So, welcome folks. It's great to see everyone. I know I can't see your videos, but it's good to see names coming in. So welcome, we meet again another webinar for those who have already applied to medical school in 2020 for matriculation in fall 21. This time, our topic is going to be what's called the Choose Your Medical School tool. Just so you all know it's not going to be all about just the tool. Some of this is post application communication, will talk a little about wait lists, things like that, but this will be the highlight of our event tonight. And I just wanted to note that you can ask questions in the Q and A and I welcome those anytime. I may not see them immediately as I'm kind of talking through and looking at my slides, but please know that I am looking at that regularly. So you're welcome to ask any questions that I think most of you probably know me, you've probably been to other of these events. But just a quick introduction. I'm Chelsea Rule and I'm director of the Health Careers Advising Program in Cornell Career Services, the central office. I can't believe it's mid to late February. That's had been kind of a crazy year because the understatement of the year. I'm really excited to see all of you continuing on this path. Many of you have some sense of where you might go, but I think most do not yet. Even though it feels like things are just around the corner for the summer, I matriculation timelines. This is the time or a lot of stuff shifts. A lot of movement happens, kind of starting around now. So just note that a lot can happen in February through May. So that's my brief introduction. I'm going to launch into the discussion for today and I just want to make sure it's clear because I think this name of the webinar may not have been super clear. This webinar is for people who have already applied to medical school using the AMCAS  application specifically. So DO schools don't use this tool. Only MD schools do. And Texas doesn't use this tool necessarily but if you applied to AMCAS and TMDSAS, you can use this choose your medical school tool for both. Just so it's perfectly clear, this is not a webinar about choosing schools to apply to. I actually am going to do a webinar on that. It hasn't really been done before. So I apologize to you folks who are doing it this year. And we had a lot of individual discussions about app and I hadn't done workshops on doing that this year. If you're here on the call and you're thinking, I want to pick schools to apply to this is not your webinar. I apologize if that was unclear. So I will do this presentation next year for anyone who is applying in 2021 for matriculation in 2022. So just note, this isn't how to choose schools. It's how to tell med schools you've  already applied to. what your choices are. Okay, so let's go through a quick outline. I'm going to discuss what the tool is. Some need to know information. There's a few key things that if all you get out of this session is just the need to know, you're probably going to be okay, but we'll go into more depth. So we'll talk also about how to communicate directly with medical schools. Hint, It's not the chose your medical school tool. There's other things you need to do. Talk about when and how to use this tool. What schools can see and when they can see them, and how to make a decision. Because starting with some folks may have offers,, you may be getting offer that some points soon how do you make that decision? And then many of you may not have any acceptances yet. And that's perfectly, perfectly normal this time of year. So if you don't yet have an acceptance, will have at least a slide or two on other things that you can think about and do even if you can't use the tool. Yeah. So again, I have the Q and A open. Please feel free to ask questions I really want to hear from you all and see what's on your mind. Tried to address the questions that were pre-submitted. But other things may come up in your head during the talks and please feel free to chime in. Okay. Basics. What's the tool? What is choose your medical school CYMS. And this is actually a method of communicating your intention to medical schools. Post acceptance of this tool is only available to folks who've already been accepted. The idea of the tool is that it protects you, the applicants, privacy and your choice. And that may sound strange. So really brief history lesson. Several years back, medical schools could actually see where any of their accepted applicants were also accepted. That doesn't happen anymore. But each February, at this time of the year, schools used to be able to see all of your other options. And that's true for they're waitlists and acceptance, acceptances. So that's changed. And now you have this optional tool which many schools have decided to use and make mandatory as part of your communication process. So this is how you will communicate with schools about your intentions. But it's not the only way. And I'll harp on that a lot. So this is actually an enrollment management tool for admissions. Folks know what that means, but essentially, med schools need to fill their class. They need to make sure that they don't have too many people and they're entering med School class or too few. And so this helps them to manage their wait-lists. Many medical schools will create a pretty large wait-list and decide how many folks to invite off of the wait-list to matriculate. It's based on how many people were intending to come there and told them. So this is actually a fairly new processes. The third year it's been in use. So we're starting to get some data about how effective it is. It is very effective. It seems to kind of simplified the process even though it seems complicated. It's not too bad once you get the hang of it. And it's very nice for med schools again as that enrollment management tool. So really important detail, it opens tomorrow. So if you're thinking, I'm looking forward, I don't see this tool because you can't see it yet has not opened. 