Did I apply to too many schools?

[clittle1981]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I just sent my AMCAS in a few days ago and applied to a lot of schools. Some of my friends told me that I didn't need to apply to so many schools since my undergrad has a very high success rate for people who have an average of 3.4 or high (about 82% acceptance rate). Others have told me that with my stats that I should be retaking the MCAT, but I'm not sure that I can improve my score. I have a 3.45 average with a low GPA first semester of freshman year, 28 MCAT (9, 9, 10), double major in biology and psychology at Lehigh University in PA, shadowed ER doc at hospital, no bench research but work on a public health project during the summer to evaluate health care delivery to poor women on Virginia's Eastern Shore (where I'm from), 2 years in a sorority, held position as philanthropy chair, and 1 year in community service fraternity. the schools I applied to: EVMS, MCV/VCU, UVA, MCP-Hahnemann (changing to Drexel?), Maryland, Jefferson, Temple, Penn State, Wake Forest, NYMC, GWU, SLU, Einstein, Creighton, MCW, Loyola, Finch, Tufts, BU, UVM, Dartmouth, Tulane, Albany, Pittsburgh. what do you think; did I waste my money since according to what I hear I have the best chance at MCP since they really like Lehigh grads or at one of my state schools? thanks..

 

[NineSixteen]

Hi clittle-

welcome to SDN! I don't think there's such a thing as applying to too many schools. Sure it's a lot of money, but not really that much, you can and probably will decide later to drop a few...some before you even do their secondaries, some after, some after you interview. Basically it's impossible to say which school you'll be happy at (and where you'll get accepted) so early in the game. So apply to lots on AMCAS, it's only $30 for each school...the worst thing you can do is decide you want to apply to a school after the deadline is past, so what you did it great 🙂 And I didn't count, but it looks like you applied to about 20 (?) which is pretty much what everyone does. You're right on track at this point 🙂

Good Luck!

 

[Dr. MAXY]

Just like a Probabilty assumption in statistics, The more schools you applied to, the Better. GOOD LUCK.

 

[Amma]

i have almost exactly the same numbers and activites as you and I applied and did not retake the mcat because, honestly, I didnt want to. I wanted a nice summer vacation!
So, I applied to about 17 schools, finished 16 secondaries, had 5 interviews, have one acceptance (Finch) and 3 other waitlists.
I think that you are competitive and will be able to get interviews at certain schools. Its funny, but I realized each school does have a certain feeling about it and who they want attending (research people, 'normal' people, over achievers...). So, you may not get interveiws at some schools that are more research oriented, but schools like finch and NYMC seemed to like people with around 28-32s who are more community minded. I tried to PM you, but I guess you dont have it on. I can tell you more about what I did, let me know.

 

[Doctora Foxy]

I think you applied to a good number of schools, and a good range as well...what was that, 23? I applied to 22 schools on AMCAS, but I only had the energy to complete 18 secondaries....I had a 3.66/27...which resulted in 6 interviews (I applied in October) and 3 acceptances, 2 of which were just last week...you definitely have a better chance of getting in since you applied to a large number of schools. Since your gpa and mcats are lower than the average accepted student's, it's important that you applied to so many schools...although you never know what will happen! It's great that you applied early, so you'll probably get lots of interviews (and sooner rather than later 🙂 ).

Best of luck! And don't forget that the average Californian applies to 25 schools, so 23 is not really overboard for anyone. :wink: Now save up your energy for all of those secondaries! 😀

 

[UCLA2000]

I applied to more schools with higher stats than you. In reality your MCAT is not all that strong, and your gpa is around average. In my opinion you did NOT apply to too many schools. If you had come to me prior to applying and asked me how many schools you should apply to I would have said "the schools you apply to, the better your chances will be."

 

[TweetiePie]

with overall gpa of 3.5, sci gpa 3.94, mcat 30, years of administrative and research exp, volunteering, etc, i have applied to 46 schools, 45 secondaries, 18 interviews (only went to 12), accepted to 4 (including 1st choice), still waitlisted at 6. the more, the better!

 

[Tweetie_bird]

I have somewhat similar stats. 3.35 GPA. 3.2 BCPM. Very strong upward trend. 27Q MCAT which I won't take again this Aug atleast. Good clinical and leadership, handful of publications.

Applying to 34 schools, both research and clinical oriented. So there.... 🙁

Tweetie

 

[reesie0726]

I think that is probably a good number of schools to apply to. Really you did not apply to alot of schools considering the med school app process can be so random sometimes. Your stats are kind of average so get those secondaries in right away so the adcoms will be able to look at you quickly.

 

[Katie]

although your stats are a little below average, you have several factors in your advantage which some SDNers might not know about. First, Lehigh is a very well-respected school which is ranked in the Top 50 by U.S. News. Second, the fact that you are from a rural area is great for your application, as many schools like to recruit students from rural areas to balance out their class composition. Finally, that public health project you worked on is pretty unique for an undergrad, as most people tend to have bench research experience, but this is just my experience. good luck!

 

[relatively prime]

You should apply to as many schools as you can afford and as many as you have time for. I believe that rule goes for just about everyone. Better safe than sorry. If applying to 5-10 extra schools this year can potentially save you the agony of reapplying next year... isn't it more than worth it?

 

[oldman]

you can't apply to too many schools, unless you do crappy on the secondaries cause there are too many of them! In the long run, it's better to make sure you get into the best possible school as soon as possible.

 

[simpleG]

tweetie pie, and whoever else applied to a lot of schools ~30+

did you have a problem keeping up the quality of your application itself? for example, if i only applied to 5 schools, i'd work really hard on each of them, writing excellent secondaries, and spending a lot of time on each one. but i'm applying to 39 schools, and i'm worried that the actual writing of each secondary may suffer because i'll be swamped.

i think that everyone on SDN is pushing, "apply to more schools, the more the better!" but couldn't it be detrimental because the actual application may not be presented as well? just some thoughts. i'm still glad that i applied to that many schools...i'm just wondering whether there's any thoughts in that regard.

 

[oldman]

Many secondary questions can be reused with some modification. Also, you have about 2 weeks to work on them. The most I had at one time might have been 3 secondaries. They all came at different times.

 

[Drako]

Personally, I don't think you apply to too many school. It is better to spend the money now and gain an acceptance (or multiples) than to be stingy and not getting into any program. I know someone who didn't want to spend the money (and she has money too!) and only applied to seven schools. She is going to reapply next year and going to spend the rest of this year angry at herself. Good luck!

 

[simpleG]

k cool, samoa, oldman

oldman (feels strange to call someone "old man") good to know that you only had ~3 at a time, as long as i stay on top of it.

samoa, i hope it's that way...but some of those essay questions posted earlier on one of those compilation secondary threads seemed pretty involved. i guess it's no pain, no...

 

[clittle1981]

thank you all very much for your thoughtful replies.. I now feel much better about having put down such a large chunk of change🙂 I am even thinking of adding a few more schools like USUHS and Georgetown. I know OHSU is a really long shot, but I have heard that they consider some out-of-staters for their MD/MPH program (which I am interested in), how does that work and what are their requirements? thanks for any information.

 

[meatloaf king]

I guess I'm in the minority on this thread, but I applied to 13 schools and felt comfortable with that along with my associated scores (3.5, 12V,10P,10B,T) and other junk. I thought about more but it just seemed like overkill with the majority of the other schools only taking a very small number of out of state applicants.

 

[rajneel1]

i applied to 30....so i think you did okay to apply to that many.