Medical School Rejection Feedback: Email Template

Medical School Rejection Feedback: Email Template

Ask whether the school offers feedback and how to request it. Do not ask why you were rejected. Of the seven medical school reapplicant pages we checked on November 7, 2026, four describe a feedback, advising or workshop service, and only one, Central Michigan's, states written conditions for individual feedback: you must be "rejected from all other medical schools" and not yet have submitted the next AMCAS application.

That makes the timing and the wording of the email matter more than its length. Our rule: never send it while you still hold an interview or a waitlist spot at that school, and never ask the office to explain a committee vote, which CMU says it may not disclose. This page gives the policies schools publish, when to send, a constructed email, and what to bring to the meeting. The decision about whether to reapply at all is in rejected from all medical schools: what now.

Every page below was checked on November 7, 2026. The seven schools are the ones whose reapplicant pages we found and could load, not a national sample. Michigan State's College of Osteopathic Medicine reapplicant page returned a bot wall to our fetch that day and is not quoted.

Schools that publish a feedback or reapplicant advising policy

Sources: CMU application workshop, UW SMPH reapplying, Texas A&M MD FAQ, Foster re-applicant workshop, Ohio State reapplying, UTHSC reapplication, TCOM admissions.

Count from the table: CMU, Wisconsin, Texas A&M and Foster describe a service (four of seven); Ohio State, UTHSC and TCOM do not (three of seven). Advising offices push the other way. Duke's prehealth office: "We strongly recommend soliciting feedback from medical schools!" (Duke).

Our view: three of the seven pages describe no feedback service, and the ones that offer one set the terms. So the email asks a process question: does your office offer feedback or reapplicant advising, and how do I request it? The countercase: if a school's page already describes its process, as CMU's does, skip the question and follow the process exactly. Sending CMU a request without the Self-Assessment Guide fails its first condition.

For Texas schools only, the Texas rejection guide covers TMDSAS timing and a Texas version of this email.

When to ask

Send the email when three things are true.

1. That school's decision is final for you. You are rejected there, not on its waitlist, and you hold no pending interview with it.
2. The school's own window is open. CMU runs workshops in April and May and gives feedback only before you submit the next AMCAS. Texas A&M and Foster run spring workshops. If the page names a window, use it.
3. You can still use the answer. Feedback that arrives after you submit next cycle's primary is too late for that primary.

If you were rejected everywhere, those conditions point to late winter or spring, after the last decisions and before the next application opens. Send once. If the school does not reply in two weeks (CMU's own stated turnaround), one short follow-up is enough.

The email (constructed template)

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant's email. Context (invented): Akosua Aguilar applied through AMCAS, interviewed at one school and was rejected everywhere.

Subject: Request for application feedback, Akosua Aguilar, AAMC ID 00000000

Dear Office of Admissions,

My name is Akosua Aguilar, and I applied to the 2026-2027 entering class (AAMC ID 00000000). I was not admitted, and I plan to reapply.

Does your office offer application feedback or reapplicant advising to applicants who were not admitted? If so, how should I request it, and is there a form or self-assessment you would like me to complete first?

Thank you for considering my application this year.

Sincerely, Akosua Aguilar

The email is 86 words, subject line included. It identifies the file, asks two process questions and makes it easy to say no. It does not list accomplishments, argue with the decision or ask to be reconsidered.

DO school version

Change the ID line to "AACOMAS CAS ID 0000000000" and keep the rest. AACOMAS keeps the same CAS ID when you reapply from an existing account, so the ID you cite now is the one the school will see next cycle (AACOMAS reapply page).

After a post-interview rejection

Add one sentence after the first paragraph: "I interviewed on [date] and would especially value any comments on my interview." Keep it to that.

Can you appeal a rejection?

None of the school or service pages we checked describes a way to appeal an admissions decision. One school says the reverse outright: Sam Houston State's College of Osteopathic Medicine states that "Application files are not re-reviewed after a decision has been made by the committee" (SHSU-COM FAQ).

A feedback request is the channel these pages leave open. Do not send a letter of intent or a letter of interest to a school that has rejected you this cycle; it asks for a decision the school has already made.

