Apply to one school?

[lucid interval]

Hi folks,

I'm a non-traditional student planning on taking the MCAT and applying this coming cycle. I have been planning on applying only to the in-state school where I live currently and also where my partner has just been accepted to a four-year masters program. My thought process has been that even if I am unable to get into this school the first time around, it would worth it to me to give it another go rather than accepting at another school. This makes sense to me.

However, I have heard some talk that only applying to one school can be seen as a sign of insufficient commitment by admissions and count as a negative. I have also heard that declining an offer of admission to any school makes you a non-starter with other schools on a different application cycle. Does anyone have any insight or experience with this question? Is applying to just one school going to hurt my application?

If stats help I'll have a 3.9-something GPA and have been scoring around 35 on practice MCAT's so far. Thanks in advance for your help

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[Pons Asinorum]

If stats help I'll have a 3.9-something GPA and have been scoring around 35 on practice MCAT's so far. Thanks in advance for your help

It greatly depends on whether your in-state school is in California or Mississippi or somewhere in between. What are the median stats for your preferred school according to the MSAR?

 

[lucid interval]

It greatly depends on whether your in-state school is in California or Mississippi or somewhere in between. What are the median stats for your preferred school according to the MSAR?

The school is OHSU in Portland, OR and the average stats that I have seen are from 2005 and say GPA - 3.67 and MCAT - 10.3

 

[cabinbuilder]

The school is OHSU in Portland, OR and the average stats that I have seen are from 2005 and say GPA - 3.67 and MCAT - 10.3

Yikes, the deck is stacked against you for sure. OHSU is an extremely difficult school to get into. I tried to get a medical school rotation there and couldn't even get that.

Take the MCAT first, see what your score is and then decide if it's even worth wasting your time. In the end its gonna depend on how badly you want to be a doctor.

 

[Woland]

First off, there are now two med schools here in Oregon.
Although with your partner accepted into masters at OHSU, you probably would not want to move to Lebanon and commute to see him/her.

I also spoke personally to a few OHSU MD students who have been accepted there and it was the only school they applied to. So it can be done. But, it is worthy to note that all the people I spoke with had very strong reasons to apply only to OHSU and none of them got in on the first round. Or the second.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

No school knows what other schools you've applied to within a cycle, up to a specified date (near the end of the cycle), so they won't know you only applied to OHSU unless you tell them (they might ask at your interview). So if your stats are really awesome, then it's totally possible to get in on one try even only applying to one school. Not advised, necessarily, but possible.

To anyone:

If you're only applying to one school, then I think you should consider posting your comment in that school's school-specific thread. Even if you're not specifically applying for that cycle, that's where you're really going to attract the attention of people who are most attuned to that school.

To the original poster:

Here's a link (hope it works) to OHSU's 2010-2011 school specific thread.

I suggest you post more info about your background... not just one GPA... on OHSU's thread. Post your cumulative GPA, science GPA, and all the extra info that's relevant like extra-curriculars, what your major was, and what you've done since graduating. There are lots of non-traditional students who read OHSU's thread (I'm one of them) and you will get much better OHSU-related advice if you post on that thread.

Good luck!

 

[lucid interval]

Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone.

 

[crazycooljoel]

It's up to you, but why not just apply to several and see what your choices are? Any medical is good enough, some schools perceive someone applying to one med school showing a lack of committment to really wanting to be a physician. What is your ultimate objective? The health care system in the US is in the middle of a shortage and is currently the worse shortage in US history, especially in rural areas; medical schools keep the physician shortage in mind when they do interviews. Federal standards are beginning to emphasize to schools to do their part with the shortage and offering incentives for those who agree to practice in a rural area. This is my major, health care, so believe me on this topic. However, if you really want into that one specific school nobody is stopping you, though, it will likely be difficult.

 

[jl lin]

Yikes, the deck is stacked against you for sure. OHSU is an extremely difficult school to get into. I tried to get a medical school rotation there and couldn't even get that.

Take the MCAT first, see what your score is and then decide if it's even worth wasting your time. In the end its gonna depend on how badly you want to be a doctor.

This makes much sense.

 

[RFHawks]

I always like to say that non-traditional implies atypical. If you have strong geographic family ties and can add that to the coherent, concise, and compelling narrative that a medical school application is, then make the case.

For a possible view of the adcoms, look at the opposite argument. If you didn't get accepted to that sole medical school in Oregon, would you not apply to any other medical school in the future and give up your dream of being an MD?

There have been several OldPreMeds who, usually for family reasons, successfully applied to a single medical school.

I did this. It was very risky and my family was stressed about it. But we simply didn't have the option of moving so I was kind of pressed into putting all my eggs into one basket. It was a blessing really because I am entirely devoted to my community and really wanted to go to med school here for reasons other than the convenience. This is what made up for the fact that I only applied to one school IMO.

 

[MacVA]

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[MacVA]

I will be doing the same. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Hi!

I am trying to get a green card because I wanna study in the USA. Do you know where I could find some help?

Thanks a lot!

You can probably find help at the spam link that is included in your post. That's more help than you'll find by wasting our time here. Please crawl back under your rock elsewhere around the internet.

 

[Helen Wheels]

I thought I was only going to apply to one school, too, a couple years back. So, I can understand your situation. As long as you are okay with losing a year and having to reapply then just apply to the one school. Down the road, you might have to consider if medicine is important enough to you to go somewhere else if you are not accepted.

Med school admissions is an odd thing, it is always hard to predict who the committees will take. Even people with high stats get rejected from schools that looked like a safety for them.

The schools won't know you only applied to one school, as others have said, unless you are asked at the interview.

 

[EdLongshanks]

Med school admissions is an odd thing, it is always hard to predict who the committees will take. Even people with high stats get rejected from schools that looked like a safety for them.

My safety school used a straight numbers formula to offer interviews. Those in the first set of interviews were 95% likely to be accepted. Only young students who were unable to express themselves in public got rejected. That was the story I got before my application. My numbers were far above high enough to get a first-round interview.

But something went wrong at the interview. The interviewers didn't like my politics, my religion, or my age (no, no, of course they didn't say any of this, it was all back door criticisms --- Why DIDN'T my church-group have more doctors? Why SHOULD the state spend money to educate you when you won't be serving here long?.....)

Even the safest of sure bets can founder on chance.