So welcome everybody. Communicating with medical and dental schools, post application. My name is Ana Adinolfi and I am here today representing the Health Careers Advising Network, which is the University wide network of people who are here to help you with your health careers. And I'm so glad that I chose this picture long ago, because this is exactly what it looks like here today in Ithaca. For those of you who are not in Ithaca right now, rest assured, this is the weather  we're having.  This is what's happening here today in late October. So the plan for today, we're going to talk about where we are in the cycle. We're going to talk a little bit about traffic rules and Choose Your Medical School Tool, which are things that you're going to need later on in this cycle, but I want you to be prepared. So we're starting now. We're going to talk about communication. That's why you're here today. Where to communicate, why to communicate, what you should be putting in this communication, how to get it to schools, I'm going to talk about strategies, I have some advice to share. and then of course at the end we're going to have your questions and whatever you have on your mind about communicating with medical schools. This is the cycle overview, we are here in the interviews and updates part of the cycle. We've come a long way already, especially considering that this timeline doesn't take into account the months and months, you were preparing  your application and going through the HCEC process and doing all of those drafts of your writing. And it's still another nine months or so before you have your white coat ceremony and you're settled into your medical school. So we've come a long way. We have a little bit, we have a little bit longer to go. It's interview season right now and update season right now. And so knowing that if you would, for those of you who are attending live, I have some Poll Everywheres for you. So take a second to sign into Poll Everywhere you can see the information on how to sign in there at the top of the screen and give me we're going to make a word cloud together. Yes, I see a hand raised though go ahead. you're muted. trouble with the Poll Everywhere. put it in the chat. Okay. It was an accident. I'm sorry you're totally fine. it gives us a little bit of time to fill out our word cloud. So thank you. To take a second to sign in. We've got anxious taking the lead. What other feelings are we having today? Antsy, worried, sad, fearful. Yeah. Stressed. Impatient. Yes,  my hope is that today we can ease or oh I just saw a sad face emoji. My hope is just that we can ease some of these feelings today. We may not get rid of all of your anxiety but hopefully will give you some information that's empowering, and something to do with your time. I have another one for you. Have you received interview offers yet? This one is anonymous. I can't trace it back to you, but and nobody else can. So we have one interview offers  or three or more? Yes. Let's see who's winning out. Mm-hm, Mm-hm. Alright, so it looks like the most common number interview offers to have received at this particular moment is one interview offer. And I would say that's probably consistent with what I'm seeing in my office, although I bet that it's people who have received three or four or more interview offers might not be coming to see me this time of year. But this is helpful. Next question, have you received an offers of admission yet? The overwhelming answer is no, that's not surprising. Med schools could only start admitting people on October 15th. And so most people have not received an offer of admission yet. What about rejections? Has anyone recieved a rejection yet? It looks like having having received a rejection is outweighting not having received any rejection at this point. And that is one point  that I am here to make today. Most of you have very robust list of schools and on those lists of school, everybody's going to get at least one rejection, if not, dozens. So that was just because I think that there are there's a lot of rumors out there. It depends on who's in your social circle if you're around a lot of people who are flying around or not, what's going on. So I wanted to have us all see that information's do a little bit abnormal. So some notes about where we are is very, very early here I'm talking to you in late October extremely early in the interior invitations they extend in March and April and May. many Schools that if not all schools have interview invites left to offer. And so I swear I'm telling the truth. I wouldn't say it if it's not true interview cycle is a long and we're just at the very, very beginning of it, especially with virtual interviews, I'm finding that some fence that's been around for the interviews is very good. So they might offer you an interview and want you to come the following week or two weeks later. And so things can change very fast for many people. that I've been talking to you this semester. They come into me talking about oh gosh i havent gotten any interviews yet. And then the interview offer comes the next day or the day after that? Absolutely that is possible. Nationally, only about 20 percent of applicants are admitted to more than one school so being accepted to one school or two schools is common. It, there's very, very few people who are going to get accepted to three or more schools. It's not common to be admitted into multiple schools. And so if you're not getting one spot if you are not getting multiple interview offers or multiple admission offers that is very common and very normal, It's also very common for cornellians to gain admission off the waitlist. And that is a 2022 problem. So this is not something that there's going to be much movement on for months. So know that it were so early because the waitlist movement