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You should be thinking of back up plans until you have an offer in hand.

My typical recommendation is not to worry about a lack of interviews until Thanksgiving.... it is unfortunate that your secondaries had typos but what's done is done. Keep moving forward. If you are going to get interviews, they are likely to arrive in the next 10 weeks. Relax and enjoy these last days of summer.
 
It's August and you're still early in the cycle. Find something to do to get your mind off med school admissions.
 
I submitted mine 46 secondaries Early - Mid July, still silence(Completed/Under Review/In process) from 45 of them. Any of the following reasons makes sense.
1. My app is still in queue to be viewed by a screener/committee
2. My app has been viewed and is in queue to be viewed by the whole adm committee
3. My app has already been reviewed and a rejection has been made, and they are releasing it later in a wave
4. My app is placed on hold so they can compare to other apps (Some schools do silent hold)
 
Laix said:
I submitted mine 46 secondaries Early - Mid July, still silence(Completed/Under Review/In process) from 45 of them. Any of the following reasons makes sense.
1. My app is still in queue to be viewed by a screener/committee
2. My app has been viewed and is in queue to be viewed by the whole adm committee
3. My app has already been reviewed and a rejection has been made, and they are releasing it later in a wave
4. My app is placed on hold so they can compare to other apps (Some schools do silent hold)
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Damn 46. If you can that I can too. I was thinking around 50 ish (40 MD, 10 or so DO)
 
FWIW, I copy-pasted wrong into a T10's secondary and reversed 2 prompts. Still got an II anyway. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst!
 
Laix said:
I submitted mine 46 secondaries Early - Mid July, still silence(Completed/Under Review/In process) from 45 of them. Any of the following reasons makes sense.
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puahate said:
Damn 46. If you can that I can too. I was thinking around 50 ish (40 MD, 10 or so DO)
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Not to derail the thread, but this is ridiculous. There needs to be a hard cap on the number of applications someone can submit or some kind of match system like TMDAS. Submitting so many apps makes it harder to sift through mountains of apps, reduces overall yield, on top of making the process more expensive/time-consuming for applicants and driving away people who can't afford to apply to so many places. I think if we limited the number of applications per applicant to 15, this entire thing would be so much lower stress, for both applicants and adcoms.
 
wontonsoup said:
Not to derail the thread, but this is ridiculous. There needs to be a hard cap on the number of applications someone can submit or some kind of match system like TMDAS. Submitting so many apps makes it harder to sift through mountains of apps, reduces overall yield, on top of making the process more expensive/time-consuming for applicants and driving away people who can't afford to apply to so many places. I think if we limited the number of applications per applicant to 15, this entire thing would be so much lower stress, for both applicants and adcoms.
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No it wouldn't because medical school acceptance rates are dumb low. I am all for a match style medical school system, but if not I would like to apply to as many schools as possible. Blame schools for such low acceptance rates. It just makes sense to do this
 
puahate said:
No it wouldn't because medical school acceptance rates are dumb low. I am all for a match style medical school system, but if not I would like to apply to as many schools as possible. Blame schools for such low acceptance rates. It just makes sense to do this
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Don't blame schools when there is a surplus of qualified candidates, and an even larger surplus of unqualified ones.
 
Goro said:
Don't blame schools when there is a surplus of qualified candidates, and an even larger surplus of unqualified ones.
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Either way I will be applying to 40 schools. Unless you are a superstar 15 schools is iffy now.
 
@puahate
RIP ZYZZ. I plan on wearing a stringer to all my interviews in his honor

Btw my comment above was a joke
 
Goro said:
40 schools is overkill, if not actually stupid, superstar or no.
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I feel like if you prewrite it can be manageable. Treat it like a job and it can get done, after all this is my career so I will do what I need to do. I know someone that did 50 schools and currently in medical school.
 
