How did WARS work for you?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Is that friend... Goro?

To answer your question, it was pretty accurate for me. I'm in the S level and got interviews to 10 of the 17 T20 schools (categories 1 and 2) I applied to. So far, I have been accepted to 6 of these schools.
 
Yes, WARS was the backbone of my school list (ty @WedgeDawg). My WARS was 89, which recommends 22 total schools, but neurosis bumped me up to 30. In retrospect, 22 would have been plenty.

I have listed the school categories below. Schools with II in green, pre-II rejection in red, asterisk for acceptance.

Category 1 (TOP): Harvard*, Stanford*, UCSF*, Penn, WashU, Yale, Columbia, Chicago
Category 2 (HIGH): Vanderbilt, Pitt, UCSD, Cornell, Northwestern, Mt Sinai, Emory
Category 3 (MID): Ohio State, USC-Keck, Rochester*, Dartmouth*
Category 4 (LOW): SLU, Cincinnati, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin
Category 5 (STATE): UCD*, UCI
Category 6 (LOW YIELD): Tufts, Brown, BU, Rush
 
Last edited:
WARS 88, rejections pre-interview from 15 out of 22 schools I applied to.

Interviews at two Category 1, three Category 2, and two Category 6 schools. Ultimately accepted at one category 2 school (rejected from Harvard post-II and waitlisted at the 2 Category 6 schools. My first acceptance was one of my top choices so I decided to matriculate before I heard back from my remaining two category 1/2 schools).

I think LizzyM score might have been a better metric for me considering the number of rejections I got despite being “S tier.” My MCAT is on the lower end (bottom 10-25th percentile at category 1 schools) and I don’t think the rest of my app was extraordinary enough to make up for the MCAT score at most schools
 
WARS 84 by my reckoning, which is just below S level. Applied 23 MD/PhD (sent an app to UCLA for 24 but was rejected pre secondary as my mcat was expired by a few months for them).

Received 19 IIs. Attended 10, mostly at Top or High level schools.

My only pre II and post II rejections came from other Top level schools (Hopkins, UCSF, Columbia, Chicago, Tri-I pre II, Yale and HMS (MD only) post II).
 
I didn’t use it (think I saw it mid-cycle after I already applied. I was 2016-2017 cycle)... but I just went back and looked again.

My score was a 59 (E+ lol)
I did apply to some DO (cat 7), a couple low selectively (cat 4), all my state schools (cat 5), and some low yield (cat 6). If I used his system at application I should have only applied DO. So basically I had applied like a category D when I should have applied like an E.

As it turned out, I got zero MD interviews, but multiple DO acceptances. So in my case it was accurate.
 
S level, received 5 Category 1 IIs (out of 9 applied), 1 Category 2 II (out of 6 applied), 1 Category 3 II (out of 3 applied) and 2 Category 4-7 IIs (out of 3 applied, the 2 IIs were my state schools). I was a bit surprised that from an II perspective, the high/mid tier schools I applied to were pretty low yield. In retrospect, I wish I had saved some $$ and at the very least cut out the Category 3 schools and solely relied on my state schools as "safeties," but hindsight is 20/20 after all!

But yeah, overall WARS score was really helpful in making a ~20 school list and I feel satisfied with the outcome! Although looking back, I'm not sure why I added BU onto my list when it was listed as low yield lol.
 
I'm a latecomer to SDN, so I didnt find out about WARS (or LizzyM for that matter) until mid-cycle.

With a WARS of 66 (D-level), the system wasn't terribly predictive of my cycle. However, @WedgeDawg did warn it wasn't appropriate for disparate GPAs (ugpa <3.0, smp 4.0)

Applied to 39 MD schools; rejected pre-secondary from 2. Probably far too many category 1 and 2s. 18 II. Attended 16 of them.
Accepted to one category 1, three category 2, four category 4, two category 5, and five category 6. Pre-II Rs were all over the board. Funny how I could have made a reasonable list out of the 21 that outright rejected me and would've ended up being a reapplicant.
 
I would say it worked really for me. But I also I think I undershot my score (I'm somewhere between S and A) and applied way more than I needed in retrospect (no regrets though).

Put the schools from each category that I applied to, bolded IIs, and stars for acceptances.