doesn't even happen until late spring If you have concerns about interviewing the interview process. I've already done a presentation on that a few weeks ago. I'm going to share that link with you. That's in Our  Career Services Media Library. You can view that presentation from August about interviewing medical and dental schools and certainly practice interviews are absolutely something that your walk-ins do. I do practice interviews and Craig Jones at the cornell career services does practice interviews You can catch me or Craig Jones and we can help you out with , a practice interview. I'm also happy to talk to you. Those of you who haven't had an interview or had an interview and weren't sure how it went to try and troubleshoot And how you might  do on the next interview. So you're going to for sure experience rejection if you haven't already which most of you have. So a little bit about the traffic rules. I just wanna make you aware of this. They exist there. They're important. And this is the rules and standards that govern how medical schools accept applicants in how medical schools and how applicants can interact with the process if you're attending live. I just sent you the links that are here on the PowerPoint there, that rules are different for MD and DO schools. And so I want to make sure that you're aware of that, as I said before, MD schools, couldn't accept people until October 15. And the next day date for traffic rules is the March 15th. March 15th is the date that MD schools have to have admitted as many people into their first year class as they have. So there's a 150 seats in their first year class, then they're going to have to have admitted at least 150 people So it's, it's a long road. We're at the beginning. also want to make you aware about your medical school tool. Choose your Medical School tool does not open up until February 19th. So you can't do anything with it quite yet and certainly can't do anything with that until you're holding an acceptance to a medical school, which the vast majority of you are not quite yet. This is a service that's run by AMCAS mandated by AMCAS in that whole AMCAS  system Schools will require you to use, choose your medical schools they will recommend or suggest that you use choose your medical school tool. It's one communication method that you have. It doesn't replace individual communication methods because this is kind of a big picture And choose your medical school tool is really more about the enrollment in it. It's more about helping medical schools decide which seats they give out how many seats they might have. Who's going to be in their class or not? each school is going to set their own policy and deadline and again, not to worry about it till February 19th. And there will be another webinar specifically about using the choose your medical schools will that Is going to happen in early February. What do we do? So stay tuned. But I wanted to make you aware of this process in case you start hearing about it. So onto actual communication, there are three main communication types. I'm going to speak specifically to update letters, and letters of intent because the two most common, honestly. But here's a general overview of the three communication types that people usually use when they're trying to communicate with medical and dental schools after applying. All right, so the general structure of these letters is they're all going to be one page or less. The idea behind this is we want it to be short. We want your reader to be able to gather your point quickly. And it should be in a business letter format or most of the time you're submitting this online. And so it's very possible to the business letter format that is google-able You want it to be addressed directly to each , each school, and tailored specifically for each school for this is one of those times where it's okay to say dearr admissions committee where you don't have to be super specific and that's usually very counter to the advice that I give. But I do want to make sure that you are proofreading, you are reading things closley and that you're making sure that you are specifically addressing each medical school and you're not sending out a form letter that has the wrong school name or the wrong address. You don't have to say My name is at the beginning of the letter, but certainly we want you to be signing with your first and last name as it is on your application service and your application service ID number. That way it can be very easily tied to you, particularly if you're doing it via . email. They want to be able to set look quickly and say, What does this say and who wrote this letter so they can make sure that it's appropriate. So those are general tips. Why, why send these letters?  what is the point? The main reasons to communicate with medical and dental schools after apply is to get a change in your status. So if you're on hold and you haven't been interviewed, you're on application complete and haven't heard anything from them since you received a secondary from them, sending a letter. Communication with medical or dental school might be the thing that gets you that if you are if you have been interviewed and you've sent your thanking you letter a while ago, you got put on a waitlist, you got interviewed and put on hold You're on some sort of high hold or high pass this could get you off the wait list  It gets you accepted to medical school. And this is reminding schools hey, I'm still interested in you. I still really love your school and still very interested in attending. And I also might convey information that could compel them to operate this change in status. And let's have a little bit about the different types of letters. First, update letter, are the most common thing. Communication that's being sent by applicants to schools