse- ments which were established at La Ferté Macé——to wit, (1) spitting, (2) playing cards, (3) insulting plantons, (4) writing to the girls, and (5) fighting——I possessed a slight aptitude for the first only. By long practice, lean- ing with various more accomplished artists from a win- dow and attempting to hit either the sentinel below or a projecting window-ledge or a spot of mud which, after refined and difficult intellectual exercise, we all had suc- ceeded in agreeing upon, I had become not to be sure a master of the art of spitting but a competitor to be reck- oned with so far as accuracy was concerned. Spitting in bed was not only amusing, it was——for climatic and other reasons——a necessity. The vacant place to my right made a very agreeable not to say convenient spittoon. Not every one, in fact only two or three, had my advantage. But every one had to spit at night. As I lay in bed, having for the third time spit into my spittoon, I was roused by a vision in neatly pressed pyjamas which had arisen from the darkness directly beside me. I sat up and con- fronted a small and, as nearly as I could make out, Jewish ghost, with sensitive eyes and an expression of mild pro- test centred in his talking cheeks. The language, said I, is Arabian——but who ever heard of an Arab in pyjamas? So I humbly apologized in French, explaining that his advent was to me as unexpected as it was pleasant. Next morning we exchanged the visiting-cards which prison- ers use, that is to say he smoked one of my cigarettes and I one of his, and I learned that he was a Turk whose brother worked in Paris for a confectioner. With a very graceful and polite address he sought in his not over- copious baggage and produced, to my delight and aston- ishment, the most delicious sweetmeats which I have ever sampled. His generosity was as striking as his refinement. We were fast friends in fifteen minutes. Of an evening, subsequently, he would sit on B.'s bed or mine and tell us about how he could not imagine that he could have been arrested; tell it with a restrained wonderment which we found extraordinarily agreeable. He was not at all annoyed when we questioned him about the Arabian, Turkish and Persian languages, and when pressed he wrote a little for us with a simplicity and elegance that were truly enchanting. I have spent many contented minutes sitting alone copying certain of these rhythmic frag- ments. We hinted that he might perhaps sing, at which he merely blushed as if he were remembering (or pos- sibly dreaming of) something distant and too pleasing for utterance. He was altogether to polite not to have been needed at La Ferté. In supposing that we needed a professor of dancing the French government made, perhaps, one little mistake—— I am so bold as to say this because I recall that the extraor- dinary being in question was with us only a short while. Whither he went the Lord knows, but he left with great cheerfulness. A vain blond boy of perhaps eighteen in blue velvet corduroy pantaloons, who wore a big sash, and exclaimed to us all in confidence: 'Moi, j'suis professeur de danse.' Adding that he held at that minute 'vingt diplômes.' The Hollanders had no use for him but we rather liked him—— as you would like a somewhat absurd peacock who, for some reason, lit upon the sewer in which you were living for the eternal nonce. About him I remember nothing else; save that he talked boxing with an air of bravado and addressed every one as 'mon vieux.' When he left, clutching his baggage lightly and little pale, it was as if our dung-heap were minus a butterfly. I imagine that Monsieur Malvy was fond of collecting butterflies—–until he got collected himself. Some day I must visit him, at the Santé or whatever health resort he inhabits, and (in- troducing myself as one of those whom he sent to La Ferté Macé) question him upon the subject. I had almost forgotten The Bear——number two, not to be confused with the seeker of cigarette-ends. A big, shaggy person, a farmer, talking about 'mon petit jardin,' an anarchist, wrote practically all the time (to the gentle annoyance of The Schoolmaster) at the queer-legged table; wrote letters (which he read aloud with evident satisfaction to himself) addressing 'my confrères,' stimu- lating them to even greater efforts, telling them that the time was ripe, that the world consisted of brothers, etc. I liked The Bear. He had a sincerity which, if somewhat startlingly uncouth, was always definitely compelling. His French itself was both uncouth and startling. I hardly think he was a dangerous bear. Had I been the French government I should have let him go berrying, as a bear must and should, to his heart's content. Perhaps I liked him best for his great awkward way of presenting an idea ——he scooped it out of its environment with a hearty paw in a way which would have delighted anyone save le gouvernement français. He had, I think, VIVE LA LIBERTÉ tattooed in blue and green on his big hairy chest. A fine bear. A bear whom no twitchings at his muzzle nor any starvation or yet any beating could ever teach to dance . . . but then, I am partial to bears. Of course none of this bear's letters ever got posted——Le Directeur was not that sort of person; nor did this bear ever expect that they would go elsewhere than into the official waste-basket of La Ferté, which means that he wrote because he liked to; which again means that he was essentially an artist——for which reason I liked him more than a little. He lumbered off one day——I hope to his brier-patch, and to his children, and to his confrères, and to all things excellent and livable and highly desirable to a bruin. The Young Russian and The Barber escaped while I was enjoying my little visit at Orne. The former was an immensely tall and very strong boy of nineteen or under, who had come to our society by way of solitary confine- ment, bread and water for months, and other reminders that to err is human. etc. Unlike Harree, whom if any- thing he exceeded in strength, he was very quiet. Every one let him alone. I 'caught water' in the town with him several times and found him an excellent companion. He taught me Russian numeral up to ten, and was very kind to my struggles over 10 and 9. He picked up the cannon-ball one day and threw it so hard that the wall separating the men's cour from the cour des femmes shook, and a piece of stone fell off. At which the cannon- ball was taken away from us (to the grief of its daily wielders, Harree and Fritz) by four perspiring plantons who almost died in the performance of their highly pa- triotic duty. His friend, The Barber, had a little shelf in The Enormous Room, all tricked out with an astonishing array of bottles, atomisers, tonics, powders, scissors, razors and other deadly implements. It has always been a mystère to me that our captors permitted this array of obviously dangerous weapons when we were searched almost weekly for knives. Had I not been in the habit of using B.'s safety- razor I should probably have become better acquainted with The Barber. It was not his price, nor yet his tech- nique, but the fear of contamination which made me avoid these instruments of hygiene. Not only that I shaved to excess. On the contrary, the Surveillant often, nay bi- weekly (so soon as I began drawing certain francs from Norton Harjes) reasoned with me upon the subject of appearance; saying that I was come of a good family, that I had enjoyed (unlike my companions) an education, and that I should keep myself neat and clean and be a shining example to the filthy and ignorant——adding slyly that the 'hospital' would be an awfully nice place for me and my friend to live, and that there we could be by ourselves like gentlemen and have our meals served in the room, avoid- ing the salle à manger; moreover the food would be what we liked, delicious food, especially cooked . . . all (quoth the Surveillant with the itching palm of a Grand Central Porter awaiting his tip) for a mere trifle or so, which if I like I could pay him on the spot——whereat I scornfully smiled, being inhibited by a somewhat selfish regard for my own welfare from kicking him through the window. To The Barber's credit be it said: he never once solicited my trade, although the Surveillant's 'Soi-même' lectures (as B. and I referred to them) were the delight of our numerous friends and must, through them, have reached his alert ears. He was a good-looking quiet man of per- haps thirty, with razor-keen eyes——and that's about all I know of him except that one day The Young Russian and The Barber, instead of passing from the cour directly to the building, made use of a little door in an angle between the stone wall and the kitchen; and that to such good effect that we never saw them again. Nor were the ever- watchful guardians of our safety, the lion-hearted plan- tons, aware of what had occurred until several hours after; despite the fact that a ten-foot wall had been scaled, some lesser obstructions vanquished, and a run in the open made almost (one unpatriotically-minded might be tempted to say) before their very eyes. But then——who knows? May not the French government deliberately have allowed them to escape, after——through its incomparable spy sys- tem——learning that The Barber and his young friend were about to attempt the life of the Surveillant with an atomiser brim-full of T.N.T.? Nothing could after all be more highly probable. As a matter of fact, a couple of extra-fine razors (presented by the Soi-même-minded Surveillant to