So these type of schools would be like Boston, Rochester, Penn, UCSF, for example. Schools that just ask you for basic information and a check for the secondary. I'm gonna assume that the majority of them don't send secondaries to everyone who applies, meaning they've at least taken a look at your AMCAS. Does this mean whether you get an interview or not pretty much rides exclusively on the quality of your recommendations? Or am I completely off base... I ask b/c I got rejected from Rochester, which is making me question the nature of my reference letters. Of course each writer promised a positive letter, but now I'm wondering if some might have been "cookie cutter" letters.
Rochester does send a secondary to everyone. Some schools even state on their website that a secondary is sent out after the AMCAS is received, not reviewed. The whole secondary game is a huge racket for some schools. They send out secondaries to everyone, without review of the AMCAS, and say that they don't even start to review you until "your file is complete". That way they get lots of money, and people with MCAT scores in the teens can't complain that the school sent them a secondary just to get their money when they didn't have a chance - since the school actually hasn't seen anything on their file other than address. The worst school for this that I applied to was MSUCHM. They send everyone who applied a request for a "processing fee". YOu have to send them $55 before they will review your AMCAS, which you ALREADY paid to have reviewed, then they decide whether or not to send a secondary. At least the others let you fill it out! The non-essay secondaries are silly. they ask info already on your app, ask for letters, and then money. Oh, and if you've ever been convicted of a crime. $80!! How much more helpful could this make it, when the only new info is the letters. Maybe they think they can't just ask us for money, so they try to "fool" us by sending a redundant form with the money request. Ha, MSU just bluntly says, "I need more money to consider you. No more info. Just more money." There. Venting feels good sometimes
The fee that you pay when you submit your AMCAS covers only the charges for AMCAS (mailing, correcting, transcript processing). Yes, I know that the AMCAS fee is expensive but...
They are in it for the money!!! Schools like Boston University which do not even have a form to send back with your check for ~$100!!! They do not even attempt to make you feel like they look at anything other than your numbers. If you consider that they receive about 10,000 applications at 100 bones a pop then they bring in around 1,000,000 bucks a year in application fees alone!! It is a racket, plain and simple because I do not think they need all that cash for postage and stationary.
I have no idea what BU does with the fees, but most medical schools use the fees to pay for the operation of the Admissions Offices. Postage and stationary is but a small part of the costs. It takes people who have salaries, all kinds of expensive electronic machines, telephone, heating bills, electric bills, etc. Expensive faculty time diverted to interviews and admissions decisions. The more applicants, the more work generated. Of the 10,000 or so applicants to BU, probably more than half have little chance of getting into any medical school at all. If they choose to apply anyway, and submit a secondary, then they must contribute to the costs as well. I have no connection with any medical school and I am not justifying the additional fees, but simply explaining why schools have fees with secondaries. And of course, AMCAS fees go to AMCAS, not the medical schools. A medical education is not inexpensive, but paperwork contributes to costs which must be borne.
Obviously I understand that there are overhead costs that must be borne by each office of admissions. I should not have been so carried away in my rhetoric but I totally disagree that "the bulk of those that apply to schools like BU have no chance of getting into medical school". I hope that you were joking about that unless you have some information to back it up. I would imagine that many thousands of people apply to places like BU, George Washington, Georgetown, Tufts, etc. are not only for their programs but also because they are located in excellent cities! Hence I believe that the admissions office is taking advantage of the applicants to a degree. I realize that there must be some fee BUT come on, BU doesn't ask for any additional paperwork than a check for 100 bucks. Perhaps they are using this fee as a means to limit the number of applicants. I think that a more appropriate way to weed out applicants to a school would be to require more effort from the applicant than simply filling out a check (e.g. Stanford's multiplicity of essays as part of their secondaries Q: How many people really want to sit down and right 12 extra essays? A: Only those that are seriously interested in Stanford Medical School! I will get off of my soapbox but understand that I am not just throwing out an uninformed opinion about application fees, etc.