at this particular moment. So this is after you submit your application, after you've submitted your secondary application This is to communicate substantive changes and which is often what we hear schools say what is a substantive change? might be  getting your your grades for those of you who are in school getting those grades coming out, did you receive an academic honor? Maybe your working, and you got promoted at work or you started volunteering activity. Maybe finally submitted that letter to publication or I finally got to submitted anything that is pertinent to the application that you think that the school is really going to want to see. Sometimes people combine an update letter with a letter of interest. That letter of interest I think useful, It's great. I think I'd be a great fit there If you can fit it in a page   I say go for it. My general will look like is it substantive update or not? Is, is this information readily available on my primary or secondary application? And if it is, is there has there been a change  and right and might have said Oh, this is my bridge, year job for instance. And that may be in your secondary button started an inquiry so much and you've already got an additional responsibility back Absolutely. Something you communicate to schools I'm also a fan and an update letter, putting in a sly interview requests thing, something like I'd love to discuss this further in an interview. I wouldn't demand an interview, but if you have the ability to say I would love that opportunity and welcome that opportunity. I think it's a great thing to do. So that's update letters. Letter of intent is the other kind of letter I wanted to talk about. This letter of intent is if you accept me, I will attend. This is the most powerful tool that you have in your toolbox. It's also the one that is not usually used. It's usually save for later in the application process. After you've gotten a sense of who all has offered you interviews, it's only sent to the school you interviewed with You can't come from out of nowhere with a letter of intent. You only send one at a time And so you if you accept me, I will attend because it's such a powerful statement. You can only let one school know that at a time And it's not very common to send. And for a lot of reasons. First your promising to attend to school without seeing their offer of admission. So you don't have your financial aid information that's important. You don't know if another school is going to come along with a different offer, a better offer. It's not common because a lot of people want to kind of see how the application cycle plays out and want to see what happens with all of the different schools. And because the decision, because this is not a letter that gets sent until later in the application cycle a lot of times just things kinda go your way and so you don't need to send the letter of intent. because you got the thing that you want or you go the thing that you didn't know that you wanted essentially. And some people aren't can't say if they want to attend a school a 100 percent they would want to stick around and see what other schools have to say or how the process might play out for them. So if you accept me, I will attend. It's not binding, but it's unofficially binding so you really have to rely fall back in your professional ethics. So that's 100 percent want you to be true to your word. You can't have more than one out at once. So not a lot of people send them So why would you send them? Like I said, it's the most powerful tool that you have. Once you've interviewed and you've updated then all the things and its later in and application proccess. And it helps the admissions office honestly make choices for taking people off the waitlist. So if I'm an admissions officer, and I have applicant and have one spot to give, an applicant who  submitted a letter of intent and an applicant who hasn't I might offer the spot to the applicant who has submitted a letter of intent because I know because they bounced me. I know they are going to accept that offer As opposed to the applicant who hasn't accepted or  who haven't sent  a letter of intent, they might say may I have two weeks to decide? I would say I look at my financial aid package and really look at all my options. And so its going to take a little bit longer to get that seat belt and maybe I don't want to wait for that. So that's the power in it, but I wanted to make you aware that I hear it talked about a lot, but I don't actually have a lot of seeds to end up sending it. So that's what.  how about when, when should you communicate for updates as new things happen. So maybe tomorrow you find out that publication was submitted. Great, let's send the update, to let them know. At the same time we want you to not update not too frequently. And I'm hesitant because we're a large group today to share specific advice about when to send updates. So much of this is strategic and depends on your situation and what you are trying to get done with this update where our you specifically in the application process. So for instance, I  know a lot of you may be taking classes right now. You're going to need to wait to update about your academics. When ever. You have to wait until we're done with the semester and into your grades come back, you don't know What your grades are going to be right now. So you have to sit wait and so you might send an update now because that publication is coming out and then you're not going to be able to send anything because nothing substantive Happening you're taking your classes and taking your finals you're trying to make it happen. For those of you who are on Bridge years, like maybe you started your job in June and you have a ton to say about all of the things that you learned. Maybe you started your job on October first And so you're going to have to sit and wait and see how your job starts off before you release. And that substantive update. Like I said, there's a strategy that's based on your goal. Are you trying to get interviews? Are you trying to get off the wait list? Are you trying to get into that one particular school or you're trying to get an interview at that one particular school, there's different ways to strategize and that's why it's hard for me to say this is exactly what you should do it for you because I don't know what your particular is situation is.   