2003 Applicants -- How many places are you going to apply?

[Forensic Chick]

I've been working on my application and just finished entering all the schools I want to apply to. After I was done, I realized I was applying to 30 schools! I did the wide range thing because I'm a Cali resident with a low GPA (3.4).

How many are you guys planning to apply to?

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[pocwana]

right now, my amcas list is at 22 + NYU = 23, but everytime someone posts a thread about a school, it sounds so great that i want to apply.
argh, what to do, what to do...
oh, i'm from so-cal tambi

 

[Soda pop]

Forensic Chick
I am on the same boat as you. I am not 100% sure yet, but I think I will be applying to about 20-25 schools.

 

[Sweet Tea]

I think I'll be applying to 16 schools. I thought that was a lot, but you Cali people have many more!! Good luck-- I don't envy you.

 

[Bounty]

My goal is 25 - I have about 29 on my list now so I am cutting down. And I am also from so cal.
This is just the beginning guys...I have a feeling we will still be talking to each other one year from now!
Bounty

 

[Femtochemistry]

27 med schools in-all. Man, i am going have a fun time paying for all that!!

<img border="0" alt="[Pity]" title="" src="graemlins/pity.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Pity]" title="" src="graemlins/pity.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Pity]" title="" src="graemlins/pity.gif" />

 

[GATORade]

Ummm, 10 . You people make me nervous. Well, I am a NY resident and I fortunately have a bunch of state schools to consider. Anyhow, good luck&#8230;. :wink:

 

[VirtuoJ]

I'm a CA resident too, and I'm applying to 22 schools. That number has been oscillating up and down for many months, but i'm pretty sure it'll stay at 22.

 

[apocalypse3678]

hey guys,
props to the genious that started this post. i have the same question since i'm applying next year as well. question though, where did you guys get a list with information about every med school in the nation?...if that's what you guys did. thanks alot and i too will keep in touch regularly because i've been reading alot of the information posted on this site and it seems that applying to med school is a part time job. good luck and god speed,
me

 

[Tweetie_bird]

check out the Medical School Admissions Requirements, to get a rough analysis of the schools, then check out the website for each of those schools to make sure.
There's also a book put out by Princeton Review that I thought was very good--The Best Medical Schools..or something like that. It includes all schools, and TONS of info I thought the MSAR doesn't have (what students think about it etc). I like it much more than MSAR.

 

[Forensic Chick]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm glad to hear that I'm within a standard deviation or two from the mean

Apocalypse,
I purchased the MSAR, the Princeton book Tweety spoke about, a Peterson's book called "The Insider's Guide to Medical Schools." The last book was by far the most insightful as to what current students (well, current as of 1998) think of their medical school, the requirements, the competitiveness, etc. You can also use a search engine to find out the website for various med schools and can find out much more information through that.

I'll be so glad when this application process is over -- and to think that it is just beginning!!

-FC-

 

[Laura JC]

Apocalypse--I have that Princeton Review book, and I think it was really good. It covers all the MD and DO schools in the US and Canada. If you want it, you can e-mail me and I'll send it to you for free. It's the 2001 version, but probably the only thing that would change would be to add a couple grand to the tuition of each school.

 

[BlueJayBill]

15 + Columbia

 

[lola]

i'm a ca resident, am taking the mcat for the first time in august, and will probably apply to 23 schools. aaaahhhh!

 

[chak_de_phatee]

Hi,
I am a california resident and I am only applying to the instate schools. It is for personal reasons I am only applying in state. Good luck to all 2003 applicants.

 

[Thewonderer]

For Cali residents who are concerned about getting into med school....
Please see the following links....

<a href="http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/history/" target="_blank">http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/history/</a>

<a href="http://www.finance.mcgill.ca/acct/sa/feehea99.htm#Faculty" target="_blank">http://www.finance.mcgill.ca/acct/sa/feehea99.htm#Faculty</a> of Medicine

<a href="http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/admissions/english/external.htm" target="_blank">http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/admissions/english/external.htm</a>

<a href="http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/ugme/studentservice2.htm" target="_blank">http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/ugme/studentservice2.htm</a>

I applied a couple years ago as an out-of-province Canadian and almost went there. When I interviewed there, several American students actually planned out a weekend full of activities (from thurs get-together to Friday post-interview dinner to bar hopping to Sunday brunch. But unfortunately our trapeze experience was cancelled. not because the med students were not up to it but because the applicants had to fly out of town by then) for the out-of-province applicants since, hey, we were all new to Montreal! These American students were very happy at McGill. The city of Montreal is vibrant with culture and energy (I personally visit there many times).

Then when I got in, I actually exchanged e-mails with a few American students who did turn down Columbia and Yale to go to McGill. And they did not regret it at all! The tuition + international reputation of the school + the city of Montreal were unparalleled by ANY other med schools (hey, this is an advertisement after all, but you get the point). However, of course, not every American at McGill has stats high enough to get into top 10 schools in the US (hence it is a good school for many Americans to consider about applying! top 10 caliber school forgotten by the Americans). And if I were to choose between McGill and NYU/CaseWestern/MountSinai/etc., I would personally go to McGill even at its international tuition of around $12k US per year (living expense is dirt cheap at Montreal compared to Boston, which is another popular college city people often compare Montreal to. but according to my friend at Boston for law school who was at Mcgill for undergrad, Boston is nothing compared to Montreal).