Category 1 (TOP): Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins*, UCSF*, Penn*, WashU, Columbia, Chicago

Category2 (HIGH): Michigan*, UCLA, NYU*, UCSD, Northwestern*, Baylor, Emory

Category 3 (MID): UTSW, Rochester

Category 4 (LOW): USF-Morsani*, Cincinnati, Miami*,

Category 5 (State schools FL): FAU*, FIU*, UF, UCF*, NOVA (MD)

And then some invites from Texas schools (not sure what category they go in.) UTMB, UTSA*, McGovern*, and both TTechs
 
like gold, it gave me two scores and I used the good score to pick top schools and the bad score to pick bottom schools. I was able to get 11 interviews (attended 4) with it as a 3rd time re-applicant.

First two times I got 1 or 2 interviews.
 
samualjhatfield said:
Anyone else in that C - A group want to chime in? Lol I don’t think anyone expected the WARS to be wrong for the S types
Click to expand...
I have a WARS of 70 (C-level) and it worked out pretty well for me all things considered. I applied relatively close to what it suggested (no Cat. 1, only one Cat. 2, one Cat. 3, a bunch of Cat. 4-6, no Cat. 7) and I ended up with 4 IIs (three Cat. 4 and one Cat. 5) and one acceptance to a Cat. 4 school. I'm pleased that it recommended C-level applicants not apply DO, because I had planned on applying to like 10 DO schools until I did WARS, so it saved me a bunch of money there since my MD cycle did end up working out!
 
Worked pretty well for me, I was "C" level and I applied to mainly 4-6 schools with a few 2, 3, and 7 schools (total 27). I received 7 interview invites (attended 6) and I have 2 A (1 MD, 1 DO), 2 WL, and 2 pending decision. Category 4 schools were my "bread and butter" this cycle. If I were to make any improvements to the rating system, I would encourage "C" people to apply to some DOs rather than saying "do not apply" to DO schools. I would also apply to fewer out of state public schools that are included in the rating system
 
NeuroticButCute said:
I have a WARS of 70 (C-level) and it worked out pretty well for me all things considered. I applied relatively close to what it suggested (no Cat. 1, only one Cat. 2, one Cat. 3, a bunch of Cat. 4-6, no Cat. 7) and I ended up with 4 IIs (three Cat. 4 and one Cat. 5) and one acceptance to a Cat. 4 school. I'm pleased that it recommended C-level applicants not apply DO, because I had planned on applying to like 10 DO schools until I did WARS, so it saved me a bunch of money there since my MD cycle did end up working out!
Click to expand...

Sounds like we had pretty similar cycles! It's funny that I said "apply DO' and you said "don't apply DO". I applied to two DOs and it worked out nicely for me because I got one DO acceptance right away so I didn't have to prepare for a reapp. I would probably suggest C level people to only apply two or three DO schools if they are going to apply to any DO at all.
 
My WARS was 64. I applied to four category 2 schools, one category 3 school, five category 4 schools, my state school, and eleven category 6 schools. I interviewed and was accepted at one category 2 and one category 4. Interviewed at three category 6 schools and was waitlisted at those.

Overall my cycle turned out great!
 
My WARS was 53. That would put me at Level E. Suggestion is to only apply to DO schools (about 20). Ultimately, I applied to 24 MD schools and received 4 MD II. Applied to 6 DO schools (a 7th DO I didn't complete the secondary) and received 6 DO II.

As it stands, post II for MD schools: 0 A, 1 WL, 1 R. Waiting to hear back on 2.
As it stands, post II for DO schools: 3 A, 2 WL, 0 R



So altogether, I would say it was not very accurate as I received 4 MD II (and was rejected to my state MD school pre II). Disclaimer though is that I have 4+ years of full-time clinical work experience, a ~40% increase in first MCAT to retake MCAT score, and a U-shaped trend with high peaks.

EDIT: Here are the schools I decided to apply to (Interviews in green):

Category 4 (LOW): Wayne State, Creighton, Oakland, Indiana, Miami, MC Wisconsin, Vermont, Quinnipiac, Wake Forest

Category 5 (STATE): Illinois

Category 6 (LOW YIELD): Tulane, Tufts, Georgetown, Loyola, Rosalind Franklin, Drexel, Temple, GWU, NYMC, Albany, Rush, Seton Hall-Hackensack, Nova-Southeastern,
 
Last edited:
WARS 90. High stat applicant, strong research ECs - no real WOW factor in my app. Piggybacking off of Wakhoon for formatting. Green = interview, Red = pre-II R.

