How do I go about selecting which medical schools I want to apply to?

[sinfin]

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I was wondering how do I go about selecting which medical schools I want to apply to. I know for sure I want to be on the east coast, but how do I determine which programs I like i.e. organ based learning vs. whatever else is out there. Do you guys know of any good website where I can do my research on medical schools. Thanks

 

[kmedgal]

The princeton review website is fairly helpful. You can conduct a search based on criteria such as public/private, urban/suburban, and GPA and MCAT scores, but for a more comprehensive guide, I recommend buying or borrowing the MSAR. Once you have narrowed your list down, research a particular school's curriculum on their web site. Also, it's easy to eliminate schools based on whether they even consider out-of-state applicants. That might be a good place to start as well.
Hope that helps.

 

[tBw]

http://www.amsa.org/resource/cardev/medresults.cfm

+ the MSAR

make a list of where you want to live, and correlate this with what schools match your GPA/MCAT and state residency if applicable.

 

[sinfin]

Sorry, I hope this doesnt sound dumb, but what is the MSAR and what does it stand for and where can I get it?

 

[curiousforever]

MSAR-Medical School Admissions Requirements.

go to http://www.premed411.com/pages/pmr.html for more informations.

 

[tBw]

its the book of medical schools published by the AAMC (American Asscon. Medical Colleges) and can be bought through their web site
www.aamc.org
or probably at your school bookshop. Your library may also have a copy but its a useful book to have for reviewing school details immediately before interviews etc.

 

[DarkChild]

bored... and it since its app time again, some folks might find the following list useful (ps - feel free to add stuff too 🙂 )
- location: dont bother applying to a school if you know it somewhere you'd rather not be.. it really comes back to haunt you around interview time 🙄
- curriculum: not really a biggie for me - i think too much is made of the PBL vs. lecture vs. whatever newfangled deal med schools are selling today. but this kind of stuff matters to some folks 😎
- tuition: a pretty important one to me - remember loan repayments can be ~$1K/month for 10 years if you take out something on the order of $100K
- tier: you want to apply to a pretty broad spectrum of schools - so make sure your list is comprised of reaches, levels and "safeties".
some others might include:
-research - if you're into some unique type of research for instance community health, epidemiology then definately look at schools which have opportunities for med students to do research in those fields. this kind of stuff isnt always immediately obvious from schools websites - SDN is a good place to find out stuff like this 😉. also if you're just interested in doing serious research then schools which provide a lot of support for these opportunities are clutch. stanford and yale come to mind with their 5th year free deal.
-combined degree opportunities - again if you're into that kind of stuff