Good guides to using the MSAR?

[over]

I bought the MSAR. Planning to prewrite some secondaries over my winter break. I expected like charts and stuff and more specific on what the school is looking for. Like their ranking on the important of research, leadership, etc. Overall I just see class breakdown and school mission statement- stuff I can already get on their website.

I think I'm using it wrong but I can't figure it out. Can someone help me out here?

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[ampersandwich]

Most people use it to make their school lists, especially in calculating whether a public school is OOS-friendly or not. For example, IU and UC Riverside are both public schools but have very different policies in its class make-up.

1. IU interviews 10.7% of its OOS applicants; their matriculating class is made up of 21.9% OOS students. I would say it's fairly OOS-friendly, especially if you have ties to the state/midwest.
2. UC Riverside interviews 0% of its OOS applicants; their class is made up of 0% OOS students. Obviously, if you're not a CA-applicant then you should avoid applying to this school.

You can also use it for finding specific deadlines, to determine if there is waitlist movement, if the curriculum is P/F or ranked, how much research funding there is, etc. It's a very useful tool but at this point in time you should just use it to create your school list.

 

[Stride]

MSAR can be thought of as a centralized location for comparing schools' statistics. This will be extremely useful when you make a list of schools to which you plan applying. However, you will still have to go the individual schools' websites in order to write your secondary applications.

I applied this cycle and really only used MSAR to look at the percentage of the matriculant pool that is out of state, the median GPA/MCAT, and the cost of the school. Unfortunately, you cannot calculate the percentage of applicants who are accepted to the school, which is arguably the most important statistic.

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

Prewriting secondaries over winter break? Homie Im gonna advise you to relax. Because

1) The prompts youre responding to are this years cycle, not next years questions.

2) Theres many better ways to spend winter break. Like studying for the MCAT (if you havent taken it)

3) The MCAT will play a huge role in where you can apply. Without that score, you cant generate a school list.

 

[over]

Prewriting secondaries over winter break? Homie Im gonna advise you to relax. Because

1) The prompts youre responding to are this years cycle, not next years questions.

2) Theres many better ways to spend winter break. Like studying for the MCAT (if you havent taken it)

3) The MCAT will play a huge role in where you can apply. Without that score, you cant generate a school list.

yea i was just giving an excuse to ask my question lmao