How many schools applying to?

[CaNEM]

Hey, everyone. I am curious - how many schools are you applying to or did you apply to?

I am applying to 9 MD/PhD programs, but it seems that everyone else is applying to many more programs than I am.

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[Wahoo07]

I'm applying to 15 schools. I'm from Virginia and am applying to all the schools here and a bunch over the east coast. I have a 3.43 and a 33, so hopefully I'll get in somewhere.

 

[lola]

25
California resident, haven't taken the MCAT yet

 

[Kirk]

One school... (EDP)!

 

[Bubbles]

15 right now, I might take out a few to save some money though! :wink:

 

[Tweetie_bird]

25 so far. may be 30. (still have to look into those)

I think AAMC should have an upper limit on schools--let's say if you apply to more than 30, the others are free!!

 

[Pinki]

I'm at 22...but may add 3 more, plus NYU and Columbia. About 4 are dream schools, 6 are semi-dream schools and the rest are reasonable schools. U of A is my safety, but considering it's so damn cheap to go there, may become more and more "dreamy" as I progress!

 

[Doctora Foxy]

I applied for 23 schools on AMCAS, received all the secondaries, but only had the energy to send back 18 of them. You might want to apply to a few more since you'll probably end up not sending them all back too. Going back, I would have applied to even more schools b/c it increases your chances. If you're not a borderline applicant, however, it's not necessary. :wink:

 

[oldman]

i applied to 26 schools. 25 secondaries completed (one school didn't have secondaries). 10 interview offers, went to 6 of them (other 4 were offered post-acceptance to a school i liked)

 

[mpp]

Applied to 10. Received 10 secondaries. Received four interview invitations (declined two). Accepted at one school (top choice--yeah!) and waitlisted at another.

There is an old post call No. of Secondaries/Interviews/Acceptances/Rejections somewhere way back in the Pre-Allo forum. It shows this data for over 100 SDNers. Perhaps I'll go on a search for it at some point.

 

[oldman]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by mpp:
•Applied to 10. Received 10 secondaries. Received four interview invitations (declined two). Accepted at one school (top choice--yeah!) and waitlisted at another.

There is an old post call No. of Secondaries/Interviews/Acceptances/Rejections somewhere way back in the Pre-Allo forum. It shows this data for over 100 SDNers. Perhaps I'll go on a search for it at some point.•••••mayo right? i really wanted to go there, but they wouldn't even give me the phone interview. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

 

[relatively prime]

33

 

[Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]]

I am applying to 3....

 

[geneman]

On the advice of several SDN people who said to apply to many schools even with good stats (37Q MCAT, 3.9+ GPA), I was originally going to apply to 17 schools. However, my health professions advisor (who has been in his position for over 30 years) advised me to cut it down to 12 schools that I would love to go to (10 top twelve schools + two others). The advisor said, "You do not really need a safety school, so you could easily drop Einstein and Sinai."

I have a tremendous amount of respect for this person and I hate to question his experience like this, but is the advisor being overly optimistic calling Sinai a safety school?? Are 12 schools (10 of which are top twelve) enough to get at least 1 acceptance?

 

[mpp]

The difference between 12 and 17 is $50 in primary fees and perhaps at most $500 in secondary fees. I would suggest applying to 17.

Another idea is to wait it out some. For example, if you don't have at least one acceptance by say early October, add a few more schools to the primary. This will only work if you primary application is in now or very soon so that you'll get some interviews in September. Best of luck.

 

[oldman]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by geneman:
•On the advice of several SDN people who said to apply to many schools even with good stats (37Q MCAT, 3.9+ GPA), I was originally going to apply to 17 schools. However, my health professions advisor (who has been in his position for over 30 years) advised me to cut it down to 12 schools that I would love to go to (10 top twelve schools + two others). The advisor said, "You do not really need a safety school, so you could easily drop Einstein and Sinai."

I have a tremendous amount of respect for this person and I hate to question his experience like this, but is the advisor being overly optimistic calling Sinai a safety school?? Are 12 schools (10 of which are top twelve) enough to get at least 1 acceptance?•••••Applying to only top schools is a big gamble. At best they can only take so many applicants. The idea is to apply to a range of schools (you could base it on avg. entering GPA).

 

[mpp]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by oldman:
• •••quote:•••Originally posted by mpp:
•Applied to 10. Received 10 secondaries. Received four interview invitations (declined two). Accepted at one school (top choice--yeah!) and waitlisted at another.

There is an old post call No. of Secondaries/Interviews/Acceptances/Rejections somewhere way back in the Pre-Allo forum. It shows this data for over 100 SDNers. Perhaps I'll go on a search for it at some point.•
••••mayo right? i really wanted to go there, but they wouldn't even give me the phone interview. •••••Yes it was Mayo. They get a lot of applicants for the small number of spots. I think its just luck of the draw sometimes. You'll be at U of M, no?

By the way, <a href="http://forums.studentdoctor.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008425;p=18" target="_blank">here</a> is the link to last year's compiled stats for the number of secondaries and such. I believe that the majority of the people received secondaries for every school to which they applied, so that number of secondaries is real close to the number of schools on the primary AMCAS.

 

[Doctora Foxy]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by mpp:
•
There is an old post call No. of Secondaries/Interviews/Acceptances/Rejections somewhere way back in the Pre-Allo forum. It shows this data for over 100 SDNers. Perhaps I'll go on a search for it at some point.•••••I have it bookmarked :wink:

I'll bump it up, but here's the link: <a href="http://forums.studentdoctor.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008425;p=17" target="_blank">web page</a>

 

[Doctora Foxy]

you beat me to it mpp! :wink:

 

[relatively prime]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by mpp:
•The difference between 12 and 17 is $50 in primary fees and perhaps at most $500 in secondary fees. I would suggest applying to 17.
•••••Um... that's not right. AMCAS now charges $30 per school after the first one. So 5 x 30 = $150 extra for primary fees.

 

[relatively prime]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by geneman:
•On the advice of several SDN people who said to apply to many schools even with good stats (37Q MCAT, 3.9+ GPA), I was originally going to apply to 17 schools. However, my health professions advisor (who has been in his position for over 30 years) advised me to cut it down to 12 schools that I would love to go to (10 top twelve schools + two others). The advisor said, "You do not really need a safety school, so you could easily drop Einstein and Sinai."

I have a tremendous amount of respect for this person and I hate to question his experience like this, but is the advisor being overly optimistic calling Sinai a safety school?? Are 12 schools (10 of which are top twelve) enough to get at least 1 acceptance?•••••I would stick with the 17. It's going to cost you $150 more for AMCAS and ~$350 for secondaries... but I think it's worth it. Better safe than sorry.

 

[geneman]

Thanks guys. Logical advice that I cannot disagree with. I must consult with the big fella again...