Pre-med students applying at the U School of Medicine can expect to wait almost a year before they hear back from the U.
Applications for the School of Medicine’s 2004-05 school year were accepted from June to October 2003.
Most students applying did not hear back from the U until this month, the latest the U can accept students.
Student Kim Moyle compared the U’s enrollment process to putting all the applications in a hat and randomly drawing them out.
“[The U’s enrollment process] doesn’t make sense,” she said.
U student Tyler Gasser, who has a 3.71 GPA and who received a 31 on the MCAT, waited six months after his interview to hear back from the U.
“The U is not anything like typical rolling admissions,” Gasser said.
According to the American Medical College Application Service, the rolling admissions policy is where qualified applicants are interviewed and offered acceptances as soon as the school receives their application.
In Gasser’s interview, the U committee told him that they would get back to him with an acceptance or denial in 6 to 8 weeks.
Six months later, he received his denial letter.
In 2003, the state Legislature followed up on an audit conducted at the medical school regarding a more consistent process for evaluating students’ applications.
The U had a more consistent process, but concerns over the school’s rate of minority and female applicants accepted into the program remained.
In 2003, 60 percent of the female applicants were accepted, compared with 26 percent of male applicants.
About 48 percent of minority applicants were granted admission. Gasser said that race and gender have a serious contributing factor to the U’s enrollment. “The selection committee should not be replaced, but big changes should be made,” Gasser said.
Student Alex Larson, who has a 3.9 GPA and a scored a 33 on the MCAT, was denied five months after his interview.
“The overall process was comparable compared to other universities,” Larson said. “No method can be found [in the enrollment process]. It’s impossible to see any pattern or process,” he said.
Student Mike Shirley said the length of time the U took to get back to him made it very difficult to plan for next fall.