Category 1 (TOP): Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins, UCSF, Penn, WashU, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Chicago

Category 2 (HIGH): Michigan, NYU, Northwestern, Baylor, Mayo, Cornell

Category 3 (MID): UTSW

Category 5 (STATE): Interviewed every in-state school I applied to

Ending thoughts: From my application cycle - I feel as if I only have 1 offer that reflects how strong my WARS / LM score is. As a precautionary word to many applicants coming from average undergrads: you have an uphill battle to fight to get into top schools. You will need a theme in your app, some X factor, something that demonstrates how strong of an applicant you are.

Edit: didn't apply to case or emory - forgot to delete
 
Last edited:
Shammyguy3 said:
My WARS was 53. That would put me at Level E. Suggestion is to only apply to DO schools (about 20). Ultimately, I applied to 24 MD schools and received 4 MD II. Applied to 6 DO schools (a 7th DO I didn't complete the secondary) and received 6 DO II.

As it stands, post II for MD schools: 0 A, 1 WL, 1 R. Waiting to hear back on 2.
As it stands, post II for DO schools: 3 A, 2 WL, 0 R



So altogether, I would say it was not very accurate as I received 4 MD II (and was rejected to my state MD school pre II). Disclaimer though is that I have 4+ years of full-time clinical work experience, a ~40% increase in first MCAT to retake MCAT score, and a U-shaped trend with high peaks.
Click to expand...
I would say on the contrary in regards to it not working for you. It suggested all DO and no M.D., and you eceived no MD acceptance regardless of your interviews. Congratulations on your deal acceptances though, it seemed o be pretty accurate for that
 
samualjhatfield said:
I would say on the contrary in regards to it not working for you. It suggested all DO and no M.D., and you eceived no MD acceptance regardless of your interviews. Congratulations on your deal acceptances though, it seemed o be pretty accurate for that
Click to expand...

I disagree. The suggestion of foregoing applying to any MD school indicates that I am not competitive for MD schools. MD schools would not extend interview invitations to non-competitive applicants. WARS (and LM) in my understanding is a tool to help compile a list of schools to apply to in hopes of receiving interview offers.

Quote from the WedgeDwg's Applicant Rating thread (the OP): "As some of you may have seen, I've recently been pioneering a new system that helps applicants figure out where they stand with respect to medical school admissions as well as giving them a place to start when it comes to creating a school list. "
 
WARS 87, white as can be, went to a "little ivy," unique clinical experience. I applied to WAY too many low yield schools, but I'm a snooty Northeasterner who wanted to stay on the east coast. I goofed by applying before I knew about WARS, so in hindsight wish I had applied to more category 3 and 4 schools instead of 1s and 6s, but was glad I took a chance and aimed high!

Category 1 (TOP): 1 II, 1 WL / 8 applications
Category 2 (HIGH): I II, 1 WL / 4 applications
Category 3 (MID): 3 II, 1 accept, 1 WL, 1 tbd / 4 applications
Category 4 (LOW): 0 II / 3 applications
Category 5 (State): 1 II, 1 tbd / 1 application
Category 6 (LOW YIELD): 1 II, 1 A / 7 applications
 
Last edited:
I
Kracin said:
WARS 90. High stat applicant, strong research ECs - no real WOW factor in my app. Piggybacking off of Wakhoon for formatting. Green = interview, Red = pre-II R.

Category 1 (TOP): Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins, UCSF, Penn, WashU, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Chicago

Category 2 (HIGH): Michigan, NYU, Northwestern, Baylor, Mayo, Case Western, Cornell, Emory

Category 3 (MID): UTSW

Category 5 (STATE): Interviewed every in-state school I applied to

Ending thoughts: From my application cycle - I feel as if I only have 1 offer that reflects how strong my WARS / LM score is. As a precautionary word to many applicants coming from average undergrads: you have an uphill battle to fight to get into top schools. You will need a theme in your app, some X factor, something that demonstrates how strong of an applicant you are.
Click to expand...
interesting, so those ‘top’ schools really do appear to want to see some kind of differentiation factor
 
Worked great for me! WARS score between S and A level but wanted to be conservative so I followed the A category recommendations ($ prevented me from applying to 25 schools). Ended up with IIs at ~75% of the schools where I completed secondaries.
 
