24 Schools. Too many?

[Adamb83]

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I consider myself an average applicant. My science and Cum GPA are 3.53, and 3.53 (strange coincidence...), and My mcat is a 27N, with a 10V, 10B, and 7P.

After hours of research, I narrowed my selection down to 24 schools that I definitely wouldn't mind attending. I would hate to remove any from the list, as it would decrease my chances of acceptance, and who knows what hidden gems you might find when you actually visit the school for an interview?

Is this unrealistic though? Are all these secondaries going to kill me? I'm also planning on applying for a few MD schools (<10)

Would I be wise to cut this number down to 15? Any personal experiences on the matter?

 

[PressPforPi]

I haven't applied yet, but from what I've read, there's never such a thing as applying too broadly as long as you can afford it.

 

[purex]

u probably dont need to apply to that many schools but if you can afford it and dont mind doing the work, you got nothing to lose.

Keep in mind, the cost in secondaries, cause that can get very expensive.

Also, i would say go through the list and eliminate schools with strong regional bias, and schools you would not attend.

any schools u decide to get rid of, you can just add on to the MD service so you're still applying to the same amount of schools.

 

[heroes31]

I consider myself an average applicant. My science and Cum GPA are 3.53, and 3.53 (strange coincidence...), and My mcat is a 27N, with a 10V, 10B, and 7P.

After hours of research, I narrowed my selection down to 24 schools that I definitely wouldn't mind attending. I would hate to remove any from the list, as it would decrease my chances of acceptance, and who knows what hidden gems you might find when you actually visit the school for an interview?

Is this unrealistic though? Are all these secondaries going to kill me? I'm also planning on applying for a few MD schools (<10)

Would I be wise to cut this number down to 15? Any personal experiences on the matter?

First off you seem to have solid stats and should be very competitive at most DO schools. MD not so much with that 27 (maybe just apply to your state school but 27 really is too low for MD). If the money is not an issue then apply to how ever many schools you want. Just realize on top of the primary application, all schools require an additional $50-200 (in the case of tourocom). Also you should check posts from the 2010/11 cycle to find the questions that your schools ask on the secondary. You may find some applications to be really annoying or too time consuming and decide you don't want to bother or that you wouldn't really be able to come up with an adequate response. Once you decide on your schools, however many you decide, start working on those essays now or as soon as possible because they usually ask the same questions year after year and if you get 20 secondaries coming in all at the same time it can be overwhelming. If you prepare the essays beforehand you can send all the applications out almost as soon as you receive them. Remember, submitting your secondaries early in the cycle is key to getting accepted to your dream school. If you take forever to submit your secondaries because your working on all 20 secondaries at the same time you will be defeating the purpose of trying to increase your chances of acceptance. Hope this helps!!

 

[Adamb83]

Thank you. Very solid advice in here. I did knock off a bunch of schools with a strong regional/state bias.

Looking at the secondary for each school seems like the way to go (as well as secondary cost), I'll definitely give that a shot and see if I can narrow down my school selection a little more.

I will probably only apply to my state MD school, 2 schools in the state where I graduated college, and a few in the region where I will be doing my Master's degree this year.

My 7P will likely blacklist me from MD schools, but I think it's worth throwing in a few applications.

 

[Bacchus]

I personally think its a waste of money for you. I would apply to around 10 schools. That's just me. I also applied in 2008 so the atmosphere has changed a bit since then.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

I applied to 2 MD and 3 DO in 2006, to start med school in 2007.

Same MCAT, higher GPA.

 

[Skippygonenuts]

I applied to 2 MD and 3 DO in 2006, to start med school in 2007.

Same MCAT, higher GPA.

Things have changed drastically since 2006. The average for many DO schools is now about 27 (or 26 n change if u wanna get that technical). But remember, that's just an average. Means there's numbers above and below getting accepted.

 

[FutureDoc1988]

It all depends on what you are comfortable with. Your stats are good for DO if you are applying early. I had a slightly lower GPA but higher MCAT and I applied to 15 schools and was able to get accepted to 5. If you don't feel comfortable with applying to fewer schools, then apply to all the ones you could see yourself going to but be prepared to pay a lot of money and do a lot of secondaries.

If you are going to be looking at secondary essays from previous years, also note when they first send out their secondaries so that you can do the schools who send out in June/early July first, and will have more time to fill out the ones who don't send out until August.

Good Luck

 

[Honze55]

I'd apply to as many as possible. My stats were pretty much exactly the same as yours. I got into some schools with higher matriculation averages and rejected my some schools with really low matriculation averages. Moral of the story, the application process is a total crap shoot. It really comes down to how whoever is reviewing your application feels on that day they are reviewing it. Lots of luck involved here. I'd apply to as many as you can, to prevent having to possibly go through the cycle again.

Oh, and the whole secondary thing is EXPENSIVE, but not time consuming. I literally wrote a few generic essays (why medicine, why DO, what do you have to offer, etc. etc.) one day, and changed the school name and sent the same essay to many different schools. I just used those for all my secondaries. Also, some schools don't even require you to write additional essays.

Apply all over if you can afford it. Wayyyyyyy better to blow an extra $2,000 on applications than an extra $200,000 on a years lost wages 🙂

 

[Tallion]

Apply anywhere and everywhere you think you stand a decent shot 🙂. You will never hurt your chances by applying to more places, just keep in mind what you can afford and how much time the secondaries will take. You will be writing a lot of essays. I agree with the other comments that the 7P will limit your MD options, but you should be in the mix for DO schools. It only takes one school to get accepted and it sure beats going through the cycle all over again. Good luck

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

That's about how many I'm applying to... better than not enough

 

[TallScrubs]

When picking schools to apply to, consider the following: Would you, in all honesty, want to attend that school?

I originally thought that I would go to any school that would have me and so I applied to like 14 schools--I only turned in secondaries for 5 schools because I couldn't see myself going to the others. It wasn't because they were bad schools but I didn't want to live in Tennessee or California, etc.

 

[VeeTeeHokies]

I consider myself an average applicant. My science and Cum GPA are 3.53, and 3.53 (strange coincidence...), and My mcat is a 27N, with a 10V, 10B, and 7P.

After hours of research, I narrowed my selection down to 24 schools that I definitely wouldn't mind attending. I would hate to remove any from the list, as it would decrease my chances of acceptance, and who knows what hidden gems you might find when you actually visit the school for an interview?

Is this unrealistic though? Are all these secondaries going to kill me? I'm also planning on applying for a few MD schools (<10)

Would I be wise to cut this number down to 15? Any personal experiences on the matter?

We are nearly identical applicants from a numbers standpoint (even the same MCAT section breakdown and scores). You have a great shot at getting some interviews and acceptances, as I received many of both with the same stats, including some in-state MD love. If you HONESTLY think you will attend ANY of those 24-34 schools, by all means apply to them. I will say this though: I applied to 14 schools total, and even with that many I was getting frustrated with secondaries and I didn't fill out two of them after I began receiving interview invites (although I should have because they were programs I was highly considering). I can without a doubt say that I would NEVER want to fill out that many secondaries. That is also going to be a monumentally expensive application cycle.

Another thing to touch on: I picked a couple (not many) arbitrary schools that sounded like they would be a cool place to go to school and that had good names. I did find some hidden gems in the mix, but I also found schools that I felt I wasted my time with and that I wouldn't want to attend after interviewing.