9:30 AM Eastern time tomorrow. You can see the tool if you've been accepted to at least one medical school, I'll show you where to find that. If you haven't yet been accepted again, hang tight. It will show up for you when you have an acceptance. Okay, the need to know. The biggest thing I can tell you right now, if you learn nothing else from this session is follow the school specific guidelines for each medical school to which you are accepted. And they do all have their own policies, their own dates, and deadlines. So it's really important that you know where to find that information. It's usually an MSAR Medical schools offer email you directly what their rules and guidance is about this. And remember that this tool, well, it gives you some options to communicate with med school. It doesn't replace direct communications. Direct communications primarily being things like email now, but sometimes through your portal. And I will go into more depth on what direct communication are and what they look like. But essentially this is a supplementary communication tool. One thing that you will need to be very, very familiar with is something called the traffic rules. So the traffic rules. And this is actually an official name says what advisors call it. Traffic rules is really the applicant acceptance protocols. And so you will find that on AAMC. Essentially there are rules of how many acceptances you can hold at different times of the year. So it's really important that you're familiar with that we'll go over some of the specifics. But the big picture takeaway is that right now, this time of year, you can holds many acceptances are that you want, you are welcome to. So you could accept the offers of any of the schools that said yes. And you can hang onto those seats. You will have to pay deposits at some schools. Most of them are refundable though. So you can hang on to those who can make decisions. That's your right at this point in the cycle, by April 15th, you need to be holding no more than three acceptances, and by April 30th, no more than one acceptance. So that means you need to narrow down your choices. I realize that most people are not excepted to more than three schools. That's actually quite rare. Certainly less than a quarter of applicants are. But if that applies to you, make sure you're very, very familiar with those dates. Those are really important. Okay, so for those of you who like something a little visual, this table is handy. There. Choose your medical school tool CYMS, tool opens tomorrow, as I mentioned, at 9:30 Eastern. And there are several different there are two different options that you can choose, but starting tomorrow, there's only one option available to you. And the action is called plan to enroll. So starting tomorrow, if you've been accepted to medical school, you can choose plan to enroll in the CYMS tool. That kinda means that you are in this point Planning to go there. But you can continue to interview. You can continue to hold offers. As I mentioned, that's your right At this point of the year, you can receive additional acceptances and you can stay on wait-lists. You click plan to enroll. Medical schools. Do not see that. It is you. They don't know your name. They just know how many people that they accepted, clicked plan to enroll. And they don't know which other school you've clicked plan to enroll for. So they would just see the aggregate plan to enroll here versus plan to enroll elsewhere. So that's true until April 29th. And again, remember those traffic rules. So in April you're supposed to be narrowing down your acceptances and you should hold no more than one by the end of April. In the Choose your medical school tool, you will have two options for choices starting April 30th. Plan to enroll is still there. You can still choose to enroll or you can choose commit to enroll, not both, and you get one. And so starting April 30th, If you click plan to enroll, its really the same as it was earlier. That's your intention for now. But it means that you still can't hold multiple acceptances, but you can remain on wait-lists. So you can say that, yeah, this point from what I have, this is my plan. And starting April 30th, medical schools do know that it's you. They can see that you clicked plan to enroll. This is a detail identifiable information. So they know that you, as an applicant chose plan to enroll at their school. Nothing or plan to enroll at another school, but they don't know which school. Again, on April 30th is now you have two options. The other option is commit to enroll. So commit you enroll means you have withdrawn from all other schools. You've made your final selection, you are planning to show up on day one. You have committed. And so this means that you were not a weightless anymore. You don't necessarily have to choose this on April 30th, depends on the school, but is open to you starting April 30th. And again, detailed identifiable information