Shammyguy3 said:
I disagree. The suggestion of foregoing applying to any MD school indicates that I am not competitive for MD schools. MD schools would not extend interview invitations to non-competitive applicants. WARS (and LM) in my understanding is a tool to help compile a list of schools to apply to in hopes of receiving interview offers.

Quote from the WedgeDwg's Applicant Rating thread (the OP): "As some of you may have seen, I've recently been pioneering a new system that helps applicants figure out where they stand with respect to medical school admissions as well as giving them a place to start when it comes to creating a school list. "
Click to expand...

If you were competitive for MD schools, you would have converted at least one of your 4 interviews into an acceptance. Sometimes schools will have their reasons for interviewing marginal candidates which it appears you were. Let us know how those last 2 MD interviews turn out. It may be that those 4 interviews were a waste of your time and money in the end which would be too bad.
 
Shammyguy3 said:
I disagree. The suggestion of foregoing applying to any MD school indicates that I am not competitive for MD schools. MD schools would not extend interview invitations to non-competitive applicants. WARS (and LM) in my understanding is a tool to help compile a list of schools to apply to in hopes of receiving interview offers.

Quote from the WedgeDwg's Applicant Rating thread (the OP): "As some of you may have seen, I've recently been pioneering a new system that helps applicants figure out where they stand with respect to medical school admissions as well as giving them a place to start when it comes to creating a school list. "
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I think as a non-traditional application with a "pointy" application (many many more years direct clinical XP than the average, traditional applicant), the MD interviews you received were well targeted for schools that value that kind of experience (Rush, NYMC, Ros...). @WedgeDawg never intended this to be a divination mechanism, and one must know their own app and have a good sense of what some schools value to get the most use out of it as well.
 
Hi guys, thanks for using the system and I’m glad it helped a lot of you out.

As always, I want to point out that WARS was intended as a means to create a first draft school list, which is then modified by doing things like posting in WAMC (which a lot of people do) or speaking with an advisor (on SDN or otherwise). This will nearly always result in a better yield than using WARS alone!
 
WedgeDawg said:
Hi guys, thanks for using the system and I’m glad it helped a lot of you out.

As always, I want to point out that WARS was intended as a means to create a first draft school list, which is then modified by doing things like posting in WAMC (which a lot of people do) or speaking with an advisor (on SDN or otherwise). This will nearly always result in a better yield than using WARS alone!
Click to expand...

Thanks for making the system! It helped me to have the sheet as a way to view my own application in a more unbiased way.
 
I think WARS might be a little too top heavy as far as school lists go (for me at least), but overall it tracked my app cycle pretty well and I recommend it to every premed I know who is applying this cycle.
 
I never used it while applying, but looking back, it was fairly accurate. URM and was level D. Applied to roughly the same number of schools as it said and coincidentally in the same categories as well. All MD no DO. 4 II and 3 A all from category 4-7. Low stats, very good story and other achievements as well. Only thing I saw that I didn't agree with was the GPA trend. It added/subtracted 4 points which I thought was too much. For most schools if you have a 3.7-4.0 gpa with no upward trend, but rather consistency, you should be better off than someone who has an upward trend IMO.
 
I applied with a 3.5x cGPA/3.4x sGPA and a >525 MCAT. My personal statement and essays were serviceable but nothing special.

According to WARS, I was an "A" applicant with a 80-84 (being conservative), so my list is as follows (bold + underline = accepted, underline = interview, strikeout = pre-II R):

Category 1: Harvard, UCSF, Penn, UChicago, WashU
Category 2: NYU, Emory, Cornell, Mount Sinai, Case Western
Category 3: Ohio State, USC, Rochester, Dartmouth, Einstein, Hofstra
Category 4: SLU, Cincinnati, SUNY Downstate, Western Michigan
Category 5: Buffalo, Mizzou
 
Curious how useful this tool could be for international applicants! Or whether this makes a difference. For reference, WARS of 81, holding 1 category 4 acceptance, on waitlists at 3 category 2 schools, and 2 category 6 waitlists! (and yes, international non-Canadian)
 
I didn’t use WARS at all to make my list, but it was kind of fun to overlay it on the results after the fact. The WARS formula puts me at 65-70, so C-D level. Looks like I pretty much unwittingly followed the guidelines (though I didn't apply DO, as suggested for D-level applicants).


