50,000 Rejects...

[Orangepeels]

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Greetings Y'all.

I've dropped in and perused the boards here from time to time but have finally bit the bullet and joined the ranks. I'm a post-bacc student currently fufilling pre-osteopathic reqs. and hoping to apply to school in about a year from now.

I'm thrilled and excited while finding myself caught with sudden anxiety and panic attacks from time to time...... typical stuff, I know.

Browsing the forums and reading a lot of threads I find myself really quite impressed with the calibur of people who hang out here. It seems like the vast majority are bringing to the table mostly solild GPAs and MCAT scores, dedicated volunteer and clinical histories and empassioned stories about why they want to go into medicine.

Sooo what really stumps me (and sort of worries me too) is that I was reading the CIB (from the AACOM website) on application and enrollment stats and the numbers just don't make sense to me.

Take a look....(these numbers are for all osteopath med. schools in the US)

2006-07
39,104 applications - 4,034 1st yr. enrollment - 10.3% acceptance rate

2007-08
67,132 applied - 4,528 1st yr. enrollment - 6.7% acceptance rate

Now these are averages for the combined schools and individual app. rates and acceptances vary up or down depending what individual school you look at but my point is, are there really like aprox. 50,000 people who are that unqualified that they just get shot down in the 1st round? How can so many applicants be dismissed so quickly?

I find it hard to believe! Medicine draws some seriously dedicated and diehard folks. It's not a casual endeavor. People realize this! I honestly don't think there are that many slackers getting their applications ready.

I don't really know where I'm going with this. The numbers are just frightening in a way. I know with the people I've seen on here and other pre-meds I know, no one at allcomes across as a even remote slacker.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

 

[CycloneDO]

I don't know the actual percentages, but I would guess somewhere around 40-50% of applicants get accepted...that may be a little on the high side... but each applicant applies (on average) to 10-15 schools, so although a school reports that 4000 people applied and only 180 got in, just remember that those same 4000 people applied to multiple schools. Hope this helps. 🙂

 

[snurpy]

I don't know the actual percentages, but I would guess somewhere around 40-50% of applicants get accepted...that may be a little on the high side... but each applicant applies (on average) to 10-15 schools, so although a school reports that 4000 people applied and only 180 got in, just remember that those same 4000 people applied to multiple schools. Hope this helps. 🙂

I don't think 40-50% is accurate. Even at fairly new osteopathic schools without much of a rep (Touro NY for example), there are many applicants and many rejections. For the 2008-2009 application cycle, I recall the figure being at least 2k applications received and there is space for only 135 people in the class. It just gets more competitive every year as people get rejected and reapply the following years after beefing up their CV, GPA, extracurrics, etc just to look better than those applying for the first time.

 

[Krisss17]

Greetings Y'all.

I've dropped in and perused the boards here from time to time but have finally bit the bullet and joined the ranks. I'm a post-bacc student currently fufilling pre-osteopathic reqs. and hoping to apply to school in about a year from now.

I'm thrilled and excited while finding myself caught with sudden anxiety and panic attacks from time to time...... typical stuff, I know.

Browsing the forums and reading a lot of threads I find myself really quite impressed with the calibur of people who hang out here. It seems like the vast majority are bringing to the table mostly solild GPAs and MCAT scores, dedicated volunteer and clinical histories and empassioned stories about why they want to go into medicine.

Sooo what really stumps me (and sort of worries me too) is that I was reading the CIB (from the AACOM website) on application and enrollment stats and the numbers just don't make sense to me.

Take a look....(these numbers are for all osteopath med. schools in the US)

2006-07
39,104 applications - 4,034 1st yr. enrollment - 10.3% acceptance rate

2007-08
67,132 applied - 4,528 1st yr. enrollment - 6.7% acceptance rate

Now these are averages for the combined schools and individual app. rates and acceptances vary up or down depending what individual school you look at but my point is, are there really like aprox. 50,000 people who are that unqualified that they just get shot down in the 1st round? How can so many applicants be dismissed so quickly?

I find it hard to believe! Medicine draws some seriously dedicated and diehard folks. It's not a casual endeavor. People realize this! I honestly don't think there are that many slackers getting their applications ready.

I don't really know where I'm going with this. The numbers are just frightening in a way. I know with the people I've seen on here and other pre-meds I know, no one at allcomes across as a even remote slacker.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

Well, I would think that if every applicant applied to only 1 school and just a DO school, that might be possible. But you are having people multiplying to multiple schools...I think the average is about 15 or so. Also, that is showing actual enrollments (i.e. students that actually matriculated), but there are probably more acceptances as people may receive multiple acceptances but will only be able to give to one...so I definitely think the % goes down. Also, some of those applicants have also applied to MD schools, so that too is going to change the numbers.

Of course, there is going to be a number of rejections...and those could be for a variety of reasons...from just not having the numbers, whether it is the GPA and/or MCAT, applying to late in the cycle, etc.