can be seen. So many schools, no. If you clicked plan to enroll or commit to enroll at their school versus another school through the end of the cycle. That was a lot. Again, use the Q and A function if you all have questions, I'm happy to clarify. Otherwise, I'll keep going. So the big message, the need to know if I think it's so critical. Before you take any action and choose anything within the planned, then choose your medical school tool. You need to review your school specific guidance. Each school sets their own policy and deadlines and expectations about the use of this tool. I'm going to share actually a couple of different examples of timelines by a couple of different med schools later in this talk. But really big takeaway here is that the primary official method of communication between you and the school is direct, is via e-mail or some sort of writing. It's not further choose your medical school tool. Remember the tool as a supplement to that direct communication. So what do I mean by direct communication? Essentially, this is the yes or no to an offer of acceptance. And again, even if you've already said Yes the first time around and you held a seat, you may later saying no. So saying No can be done on a variety of ways. Any school has a different protocol for how they want to hear from you, whether it's via email, via a portal. Many of you have seen secondary application portals for schools. But essentially you need to write to them and explain that you decided to attend another school. So again, let's say you're accepted to three or more schools and you're sharing to narrow down, once you've made a decision, it doesn't need to be until April. You could make that decision earlier. But anytime before then, write to the school, you may direct this to the admissions committee, Dean, director, whomever you've been in contact with, tell them you decided to attend another school and thank them for their time and consideration and the opportunity to interview. If you have decided that you're not going to go forward with the school, even if you haven't actually heard a decision, you can still withdraw. But the wording would be slightly different. Just again, tell them that you would like to withdraw your consideration again in writing. So however the school likes to be communicated with, adhere to those guidances. But if you would like to withdraw your application from further consideration, you couldn't do that before a decision is made as well. So saying yes. Again, I mentioned you can hold seats right now, so it's okay to say yes to everything. Note that you may have it deposit, but it's usually refundable as long as you follow the traffic rules. So this is how you would express your intention to enroll outside of the choose your medical school tool. Typically, again, it's just via email or it may be a portal or some kind of tool that the med school has come up with for direct communication. So at this point we're going to talk a little bit throughout this talk about holding a seat vs plan to enroll versus commit to enroll. But holding a seat is religious to say yes to the initial offer. But note that you can say no later. You can say I've decided to go somewhere else. Plan to enroll is what you're going to use later on in the cycle or maybe starting tomorrow. If you already have a top choice of where you've been accepted so far. Okay. So just another visual. Remember plan to enroll opens tomorrow. You can only select commit to enroll starting April 30th. Plan to enroll is still open April 30th, so you could do either one at that time. But right now, you can continue to receive offers. You can contain a whole acceptances. Stay on wait-listss, there's no limitations. But if you have a top choice, you can let them know that and they would gather that data at an aggregate form. Starting April 30th. You can do plan to enroll or commit to enroll. And the med schools know it's you. They know what you've chosen and whether their school or some other school. So hopefully that makes sense. Again, once you've committed turn-on wait-lists, you have committed to that. Schools have hopefully that language is strong enough to indicate that you are not waiting on any other offers. So new this year there's a training guide for the Choose your medical school tool. It's PDF. It's really handy if you can't remember everything that we went over today or you want to see some screenshots it s really great. So I put the URL down there and I'm also going to of course, share slides with those who attend. So you're going to get that shortly. We could go through some examples if it's helpful. I think we've got some time. There's really tiny language. I'm really tiny writings excuse me. So I'm going to squint a little bit to try to see this example, but it's a, it's a really helpful. So in this example, Alex is an AMCAS  applicant holding four acceptances on February first. So we'll call those schools A, B, C, and D. Alex is also on 3 wait-lists E, F, and G. February 19th rolls around and that's the year, that's the date in which the CYMS tool opens. Alex has a top choice school A chooses plan to enroll in that tool. And so Medical School A can see an increase of one in their, my school count. So that's what the school sees. They don't know, it's Alex. Schools B, C, and D can actually see that someone selected another school, though have account for their school and another school. So on March 15th and hypothetically, this Alec's character