Category 1 (TOP): Hopkins (5%)

Category 2 (HIGH): Mt Sinai*, Emory (9%)

Category 3 (MID): Dartmouth, Einstein, UNC (13%)

Category 4 (LOW): EVMS, Vermont, Minnesota, VTech (18%)

Category 5 (STATE): Maryland (5%)

Category 6 (LOW YIELD): Jefferson, Tulane, Tufts, Georgetown, Brown, BU, Loyola*, Rosalind Franklin, GWU, Penn State (did not attend), Rush (50%)

*Category 4-6: 73%

(Withdrew from Einstein, Rush, Rosalind Franklin, and Jefferson pre-II decision).


So if I had used this scheme, I guess you could say it worked well for me, seeing that I got scattered hits from across the board.
 
Fairly accurate for me, WARS score in the A range!

ORM, <520 MCAT, no pubs, nontrad. Piggy backing off of previous formatting - interviews / acceptances as follows:

Category 1 (TOP): Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins, Penn, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Chicago

Category 2 (HIGH): Michigan, NYU, Cornell, Northwestern, Mayo, Case Western, Emory, Pitt

Category 3 (MID): UVA, Ohio State, Rochester, Dartmouth, Einstein, Hofstra, BU, Brown

Category 4-6 (LOW, LOW YIELD, and STATE): Rutgers RWJ, Tufts, GW, Jefferson, Temple
 
Last edited:
Worked pretty well for me. Got 17 interviews fro my list I made off of it. Attended 15 of them. Got accepted to 3 of them. Two category 2 and one category 3. Interviewed at several category 1 schools but waitlisted at them (currently on 6 waitlists 3 category 1, 2 category 2, and 1 category 3 school) or still haven't heard a decision. Overall it was pretty accurate since I made my list from there and then also added all my in state options. I also played it safe while filling it out and underestimated some stuff so that might have been part of it.
 
Glad I took WARS & LizzyM scores with a grain of salt and didn't really use them to make my school list. The advice via WARS was to not apply at all to MD or DO. This process is absolutely not one size fits all, and I'd say that WARS/LizzyM should be looked at to be realistic about expectations, but those are not the end-all-be-all for the "extreme nontrad"* crowd (which is usually stated).

59 WARS
17 MD apps
5 II's that converted to 4 A's, 1 WL

I applied to Cat 4 and below MD schools, threw in one Cat 2 school for fun. Delighted to begin as an M1 this year.

*I think a lot of folks designate themselves as "nontrad" these days, so I think a separate category of "extreme nontrads" (ie career changers) should exist/be described separately. Just my $0.02.
 
BunsenBeaker said:
Glad I took WARS & LizzyM scores with a grain of salt and didn't really use them to make my school list. The advice via WARS was to not apply at all to MD or DO. This process is absolutely not one size fits all, and I'd say that WARS/LizzyM should be looked at to be realistic about expectations, but those are not the end-all-be-all for the "extreme nontrad"* crowd (which is usually stated).

59 WARS
17 MD apps
5 II's that converted to 4 A's, 1 WL

I applied to Cat 4 and below MD schools, threw in one Cat 2 school for fun. Delighted to begin as an M1 this year.

*I think a lot of folks designate themselves as "nontrad" these days, so I think a separate category of "extreme nontrads" (ie career changers) should exist/be described separately. Just my $0.02.
Click to expand...
I agree with both the notion that WARS and LizzyM is not really perfect for non traditional.
Also the notion of what a nontrad is lol I have a hard time calling myself nontrad because despite military, spouse, child, career change, home ownership, I am only 23...not really nontrad in age.
 
samualjhatfield said:
I agree with both the notion that WARS and LizzyM is not really perfect for non traditional.
Also the notion of what a nontrad is lol I have a hard time calling myself nontrad because despite military, spouse, child, career change, home ownership, I am only 23...not really nontrad in age.
Click to expand...

Right, I don't think nontrad is so much about age vs life experiences. You definitely qualify as part of the "extreme nontrad" crowd if you've got those things on your life resume already. Perhaps some SDN flair is in order. I'd like mine to say "get off my lawn" or "back when it was hard."
 
WARS was mostly accurate for me. I didn't follow the school recommendations to a "T," however, as I thought they were a bit top heavy for me. By my calculations I had a WARS score of 84, "A" category. I applied to 21 schools, received 11 interview invites, attended 6 interviews, and received 3 acceptances and 2 waitlists thus far.

