How Many Programs Did/Are You Applying To?

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How many programs did you or will you apply to?

  • 1-5

    Votes: 41 21.5%

  • 6-10

    Votes: 33 17.3%

  • 11-15

    Votes: 25 13.1%

  • 16-20

    Votes: 25 13.1%

  • 21-25

    Votes: 22 11.5%

  • 26-30

    Votes: 23 12.0%

  • 31-35

    Votes: 11 5.8%

  • 36-40

    Votes: 2 1.0%

  • 41+

    Votes: 9 4.7%
  • Total voters
    191
QofQuimica

QofQuimica

Seriously, dude, I think you're overreacting....
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Here is our July Nontrad Poll. :)

If you've already gotten into professional school, how many programs did you apply to? If you're applying now or in the future, how many will you apply to? Feel free to also post what kind of programs you're applying for (MD, DO, Pharm, Vet, etc.)

I applied to 22 MD programs.
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I'm applying very narrowly, to 2 MD programs.
 
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18 MD
5 DO

Freaking out cause Im so broke have not been able to send out completed AMCAS app to more than 2 school so far. Very bummed about this. Tough year for economy.
 
Dianyla said:
I'm applying very narrowly, to 2 MD programs.
Click to expand...

Northwesterly said:
Same here, at the moment. I must be a sucker for rain.
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Yes, me too. I am broke after last year's app season (31 apps!), a little discouraged, and worried about some other personal issues. I am only applying to 1 MD and 1 DO program, both within commuting distance to my home. :xf:

Dianyla and Northwesterly, we are either very wise or very foolish. ;)

:luck: Good luck to everyone (re)applying this year!
 
FuturePittMed said:
Dianyla and Northwesterly, we are either very wise or very foolish. ;)
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Or perhaps, both. :rolleyes:

The key for me is that my in-state home local school (OHSU) is very squirrelly about who they accept, and they are also known for liking reapplicants. There's only one other school I'd give my eye-teeth to attend, so I'm applying to just these two this year. There's a high chance I'll have to reapply, at which point I'll be a reapplicant for OHSU (which should increase my chances with them) and then I'll add in 5-10 other schools.

Also, if I end up having to leave Portland, waiting another year for the housing market to recover will also help if I choose to sell my house. In the meantime, I've got a good job and don't mind biding my time. :cool:
 
Applied to 10, offered secondaries at all 10 but only completed secondaries to 4 (leaving the question why did I bother applying to the other 6?), got one interview, put on one alternate list, got accepted to one school.
 
I'm applying to 3 allopathic schools this year. One dream school, one more realistic but very appealing in it's own ways, and one on the lower end of GPA/MCAT avg matriculant data. If they all say no, I assume 6, 9, 12... would say no too. Also, I think I can make my secondaries better by only being to committed to 3.
 
26 give or take. Four of the places pre-screen and I don't know yet if I'll make it by. Last year I applied to four schools in september/oct, only had one interview and didn't even get waitlisted. I'm hedging my bets this year. Applying in June to loads of places. 11 secondaries down.
 
I am applying next cycle, but I plan to apply to 4 schools (2 DO/2 MD) due to geographic constraints. If I have to reapply then I will widen my net (my husband will be done with residency at that point). I would like to stay where I currently live for medical school but I am willing to move once my husband is done, so he can join me.

Glad I am not the only foolish (or wise) one here.
 
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I'm going to apply to every medical school in the USA when its time to apply. :luck:
 
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jasin said:
I'm going to apply to every medical school in the USA when its time to apply. :luck:
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You might consider getting considerably more experience in this whole field before offering a lot of advice to someone else. Applying to over a 100 schools is going to cost about 10K. Now, admittedly, you might get only 1 or 2 interviews, but every interview is another few hundred dollars.
 
Dianyla said:
...don't mind biding my time. :cool:
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I wish I could have this perspective. I feel like I am 10 steps behind ALL. THE. TIME. It's so frustrating. I wish I could just chill out, but it's like my body has been taken over and I've become an admissions-obsessed pod-person.

BTW, I applied to 22 this year (7 last year). Second time's the charm??? :oops:
 
My plan is to apply EDP to one school next summer. I plan to continue doing everything in my power to strengthen my app while waiting for a decision. If I'm not accepted next year, then I'll apply to 10-ish schools in the second cycle, hoping like hell that my app is strong enough for that small of an application set.

