Advantage to applying to one Texas school in the TMDSAS?

[bruno692693]

Hi, I am a Minnesota resident applying to allopathic medical school in the upcoming cycle this summer. My undergrad is notoriously slow with their comittee letter process. Is there an advantage to applying to a Texas state school via the TMDSAS to speed the process up? The application opens up in early May instead of June. Has anyone heard of a similar strategy to get their file to the top of the pile in the health career office? I would be happy attending a Texas state school, I just don't like my out of state chancs and am wondering if its worth the money to apply.

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[bruno692693]

Sorry I didnt explain it well. I plan on applying to 20 or so schools through the amcas, then may apply to one texas school through the TMDSAS which opens a month earlier. Maybe this would give my committee incentive to get my letters and application materials together more quickly if I send everything else through the TMDSAS in May? Or at least give my folder a higher priority than the other 250 applicants from my school. Or am I completely thinking about this wrong?

 

[Megarooski]

If you have a way to notify your school of the TMDSAS application, then I don't think it's too far-fetched to think that may work. However, this is extremely specific to your school so it's very hard to say. If you do end up applying through TMDSAS, I would go ahead and add on UTH, UTHSCSA, UTMB, UTRGV, and Dell Austin. TMDSAS has a single fee that does not change based on number of schools, so applying to one Texas school is the same price as applying to all of them with the exception of Baylor. The ones I listed have no secondaries (and thus no secondary fees) except for Dell which had a free secondary last year, although that may change. TCOM also has free secondary, so it doesn't cost any extra to apply to, but it is a DO school so keep that in mind.

 

[Cookie04]

Hi, I am a Minnesota resident applying to allopathic medical school in the upcoming cycle this summer. My undergrad is notoriously slow with their comittee letter process. Is there an advantage to applying to a Texas state school via the TMDSAS to speed the process up? The application opens up in early May instead of June. Has anyone heard of a similar strategy to get their file to the top of the pile in the health career office? I would be happy attending a Texas state school, I just don't like my out of state chancs and am wondering if its worth the money to apply.

It might work, however I have known many applicants whose application wasn't complete because their undergrad had a specific time frame for committee letters regardless of when AMCAS or TMDSAS opens. In other words, there were plenty of TMDSAS applicants who didn't get their letter until late July/ early August. Just hope your undergrad isn't one that sticks to a strict timeframe.

 

[Cookie04]

If you have a way to notify your school of the TMDSAS application, then I don't think it's too far-fetched to think that may work. However, this is extremely specific to your school so it's very hard to say. If you do end up applying through TMDSAS, I would go ahead and add on UTH, UTHSCSA, UTMB, UTRGV, and Dell Austin. TMDSAS has a single fee that does not change based on number of schools, so applying to one Texas school is the same price as applying to all of them with the exception of Baylor. The ones I listed have no secondaries (and thus no secondary fees) except for Dell which had a free secondary last year, although that may change. TCOM also has free secondary, so it doesn't cost any extra to apply to, but it is a DO school so keep that in mind.

Might as well add UTSW too since their secondary is free lol. And UTRGV also has a secondary application it was just waived for the 2015-2016 cycle.