is accepted by school, E, they were on the wait-list and so changed plan to enroll from school A to school E. So yes, you can change your plan. A plan can change commit cannot. So Alex changed plan to enroll from school A to school E, still holding acceptances from the other schools and still remains on 2 wait-lists. So now medical school, A see that aggregate increase in their school, school A sees one decrease. Starting April 15th, Alex is adhering to the traffic rules. Like a  good applicant and follow the protocols to decrease the selection to Three acceptances. Chose A, B, an F for now, so withdrew from school C and D by directly communicate in writing to that school, and then chose to remain on the wait-list for F and G. So again, Medical School, C and D, see that decrease in their in their accounts. Just aggregate data, April 15th. On April 30th, Alex now needs to only hold one acceptance and narrowed the selection to school E. So actually wrote to school A and B and with- drew and then chose to remain on 2 wait-lists or alternate lists. And on April 30th, you can do that. You can narrow to one acceptance, but you can still be on wait-lists. They importantly checked the with the med school with med school E and made sure that their policy is not to require commit to enroll. Yet. Some schools may require commit to enroll in April 30th. It's kind of rare, but it may happen. So Alex noted, I don't need to select a commit yet and so did not yet used commit to enroll. Just using plan to enroll at this point, which is totally fine with school E. So now medical school E can see the Alex directly knows Alex's name, has selected plan to enroll for their school and schools F and G. Can those are the ones that I'm Alex still a weightless for. They can see that Alex selected plan to enroll for some other school. They don't know what that is. So then May 15th rolls around. So this is after April 30th. Of course, Alex receives an offer from one of those wait-list schools, school F. Alex accepts this and selects plan to enroll, changes plan to enroll again to school F. And notes that date that school F matriculates, which is June 29th. And at that particular school requires applicants to select, commit to enroll 21 days prior to matriculation. To puts that on the calendar, are required to select that buyer before it ends up being June 8th. So Alex also withdraws applications from school E through direct communication, but at this point can still remain on a waitlist for school. G, that's fine. So Medical School F does see that Alex selected plan to enroll for their school. And knows it's Alex and school E can see that Alex change plan to enroll from their school to another school. So there are certain actions at which they still see Alex on their list with certain actions where they don't You can read more about that there. But essentially, everyone knows it's Alex at this point in a cycle. On June eighth, remember 21 days prior to matriculation at the top school. Alex selects, commit to enroll. And essentially, this, this is a really, really important step. I'll go into more detail on this. But there is a requirement at school F for Alex to select commit to enroll by this time. Otherwise, that offer could be rescinded. So at the point where Alex's selecting Commit to enroll, he also needs to withdraw his application which is waitlisted for school G, to directly communicates what that school. So Medical School F could see that Alex selected commit to enroll And that's really important because if he did not, did not offer can be withdrawn. So that was really detailed, I hope is helpful. I see a couple of questions in the chat to someone who asked, what is the benefit of choosing plan to enroll before it is required? That's it. That's a really great, great question. it helps schools to know what your intention is. But if you were really not sure, you don't actually have to select plan to enroll before it's required. Note that the date at which it's required is going to vary from school to school. So hopefully that is helpful. Let's see another question here. I just wanted to clarify. You said we can put deposits down and hold our seats to as many schools as we can right now. But we only choose one school to put down as eour planned to enroll at a time. Great question. That is correct. You can only choose plan to enroll to one school, but as you've seen with this Alex character, you can actually continue to hold acceptances. And as long as you withdraw and the appropriate timeframes are usually refundable deposits before April 15th or 30th. This is a great question, you can only choose your plan or your commitment to one school at a time. But it can change, at least with plan. So there's another illustration here. I kind of jumped ahead. We'll see if we feel like we need it, but it's very similar. That'll be in the slides. So how, when to use it? Essentially, I think plan to enroll as indicating your top choice, knowing that you can change it. So obviously it's pretty simple if you just have one acceptance, you can choose plan to enroll. There's really no harm in doing so because no one knows it to you. You can change their mind. But if it's not required, you don't have to. It's up to you. And may schools will encourage the use of the tool because it helps them. But again, this is your call at this point, it's optional unless the school tells you you need to use it. Commit to enroll. That's a pretty big one. You need to be sure. So