Hear me out...

This is my first cycle. I applied to ~30 schools and have one A and am on a couple of waitlists. I attended the second look day for my A and it was....awful. I hated everything I saw. The students seemed miserable, and when I asked them questions about why they chose to attend, every single one of them said it was the only A they received. The area the school is in is not great and is over 1000 miles away from my support system and 2 hours driving from the nearest airport. Not to mention, we had a tour and demonstration where the faculty and med students made some comments and jokes that said A LOT about the values of the people at the school and were very opposed to my own morals and values. Everyone in my group had As elsewhere and mentioned they were going to withdraw from this school and I'm honestly so jealous. Had I known more about this school I wouldn't have applied at all, but the program is very new.

So realistically...how bad would it be if I didn't CTE and reapplied next cycle? Are there consequences? Can other schools see that I held an A I didn't take? I know I should be grateful but the comments the faculty and students made were honestly a bit distressing and I'm not sure I want to be involved with a school if that's the pervasive culture/attitude. I can handle a meh location away from support if the culture of the school is inviting but it really wasn't and it seemed like even the M1s were already so jaded and it was very disheartening. I couldn't see myself being happy or succeeding there.