I'm stealing @wontonsoup 's system:

Category 1 (TOP): Penn, WashU, Chicago
Category 2 (HIGH): NYU, Pitt, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Emory, Baylor
Category 3 (MID): UVA, Dartmouth, Ohio State
Category 4 (LOW): USF, UF, UCF, Miami, Indiana
Category 5 (STATE): FSU, FIU
Category 6 (LOW YIELD): BU

Bold = accepted, green = interview.
 
I used WARS, and believe that it was not quite accurate for me, at least as far as the demarkation of different categories of schools. I was A-B level, applied to a few more schools than recommended, and these were my interview invitations:

Category 1 (TOP): 2 / 7 schools
Category 2 (HIGH): 2 / 8 schools
Category 3 (MID): 2 / 6 schools
Category 4 (LOW): 6 / 8 schools

I was surprised that I had roughly equal II rate across Categories 1-3 (with no special ties to any of the schools)
 
nopenope9ee said:
I used WARS, and believe that it was not quite accurate for me, at least as far as the demarkation of different categories of schools. I was A-B level, applied to a few more schools than recommended, and these were my interview invitations:

Category 1 (TOP): 2 / 7 schools
Category 2 (HIGH): 2 / 8 schools
Category 3 (MID): 2 / 6 schools
Category 4 (LOW): 6 / 8 schools

I was surprised that I had roughly equal II rate across Categories 1-3 (with no special ties to any of the schools)
Click to expand...
It seems categories 1-3 are almost all OOS friendly T20 type private schools who are all looking for mostly the same thing (high stats, research, high clinical volunteering and commitment to learning)
 
Kracin said:
WARS 90. High stat applicant, strong research ECs - no real WOW factor in my app. Piggybacking off of Wakhoon for formatting. Green = interview, Red = pre-II R.

Category 1 (TOP): Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins, UCSF, Penn, WashU, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Chicago

Category 2 (HIGH): Michigan, NYU, Northwestern, Baylor, Mayo, Cornell

Category 3 (MID): UTSW

Category 5 (STATE): Interviewed every in-state school I applied to

Ending thoughts: From my application cycle - I feel as if I only have 1 offer that reflects how strong my WARS / LM score is. As a precautionary word to many applicants coming from average undergrads: you have an uphill battle to fight to get into top schools. You will need a theme in your app, some X factor, something that demonstrates how strong of an applicant you are.

Edit: didn't apply to case or emory - forgot to delete
Click to expand...

Me and Kracin had almost the same cycle II wise except I didn't get WashU and didnt apply to Duke. replace strong research with strong service. I think I had a medium WOW factor in my app though (like a 2.5-3 on the WARS life achievement). However, ORM, TX, low tier undergrad, and age <20 could have also had an effect. WARS didn't work too well in my case
 
Last edited:
According to WARS I was borderline A/B. With the exception of Category 6, for the most part I followed the recommendations, and with the exception of Category 6, for the most part it was accurate: (green=II, *=A)

Category 1: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago (waiting to hear)
Category 2: Michigan, Vanderbilt, Pitt, Mayo, Case Western, Emory
Category 3: UVA, Rochester*, Dartmouth*, Hofstra*
Category 4: Vermont, Quinnipiac
Category 5: UMass*
Category 6: Tulane, Tufts, Brown (WL), BU*, Drexel (didn't attend), GWU*

Ultimately, I'm very glad I chose to apply to so many "low-yield" schools, as almost half of my IIs ended up being from those schools! I only had geographic ties to two of those schools, but I felt like I could articulate strong reasons for wanting to attend all of the Category 6 schools I applied to.

Overall, though, this tool was incredibly useful to me and I am so appreciative for it! Thank you, @WedgeDawg 🙂
 
Potatoes&Avocados said:
According to WARS I was borderline A/B. With the exception of Category 6, for the most part I followed the recommendations, and with the exception of Category 6, for the most part it was accurate: (green=II, *=A)

Category 1: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago (waiting to hear)
Category 2: Michigan, Vanderbilt, Pitt, Mayo, Case Western, Emory
Category 3: UVA, Rochester*, Dartmouth*, Hofstra*
Category 4: Vermont, Quinnipiac
Category 5: UMass*
Category 6: Tulane, Tufts, Brown (WL), BU*, Drexel (didn't attend), GWU*

Ultimately, I'm very glad I chose to apply to so many "low-yield" schools, as almost half of my IIs ended up being from those schools! I only had geographic ties to two of those schools, but I felt like I could articulate strong reasons for wanting to attend all of the Category 6 schools I applied to.

