Creating a school list before receiving MCAT scores

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walloobi said:
I'll be sitting for the June 18th MCAT, and while I'm going to spend a ridiculous amount of time prepping for it and feel confident that I'm going to do quite well, I want to submit my primary application in early June, so I'm having trouble figuring out where to start in terms of building a school list. For those of you who didn't yet know your MCAT scores when applying (or anyone else), do you have any advice for starting to narrow down options?

For what it's worth:

CA resident and attending a UC; will be applying to all UC med schools - and Cal Med (as long as it does in fact matriculate its first class in 2017), thanks to @Goro 🙂

~3.9 sGPA, ~3.95 cGPA

Solid (and consistently-themed (i.e. mostly related to peds and/or my major, no fluff)) EC's (a lot of volunteering, research, club founding/leadership positions, sports, tutoring, internships, coaching, shadowing, etc.). Won't go into the specifics, as this is not a WAMC thread.

Excellent LOR's
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Do you have any kind of projected MCAT whatsoever?

Is there a reason you're taking the MCAT in June and not in April-May? (I only ask because it would negate any and all of your questions and potentially make your life easier)
 
WedgeDawg said:
Submit one "throwaway" application, then submit apps to your real schools once you get your score back. And start pre-writing for schools you're likely going to apply to, starting with the UCs.
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Ah, so verification is the time-consuming process, but you can quickly add/remove schools later on once you know your score? And as for the throwaway app, should I just submit it to one school, or might I as well include all of the UC's since I know I'll be applying to them almost regardless of my score?
 
walloobi said:
Ah, so verification is the time-consuming process, but you can quickly add/remove schools later on once you know your score? And as for the throwaway app, should I just submit it to one school, or might I as well include all of the UC's since I know I'll be applying to them almost regardless of my score?
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If you know you'll be applying to all the UCs, go ahead and add them. I don't think you can remove schools, but you can certainly add them up until the deadline (which I think is Oct 15, but I'm not 100% sure). Most schools will get their secondaries to you within a couple days of you sending them your primary. If you have schools that you're strongly planning on applying to that pre-screen secondaries (i.e. the UCs), I would recommend including those in your initial batch.
 
1. All your state schools - looks like you got that covered
2. If money is no object all schools that have good OOS acceptance rate that are not top tier (you draw the line) - some people may say not to do this if your MCAT is too high/low but you can adjust later
3. If money is no object I would recommend schools that have no/minimal secondaries too
 
walloobi said:
That would be ideal, but unfortunately I'm still in some of the prereqs, and as my UC is on the quarter system (guess that rules out Berkeley 😉), I won't be finished with all of them until early June.

In before "DON'T START STUDYING FOR THE MCAT UNTIL YOU'VE FINISHED ALL YOUR PREREQS": I wouldn't have made the decision to take the June 18th MCAT without doing my research and knowing what I can handle; I know exactly what I'm getting myself into 🙂
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In that case, I second everything wedgedawg said about the "throwaway" app. You can't remove schools (I know because I tried), but adding is a piece of cake.

A June MCAT gets you a score in July. That's still early in the application cycle, so don't sweat it too much. If I were you, I'd start pre-writing secondaries on June 20th (budgeting in a day off because I assume you're a human being), that way turnaround time is minimized.
 
WedgeDawg said:
If you know you'll be applying to all the UCs, go ahead and add them. I don't think you can remove schools, but you can certainly add them up until the deadline (which I think is Oct 15, but I'm not 100% sure). Most schools will get their secondaries to you within a couple days of you sending them your primary. If you have schools that you're strongly planning on applying to that pre-screen secondaries (i.e. the UCs), I would recommend including those in your initial batch.
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Sounds great, thanks for the info! Looks like I'll basically just hold off on determining "reaches" and relative "safeties" until I get my scores.
 
I would stick with a single throwaway. There is no sense being a re-applicant at all your state schools if the MCAT is a disappointment. Schools get your request within a day if your transcript has been verified.
 
gyngyn said:
I would stick with a single throwaway. There is no sense being a re-applicant at all your state schools if the MCAT is a disappointment. Schools get your request within a day if your transcript has been verified.
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Yeah this is probably the best way to go just to be safe
 
walloobi said:
Hm, good point. So would you recommend something like a lower-tier UC? Perhaps just UC Riverside? (No offense to UCR, of course)
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If you are not from the IE, UCR might be a good choice. An OOS school might also be a good choice.
 
aegistitan said:
1. All your state schools - looks like you got that covered
2. If money is no object all schools that have good OOS acceptance rate that are not top tier (you draw the line) - some people may say not to do this if your MCAT is too high/low but you can adjust later
3. If money is no object I would recommend schools that have no/minimal secondaries too
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Money is definitely relevant, and while I'll most likely have enough to apply broadly once I know my score, I'm certainly not in a position to throw any money away just for a bit of convenience. But thanks for the feedback!
 
walloobi said:
Hm, good point. So would you recommend something like a lower-tier UC? Perhaps just UC Riverside? (No offense to UCR, of course, I'd be thrilled to attend any UC)
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The whole point of a throwaway is at a school you dont have a shot at or dont fit. UC Riverside could certainly be one of the strongest bets for you being in CA depending on the MCAT. That wouldnt be a good throw away. A good throw away is probably somewhere you have no interest in attending or are not a fit at all for. Something like Morehouse or Meharry comes to mind immeadiately. Maybe a school that allows OOS applicants to apply but basically doesnt accept any(Robert Woods comes to mind----I think I saw U of Miss and Southern Illinois have OOS applicants last year even though they only take IS).
 
GrapesofRath said:
The whole point of a throwaway is at a school you dont have a shot at or dont fit. UC Riverside could certainly be one of the strongest bets for you being in CA depending on the MCAT. That wouldnt be a good throw away. A good throw away is probably somewhere you have no interest in attending or are not a fit at all for. Something like Morehouse or Meharry comes to mind immeadiately. Maybe a school that allows OOS applicants to apply but basically doesnt accept any(Robert Woods comes to mind----I think I saw U of Miss and Southern Illinois have OOS applicants last year even though they only take IS).
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ECU-Brody or UMass
 
walloobi said:
Why in the world would I apply to a school that I'm almost sure to be rejected from? If I only end up applying to 1 school (aka if I don't get a competitive MCAT score), I might as well at least ensure that I have a decent shot at the single school I applied to
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The whole point is its a "throw away" school. If you want to make that throw away school one that you are interested in that's fine, I personally wouldn't, but if you really want it to be a 'throwaway" school it should be one you arent interested in.

If you dont get a sufficient MCAT score a better plan is probably to re-consider applying this cycle and focusing on an MCAT retake. Like gyngyn said you dont want to make things harder on yourself being a re-applicant for no reason. It's a judgment call on your part; if you feel really confident youll get a strong MCAT score then go ahead and apply to some of your targets without an MCAT score officially. Only you can decide how you want to go about it.
 
Well, there's always another option....I met someone at one of my interviews who was in a similar situation to you. She decided to pursue the nuclear option and applied to 43 schools.
 
I did the exact same thing. I took the MCAT June 19th last year but I went ahead and applied to all 16 of my schools. I pre-wrote my secondaries and crossed my fingers, hoping for the best haha. Turned out in my favor. I also made sure that the rest of my app was solid though and I applied very broadly since I was gambling with my MCAT.
 
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