Apply to all DO schools

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JeetKuneDo

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15+ Year Member
How many people do this? I'm thinking of it, but the shear number of essays and (hopefully) secondaries to write is daunting. Money issue also. Would this be a good plan?

Also, I'll add that I meant all schools besides RVU of course (I joke, I joke.)
 
I did this.

If I could go back I would have researched the schools a bit more and cut out the ones I'm not really interested in (WCU, RVU (no offense to anybody attending), etc) and the ones that are not really OOS friendly. For example, as a CA resident I should not have applied to OUCOM, OSU-COM, MSUCOM, etc.
 
Sinfest said:
I did this.

If I could go back I would have researched the schools a bit more and cut out the ones I'm not really interested in (WCU, RVU (no offense to anybody attending), etc) and the ones that are not really OOS friendly. For example, as a CA resident I should not have applied to OUCOM, OSU-COM, MSUCOM, etc.
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Nice. I see your sig you're in, so the shotgun strategy worked. Did you have good stats going in? I'm afraid if I cut down the list too much, it could come back to bite me. I'm also a CA resident, so those schools are out. I wonder if I should even try PCOM and NYCOM, I hear they're regionally biased as well.
 
Sinfest said:
I did this.

If I could go back I would have researched the schools a bit more and cut out the ones I'm not really interested in (WCU, RVU (no offense to anybody attending), etc) and the ones that are not really OOS friendly. For example, as a CA resident I should not have applied to OUCOM, OSU-COM, MSUCOM, etc.
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It's a waste to blast out an application to ALL the schools. The 3 mentioned above have very little interest in out of state applicants, as does TCOM (I believe). PNWU apparently focuses on the Northwest region (AK, WA, OR, ID, MT) so it again would be wasteful to apply there unless you have a special rural or underpriveleged background.

And of course cost would be a prohibitive factor for many. But if not, then by all means apply across the board. You'll write a ton of essays and checks, and hopefully impress someone enough to interview you. Make sure you have met all the pre-reqs, as some schools have biochem requirements (DMU-COM, KCUMB, etc.) and not everyone has taken biochem.

Finally, only apply places you actually would attend. Don't be one of those jerks who applys, interviews, gets admitted and then withdraws only to reapply the next year because you didn't want that particular school.
 
painmd87 said:
It's a waste to blast out an application to ALL the schools. The 3 mentioned above have very little interest in out of state applicants, as does TCOM (I believe). PNWU apparently focuses on the Northwest region (AK, WA, OR, ID, MT) so it again would be wasteful to apply there unless you have a special rural or underpriveleged background.

And of course cost would be a prohibitive factor for many. But if not, then by all means apply across the board. You'll write a ton of essays and checks, and hopefully impress someone enough to interview you. Make sure you have met all the pre-reqs, as some schools have biochem requirements (DMU-COM, KCUMB, etc.) and not everyone has taken biochem.

Finally, only apply places you actually would attend. Don't be one of those jerks who applys, interviews, gets admitted and then withdraws only to reapply the next year because you didn't want that particular school.
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Oh, yeah, won't have to worry about that for me. I just want to get in somewhere and not have to wait another cycle. Of course there are some locations that I would love to attend school at, but when it's all said and done, I'd be to just get in.
 
LastPolarBear said:
Nice. I see your sig you're in, so the shotgun strategy worked. Did you have good stats going in? I'm afraid if I cut down the list too much, it could come back to bite me. I'm also a CA resident, so those schools are out. I wonder if I should even try PCOM and NYCOM, I hear they're regionally biased as well.
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Not really. Below average gpa (with an okay upward trend), average MCAT, good EC's, IMO great personal statement, great LOR's. I think the key to my success was the fact that I applied early.

I understand where you're coming from, but there are still a bunch of schools you can apply to. If I were to reapply these are the schools I would submit a primary application to: Both ATSU's, both MWU's, DMU, KCUMB, both LECOM's, NSUCOM, all three Touro's, both Western's, PCOM, and NYCOM. I know the latter two schools have strong regional preferences, but what's another $200 in the big picture to have a [small] chance at the two.
 
I applied to 19 DO schools, getting interview offers at seven. I only attended three of those b/c I had offers from all three and decided not to spend money going to the other interviews. My stats were below average but had lots of leadership positions, EC's, great LOR's..and most importantly applied early. Early is the key for those with lower stats. Might also want to add VCOM's two schools. They have a regional preference but also seem to look outside of their region to fill the class.
 
IMO, it's never a good idea to just apply to all schools available because as some have said already, there are several with regional bias/state bias so why waste your money having like a 1% chance, maybe even 0%.