It is not going to be easy, by any stretch of the imagination; however, if you put in the work, have the numbers and the drive, there is a good chance of making it happen, just realize that it is going to be a lot of work.

 

[AdemTD]

Well, I would think that if every applicant applied to only 1 school and just a DO school, that might be possible. But you are having people multiplying to multiple schools...I think the average is about 15 or so. Also, that is showing actual enrollments (i.e. students that actually matriculated), but there are probably more acceptances as people may receive multiple acceptances but will only be able to give to one...so I definitely think the % goes down. Also, some of those applicants have also applied to MD schools, so that too is going to change the numbers.

Of course, there is going to be a number of rejections...and those could be for a variety of reasons...from just not having the numbers, whether it is the GPA and/or MCAT, applying to late in the cycle, etc.

It is not going to be easy, by any stretch of the imagination; however, if you put in the work, have the numbers and the drive, there is a good chance of making it happen, just realize that it is going to be a lot of work.

👍 Exactly!! Those 67k applications are not "unduplicated" applicants. I think the number of unduplicated applicants is probably around 15k.

 

[CycloneDO]

ok, so here are some stats that I found, sorry 2005 is the newest:

2005:
DO:8,255 applied, 3308 matriculants 40% accepted

MD:37,364 applied, 17,978 accepted 48% accepted

of course the numbers of applicants has gone up in recent years, but I haven't found current info.

 

[Orangepeels]

ok, so here are some stats that I found, sorry 2005 is the newest:

2005:
DO:8,255 applied, 3308 matriculants 40% accepted

MD:37,364 applied, 17,978 accepted 48% accepted

of course the numbers of applicants has gone up in recent years, but I haven't found current info.

Ahhhh, right. Those numbers have the potential to inspire much more confidence that what I was imagining before. Where did you come across those numbers CycloneDO?

 

[CycloneDO]

The Official SDN Medical School Admission book I bought through SDN. It has a lot of helpful information.

Glad I could help!

 

[Semicolon]

2006-07
39,104 applications - 4,034 1st yr. enrollment - 10.3% acceptance rate

2007-08
67,132 applied - 4,528 1st yr. enrollment - 6.7% acceptance rate

Somehow I highly doubt those are the actual numbers. What CycloneDO posted is a much more accurate representation of the admissions cycle, although it IS getting harder every year now (I would say about a 30-40% acceptance rate). But don't forget that if you apply early, your chances are significantly better. 👍

 

[Deceptacon]

be more like han solo and say "never tell me the odds!" and just kick some butt.

 

[engineeredout]

Yeah just keep in mind that maybe overall 90% of the applications are rejected, but its a 40% chance that people will get in somewhere.

 

[spicedmanna]

be more like han solo and say "never tell me the odds!" and just kick some butt.

Yeah, that's about what I did when I applied. Although it's good to know in-state vs. out-of-state acceptances, if it's a type of school that has a preference.

 

[MossPoh]

If you are within the averages and apply in a well thought out and educated manner then your chances are well above the averages that you get in. The people I consistently hear about that didn't get accepted didn't shadow, were on the lower end of the spectrum, applied too late, or were just flat out horrible at interviewing and never practiced it.

 

[Krisss17]

If you are within the averages and apply in a well thought out and educated manner then your chances are well above the averages that you get in. The people I consistently hear about that didn't get accepted didn't shadow, were on the lower end of the spectrum, applied too late, or were just flat out horrible at interviewing and never practiced it.

Exactly what I was trying to say, but much direct and to the point!

If you apply to Harvard with average stats, the chances of you getting into med school is probably only a fraction of a pt; however, if you have average stats, apply to your state school, your chances probably go up exponentially...not that you will necessarily get in, but you've a better chance of getting in.

 

[GLENMARK]

Somehow I highly doubt those are the actual numbers. What CycloneDO posted is a much more accurate representation of the admissions cycle, although it IS getting harder every year now (I would say about a 30-40% acceptance rate). But don't forget that if you apply early, your chances are significantly better. 👍

Year 2008, total 11742 applicants applied for 4575 seats. That is about 39%
acceptance rate. Every applicant applied to an average of 7 schools.

 

[bioman2006]

.

 

[n618ft]

APPLICATIONS... most people apply to several schools. MD acceptance is in low 50% range, chumps 😎 If you apply to 10 schools, you'll get accepted to 1... that's 10% acceptance.

 

[Longshanks]

This is an aggregate of 2005-2007 application cycles:

http://aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

with a 46.1% acceptance rate

 

[Semicolon]

This is an aggregate of 2005-2007 application cycles:

http://aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

with a 46.1% acceptance rate

I believe that only includes MD schools, though.

 

[Longshanks]

I believe that only includes MD schools, though.

You are correct.

I was just providing food for thought. According to the SDN book it's not much different, only sightly lower; however, that data is from 2005. The SDN book claims 41% if I'm not mistaken?