-
The 2026-2027 MD School Specific Threads are now live in the School Specific Discussions forum. The 2025-2026 cycle threads can be found here. -
Scholarship Access: Becoming a Student Doctor course
Free access to comprehensive medical school prep. Eligible students include AAMC FAP recipients and HS graduates from underserved areas. Apply today.
Crafting a Med School List
Started by capybaracarbonara
Knowing nothing about you, the most basic advice is to get the MSAR and start with the following:
1. All your state schools
2. Private schools where your stats are competitive (a squishy concept, but I'd say above the 10th percentile for matriculants)
3. The limited number of OOS-friendly public schools
The relative strengths of your app (e.g. research vs. service-oriented) and your current career goals (e.g. rural primary care vs. academic surgeon) may help steer you toward or away from some institutions.
1. All your state schools
2. Private schools where your stats are competitive (a squishy concept, but I'd say above the 10th percentile for matriculants)
3. The limited number of OOS-friendly public schools
The relative strengths of your app (e.g. research vs. service-oriented) and your current career goals (e.g. rural primary care vs. academic surgeon) may help steer you toward or away from some institutions.
Read these articles. More personalized help available with Becoming a Student Doctor.
www.studentdoctor.net
www.studentdoctor.net
www.studentdoctor.net
www.studentdoctor.net
www.studentdoctor.net
www.studentdoctor.net
Building Your Best School List | Student Doctor Network | SDN
Your success in any application cycle depends on how well you match a school’s metrics profile and the schools where you send your application - your
www.studentdoctor.net
Seeking Leverage in “Strong Ties” | Student Doctor Network | SDN
What are “strong ties,” and what do they mean for health professional admissions? A “strong tie” is usually associated with the amount of time the
www.studentdoctor.net
Write Your Secondary Essays First | Student Doctor Network | SDN
Most advice to applicants focuses on the personal statement and description of work or activities required to complete the initial centralized application
www.studentdoctor.net
Other Impactful Experiences Essay: Exploring Your Unique Story | Student Doctor Network | SDN
Beginning with the 2024 cycle, the AAMC allowed AMCAS and ERAS applicants an opportunity to describe Other Impactful Experiences (OIE) that have helped
www.studentdoctor.net
Mission Fit: Key to Your Success | Student Doctor Network | SDN
Every application cycle, applicants request expert reviews on the Student Doctor Network to help them assess “What Are My Chances” (WAMC) at getting
www.studentdoctor.net
Eight Questions About the Pre-Health “Committee Letter” | Student Doctor Network | SDN
For over 40 years, medical and dental school applicants have been asked to provide an institutional “committee letter” packet of recommendations if their
www.studentdoctor.net
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
What is the CIB?
Oh, the resource may be the DO Explorer now.
Become an Osteopathic Medical Doctor
Want to know more about why you should consider a career in osteopathic medicine? Start here.
www.aacom.org
You did delete your WAMC.
Read the article on building your best school list.
You can apply where you please but you do run the risk of being yield protected at the lower end of the spectrum (not get interviews because they'd be wasted on you if you also get an offer from the likes of Columbia, which adcoms at lower ranked schools may think is likely) and if your research experience and volunteerism is not in line with what the higher ranked schools like to see, you could be snubbed there.
Do you have geographic preferences based on where you are living and where you've lived in the past? Preferences for inner city, suburban, rural?
Do you have a preference for schools that require a thesis /original research for graduation or prefer not to be engaged in that level of research/scholarship?
Are you leaning toward primary care or toward subspecialties? Are you attracted to clinical practice alone or hoping for a career with some combination of clinical services, teaching, research, and advocacy (i.e. academic medicine).
Different schools have different hopes for their students. Some want to train primary care docs for rural parts of their state, some want to educate the next generation of academic physicians including medical school deans and others in leadership positions. Your job now is to figure out what you want and to make your list and write your secondary essays to make it clear that regardless of your grades and scores, you are interested in school X because your goals are aligned with the school's goals for its students.
Do you have geographic preferences based on where you are living and where you've lived in the past? Preferences for inner city, suburban, rural?
Do you have a preference for schools that require a thesis /original research for graduation or prefer not to be engaged in that level of research/scholarship?
Are you leaning toward primary care or toward subspecialties? Are you attracted to clinical practice alone or hoping for a career with some combination of clinical services, teaching, research, and advocacy (i.e. academic medicine).
Different schools have different hopes for their students. Some want to train primary care docs for rural parts of their state, some want to educate the next generation of academic physicians including medical school deans and others in leadership positions. Your job now is to figure out what you want and to make your list and write your secondary essays to make it clear that regardless of your grades and scores, you are interested in school X because your goals are aligned with the school's goals for its students.
Hi LizzyM, apologies as I'm sure this is a well-tread question: Aside from their (often not very helpful) websites and contacting the Admissions Office at every school, is there a resource for determining which schools are more clinically oriented vs. having academic medicine as their primary goal?
Are you going to the AAMC virtual fair?
Talk with students. What LizzyM said.
I think I referred you to read...
Mission Fit: Key to Your Success | Student Doctor Network | SDN
Every application cycle, applicants request expert reviews on the Student Doctor Network to help them assess “What Are My Chances” (WAMC) at getting
www.studentdoctor.net
Buy access to the MSAR. It is cheaper than a single secondary fee and well worth the expense. It will give you some feel for the schools.
Yes, websites can be difficult to navigate but it can give you some idea of the requirements for the MD (thesis required??) The school's mission statement should be clear enough, too, to help you distinguish one school from another.
___is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care, and the advancement of the art and science of medicine through the maintenance of scientific and clinical scholarship.
___has a single mission: To improve the health of the public. The 30,000 members of our community advance this mission through the excellence of their work in patient care, medical education and research.
The mission of ___ is to provide to its students and to the people of {state} excellence in education, research and service.
I think that you can see the difference between these three. Rinse and repeat until you've reviewed the schools in the locations you'd be willing to live. I just googled a school name and the word "mission" to find these. It was pretty quick.
Yes, websites can be difficult to navigate but it can give you some idea of the requirements for the MD (thesis required??) The school's mission statement should be clear enough, too, to help you distinguish one school from another.
___is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care, and the advancement of the art and science of medicine through the maintenance of scientific and clinical scholarship.
___has a single mission: To improve the health of the public. The 30,000 members of our community advance this mission through the excellence of their work in patient care, medical education and research.
The mission of ___ is to provide to its students and to the people of {state} excellence in education, research and service.
I think that you can see the difference between these three. Rinse and repeat until you've reviewed the schools in the locations you'd be willing to live. I just googled a school name and the word "mission" to find these. It was pretty quick.
This is one of the best explanations of “mission fit” that I’ve read.
Yep... that's what the article says too.
@Mr.Smile12 This was the TLDR! Didn't mean to diss you!