I will say that November is a decently popular time to submit updates because for a lot of you haven't communicated with the schools since July or August. So you send your secondary, so you might have had some things happen to you and you want to share with schools. I want to see also that. ADSAS Dental applicants and Texas applicants have some specific rules. So dental schools, there's going to be a window of December second through February second, where you're going to be able to provide an academic update That's something that you wanted to do. this giant right here. There's the Match for Texas  applicants. That's in February 18 sorry, the February 18th And so keeping that in mind, if you're participating in the match, you're going to get many emails about this, but I don't want you to disregard these emails and receive them because I don't want to miss anything that's important. Texas and dental school, please look at your own updates. Timeline. Because those are a little bit stricter. Okay. So Where do you send these communications? Sending an email to the admissions committee or using the secondary portal each schools individual portal is the most common. So those of you who have very long school lists that is a big undertaking in itself, just to make sure that each individual update is getting to each individual school, I also have on here, be aware of the school policy because some schools do not accept and some force only accept updates, either limited updates or updates only about specific things we only want to see grades or we only want to send two update in the entire application, say targeting strategy there as well. What school was asking for which thing and making sure that you're following the policy that they set out, so if the school says We don't want updates. Then do not send them updates, if the school says they only allow two then we can talk about strategically whenever we are sending those 2 updates, what makes the most sense for you. So that's something to look up. It's also if you are interviewing with the school and those that you have participated in interviews you might have an experience where they share during interviews. how we like to receive updates. If we like to receive updates, how that makes sense. So this is also a great question to ask. If you're at one of those big two hour-long info sessions. They're like, I don't know what to ask, this is a great thing to ask. Do you accept updates?  How would you prefer them? Do you have something specific that you would like to receive from your applicants? Thank you notes. Another form of communication that's on here and this is specific to you after interviews. I see. Yeah. Let's send a thank you note after interviews usually it's a thank you email. And schools should specify them by how you'd like them to send them during the interview. If they don't go ahead and ask, particularly for those of you who are participating in MMI because you have multiple interviewers. Do I email all of those people? We didn't really have a personal conversation. How does that work out? That it's a great question to ask when you're on a MMIs when in doubt, you can generally e-mail the admissions committee, but it's nice to have something specific and to know that you're doing the thing that needs it the most convenient for the school itself. For traditional interviews where you're one-on-one or two-on-one  you're having a conversation. Include your interviewers in that. Thank you. So I'm going to be sending a thank you directly to the interviewer. You can also submit it to the admissions office if that makes sense or the portal if that makes sense for that particular school. A pro tip, if you are doing interviews and have a traditional interview is after the interview, literally right afterwards. A deep breath, have a sip of water and write down something specific to that inner, something new that you learned or a connection you made with your interviewer. something that that you shared that they seemed really interested in, write that down along with the interviewer's first and last name. Because that can really help you write a thank you note that is personalized. Hey, I really enjoy talking about my involvement with the mental health community on Cornell's campus. I love that, That's a part of this school and I can't wait to see myself at your institution and something like that, right? So having  a little something personal there It's more interesting for you because you have a lot of  Thank you notes to write  And it also helps the interviewer remember if you were as an applicant and connect those those kind words that you're saying in the conversation. So with thank you notes the same rules apply with updates and letters of intent we want it to be short. You want to convey new information. This is not a three-page love letter to the school, short and simple. Here's what here's what I'm doing. I'm thanking you I'm saying something specific and I'm signing out. So that's thank you Notes. So back to the cycle again. Like I said, it looks short, but it's long. It's long psychologically this week that we're in. Right now You've been waiting a long time, but it's late October, that is very, very early in the process. And I want to say, like, it's definitely