Questions to ask, and what to bring

CMU's page lists what its office can discuss and what it cannot. It "may not be permitted to disclose information about the Admissions committee's deliberations", but can answer questions about:

"Coursework MCAT scores. Grade point average. Quality and quantity of preparatory experiences. Gap year experiences."

That list is a good agenda for any school's meeting. Ask, for each area: was this a concern in my file, and what would change your view of it? Do not ask how the committee voted or how you ranked.

Bring:

• the PDF of the application you submitted (AACOMAS and CASPA provide last cycle's PDF if you submitted to at least one program)
• your school list, with where each file stopped
• your MCAT score and GPA
• a one-page self-assessment

Constructed example: a one-page self-assessment outline

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant's document.

1. Where my files stopped: number of schools, secondaries, interviews, waitlists.
2. What I think was weak, in one sentence each: list, timing, MCAT, grades, clinical, essays, interview.
3. What I have done since submitting, with dates.
4. What I plan to change before reapplying, with dates.
5. Two questions for this school.

Ohio State's advice on what comes next: "Draft a plan with their input, and then — and this is important to avoid insulting the school that took time to counsel you — follow that plan."

Turn feedback into the reapplicant essay

Each feedback point becomes one line of a four-part map.

Constructed example: a feedback-to-essay map

Constructed example, written by us; the feedback lines are invented, not quoted from any school.

The first row is essay material. The second is a fix that does not belong in an essay at all. The reapplicant essay guide shows how to write the first kind in a short secondary, and what to change in your essays covers the personal statement.

Questions about medical school rejection feedback

Do medical schools give feedback to rejected applicants?

Some do. Of the seven reapplicant pages we checked, four describe a feedback, advising or workshop service, and three describe none.

When can I ask a medical school for feedback?

After the school's decision is final for you, and inside any window the school names. CMU, for example, requires that you be rejected from all other schools and not yet have submitted the next AMCAS.

Can I appeal a medical school rejection?

None of the pages we checked describes an appeal process, and SHSU-COM says files "are not re-reviewed" after a committee decision.

Should I mention feedback in my reapplication?

Only as what you changed. Readers want the action and the result, not a report of what the school told you.

Review the writing you send next

Feedback is only useful once it changes the next application. Get a free Quick Review of your personal statement against GradPilot's AMCAS personal statement rubric, or the AACOMAS personal statement rubric for DO schools. When a school asks what changed, the reapplicant essay rubric checks whether you name the gap, show what you did and prove the result.

More reapplicant guides:

• What carries over when you reapply: what each service keeps.
• Reapplying with new or reused letters.
• The medical school essays hub. If the feedback leads to an interview next cycle, see how to answer what changed since you last applied.

Sources

Retrieved November 7, 2026, except where noted.

• Covenant HealthCare College of Medicine at Central Michigan University, Application Workshop (no year stated): feedback conditions, two-week turnaround, discussable topics, April–May workshops.
• University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Reapplying to the MD Program (no year stated; captured November 7, 2026, and HTTP 403 to a second automated fetch the same day): advisor appointment.
• Texas A&M College of Medicine, MD FAQ (no year stated): appointments and spring workshops.
• Texas Tech Health El Paso Foster School of Medicine, Re-Application Workshop (March 27, 2026 event): date, fee, virtual option.
• Ohio State College of Medicine, Reapplying to Medical School (no year stated): contacting schools; following the plan.
• UTHSC College of Medicine, Reapplication (no year stated): contact for questions.
• UNT Health Fort Worth, TCOM Admissions and Outreach (no year stated): applicant responsibility.
• Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, FAQ (no year stated): no re-review after decision.
• Duke Prehealth Advising, Being a Reapplicant (no year stated).
• AACOMAS, Use an Existing Account to Re-Apply (updated October 21, 2026): same CAS ID; last cycle's PDF.
• CASPA, Use an Existing CASPA Account to Re-Apply (updated October 7, 2026): last cycle's PDF.
• Not retrieved: Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine reapplicant page (bot wall, November 7, 2026), George Mason University prehealth reapplicant page and AAMC pages (HTTP 403). Not quoted.