Researching all the schools is really important for this reason as well as making sure you would go to wherever it is you're applying to. Out of the places I applied to, I probably shouldn't have submitted to UNECOM and MSU. Very regionally biased (UNE) and in-state biased (MSU). My stats are already above DO averages too and i got invited to interview at all the other DO schools I applied to, so I think you need some ties to the area in order for them to consider you. That's my conclusion anyway. Hope that helps and good luck!
 
All great info, everyone. I've done a little research on the schools and found one of chocolate bear's old posts about DO schools with oos percentage. So I have a preliminary list of possible schools to apply to. So far I'm thinking:

-ATSU-Kirksville
-ATSU-Arizona
-CCOM
-AZCOM
-DMU
-PCOM
-PCOM-GA
-KCUMB
-LECOM
-LECOM-B
-NSU
-NYCOM
-Pikeville
-Touro-NY
-Touro-CA
-Touro-NV
-UMDNJ
-Western
-TCOM

TCOM, PCOM, and NYCOM all seem to have a regional bias, but I'll just lay and pray for those. I have no ties to these places, so I'm just hoping I'll somehow squeak by since my gpa might not be ideal to overcome the regional preference.
 
Unless you've got majorly bad stats ( Which you don't) you'll be fine cutting out a good chunk of schools on this list and applying to schools which are more fitting to your preferences.
 
LastPolarBear said:
How many people do this? I'm thinking of it, but the shear number of essays and (hopefully) secondaries to write is daunting. Money issue also. Would this be a good plan?

Also, I'll add that I meant all schools besides RVU of course (I joke, I joke.)
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Don't do it. Pick places that don't have a regional bias (NY-COM, for instance). After that criteria, it was a matter of cost and location for me. I still ended up applying to about half of them, but I sure saved a good chunk of change by being a little picky.

Also, apply to NSU. It's boss.
 
LastPolarBear said:
How many people do this? I'm thinking of it, but the shear number of essays and (hopefully) secondaries to write is daunting. Money issue also. Would this be a good plan?

Also, I'll add that I meant all schools besides RVU of course (I joke, I joke.)
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There's wisdom in the principle of applying early and broadly.

But there's more wisdom in hand selecting the schools you feel the most attracted to and competitive at.

If you apply to schools you don't have a strong chance of getting into you can waste a lot of time and money. If you apply to schools you aren't aprricularly attracted to it migt be a challenge when that comes out in te app/interview.
 
One bit of advice that I found useful, fill out your secondaries in order of preference.

In a perfect world you could stay up for 3 days straight and submit all your secondaries immediately after receiving them but I applied to nearly 20 schools and got almost all my secondaries within days of each other. Add a 60+ hour work week to the mix and the result was some secondaries didn't get submitted for nearly a month.

So, if you do apply to a lot of schools and get a huge pile of secondaries, do them in the order of preference so your favorites get the quickest response and most attention.

AND APPLY EARLY🙂 Good Luck.
 
LastPolarBear said:
All great info, everyone. I've done a little research on the schools and found one of chocolate bear's old posts about DO schools with oos percentage. So I have a preliminary list of possible schools to apply to. So far I'm thinking:

-ATSU-Kirksville
-ATSU-Arizona
-CCOM
-AZCOM
-DMU
-PCOM
-PCOM-GA
-KCUMB
-LECOM
-LECOM-B
-NSU
-NYCOM
-Pikeville
-Touro-NY
-Touro-CA
-Touro-NV
-UMDNJ
-Western
-TCOM

TCOM, PCOM, and NYCOM all seem to have a regional bias, but I'll just lay and pray for those. I have no ties to these places, so I'm just hoping I'll somehow squeak by since my gpa might not be ideal to overcome the regional preference.
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That's a good list, but as Sin stated, TCOM is a different application altogether and might not be worth it for you unless you are applying to other Texas schools.

The best advice, apply early and get those secondaries done in a timely manner. Don't procrastinate and I agree with the previous poster, do them in your order of preference, but don't waste too much time ordering them. Just get at them. They are a pain in the @ss, but if you have remotely decent stats, that list should probably land you some interviews, if not quite a few... IF YOU APPLY EARLY! (this point cannot be stressed enough.)
 