too early to give up on this cycle. Now, I've had a lot of conversations lately with people who are saying I have one interview or zero interviews Should I just give up and they apply this out please don't you put so much time and effort into this. We're still so early please stay with us in this cycle, I think that updates putting your effort and your time into updating schools and kind of organizing all of that is a great place to spend your mental energy right now. And I encourage you to do that. And that's the kind of thing like, I don't know what to do. I feel anxious about this.  that people who are feeling sad and worried. Great way to spend your time. Let's, let's, let's send an update. Let's do something with our time with anxious energy. You know, if planning for the future is comforting to you, then sure let's plan for the possibility of wanting to enhance yourself as a future medical professional and as an applicant we call parallel. It doesn't mean you give up and we quit because I want you to stay in it the whole time because if you stay in it, great things to happen. And I would say, sure if you want to get that clinical experience that maybe was lacking from your application. If you want to do a little bit more community service, sure. If you wants to add something in or plan something for the future, That's comforting to you like yes, please. Let's parallel plan. It doesn't have to be a backup plan. It could be something that when you get to medical school or dental school, you're just going to be thrilled that you took a part of it. If you want to really evaluate where am I in the process, how am I doing? What are my odds? what's going on?I'm unhappy to talk about this with you in January, I think it is so early now anything can happen. Things have been changing overnight for applicants that I work with. And so yes, I will have a conversation with you if that's what is comforting to you. But please let's at least 2022 because seriously, it's a hard wait, but it's going to pay off for most of you, right? So like let's just, let's let let's let the process play out. And do come and see me. And I will help you feel less anxious, lonely, and help you understand where you are. And hopefully it was helpful to see where some other people are at in that process. I got tips. This is my advice. I think that communicating when you do it well, using the texts that I shared here, it doesn't hurt your application and it's a good output and it won't hurt you , does it help? It's really hard to say. I've been doing this long enough that I have many miraculous stories of applicants that have sent out that  communication and then the next day they got a status change right? They were on that waitlist. and They didn't have an interview and then all of a sudden they have an interview. Absolutely that happens, which is why I'm encouraging you to communicate with schools Because it can happen to you. It happens every cycle all of the time. Does it always happen? Is that magic where we just request what we want or give an update and all of a sudden it happens. Not always right, but it doesn't hurt. So when I say go for it. Using self-care schools that are the skills that are going to serve you later, right? you are entering a time-consuming, stressful period. This part of the application process is also stressful. Please take time to  try and take care of yourself. Please do the things that help really help you relieve your anxiety. Absolutely. Seek care of yourself because we got a long time before we know exactly where you're going and most of you aren't going to have that information. until late spring. and we you also are entering in a stressful profession. and so taking care of yourself now, is going to build the skills to be this person in the future, be generous if you have an opportunity. That is, if you end up in a situation where you have interviews and you know, you're not really interested in the school and you interviewed and you  already know that this is not for me. Now that is a reason to give up a spot. And you have three acceptances to your three top choices and your 27th choice offers you admissions, say no. If you can, of course, you have to play your own game and your own thing if you are able to give up interview spots and waitlist spots and acceptances because you're a 100 percent sure that you're not going to attend that school. Please do because it's going to help all the other people who are on the call today to get interviews, spots and waitlist spots. These strategies that I'm talking about here today, again, there's so individualized. that is something that I'm happy to have a conversation with you about health care advisors in general. we love having this conversation. So use the resources that exist. Here at Cornell. We can help you figure out what the best path is for you, are you parallel planning.  What does that look like? All that good stuff. Like I said, I'm I'm here today representing career services and the Cornell health advising network HCAN and that's what we call ourselves. So that is advisors specific to health careers in all of the places that you see listed on the screen. So I see alumni, any alumni and students in any school or college. If you're an alumni of CALS arts and sciences or HUMEC, you have the resources still of your whole college or when you were here at Cornell. If you are an undergraduate in any of these places, these are people that you can seek out to have these conversations, to use these resources. So do please reach out to an advisor. It's me, but it's not just me. If you want to meet with health careers advisor. So be, I have group drop-ins. my group dropins have been really lonely so please do these, do come. Let's have a party together. I have group dropins. Both of the  dropins I'm talking about here are