In this installment the topic is how many schools is enough?
Topics for discussion:
1) Are my state schools enough?
2) What if any good will it do to apply to top tens? (is it worth it even if you could get in?)
3) How much harder is it to get into an OOS private over your in-state public?
As always these topics are extremely subjective. That's why we're depending on a healthy community involvement to the give a complete answer. Please keep the discussion clean, and avoid insults/fighting. Thanks for your participation
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1. This depends on your home state. Some states don't even have a single med school. I think Deleware comes to mind. other states have only 1-2 med schools especially in smaller states like certain states in the Northeast and also in some very rural states like ND and SD so for states like that you'd want to probably apply to a few more unless you have spoken with adcoms and they feel you are competitive enough to get into their schools.
Another factor in deciding how many schools to apply to may also be whether you come from a school where there is a range of schools you'll be competitive for or whether your state is one that has too many overly competitive med schools that even if your stats are good there are no guarantees. (cough -California - cough). At this point you should talk with advisors and admissions directors/deans about your given situation and see what their advice is.
2. Applying to top 10 schools is something you should do only if you are competitive enough to get into those schools. But don't apply to only top 10s because there is always the chance you may or may not get in with the cutthroat nature of admissions into those sort of schools. Remember to apply broadly even if you have a 4.0, 40 MCAT and stellar ECs. Once you know your overall profile and the data in the MSAR then it will be a bit easier to decide where to apply. Even if you apply to mostly top 10- top 20 schools, I'd advise to apply at the very least to your state school(s) in case getting in a top 20 school doesn't work out.
3. Listen to TheProwler when he says not to apply to a school if you think you'd probably not go there even if you got accepted. This isn't directed to those who decide after interviewing they don't like the school but those who don't like the school preinterview and are applying just for the sake of it.
On note number 3, I'd advise people to research the schools by starting with reading their mission statements and goals (some schools focus on research, others on rural health, yet others on clinical medicine for the city they are located in, etc.) and see if it works with your own goals. Then I'd look into their curricula and location. See the type of facilities they train and try to find students who can tell your more or less their opinions and feedback on their institutions. Try to look at match lists and if they have board score averages or at least the percentage getting above average try to get that information too. Look at the big picture before you naively pick out schools. yeah some of these things you'll have to learn on your own through experience but one thing I've learned is that many people apply blindly and then end up realizing in retrospect that it was not worth it to apply to some schools they applied to. I've also seen that many people blindly look at a school for its status in the rankings but I don't think that ranking should be the sole factor in your decision of where to go to med school if you are lucky enough to get the choice to pick from multiple acceptances. Again, that's just my opinion but for some ranking is highly important so to each their own. Also, again, think in terms of your ultimate goals what schools may be better for you.
In response to the actual question 3, which I'm going to label 4:
4. Its hard to determine the answer to this question as it is very vague. In a sense, first you have to define in state public as something like a competitive school like UNC or Cali schools or in state schools like Tx. schools and Fl. schools. Then you have to define out of state private in terms of the supposed "safety" schools vs. top 10 private schools. It also depends on how competitive your profile is vs. those who you are competing with and the subjective nature of the admissions committee. there is not direct answer to this question. But chances are that if you are a competitive applicant in line with being above average for your state schools, you'll have a great chance of getting into them if they are a school that takes 98+% of their own instate residents. Some states like Pennsylvania don't have a single school that takes 98+% of their own in state residents so it changes the picture a bit. Again, no clear cut answer to this question.