+1
I used the same company as MA and I can vouch for their professionalism, insight, and the overall quality of services that they have provided me with.
One of the first things that the advisors did after an initial meeting was to give us a school list, which was based off of our
LizzyM Score. For those of you who don't know what it is, you enter your MCAT, GPA, state of residence in an excel document and it gives you a scaled score. There's a list of every single medical school in the excel spreadsheet and next to each school, it tells you if your LizzyM Score is competitive, hopeful, or a long shot for that specific institution. What I find interesting is that seranade and MDforMee are questioning MA's school list when (1) the program used as a
guide for selecting schools was created by LizzyM, one of the most respected members on SDN and someone that actually knows what they're talking about, and (2) that seranade himself referred to the LizzyM score on the first page, suggesting that he thinks it's useful and/or accurate. Anyway, our LizzyM score, along with a discussion of our EC's, specific interests in medicine, and additional work after the bachelor's degree is how we picked the schools we applied to. I assure you both that the school list
was well thought out.
Discussing our file in it's entirety (i.e. not just stats) and choosing schools was just part of what they helped with. We also had different advisors/editors for our PS, primary, and secondary essays, and they also helped extensively with interview prep. Every person with whom I have had the pleasure of working with was qualified and experienced with that specific part of the application or that specific school. The physicians in this company, unlike some other people I sought advice from, have actually gone through the application process and were successful. It really was the collaborative advice, experience, and help from everyone I worked with there that, I can say with pride, I'll be in med school in the fall. Actually, since both serenade and MDforMee have yet to apply, I would suggest that both of you look into this company.
Which brings me to my next point, that neither of you have applied to medical school. You can say whatever you want and give advice, but without any backing or personal experience your arguments really don't hold much weight. It's equivalent to say, someone who hasn't seriously started studying for the MCAT, but gives advice to people that are about to take it. Do they mean well? Probably. Do they know some stuff about stuff? Maybe, based on what they've read/heard/seen. Does their advice hold as much weight as someone who took the MCAT and did well? Not in the slightest. Moreover, you guys are critiquing someone who has already been successful this cycle. I don't think I need to draw up another analogy for my point to get across here.
tl;dr - school list was thought out, serenade and MDforMee give med school application advice and critique people that already got in, when they haven't even applied themselves.