virtual so if you're an alumni or you're not on campus right now, you are absolutely welcome to come join us, individual dropins are on  Monday, those are 15 minute appointments. You can only sign up for those appointments on Mondays. So if you looked right now, you click the little button. I'll come on Monday. There are no times available because on Monday morning at 8:45 eastern time, those appointments spots open, have to get in there on Mondays? which are at 8:45 to 3:45 to get a spot group dropins on wednesdays are from two to four, again, underutilized. So please come see me. And that is, I'm just hanging out in a Zoom room and you can come  and ask your question. You can come and hang out for a little bit, whatever you need and then we do  have more than one person there Or if you want to bounce ideas off each other. and lastly, individual appointments with  healthcare advisors. So most of us, do online appointments  scheduled in-person virtual, all of the things  reach out you can, you can update it that way. I will say that most of us are booked out weeks and weeks and so an individual thirty minute appointment is harder to come by. So if you think you might want to meet with one of us in the future, it's a great, it's a great thing you need to plan ahead. So to say like, Oh, I think I might want to send out an update before Thanksgiving. I want Ana to look at it before I send it. You can book now for the third week of November, It that is something you wanted to do so that is that information. And that's all I got. I saw some questions cone in so I will, open up the Q&A thanks for being patient with me since I couldn't answer questions while we're chatting. I'll open up the Q and A and read some questions. I've put those in the Q&A box if you got them. All right. I was wondering if the MD PhD timeline is similar to the MD one too. It's a little bit earlier usually because you're receiving a lot more communications from the PhD side. And so we hope that you will have information about where to make your decision earlier. But the timeline, is the same in that we all have the same April 30th to let people know what our last decisions that are. a lot of those decisions are going to be held until mid-March, if the interview is in-person, do you know what the mask etiquette is? Should I assume it is mask on?  Yes. I would assume that it's mask on unless you're told otherwise. You can also look at the school's policy about masks to kind of see what it is. Mostly, most institutions are posting it online. I would always assume that it's mask on unless you're told otherwise. All right. Can you do a hybrid of letter of Intent and updates? Yes. So update letter and the letter of intent can have many of the same things that update, update letter, has in it? So like here's what I'm up to. this is the thing I just did I really love your school. The letter of intent, the only distinguishing feature of a letter of intent versus an update is that if you will accept me, I will attend language of some kind. So if you're being clear about your school is my very top choice and I will absolutely come then you've got a  letter of intent regardless of their rest of the content of the letter. And so hybrid is a wonderful idea. Do we have to address the letters with an address that's online. Yes, I know that's silly, but yes, you have to do a business letter or I suggest you do a business letter format. I want you to have a PDF of things like if you're submitting  an email for instance, I still want the PDF And so I want that to be in a business letter format. Yeah, I know it's weird and it's 2021, but yes. Should we save updates. Technically, I can either send them all to my schools now, those that haven't given me any interviews or I can send half of that now or half after an interview if I can? That is a great strategy question. I think my question back to you is, what are you trying to accomplish? If you are, if things are going to change and evolve with half of the update. It might make sense to save it. So then you have an excuse to talk to them twice, right? If things are going to remain mostly the same and you're just saving that update to you to save the update. I wouldn't do it. And it's also going to depend on how many interviews are you holding right now. How many places do you still want to interview? You know, um, how many rejections do you have? that sort of thing. So let's strategize. That's a great, great reason to meet with the health career advisor is it okay to update about receiving an award? Yeah it is Yeah. If it was fancy award. Yeah. Absolutely. How long after to send Thank you note? Yeah. So how long after interviews do you send thank you. Notes. Not right away. You got to go home and get settled, but 24 to 48 hours afterwards. And that's why I suggest that you make that note about the content of the interview so that you're ready to go. It's top of mind and it's also top of mind for your interviewers mind as well. Are there no dropin hours after work hours? No, not during the school year. Unfortunately, I'm working on that for you. If you need to meet with me after 4:30 pm, you can shoot me an email, I will make it work. is there an ideal length of time after an interview to send that letter of interests or an update letter? I love that question. So ideal the time After I  interview to send the letter, I consider that a thank you note, to be a communication with the school, then you would want to have some space between your thank you note. To the school in whatever your updated because I presume in an interview and that you've done something newer fancier cool at something that you shared in an interview if it's a traditional interview. So there shouldn't be that much new because you just saw, you just chatted with them, right? for an MMI And that's not necessarily