LastPolarBear said:
All great info, everyone. I've done a little research on the schools and found one of chocolate bear's old posts about DO schools with oos percentage. So I have a preliminary list of possible schools to apply to. So far I'm thinking:

-ATSU-Kirksville
-ATSU-Arizona
-CCOM
-AZCOM
-DMU
-PCOM
-PCOM-GA
-KCUMB
-LECOM
-LECOM-B
-NSU
-NYCOM
-Pikeville
-Touro-NY
-Touro-CA
-Touro-NV
-UMDNJ
-Western
-TCOM

TCOM, PCOM, and NYCOM all seem to have a regional bias, but I'll just lay and pray for those. I have no ties to these places, so I'm just hoping I'll somehow squeak by since my gpa might not be ideal to overcome the regional preference.
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I dont think NYCOM is that biased they accept in a 60/40 Instate/OOS ratio. When it comes down it to, they wont turn down a better applicant for someone who is closer...
 
Don't waste your money.

I sent out primaries to 7 DO schools, and I only ended up sending out my secondaries to 3 of them. Granted I did apply to quite a bit of MD schools but I realized after that there was no reason for so many DO schools. My stats are average too and I applied late. My PS is pretty phenomenal but I did apply late and was accepted so it all worked out.
 
I did the shotgun approach, and applied to 20 DO schools, though there are other people you can probably PM to get their experiences(I'd look up noshie. Her story is very inspirational). The places that haven't kept in touch with me tend to be more regional centric, so I assume they aren't too OOS or out of region friendly. Those places were the PCOMs, WCU, NYCOM, UMDNJ, and PCSOM .

I looked at every DO school, found out which ones I had the pre reqs for, and applied... Many of the secondaries are similar so one can reuse and tweak essays, but then there are also some secondaries with over a dozen mini essays, so be prepared. Money can be an issue, but imo, if you can afford it, spend it applying. The extra couple thousand is a drop in the bucket compared to your medical education, and there is the possibility of leveraging multiple acceptances for scholarship money (at least with MD schools, I'm not sure about DO). Plus, on the off chance you don't get in but would have if you'd applied to more places, that is a year of lost doctor salary.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably repeat my approach but not apply to the more regional centric schools.

I might look into LMU-DCOM and PNWU, OUCOM(if you are cool signing that contract), and RVU (if you're okay with the financial aid, though I think it will qualify for regular finaid by the time you matriculate, and for profit status).
 
Alright, so from the list of 18 or so schools, I've boiled it down to 10 schools that I feel I like the most. It wasn't easy. But they're:

-CCOM
-UMDNJ
-Western
-NYCOM
-PCOM
-KCUMB
-Touro-NV
-KCOM
-Touro-NY
-Touro-CA

Thanks for the advice everyone.
 
LastPolarBear said:
Alright, so from the list of 18 or so schools, I've boiled it down to 10 schools that I feel I like the most. It wasn't easy. But they're:

-CCOM
-UMDNJ
-Western
-NYCOM
-PCOM
-KCUMB
-Touro-NV
-KCOM
-Touro-NY
-Touro-CA

Thanks for the advice everyone.
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Good list

IMO you should add NSU, DMU, and AZCOM. Maybe LECOM-E too.

I interviewed with a few other people from CA at NSU early this cycle and we were all accepted. It really is an amazing school.
 
Sinfest said:
Good list

IMO you should add NSU, DMU, and AZCOM. Maybe LECOM-E too.

I interviewed with a few other people from CA at NSU early this cycle and we were all accepted. It really is an amazing school.
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👍 I agree with this. AZCOM is awesome.

Basically I looked at the schools that I would attend if offered a spot. For me, that took out KCUMB, DMU, etc. just because I couldn't picture myself there. Only one that I applied to in that type of environment was KCOM and that is because of its amazing rep. I wish I had gone to that interview but its in the past and I'm happy w/ my choice. AZCOM also has Norcal and Los Angeles rotations for 3rd year.
 
DbDan said:
👍 I agree with this. AZCOM is awesome.

Basically I looked at the schools that I would attend if offered a spot. For me, that took out KCUMB, DMU, etc. just because I couldn't picture myself there. Only one that I applied to in that type of environment was KCOM and that is because of its amazing rep. I wish I had gone to that interview but its in the past and I'm happy w/ my choice. AZCOM also has Norcal and Los Angeles rotations for 3rd year.
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I agree with KCOM, I'm applying at a chance at having a school with a great rep as well. I'm more of a city person, so I thought KCUMB would be a nice place. Though, I'll have to say I really don't know much about the city of KC. Only know the Chiefs play there.
 
Before you apply, make sure you check requirements for each school for classes and letter of recommendations. That way if you don't meet a requirement you can either take that class or replace that school with another school that you meet the requirements. For example, KCUMB requires genetics. It's another way to narrow down your selection.
 
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