the wily coiffeur in the interests of public health) as well as a knife which belonged to the cuisine and had been lent to The Barber for the purpose of peeling potatoes——he having complained that the extraordinary safety-device with which, on alternate days, we were ordinarily furnished for that purpose, was an insult to himself and his profession——vanished into the rather thick air of Orne along with The Barber lui-même. I remember him perfectly in The Enormous Room, cutting apples de- liberately with his knife and sharing them with the Young Russian. The night of he escape——in order to keep up our morale——we were helpfully told that both refugees had been snitched e'er they got well without the limits of the town, and been remanded to a punishment consisting, among other things, in travaux forcés à perpétuité—— verbum sapientibus, he that hath ears, etc. Also a nightly inspection was instituted; consisting of our being counted thrice by a planton, who then divided the total by 3 and vanished. Soi-même reminds me of a pleasant spirit who graced our little company with a good deal of wit and elegance. He was called by B. and myself, after a somewhat exciting incident which I must not describe but rather outline, by the agreeable title of Même le Balayeur. Only a few days after my arrival the incident in question happened. It seems (I was in la cour promenading for the afternoon) that certain more virile inhabitants of The Enormous Room, among them Harree and Pom Pom bien entendu, declined se promener and kept their habit. Now this was in fulfilment of a little understanding with three or more girls——such as Celina, Lily and Renée——who, having also declined the promenade, managed in the course of the afternoon to escape from their quarters on the second floor, rush down the hall and upstairs, and gain that land- ing on which was the only and well-locked door to The Enormous Room. The next act of this little comedy (or tragedy, as it proved for the participants, who got cabinot and pain sec——male and female alike——for numerous days thereafter) might well be entitled 'Love will find a way.' Just how the door was opened, the lock picked, etc., from the inside is (of course) a considerable mystery to anyone possessing a limited acquaintance with the art of burglary. Anyway, it was accomplished, and that in several fifths of a second. Now let the curtain fall, and the reader be satisfied with the significant word 'Asbestos' which is part of all first-rate performances. The Surveillant, I fear, distrusted his balayeur. Bala- yeurs were always being changed because balayeurs were (in shameful contrast to plantons) invariably human being. For this deplorable reason they inevitably carried notes to and fro between les hommes and les femmes. Upon which ground the balayeur in this case——a well- knit, keen-eyed, agile man, with a sense of humour and sharp perception of men, women and things in particular and in general——was called before the bar of an im- promptu court, held by M. le Surveillant in The Enormous Room after the promenade. I shall not enter in detail into the nature of the charges pressed in certain cases, but confine myself to quoting the close of a peroration which would have done Demosthenes credit: 'Même le balayeur a tiré un coup!' The individual in question mildly deprecated M. le Surveillant's opinion, while the audience roared and rocked with laughter of a somewhat ferocious sort. I have rarely seen the Surveillant so pleased with himself as after producing this bon mot. Only fear of his superior, the ogre-like Directeur, kept him from letting off entirely all concerned in what after all (from the European point of view) was an essentially human proceeding. As nobody could prove anything about Même, he was not locked up in dungeon; but he lost his job of sweeper——which was quite as bad, I am sure, from his point of view——and from that day became a common inhabitant of The Enormous Room like any of the rest of us. 

The Enormous Room, by E. E. Cummings Copyright, 1934, by The Modern Library, inc. pp. 113 - 146.
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Deferred from your top choice? Don't give up! Each year, many deferred applicants are accepted to their dream university within the regular decision pool—and many more deferred applicants are ultimately denied. What leads some students to be accepted and some denied? Overwhelmingly, the determining factor is a carefully crafted letter of continued interest.
​Now is your chance to demonstrate how you would add value to their institution, to show how you embody the university’s values (known in admissions lingo as “fit”), and to prove your knowledge of the university’s unique offerings and how they align with your own interests.