use it when you've made a final decision and absolutely make sure you know when and if it's required and any of the schools to which you are accepted or hold a wait-list offer, that's really important. So you do need to adhere to any school specific deadlines. Remember that this tool is not the primary method of communication, so. Open a dialogue with admissions, ask them questions. They welcome that. It's always okay to ask a polite question. That's fine. And every school does set it's own deadline for commit to enroll. So in that example, it was 21 days prior to matriculation, which is the minimum. So if a school uses commit to enroll, it's going to be at least 21 days prior to matriculation and could be double that. It depends on the school. And make sure you, you note that just by selecting, plan, or commit to enroll at school, it doesn't withdraw you automatically from other schools you still need  to write to them. And again, that primary communication of saying no, you need to tell them you've decided to attend another school. Thank them for their consideration. Withdraw your candidacy. So here's where you actually find the tool. Back to AMCAS And so login to your AMCAS starting tomorrow at 9:30. If you have an acceptance already. And you will now see this this top bar. I don't know if you can see my mouse here, folks, access to choose your medical school tool. And there's also a quick link for that tool. And again, if you don't have an acceptance yet, don't worry, lots and lots of successful applicants to med school do not get except that this early in the cycle, that's fine. Just means you won't see the tool yet. So just check back when you do have an acceptance and you should see that button. Again, I can dig in a little more to what schools can see because this I think is top question. So schools can only access information about their accepted an alternate list or waitlist applicants. They if they don't extend your waitlist offer, if they don't accept you, if they don't interview you, they don't see anything. Just say, you know. And from February 19th from the tool opens to April 29th, they see aggregate data. How many of their accepted applicants are planning to enroll at their school versus another school. But starting April 30th, that's when they see detailed reports. So they know who has selected one or the other and when and when it's changed, they actually can see the changes. It's not a bad thing if you decide to change, should just note that. So here's an example that I think is helpful. Here are two different medical schools with very different options on, on the website and on MSAR, MSAR is a great place to look for the school specific deadlines. I notice maybe very small. Again, I'll share the slides. But if you look at Weill Cornell Medical Colleges MSAR page, they indicate that the action plan to enroll is required April 30th. Commit to enroll required June 30th. and if you look at their website, the important dates, you can see a lot more detail there. Can actually see that accepted applicants need to select, either plan to enroll or commit to enroll. The Choose Your Medical School Tool. And by April 30th, you need to make some sort of selection. And by June 30th, accepted applicants must select, commit to enroll. And again, if you do not, that offer can be rescinded, so you need to be very conscious of the timeline. Another example, University of Michigan, has a different timeline. This is an MSAR snapshot from this year. So you'll see that it says you UMMS highly recommends but does not require accepted students too narrow. Their acceptance offers to three by April 15th, which is interesting. It's certainly the expectation, but they're being very careful with their legalize, I think. And they require admitted students to choose plan to enroll on AMCAS April 30th. And again, their date is a little different than Weill's It's June ninth for requiring commit to enroll. So that means let's say you were accepted to both. You need to make a choice obviously. But the date at which your selections required would be different depending on which choice you make. I hope that kinda puts it into context, helps the tool makes sense and what is required and when. Another common question, how I make these decisions. If I have multiple acceptances, how do I choose? Which is a great thing if you happen to have multiple acceptances. Again, it's very rare. So just know that the average number of acceptances for Cornellians tends to be between 1-2. So it is uncommon to have lots of choices. If you do, that's fantastic. If not, then you're still going to be a doctor if you have an acceptance that's amazing. So if you are down to deciding between two or three or more schools, I think one of the ways that you typically would have made decisions could have been going to what's called a second look visit, which would be visiting their campus again. Obviously that's not happening and you haven't even visit their campus once. But many schools are coming up with creative ways to kind of replicate the second look. And good news, that means they're free. So see if they have an alternative. A second look and think about what else you need to know to make that decision. It's different for everyone. For some people, it's financial aid decisions which often start coming in this time of year, but many times it takes until March or April to really know what your package is. It's okay to hold acceptances in May until, you know, sometimes