Well, I might have gone overboard a little. But it is definitely worth your time and money to check it out. Hey, it may turn out to be opposite of what you want when you go there for interview.

 

[RLMD]

I will be applying to around 5-7 schools: Three top tens, a top thirty, and some other lower-tier schools.

 

[mluk]

I was trying to figure out the same dilemma. I'm a Texas resident so we have 7 state schools. I wonder though if more may not be best in the eyes of admissions directors. If someone applies to 20-30 schools, do you think it shows that the applicant doesn't care where they go? Just a though, what do you guys think?

 

[Warren P. Cheswick]

I will be appling to just an handful probalby around 5 or so.

 

[lady in red]

Apply to as many as you can afford. I personally wasted my money on 58 schools--i got accepted at the first school i interviewed at, and it was my state school and my first choice. However, YOU NEVER KNOW!!!!!!
Somebody mentionted NYU--do not apply there unless you have a 30 MCAT--they tell you in their application that if your score is less than 10 on any section, you should 'strengthen your application'.

 

[oldman]

i didn't go nuts like lady in red, though i was a little nuts.

i'm from MN and I applied to 26 schools. i ended up with 10 interview offers of which i went to 6 (i turned down the others because i was already accepted to a school i liked).

i cuncur that you should apply to as many as you can afford. why bother applying to a few schools and have to deal with wondering if you could have gotten into a place later? apply to all of them now. make your application cycle your only one. do everything right including applying to many schools.

 

[calbears84]

i am applying to 30 schools. you cali people, which out of state schools did you apply to and why?

 

[bond007md]

20-25 schools...WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

 

[xoomn]

You people make me a bit nervous here. I am only applying to 12 schools.

 

[isidella]

I am applying to 21, exactly, but all MD/PhD. My peers who are pure allopathic are applying to 10-15. I think that should suffice for them. Good Luck to all!

 

[skyhawkd]

Damn- I wish I was a CA or NY resident. I'm in WA and have only one school to choose from so I'm probably going to apply to 5 schools at most.

 

[pwrpfgrl]

I'm from SoCal and applying to 27 schools. Ahhh, the california lifestyle....

 

[relatively prime]

ABout 32 (29 MD and 3 DO)... yeah it's a lot... but I'm paranoid about applying to a "wide range of schools."

 

[lady bug]

About 23 schools.....wide range though.

 

[pocwana]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by skyhawkd:
•Damn- I wish I was a CA or NY resident. I'm in WA and have only one school to choose from so I'm probably going to apply to 5 schools at most.•••••There are 8 CA schools, including the 5 UC's.
The reason CA people apply to so many schools is because we're not likely to get in instate. (from a link to aamc, i think ~50% of CAers stay in CA. argh.) Most of the schools I'm applying to are public ones out of state. Don't exclude these if you don't know if you can get into your state school.

 

[Jameson]

20 M.D. schools and 2 D.O. schools, of which if I had the choice I'd prob'ly pick the M.D. route to make getting the residency I want a tad more accessible.
Jameson

 

[oldman]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by skyhawkd:
•Damn- I wish I was a CA or NY resident. I'm in WA and have only one school to choose from so I'm probably going to apply to 5 schools at most.•••••Problem with those states are the number of qualified applicants. It makes it very challenging to get in.

why are you only applying to 5 schools?

 

[Fluffy]

Seems like some of you are applying to a ton of schools. I suggest researching the schools first and knowing where you might "fit" best before dishing out all those app fees. At some point, you will have to convince each school that you are a good match for them, so do a little research into the curriculum and student life, as well as research and clinical opportunities availble, and how these will fit your objectives in your medical training and future career. Just to give you an idea about how I fared in the application this year: I applied to 14 schools, was rejected by 5 flat out, waitlisted by 3, withdrew from 2, accepted by 4, two of which gave me full tuition scholarships. I feel like I had very good reasons for applying to the ones I was accepted at, and not such good reasons for applying to the ones I got flat out rejected from. This is tough competition, so know WHY you're applying to the schools you apply to, not just because they have a good reputation based on the US News rankings. Good luck!!

 

[jot]

i'm applying to 20 all md/phd ... pretty narrow range, but it seems almost necessary to apply to that many. my plan was to apply to schools that if i got an acceptance from them i would be thrilled. maybe a bit idealistic .. but we'll see. goodluck, cheers.

-jot

 

[pocwana]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by pocwana:
• •••quote:•••Originally posted by skyhawkd:
•Damn- I wish I was a CA or NY resident. I'm in WA and have only one school to choose from so I'm probably going to apply to 5 schools at most.•••••public ones out of state. •••••oops. i meant private

 

[lola]

i really don't think there is a need to apply to more than 20 schools. in fact, i think most people could cut down their list to 15 --- especially those not from CA. i also don't think sdn is a representative sample of people applying to med school. i really don't recall people from my college applying to more than 20 schools. so, don't start to panic if you have *only* 15 schools on your list. the only reason i'm applying to so many is because i'm a ca resident and am taking the august mcat and have no idea how i'll do.