In my experience VERY few applicants who do nothing but wait are accepted within the regular decision pool. Don't wait in radio silence—use my guide to send the perfect letter of continued interest. This guide has worked. Last year, my deferred students used this guide to be accepted to Duke, Princeton, UChicago, and Yale. My waitlisted students used a waitlisted version of this guide to be accepted to Penn, MIT, USC, and Amherst.
The great thing about this guide is you don't even have to be deferred or waitlisted to use it—you can follow the same processes to send a LOCI to your regular decision schools.
My guide "How to Write a Letter of Continued Interest" is 16 pages (vastly more characters than Reddit allows me to post). The complete guide includes templates for how to contact current students, alumni, and professors to glean valuable insight into the university's values—and then craft an email to admissions, utilizing what you've learned to demonstrate how you embody those values. I've included an example email to a professor, and FOUR examples of LOCI to admissions officers for you to help craft your own. When I shared this guide with my own students, one responded "Holy Shit". Hopefully you read it and say the same!
If you're interested in the complete PDF guide, it's available for purchase here. If you're interested in the condensed free version, keep reading!
"Okay, tell me already! My top choice deferred me and I'm dying to get in"
You should write a letter of continued interest which, unlike how it sounds, is not just an affirmation of your interest in attending the school. Thus, don’t write something like this:
Dear Penn Admissions Office,
I wanted to thank you for your consideration of my application for early decision. Penn remains my top choice and I would love to join the class of 2022.
Sincerely, [Name]
Especially if you applied early decision, single choice early action or restricted early action, the university knows they are your top choice. As harsh as it sounds, you just aren’t their top choice. But, they saw promise within your application. With a carefully crafted letter of continued interest, you can add new information—something new and cool you've done in the months since you applied—and demonstrate the value you would bring to their campus.
Start by talking with someone affiliated with the university—not to ask them if they can pull strings (well, unless they can… in which case, ask away) but to get to know the university better and drum up information with which to email your admissions officer.
Can’t find an alum or current student? Check LinkedIn. Find someone with interests overlapping with you and contact them. Ask your guidance counselor if any alumni from your high school currently attend. See if the university’s alumni or student directories are publicly accessible. Check Facebook to see if you have any friends in common with current students. Do your research.
Contact them. Make it short and sweet. Let’s say you know them personally. A text, Instagram DM or quick email will suffice. Let’s say you don’t know them. Be brief but informative in your email to them.
Here is an example:
Dear Sreya,
I hope 2018 is off to a terrific start for you! My name is [Name] and I am a recently deferred applicant to Yale—my top choice—and I discovered we have something in common: we both attended Peabody Senior High School. Go Knights! I’m reaching out to you today to see if I could take five minutes of your time to learn more about Yale, so that I can better refine my application in the regular decision admissions process. I hope to update Yale on my interests, accomplishments, and embodiment of Yale’s values, and a quick conversation with you would really help me achieve my goal of being accepted to Yale.
I know you are incredibly busy, and I really value your time. Thanks so much for considering my request. Have a wonderful day.
Sincerely, [Name]
Let’s say they don’t respond. Give it a few days. Still no response? Email someone else. Let’s say they email you and say sorry, I can’t help you but best of luck. Don’t see that as a dead end—politely ask them if they have any friends that might be willing to chat. You never know; they might just know a chatty tour guide who would love to tell you all about the university. Let’s say they say you bet, let’s chat. Schedule a quick phone call with them. Ask them what their favorite things are about the university; what classes have had the biggest, yet most rewarding, challenges; how they would define the university’s spirit and values; what quality, despite the diverse student body, does every student possess?
Take notes (if you can do two things at once). And utilize that information in your email to admissions.
"Okay, got it—contact a student. What’s next?"
Not so fast. You’ve got other options, and these might be even more beneficial. If you had an alumni interview, contact them.
Dear Ms. Jones,
I wanted to follow up with you regarding the status of my application to Tufts. Unfortunately, I was deferred, but that still gives me hope that I might be accepted in the regular decision pool.