I'm with @Goro on this one. I dont think anyone should apply to more than 25-30 max. If you need more than that to get 3-4 IIs (i.e. enough to be confident you can convert one into an acceptance) then you probably were not ready to apply or had a poor app strategy. Yes, I understand there are people who apply to 60, get one II and one A.

also thanks for making me remember zyzz lol
 
Lucca said:
I'm with @Goro on this one. I dont think anyone should apply to more than 25-30 max. If you need more than that to get 3-4 IIs (i.e. enough to be confident you can convert one into an acceptance) then you probably were not ready to apply or had a poor app strategy. Yes, I understand there are people who apply to 60, get one II and one A.

also thanks for making me remember zyzz lol
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you are welcome. More proof I am med school material
 
puahate said:
No it wouldn't because medical school acceptance rates are dumb low. I am all for a match style medical school system, but if not I would like to apply to as many schools as possible. Blame schools for such low acceptance rates. It just makes sense to do this
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A big reason that acceptance rates are so low is because they get so many applications. If you cut the number of schools people apply to, there will be a corresponding increase in acceptance rates. I agree that currently many applicants need to apply to 25+ schools to be competitive, but this is only because everyone else is also applying to so many.
 
wontonsoup said:
A big reason that acceptance rates are so low is because they get so many applications. If you cut the number of schools people apply to, there will be a corresponding increase in acceptance rates.
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I doubt to be perfectly honest, UNLESS we go to a match system.
 
If someone has the finances and time, I see no problem in applying to all the medical schools in the country.
 
Pharaoh95 said:
If someone has the finances and time, I see no problem in applying to all the medical schools in the country.
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Anyone who does so is an idiot. Many state schools have in-state preferences or mission-driven admission preferences such that no one is competitive at every school in the country. Being able to tighten the list to those schools where you have the best shot of being a good fit takes effort and self-reflection. Anyone who does not have the time and the inclination to be self-relective shouldn't be applying yet.
 
gonnif said:
That is a asinine statement . 65% of matriculants completed 16 secondaries or less. 20% did 4 or less


View attachment 239141
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and guess what...Most applicants aren't accepted into medical school. What does this prove? 65% complete 16 secondaries do they all get into medical school? No.
 
gonnif said:
But it shows that filling out more doesnt increase your freaking chances. There is no correlation between the number of secondaries completed and matriculation
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I'll make my gamble. TBH with something like this i much rather overshoot. For college I applied to only one school and have no debt. I have the funds and money to do it. I am all in.
 
gonnif said:
But it shows that filling out more doesnt increase your freaking chances. There is no correlation between the number of secondaries completed and matriculation
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Do you think the state someone is applying from makes a difference? I'm from CA, not from the areas preferred by Davis and Riverside, and I'm applying to more schools because I doubt I'll get any help from in-state preference.
 
gonnif said:
And this is what I see happen all the time. People add 30-40 schools at the start , submit their application, and suddenly have 30 secondaries sitting in their mail. This is the kind of thing that need to have your MCAT score no later than January, then targeting schools, reading in depth their websites, and prewriting secondaries long before you even start AMCAS. Every year I get people who apply to 30+ and just burn out by 25 secondaries. So you have a nearly full time job in applying from January thru August if not September
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And I will be doing that from from Oct this year up when I send in my last secondary. I have the time and want to do it.
 
I mean I did this - I applied to 46 schools and filled out each and every secondary, and was careful with each one. Spent significant time pre-writing and checking over everything. I would rather cover my bases then spend another year applying. I was complete by late July and I have 2 current interviews so it doesn't seem like I sacrificed quality. If you can do it well and have the $$, I think the peace of mind of knowing you did everything you could is awesome in a time of such uncertainty. I personally know if I only applied to 20 I would keep thinking if I should have applied to more.
 
gonnif said:
What you did, applying to many schools with proper planning, pre writing, etc makes sense. Most applicants woefully underestimate the time and work it takes to do 10-15-20 and start wildly adding schools in frantic, panic-induced manner
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Completely agree! Quantity doesn't mean anything if I had sacrificed quality. And it did take an absurd amount of time.
 
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