true. I think, you know, it might include some of those additional things that you want to share, but I consider a thank you note to be up communication and I would want you to space it out by six weeks eight weeks or something like that. Since MDPhD interviews are going interview earlier than MD would it be a good idea to send an update letter as soon as possible to students you haven't heard back from, to schools you haven't heard back from. Yes. I would have done an update if they haven't rejected you and they haven't  offered you an interview for MDPhD. yeah, let's let's communicate with them. Particularly if you are an undergraduate right now, or you're taking classes right now, you're basically obligated to send an update as soon as your fall grades come out and to space, updates out, you know, you don't want to send an update in December and then two weeks later be like oh by the way here's my transcript. Right. So if you send one in November which were basically in right now. Yeah, that's when You're going to be able to do another one in January when your Grades come out and I guess for any MDPhD since it's earlier. send that update, I will give the same advice for those of you who are participating in Texas. Texas schools. Is it better to not send an update or to send a not very substantial update. Great question. I should have said this out loud. Please do not send update with nothing in it. I don't want you repeating things from your application. I don't want you to update for the sake of updating, you can send a letter of interests if you want. I find that applicants really struggled with sending a letter of interest that has new information. Particularly if this school asks why this school on a secondary, I don't want copy and paste. I don't want repeats. I want it to be something substantive. And so if you don't have anything substantive to share, then I would hold off on sending  that update and don't think it's so crucial because there's such a fine line between hey I'm still interested, I love your school and being annoying. And we want you to be want you to be on the, I love your school you're so interesting. I often ... sort of deal Let's say you have one interview, Is it crazy to send an update to all thirty of the schools you haven't heard back from? It is not crazy. I suggested if they haven't reached if they've rejected you were written. We don't need them anymore. We don't want to go there anyway. If they have not communicated with you at all at this point, you want to send updates? Yes. Send them to all thirty of the schools. The only time that I don't suggest doing this is that you went on an interview and you hated it and you're not going to go there. Or if you've interviewed somewhere, or you've been accepted somewhere and you Love it so much. You might leave the schools that you don't love that school as much as I love the school where I already got the offer of admission. But yes, and that's why I say no updates when done. Well, they don't hurt. Do they help?  we don't know. not Always, but sometimes they do. I think this is a great way to spend your time for those of you who are feeling anxious and worried and all those sorts of things. Send out all thirty of them... that's that's, that's quite an undertaking but say yes, well, yes. For non-rolling schools, if you've interviewed early like in September when would be an ideal time to send a letter of intent? So if it is a non-rolling school, so you're waiting until  whenever in March, let's say to hear back from them, then you have the ability to pace your updates out, right? So you don't need to be sending a bunch of them because they're just kind of all piling up on each other while they wait to meet the admission decision. So I would say be strategic thinking ahead about know what was going on your life we hope will be going on your life. And plan a handful of updates throughout that time. A lot of the times the non-rolling and schools are the ones who have a pretty strict like these are the kinds of updates we'll, accept or these are the amount of updates we'll accept. So do read up on that policy for the school and make sure you are being strategic about it and that you're planning ahead. What if you don't feel like you have any sensitive updates, hang on. Don't send one. If you don't have anything to say. If nothing new is happening in your life, That's fine. And just hang on and wait for the thing So I would say, you know, if it's getting to be  later in the application cycle like a late winter situation, maybe if there's nothing going on, you might send a letter of interest just like a    by the way. But I wouldn't invent substance where there is none because that's annoying for a medical school or a dental school. How much of that update letters be customized  to each school? So certainly it's going to be addressed to each school. If you are combining an update and a letter of interest, the interest is going to be  about your interests in the school. But the update itself isn't tailored to each school unless it makes absolute sense for it to be tailored to the  school and say like, I become a Crisis Text Line text operator. I just started that. But in 65 hours so far. I love this because I also like the Crisis Prevention Treatment Center at the medical school where you work and I would love to be involved. We could do something like that. If you have something like that, to say, great, but if you're just writing oh this publication that I've submitted Here's the information about it. It's fine if it's not tailored to the school but what I don't want you to do is accidentally put the name of another school in your update and that makes sense that's that's a way to get a school annoyed with you. When we meet with you, could we receive your feedback on our update letter, finishing