I found our conversation invaluable (thanks again!) and wanted to know if you have any advice for me moving forward. Do you recall anything that previous deferred applicants did to convey their love for Tufts and be accepted during regular decision? Any advice for me in contacting my regional admissions office or updating my portal with new information?
Any and all advice you might have is welcome. I really value your time, and appreciate all that you do on behalf of Tufts as an alumna.
Sincerely, [Name]
And, lastly, consider contacting a professor. This could be someone with whom you’ve corresponded before (perhaps you sat in on their class when you visited campus) or someone you contact now, for the very first time.
To use this tip effectively, you must do the following:

• Research the department in which you wish to major. Understand the course offerings, special programs, and pedagogical approach. Click on the faculty tab, and investigate the research interests of various professors. Pick the professor who has the most in common with you and your interests. This will be the first (and hopefully only, if they respond) professor you email. Do more research on that professor, including what classes he or she teaches. Using the information you’ve gleaned, write the professor an email. See my templates below for how to compose your first email.
  
• Wait a week for a response. If the professor does not respond within one week, follow up with them gently, telling them that you know they are incredibly busy, you hope not to take up too much of their time, but you would love to learn more about their research interests, course offerings, or their ideal kind of student. Be polite and, if they still don’t respond to this email, reach out to the second professor on your list. Don’t pester professors; they are busy people and while many of them will respond to prospective students, many more are just too focused on their research to check their emails regularly.
  
• If a professor does respond, write back to them! Engage in what they have to say! Ask them about their research interests, pointing out how they align with your own. Ask them about the type of students who take their classes—what qualities do they overwhelmingly exhibit? What makes a student successful within their department? What does the professor wish every incoming freshman did to prepare for the rigor of his or her classroom? How do they like the university’s culture and pedagogical approach? Questions like this will not only sustain a conversation, but they will also give you clues into the values of the university—things you can mention within your letter of continued interest.
  
• Contact admissions. Hold tight for those templates, which are coming later in this guide.
  

Clueless on what you should write to a professor? Check out my guide for a template and an example!
How to email your admissions officer
Many universities list admissions officers by their region or territory (the part of the world in which they read applications and travel from school to school, recruiting potential new applicants). You might be able to find your regional admissions officer just by Googling the university’s name + “admissions officers by region”. If that doesn’t bring up any results, approach your high school guidance counselor to see if the regional admissions officer has visited your school in the past. If he or she has, your guidance counselor likely has the individual’s name and, if your guidance counselor is nice (and you ask politely), he or she will share that person’s email address with you, as well. Alternatively, some universities have an open-to-the-public faculty directory, in which you can enter the admissions officer’s name and find their contact information.
What to say
Eager to get started? Here’s a bare-bones template for you so you can get an idea of what you should write.
Dear Admissions Officer [last name],
[Last week I met an alum, talked to a professor, discovered some cool program or tradition at school]. I did not think it was possible, but it made me like Harvard even more!
I appreciate you considering my application to Harvard and am excited about the second chance you have given me to be considered within the regular decision pool. Harvard remains my top choice in universities for countless reasons.
[Include a few sentences about your discussion with an alum, current student, or professor. Don’t just say that you talked to someone or what you talked about—discuss why it strengthened your passion for the university and how you will engage with that professor, class, research opportunity (whatever it is you discovered in your conversation) if accepted to the university.]
I know that it has been a number of months since I applied for admission to Harvard, so I feel compelled to share with you a [project, award, anything new about you] of which I am very proud.
[Go into greater detail about that new piece of information. It can be something small or large, but it must be new and interesting. You just won an award, was named captain of whatever, you got to do something cool with your internship, your club just raised $X. You can stretch this "new" quality, too, by just saying you learned something new that reinvigorated your passion for learning. I.e.: "In psych class we just learned about [whatever]. It made me look at the topic of psychology with fresh eyes. I am now interested in minoring in psychology. I explored Harvard's psychology website and discovered [something cool] and I would love to pursue this program/minointernship/class in the future. This would also be a good opportunity to mention your great grades fall semester or a new and improved test score you wish to add to your application.]