it's about housing. How how am I going to move over there? How much will it cost to live there? So try to find out as much information as you can to help you make the decision as early as you can. And again, if you can withdraw from school earlier in the year. That's great because those offers can go to other folks. But it is your right to hang on to them at this point in the year. So of course, talk to your health careers advisor. I'm always happy to talk with folks who are weighing the decision. I'm not going to make the decision for you, but I'm more than happy to help kind of weigh some options talk about pros and cons, help you navigate the decision. and reach out to current students. Many of you may have met students on interview day that offered to be in touch. If not, ask the admissions office to connect you with current students. You may want to meet specifically with Cornell grads. Sometimes they can do that. Sometimes it's just current students at their school. And either way, utilize CUeLinks as well as CUeLinks as our networking platform at Cornell. There are lots of med students, there too, or even folks who are already in medicine. And you can talk with them about how they made their decision. Kind of tips for you on making your decision based on what interests you. And follow it from your interview day. It's always, always fine to ask questions of admissions about any of those things that you still need to know to make your decision. They welcome, those conversations. Okay. If you have not yet been accepted, again, I've mentioned many times it's normal. And this year is a really weird, I know I've said that a 1000 times, but it is so wait-lists or AKA alternate lists might be a little longer than before because you'll note that because there was no travel, you may have gone to more interviews than you would have if you had to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to show up at each place. Med schools or, or potentially even interviewing more people. Some schools are. And so there may be just more wait-listing than usual to try to make decisions about how to fill their class. I'm not sure who's interested in who would be willing to fly occur across the country because it was, it's easier opening your laptop this year. So just keep in mind that I'm hearing from a lot of schools that they're wait-lists might be a little longer. So it's not, a no, wait-list is kind of a holding pattern and it means different things at different schools. But note that most wait-list movement tends to happen actually in April and especially in May. Now we know the tool, it kinda makes sense. Why? Because that's the point at which folks need to narrow their acceptance is still one. And school start getting a little bit more detailed information on who's going to show up. And so that's when they start to make more waitlist offers. So if you are accepted off of a waitlist later in the cycle, you still need to use the tool. Yeah, you do. But of course, the expectations about timing are going to be different potentially. So if your first offer comes in May, note that even if there was an April 30th deadline, you will need to meet it. It'll usually give you a sense of, you know, you have five days or something like that. And so you probably will still need to use the tool depending on the school. And in a way it's almost for formality because if you're accepted at that point in the cycle, your decision time is much shorter and you need to communicate your intention directly to that school. But you also would need to use the Choose your medical school tool if that school requires that, you would just choose it in May. Another question I get a lot of the time of year can I still update med schools kinda get still write a letter of interest or intent. And yes, you can, of course. I say with a lot. It depends on the school.  If the School welcomes that communication. You can still continue to submit letters. Letters of intent, become more common later in the cycle are not very common at all. And the fall, that's a weird thing to do in the fall. But it starts to be normal. Slash. They'd be not common, but at least somewhat used by the occasional applicant. At this point in the year. If you've already finished your interviews, you are very, very sure you know where you want to go, but you haven't been accepted yet. Some folks will send a letter that essentially says, if you accept me, I will come here, I would matriculate. So some medical schools like to see those letters and it helps them understand again, how committed you are. Some medical schools don't really consider that. They assume that if you haven't withdrawn, you're interested in them. So it does depend on the school, but it's a very strongly worded letter and you don't want to misuse that. You can only send until one school. But if you feel very certain and there's no other information you need, doesn't matter who else would except you often they're wait-list. You want to tell a school X that they're your one and only you can send that letter. But again, use it judiciously if there's anything else you need to know before you make a final decision, you can always send a letter of interest which says I'm very interested in you, but it doesn't say like I'm showing up if you tell me Yes. So that's another way that you can communicate. And you can still send updates if you publish a paper, if you get a new job, if something happens and you want to let schools know And