choosing schools to apply to

[sunny_doc]

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any suggestions?
I know to pick a diverse list in terms of selectivity, with a few reach, mid range, lower,etc.
But how to go from there? 😕 I tried looking at curricula, but it all seems pretty similar. Location is a good factor, but I can live anywhere. I will apply to my only state school. Reputation is also good, but I'm getting that from USnews rankings, and those are probably not the best indicator of the actual education. and of course, back to square one with selectivity, i tried mdapplicants.com, but it seems biased towards higher end applicants. What are the general ideas about student happiness at any particular school? Are there any good sites telling avg student indebtedness? (Is that a good factor for choosing a scchool?) I've also heard buying msars is not such a good investment. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[All-Star14]

Curriculum: PBL vs Traditional (some schools, notably Pitt and Northwestern, have PBL--Problem-based learning. You might reserach these schools to find out what that's all about)

Grading: Pass/Fail, Honors/High pass/pass/fail (or some crap like that), or letter grades. Personally, I'm sick of letter grades, so I'd choose pass/fail.

Location: where are you from? Here's a list of regions:

Northeast
South
Midwest
West

Think of your personal tolerance of temperature/change of seasons when making this decision. Plus, you don't want to miss Mama's sweet potato pie during the holidays...might want to choose schools reasonably close to your folks.

Focus/Reputation: Primary care vs research? Do any research in college? Schools such as Duke Med set up their schedules so that one could work on some sort of research project (pre-approved) during their third year (or pursue another degree...more on that later). Most of your bigger-named schools (top-10s) place a heavy focus on research...is that right down your alley? Also remember...any of the accredited allopathic schools in this country grant the same degree--MD. Of course, reputation doesn't hurt come residency time.

Debt (yes...this is a good factor): Duke is probably one of the best in terms of not completely indebting their students; your state school will probably rank right below that. Then, private schools/out-of-state schools.

Happiness: This can only be determined on a case-by-case basis (meaning you'll have to see for yourself during interviews). If you attend an undergrad school with an affiliated medical school, ask some med students how they like their school.

MDapplicants.com is too biased towards applicants with higher stats. It's okay but certainly not the most reliable source because of the relatively small sample size.

Don't buy the MSAR unless your premed advising center doesn't have a current copy.

 

[Moskeeto]

how i started was by getting a list of schools that accepted 4 or more students from undergrad last year. hopefully, like me, your premed advisor puts this list out, its really helpful. Then i pretty much looked the schools up in MSAR and tried to see if anything popped out at me, but mostly they all look the same. I think Pass/Fail is something i personally was interested in, low cost of course, and location. I think location was the biggest decision, i picked my schools by what city they were in. I also tried not to apply to any big name schools, but looking back I think erred on that and I should have taken some bigger chances, but its hard as a Ca resident because the state schools are your big chances.