I know you are incredibly busy, and I greatly appreciate your time. I am very excited about the possibility that I may attend Harvard in the future, and wish you the best of luck for the remainder of this academic year.
Sincerely, [Your first and last name] [Your school] [Your city and state]
"Can I get an example?"
Why yes, you can.
Subject Line: Email from prospective applicant regarding South Asian Languages department
Dear Admissions Officer Newt,
I hope this email finds you well! I appreciate you considering my application to the University of Chicago and am excited about the second chance you have given me to be considered within the regular decision pool. UChicago remains my top choice in universities for countless reasons.
As a UChicago alumnus yourself, I am sure you have experienced countless illuminating conversations with professors. Last week, I had the opportunity to do just that with Professor Sascha Ebeling, a professor within the South Asian Languages and Civilizations department. Initially, I was drawn to the University of Chicago for its Core curriculum and my ability to simultaneously major in SALC and study the humanities, social sciences, natural and physical sciences, mathematics, and more through the Core curriculum. In talking to Professor Ebeling, my love for UChicago has only grown, for I have never met a professor so eager to converse with a prospective applicant. UChicago really stands out as a university which cares about their undergraduate students.
It is my desire to become, like Professor Ebeling, a polyglot—not only learning multiple languages, but using my insight into those languages to translate ancient texts to better understand the resultant modern-day cultures. For that reason, I am drawn to SALC courses that engage with modern-day topics, such as “Inequality: Gender, Violence, Citizenship” and “Islam in Modern South Asia.” I love how UChicago melds both theory and practice, enabling me to deeply investigate ancient texts and the theoretical approaches to understanding them, while gaining research and job training experience.
Speaking of job training experience, since I applied in October, I am newly employed at my local history museum, where I am a docent. I love sharing my knowledge on various exhibits—gems, World War II posters, pottery from Mesopotamia—with museum attendees, and hope to get involved in the wonderful museums at UChicago. I would be eager to find out, for example, whether UChicago’s Oriental Institute employs undergrads. I could imagine applying my newfound skills as a museum docent to my work there!
I know you are immensely busy and thus I greatly appreciate the time you have taken to read and respond to this email. It is my greatest hope that I may one day surround myself by others who are just as intellectually curious about ancient languages and texts and their modern-day applications as I am; I know that I can find such a community at UChicago.
Sincerely, [Name] [High School] [Location]
In your email, it is important that you reference your conversation with the professocurrent student/alum, but also go beyond that to mention other things you’ve learned about the university (in this instance, this student references two classes). They also—which is key—update the admissions officer with new information that adds value to their application.
Need more help?
I have three more (awesome) examples of letters of continued interest, sent to admissions officers, utilizing real students' experiences, accomplishments, etc. These letters have worked for my past students, and similar letters can work for you, too. If you wish to purchase my comprehensive guide, check it out here.
As always, feel free to comment on this post and ask me questions! I am happy to help (for free)!
Last words
If you were deferred ED/EA/SCEA/REA, send your LOCI by the end of January. If you want to send a LOCI for your RD school, don't send your email to AOs in January (though you can get started now emailing professors/current students/alumni). Instead, send LOCI to your colleges in late February/early March.
Do not copy my templates verbatim. I have seen many kids on Reddit try to copy my verbiage and it will hurt—not help—your application to use my templates/examples word-for-word. Think about it: thousands of people see these posts, and many will hopefully use my advice. If dozens of you use my examples word-for-word, colleges will catch on, and you will be penalized. So, do yourself a favor and put things in your own words, using your own ideas, research, style of writing, etc.
Lastly, real kids get into their dream schools. The key is to create a 3D version of yourself for the AO—who you are, what you value, how you embody the university's values, and how you can add value to their campus. A great application is the first step, but a LOCI can go a long way to helping you get that proverbial fat envelope come late March/early April.
I'm here for questions! Hope this guide helps :)