you haven't been rejected, you're still in the game. You can still send an update letter. You just don't want to be spamming. You don't want to send them every week, you know, use it judiciously and gerund. But it's it's great to continue to communicate. Just not too much. Okay. I got another question in the Q and A here. If you were accepted off of a waitlist before April 30th, is the acceptance subject to the same traffic rules as any other acceptance? This is a great question. So yeah, wait-list movement does sometimes happen in April. So same same deal. Absolutely. You're supposed to hold only one acceptance, So if if a happens before April 30th, great. Keep them all if you want to But by April 30th you still need to just hold one acceptance. Hopefully that answered that question. Feel free to follow up in the Q and A. If not. So I'm just gonna open it up a little bit for questions. I'm also throwing on my availability poster Just so you will know how to schedule appointments with me. I offer one on ones as well as the weekly office hours every Wednesday from two to four And I know right here, it's just a link that you can't click. But I also have the meeting ID and password here. If you want to write that down, feel free to join office hours. Anyone say or call my office when we're open, we're not currently open to schedule an appointment. And just note that I tend to open up appointments on Mondays. so call on Monday doesn't have to be first thing in the morning. I try to scatter them throughout the day, but, you know, try to call early in the week if you can. That's when the most appointments are open. So looking to the Q and A to see what else here? Thinking question here. How should I include the abstract that has not been published and update letter. Okay, so it sounds like you have a publication but it's not officially published yet. You don't actually need to include abstracts. You essentially can just write a letter to them and school admissions folks. And essentially say I had a manuscript submitted for publication or it's an accepted or whatever status it is, you could just be in preparation. That's okay. And you can explain the title. You can talk a little bit about what the paper is about is if you have, if it's been published, you can share idea why or some kind of information that's easily searchable. But you don't actually need to submit the entire article. And in fact, a lot of med school say specifically, please don't put in abstract in there but they will find it if you give them anything identifiable to find it. So if it has been published, you can share that information. If it has not been published, then you just explain what it is you're working on. Maybe give a working title something that's usually sufficient. Well done, wonderful question. So any either Christian that's been kind of quiet here today, and you're welcome to share anything that's on your mind if you don't want me to share it through the Q and A with other participants. I am happy to not be that. Let me know. And there is, you know, I talked really fast. But it again it is recorded and I'm happy to unmute anyone if anyone wants to be unmuted. Raise your hand for that. Now we have a couple people on the phone, so I'm not sure if you can do that, but if not, and also about the chat box, which I think is a good way to communicate. You are welcome to communicate with me through the chat or the Q and A, and only goes to me. So if you don't want your name on there, that's fine. Any other questions? Okay. Question. Do you have any tips for MMI interviews? Wasn't really great. I haven't used my intervieing section of my brain for a little bit and then my interviews are situational. And so if any of you have done the Kasper and a situational judgment test, something like that except it's out louder and you're talking about something instead of retyping your thoughts on it. Via Casper. So it is assessing your judgment on a very complex topic. And MMI, they're not all situational. Usually that's just a format for breaking up your interview into several sections. So you're not only interviewing with one or two people, is to try to increase the fairness of your evaluation by several people. Typically the questions or situational, but sometimes they're just tell me about yourself, in five minutes in a breakout room or something. Normally that would be an in-person rooms down a hallway. And now it's going to be a little bit differnet So I recommend that you kind of start out introducing yourself or saying hi. I know can be awkward, but then spending some time responding to whatever the question is. Just note your time, how much time you have. It's really easy to talk really fast, or to use up all the time and not have come to a conclusion about your answer. But if you had a situation that's complicated and you're trying to wade through it. Just know that there's lots of sides to any issue. Think about stakeholders. Think about every possible gray side of what's going on, and then try to come to a conclusion. If it's a situation. There may be ethical kinda situations, but that's not everything that comes up. Sometimes it's tell me about a time when you were a challenged. And I also did a workshop with my colleague, Craig Jones who does a lot of practice interviews. I think that was an August. So that has been recorded and it's on our website in the Cornell Career Services Media Library. So please feel free to check that out. If you want to go