and finishing a master's ? Yes. I am happy to meet with you to strategize when and what to update. What makes sense for you because again, it's so individual to each person . Yes. And finishing a master's thesis is a 100 percent a great update. Yes. That was the last question that I had in the Q&A box, but I will pause for 10 seconds in case somebody is typing a question right now. Alright. See. Can you confirm that the presentation and Q&A will be be recorded? Yes, we're recording. Hello, those of you who are not joining us live. So yep, this presentation will be recorded. It's going to go on the Cornell Career Services Media Library website, and everybody who registered today is going to receive that link. Should we write our AMCAS ID's at the end of a thank you note. Yes, please. put your AMCAS ID's your TMDSAS Whatever your your application service is. Yes. So it would look like yeah, you write your note sincerely sign it Ana Adinolfi MCAT #12345678 So put that under everything, just like the way you would put your name and making sure that they know. How can you decide which interviews and acceptances to turn down if you don't have financial aid info. Yeah, you're probably going to want to wait for it. a financial aid info is crucial for most people. So wait for when you get that financial aid info. you don't have to narrow down your acceptances  until the spring. so you have time to wait. It's nice to be generous if you're able to, but if financial aid, you need a wait for it to figure out where the best places to go for you then you hold onto those acceptances. is the timeline for DO school, similar to the EMI timeline? Yes. I put in the chat the, I did, right? Somebody asked what's the timeline? I put it in the second block of text you'll see in a in the traffic guidelines for osteopathic medical schools is right in there. But yeah, so the thing to Google would be ACOM traffic rules and that will get you there aren't, don't have the advantage of the chat. are there examples of the intent letters that they have for cover letters in the Cornell Career Services Guide. No, there aren't but I can help you you individually craft one but the actual contents of the, of the update letter is going to be so individualize that there aren't any like examples. Because examples, it'll be like, oh, that doesn't apply to you. So it doesn't make sense that you're writing examples that I'm happy to, to look at your copy. When should we expect financial aid info from schools after we accepted? It depends on the school they will, so usually when you receive your offer of acceptance, you're you're not going to receive a financial aid info at the same time but they're going to give you information about the financial aid process and how financial aid is awared and it just  matters to each individual schools. But usually it's within a few weeks, but can that change. Absolutely. Any other questions for me? Hey, thank you so much for joining me today. Hopefully you know where to find me if you have questions. We will certainly talk again in the spring when it comes time for the spring. The Ithaca spring for when it comes time to choose your medical school. I have another question that just came in. Is there anything you can do if you feel like you prefer performed poorly during an interview. This is a great question. It depends on how you think you performed poorly. So I've had applicants before where they feel like they fumble, that answers your question. And the person misinterpreted what they were saying or like that now that they're thinking about it, that's not what they actually meant. That thank you Note to that specific interviewer could be a time where you humbly say it's ... explain yourself you know, when we were talking about this thing, I felt like I said this and I felt they actually meant to say this. I wanted you to know that this is how I go about this subject or this is what's important to me. So could absolutely humbly include that in a thank you note for sure, for sure. I've also had applicants who the interviewer introduces a concept or something that they are unfamiliar with So it's like oh have you read this article or listened to this podcasts or whatever. And then the applicant takes the time in-between the interview and sending the thank you note to say  thank you for suggesting this article. I did go back and get, here's a sentence about article. And you feel like you just didn't click  with the interviewer, usually, that's a harder thing because you're apologizing for something specific. They didn't click with the interviewer kind of didn't click with the interviewer. Sometimes that's an indication that that's not the right school for you. And so there's not a ton that you can do unless you feel like the interviewer was behaving badly, they're behaving unethically, felt like they were biased against you. That is usually if you have a really rough interview, the interviewer was being biased or was behaving badly That's something that the admissions committee wants to know about. And I can I love to read that email before you send it. You to usually the director of admissions, the chair of the admissions committee. And that has unfortunately happened a couple times. If you think it is the interviewer thing and it's unethical or they want to stop that interviewer from doing that to other candidates. So yes, say something. It was just like I don't feel I get worked out. Usually that's just a sign that that's not for you. Other questions? Well, it's great to see you all. Do be in touch. Good luck. I hope that even here today, that watching this webinar is the thing that compels medical and dental schools that offer you that interview to take you off hold  I hope that this is a catalyst for more wonderful things for you. Good luck everybody, and we'll talk in January.