Overall, though, this tool was incredibly useful to me and I am so appreciative for it! Thank you, @WedgeDawg 🙂
Click to expand...

I'm an upcoming applicant borderline A/B too, are you URM/disadvantaged/veteran? Congrats on such a successful cycle!
 
I think it was pretty accurate for me.
WARS ~94 ORM traditional applicant
Green is interview invite (final decision in parentheses if known), Red is pre-II rejection

Category 1: Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins, UCSF, Penn (WL), WashU (WL), Yale, Columbia (A), Chicago (WL)

Category 2: Michigan, UCLA (WL), NYU (R), Pitt, Cornell, Northwestern (A), Mt Sinai (WL), Baylor, Case Western

Category 3: UVA (A), Ohio State (A), USC-Keck

Category 4: Cincinnati (WL)

Category 5: State school (A)

Overall thoughts: Without the WARS calculator I wouldn't have felt as confident applying to so many top schools, but I am glad that I did.
 
Last edited:
I would say WARS was somewhat accurate for my case but then again, I didn't exactly know how to accurately factor in my GPA post SMP.

I would say I was safely in the E level however even when I played around a bit, 1 A and 2 WL for DO schools, 1 A and 1 WL for MD schools. No luck at all with my state schools, but my 1 acceptance was to an OOS state school, does that still count for state school? 😛
 
Adding mine. My WARS was between 86 - 91, so category S. I would say that it was pretty accurate for me. Same scheme as Wahkoon with a few edits:
Green * = acceptance
Green = Interviewed and Withdrew
Blue = Interviewed and Waitlisted (withdrew from all)
Red = Pre-II rejection
Red * = Post-Interview rejection

Also, applied MD/PhD only, so no state preferences.

Category 1 (TOP): Harvard*, Hopkins, UCSF (MD only interview; did not attend), Penn, WashU*, Yale*, Columbia, Duke, Chicago
Category 2 (HIGH): Michigan, Vanderbilt*, Pitt, UCSD, Northwestern*, Mt Sinai*, Mayo, Emory*
Category 3 (MID): USC-Keck, Einstein*, UNC
Category 4 (LOW): Iowa*, VCU*, Wisconsin
Others: UAB, Penn State, Colorado, University of Illinois-Chicago*, Minnesota*

Edit: I applied to more schools than suggested because these were MD only suggestions; didn't want to take any chances
 
Last edited:
WARS 90-100, LM~83, T5 UG, ORM
Category 1 (TOP): 3 II: 1R 1 WL 1 Waiting decision(T10)
Category 2 (HIGH): 3 II: 2R 1A (T20)
7 II's / 20, turned down an II
WARS tended to overpredict; too much WARS score from LM and too much emphasis on research/pubs
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just filled out the calculator and got a 41, which is in the E category. Based on this, I should have only applied to DO, which I did not. I spent a boatload of money and applied early to a wide variety of schools, mainly in category 4 and below, with the exception of a couple in category 2 and 3.

Not sure if I was too conservative in assigning ratings to myself, but I had the following in terms of interviews and acceptances:
Category 2 (High): 1 II/IA, 1 WL
Category 4 (low): 2 II/IA= 1 R, 1 decision pending
Category 5 (state): 1II/IA = 1 decision pending
Category 6 (low yield): 3 II, 2 IA = 2 acceptances
Category 7 (DO): 1 II, declined.
 
WARS was about 70-74, LM 67

Category 4 (LOW): MC Wisconsin (post II R), Toledo (WL) , VCU (post II R)

Category 5 (STATE): Wright State (WL)

Category 6 (LOW YIELD): Drexel (A), GWU (WL), Temple (A)

7IIs/32 schools

Overall pretty happy with my cycle as a reapplicant. My WARS last cycle was like 67-70 and I got 2 IIs so my score didnt move too much but ended up getting more interviews than expected.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
How important are Work and Activity Descriptions?
Replies
10
Views
2K
LizzyM
LizzyM
C
Formatting work&activities for multiple publications
Replies
4
Views
901
circestree
C
M
Would this work for a challenge essay?
Replies
2
Views
523
misosoop
M
C
Does special education paraeducator work count as clinical experience for med school?
Replies
1
Views
189
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Did you get accepted? Tell SDN!
Replies
0
Views
1K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Top Bottom