back and look at my tips, we have lost there. Okay. So got a couple of different questions. I've got one here in the Q and A. If you are accepted off of a waitlist after April 30th of what is the usual amount of time to make a decision? Fantastic question, I would say in my experience, the average tends to be around a week, five days. I think five days is the minimum that they're supposed to give you, but it can vary a little. In any case, that tends to be a shorter amount of time. So communicate with the schools. I can't emphasize that enough. If that doesn't seem reasonable for X, Y, or Z, reason then if you're not sure you can make the decision in that timeframe, try to have a really professional and polite conversation with them. But see if you can get more time. They may say no. That's, that's entirely possible. But if for example, you're reading on financial aid or something like that, that's a big thing. Often they are flexible. They just depends. But after April 30th, the timeline does condense typically. So another question that Chat choosing a med school, how much should I consider a school ranking? if neither is in the top 20? Many of you know my opinions on rankings, which is that I don't really give them the time of day rankings or just some third-party kinda groups analysis on which is the best school. But schools are good at certain things. So they might be ranked top primary care, but like not as high on research, but maybe you don't care about research. So I think choosing a school is really going to be based on fit. At this level. I understand lots of you are thinking like, well, I want to match into a competitive specialty or something like that. So the ranking sometimes indicates some level of excellence in the clinical area. Sometimes it has nothing to do with that, and it's more about research. So it just depends on who's ranking. But if you were trying to figure out and compare schools, definitely reach out to a health careers advisor, reach out to some current students at that school and some other schools and ask them more about how he mean their decision, what they think of it. And another follow-up question, same person, generally, what, which attributes would you look at when comparing two schools? So I'll just tell you all what I tend to do when I have a conversation with you is first find out like what you liked about the schools, about what your impression wasn't the interviews. And then they ask you what you want to do with your life for real. Because if you were telling me, you know, I am all about research, I know I want to do research as part of my career work. We're going to be looking at research and how these schools fair in that realm. Versus if you're saying I want to go into primary care, we might think about, you know, the the cost as well because that's a specialty. Well, it pays fantastically, doesn't pay as high as some of the other ones. So there may be scholarships for primary care that's becoming more and more common. So there are so many different factors, of course, like the patient population that you would work with. And are those the people you want to learn with? Who do you want to care for? there's just So, so many things, the curriculum is key. Some of these schools are pass/ fail. They encourage collaboration. Some are not pass/fail. You know, how, how do they do in terms of residency, residency placement in areas that you're most interested. It's interesting to see where people are matched. I could go on for ten minutes, but essentially this is an individualized conversation any pre health advisor would be happy to have with you. So reach out. Ok. Another question, in the Q and A If you're on a waitlist for a school, that school can see your plan to enroll decisions after April 30th or they only able to see this after you accepted aha great. Great, great question. So if you are waitlisted for school after April 30th, yes. They can see your name and they don't know what school it would be, but they knew if you selected plan to enroll somewhere else. They can see, you know, if your applicant, if it this is Alex again, that they can see the Alex. They waitlisted Alex. They can see the Alex selected plan to enroll somewhere, but they don't know where. It actually, med schools can see a lot of interesting data. They can sort of see their top competitors, but they don't know who chose what. They can just see like. Here are the top five other schools that people had chosen. Plant to enroll at. Kinda interesting for them. But they don't know who's who. They don't know anything about the applicant specific decision. Well, have such great questions. And I'm happy to hang around for a few minutes. I can certainly close the recording piece and I'm happy to just kinda answer any last questions that you may have in the chat. It's so wonderful to see you all want to encourage you that this process is a little bit stressful. Sometimes it can be a little chaotic. There's a lot of moving parts, but again, I'm always happy to support you and answer those questions. And you know, you've gotten to this point. And this is already a pretty showing us process. You all are very impressive. And my fingers are crossed for you all, I'm really rooting for every single one of you today and keep me updated because I really want to hear how things work out for you all. I'm going to close the recording, but I'm not leaving yet. So feel free to stick around for the next few minutes and thanks everyone.