I'll be academically ready to start in 2012, but because of family/finances/geography there's only one school I could attend. The next year I'll have a lot more family and financial leeway, though my husband and I are currently in negotiations on the geographical front.
 
EdLongshanks said:
You might consider getting considerably more experience in this whole field before offering a lot of advice to someone else. Applying to over a 100 schools is going to cost about 10K. Now, admittedly, you might get only 1 or 2 interviews, but every interview is another few hundred dollars.
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That was not advise. I was only joking anyways.
 
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Just one. I all about counting my chickens.
 
Maybe this thread is dead now, but I will throw in my 1 school:

OHSU or bust.

I can't leave Portland with teenagers in high school and a husband with a job at Intel. I hate hearing about how OHSU likes reapplicants. What is the reasoning??? I am too old to have to be a reapplicant!!! Guess I should consider myself lucky to live in a city with a med. school.
 
Didn't see this poll at the time, but better late than never. I applied to 27 schools, which got me 2 admits and 4 WLs.

I know I've said this elsewhere (in a thread called [thread=752477]"Limiting number of schools to apply at..."[/thread]), but IMO, most of you guys are applying to way too few places. That really reduces your odds of getting in someplace, especially if your state school(s) are highly competitive. I myself started out with only 15 schools, but had to add a bunch when I realized my MCAT score wasn't going to cut it in the NY metro area. In hindsight, it was an excellent decision, because otherwise I wouldn't be in med school right now.

So take my advice, guys: unless you have a 4.0/40 and live in a super-IS-friendly state like TX, apply broadly.
 
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I still have a whole post-bacc and MCAT between me and applying, but with my calculations after post bacc I should be at only cGPA 3.1 / sGPA 3.8. (it would take me another 50+ units after post-bacc to get to a cGPA of 3.2) I will pretty much apply the every D.O program of which I'm eligible, and toss the dice at the california MD schools. I'd love to return to my alma mater UCSD, but their admission stats are nuts.

So, I'm planning on 25-35 schools.

Anyone think it's worth becoming fluent in spanish to apply to puerto rican schools? Just a thought
 
NonTradClimber said:
I still have a whole post-bacc and MCAT between me and applying, but with my calculations after post bacc I should be at only cGPA 3.1 / sGPA 3.8. (it would take me another 50+ units after post-bacc to get to a cGPA of 3.2) I will pretty much apply the every D.O program of which I'm eligible, and toss the dice at the california MD schools. I'd love to return to my alma mater UCSD, but their admission stats are nuts.

So, I'm planning on 25-35 schools.

Anyone think it's worth becoming fluent in spanish to apply to puerto rican schools? Just a thought
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with learning Spanish (and it would definitely be a plus on any app for a school in a Spanish-speaking community), but I don't think it would be enough to get you into PR. Those schools are mostly looking for PR natives who intend to practice there; besides, you wouldn't have enough time to get sufficiently fluent in medical terminology to handle med school classes in Spanish.

On the other hand, I don't think you should confine yourself to DO schools and CA MD schools. Your sGPA looks very solid, and if you can explain your academic turnaround in a compelling way, I think you'd have a shot at a number of other MD schools. Just make sure you get a decent MCAT score, and pitch your apps to schools take OOS and don't have super-high stats.
 
My short answer is as many as it takes.
 
I plan to apply to at least five. I'll know this time next year where I will apply for sure. :)
 
I have 30 allo schools and 5 osteo schools on my list as of now.
 
mauberley said:
Owowowowowowowowow.
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Well it's a cross between my IRL advisor and what feels like blowing smoke up my bum (and that's not her style, which is why I get along with her so well) and the reality check I'm getting from Catalystik in the WAMC thread.

I got lazy filling out my mdapps profile. And I'm going to have more wine.
 
Yeah, but still. I sincerely hope it pays off for you. Literally. :)

(I do wonder in what ways my application strategy might have been different if I sought wise Cat's advice in WAMC.)
 
I wish I hadn't let SDN scare me into applying to so many schools. I would have been fine if I had just applied in-state. However, hindsight is always 20/20 :shrug:.
 
I applied to too few programs because my pre-med adviser said that applying to over 5 places would not significantly change my chances. Fortunately, my single acceptance came from my local school - the school that I would have ended up attending if everyone (well, maybe everyone except Mayo Clinic) had accepted me.

You are in a considerably better position if you apply too many places and have to turn down interviews than you are if you get a couple of unexpected rejections in November and suddenly realize that you are in deep dodo.

Edit: A second benefit to applying many places is that you get to practice your interview skills at places that are not necessarily your top picks. My first interview was at Mayo Clinic and I did not do well.
 
I agree with Ed. If you're going to err, you should err on the side of applying to too many schools, not too few. Withdrawing a bunch of apps in October if you already have several acceptances by then is much less painful than scrambling to add more schools right before the app deadlines.

No one here should be surprised to hear that applying to a reasonable number of med schools is going to be expensive. You can easily expect to spend on the order of a couple thousand dollars to cover AMCAS and secondaries just for 15 schools, and on upward as you add more schools and factor in the costs of interviews. But unless you're applying ED or otherwise artificially restricting your apps, or you have a fee waiver, there's usually no shortcutting that. If giving yourself the best possible odds of getting accepted is your goal, this is just not one of those situations in life where it pays to be overly frugal. Reapplying next year because you didn't get in this year is pretty darn expensive too, in terms of money as well as emotional stress!
 
5 vet programs.

My IS school, my undergrad's state school, 3 great (accredited) UK schools
 
Only 4 for me!

This decision is not only because of needed support and obligations to my family, but it is also based on logic and rational reasoning. I would much rather re-apply to a few schools that I would definitely love to attend, than 20 others I never really had any intentions on attending.

But at the same time everyone's situation is different.:thumbup:
 
EDP. 1 application in-state. It worked out.

Otherwise I would have been frantically completing 10-15 secondaries (MD & DO). EDP seems like such a sure thing. I know not all schools have it... but I wonder why more people don't do it. A scared of all-your-eggs-in-one-basket thing?
 
Last year I applied to around 15 I think. For this next cycle I'm looking at 30+.
 
ruraldocmom said:
EDP. 1 application in-state. It worked out.

Otherwise I would have been frantically completing 10-15 secondaries (MD & DO). EDP seems like such a sure thing. I know not all schools have it... but I wonder why more people don't do it. A scared of all-your-eggs-in-one-basket thing?
Click to expand...

"Since most participating schools only admit a small portion of their entering class through the program, only applicants with an excellent chance of admission to a particular school should apply under this program." I suspect not all of us consider ourselves as having excellent chances. :laugh:
 
30 at min. I have a good MCAT but crap undergrad grades. decent grad. i'd like to do 40 but dunno if i can this time...funds are running out
 
Gone are the days of applying to science grad programs where they flew you out, wined/dined you, and tried their best to sell you on the program on their dime cause most chemistry programs didn't do interviews back then. I remember looking at all my post-bacc pre-med friends and going wow it must suck to have to worry about paying for *everything.*

Oh, how the tables have turned! :laugh:

I would probably have cut down my list to 20-25 had I not ended up with an unbalanced MCAT score.. twice.

I would love to go anywhere in the US. Since I have nothing holding me back location-wise, why not.
 
mauberley said:
"Since most participating schools only admit a small portion of their entering class through the program, only applicants with an excellent chance of admission to a particular school should apply under this program." I suspect not all of us consider ourselves as having excellent chances. :laugh:
Click to expand...

How flattering! But, I must have missed that memo. I've got a good story, but my stats aren't any kind of excellent. I guess that it seems to me like it is worth a try, early consideration with less competition... and if it doesn't work out, you've still got time to get the apps in everywhere else (though not quite as early, I suppose).
 
I will be applying to 42 schools. Apply as far and wide as your pocket allows you to.
 
This app cycle, I only applied to 6 because of geographic constraints and time.

For 2012, I'm all in. I'm applying to a huge mix of schools with several "reach" schools. I'm looking hard at 12 schools that I would be very competitive for, and a few schools that are at or above my LizzyM score. However, if I get into any of my top 3, I'll withdraw/cancel any potential interview invites and/or acceptances, if I should be so lucky.
 
I am thinking between 6-12 for the upcoming cycle. Probably going all DO, I'm still debating that.
 
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