how many DO schools to apply to

[traitorman]

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whats the average number of schools everyone is applying to? are any of you guys applying to all D.O. schools?

I have my top 6 down but I'm contemplating whether to just apply to all the schools. and put everything on my credit card

 

[sideways]

Unless you're a *****, you apply to all except the couple that cost $73 million a year for out-of-states to attend.

 

[traitorman]

lol. will do

 

[sideways]

good luck dude

 

[lokiperson]

Unless you're a *****, you apply to all except the couple that cost $73 million a year for out-of-states to attend.

If you're made of money and apparently not a "*****", then follow this advice. I personally would research each of the schools and choose the ones you are most interested in whether it's based on location, cost of attendance, etc. I had no interest in spending my money applying to schools that I wasn't interested in which is why I only applied to 7.

 

[Lewist02]

👍

DON'T apply to all of the D.O schools. Why would you want to fill out that many secondaries? And why spend all that money on the secondaries??? Just research the schools. If you have low stats, research the ones that take students with lower stats. I only applied to 8. I did just fine.

 

[BassCaster]

do not apply to every school. there's no need. if you're competitive, you'll get in somewhere. if your stats are 2.0 w/ 15mcat, applying to 1000 schools won't make a difference.

^ that was the advice i got last cycle... ignored it and applied to almost every school. spent my entire summer in a bookstore writing essays.
was accepted to my #1 in sept. 2009 (dmu!) and realized i waisted A LOT of $. f***'n s*** did I write a lot of essays! dmu didn't even require any either! Still bitter ;b

Can't blame you for wanting to apply to every school though. I'd probably do it again with all the uncertainty and all.

 

[sideways]

It's not expensive to apply to every DO school. You're a fool if you don't.

 

[Lewist02]

It's not expensive to apply to every DO school. You're a fool if you don't.

??? Maybe if your last name is Trump. I applied to 8 and it cost me over $600 dollars. Applying to all of them will cost you over $1200 just for PRIMARIES. After secondaries (especially the Touros), you'll have spent over $3000. Then think about the cost of traveling to all of those interviews (many which i'm sure you will turn down). Applying to all will be a foolish investment.

 

[sideways]

??? Maybe if your last name is Trump. I applied to 8 and it cost me over $600 dollars. Applying to all of them will cost you over $1200 just for PRIMARIES. After secondaries (especially the Touros), you'll have spent over $3000. Then think about the cost of traveling to all of those interviews (many which i'm sure you will turn down). Applying to all will be a foolish investment.

If you get rejected from your selection, I'm guessing you'll be singing a different tune. $3000 is NOTHING for a medical student. Are you going to be a medical student? Time will tell.

EDIT: You can also easily get a secondary fee waiver for DO schools. Please man, been there done that. Be selective at your own peril. I'm attending one of the best DO schools and was rejected from lesser DO schools. Just giving a heads up.

 

[lokiperson]

If you get rejected from your selection, I'm guessing you'll be singing a different tune. $3000 is NOTHING for a medical student. Are you going to be a medical student? Time will tell.

You're right, $3k is nothing for a medical student. How many people applying for medical school are medical students? We don't have loans to pay for everything like we do once we start school.

 

[sideways]

You're right, $3k is nothing for a medical student. How many people applying for medical schools are medical students? We don't have loans to pay for everything like we do once we start school.

Welcome to another challenge to getting into med school.

 

[lokiperson]

Welcome to another challenge to getting into med school.

Exactly. It's a challenge to come up with the money to apply for ALL schools unless you either have money saved up, your parents pay for it, or you use credit cards. If a person has the money to apply to all schools and doesn't care where they end up, then by all means, do it.

 

[Lewist02]

Welcome to another challenge to getting into med school.

What is the other challenge? And I tried to get secondary fee waivers. Parents make less than 60K together, Dad's on disability, wasn't able to get anything.

Traitor - hope you don't mind but I saw your stats in another thread. You have a good MCAT for UMDNJ and being instate will definitely help, but that sGPA may hurt. It shouldn't screen you out anywhere, but I would look at some schools who are lenient. (WVU, LECOM-E, VCOM are a few that I know).

 

[sideways]

Exactly. It's a challenge to come up with the money to apply for ALL schools unless you either have money saved up, your parents pay for it, or you use credit cards. If a person has the money for to apply to all schools and doesn't care where they end up, then by all means, do it.

Ignore me at your peril. (PS: I told you you can get out of secondary fees if you truly can't afford it, so if $600 is holding you back from applying to all schools, good luck to you).

 

[Lewist02]

Ignore me at your peril. (PS: I told you you can get out of secondary fees if you truly can't afford it, so if $600 is holding you back from applying to all schools, good luck to you).

Sorry just want to make it clear to the OP. $600 was for the primaries. After secondaries and traveling to 4 interviews (2 in NYC), I had spent $2700. Decide how much you can spend, and choose schools wisely. Are you applying to MD as well? All of my premed committee members suggested applying to ~15 schools. Less than ten was too little, more than 20 was a burden.

 

[lokiperson]

Ignore me at your peril. (PS: I told you you can get out of secondary fees if you truly can't afford it, so if $600 is holding you back from applying to all schools, good luck to you).

When I was applying, I was unable to get the fee waiver. I tried and was denied.

I was only interested in about 7 schools, and even then that was pushing it. I had no issues with applying and getting accepted by only selecting the few that I was interested in. Sure, if someone's stats are so-so, then applying broadly could help, but then again, where exactly would someone go about getting the money to apply if they didn't have that much? Credit cards are probably the only option. I'm not ignoring what you're saying, I just don't think it's financially feasible for a lot of people.

 

[SoulinNeed]

I'm planning on applying to (at most!!!) 10 schools, and I doubt I'll get that high, probably 8.

 

[traitorman]

i was definitely thinking about the costs of secondaries plus travel if i were to get an interview. but I'm scared about limiting my chances.

I'm not sure which stats you saw, lewist02, but the DO application had my science GPA listed as a 3.0 since they take the retake over the initial class so my stats for DO would be: 3.0 sGPA, 3.3 cGPA, and 28O mcat. 2.8 sGPA for MD.

and yea im applying to MD as well. Realistically, I know my chances for MD schools are slim to none but I was thinking about applying broadly.

maybe I should just do 15 DO schools, 5 MD schools? For MD I was thinking UMDNJ, Robertwood, Commonwealth, Florida International and University of Central Florida. (or maybe also Temple, Drexel, GW, Jefferson, and Georgetown?)

 

[HockeyDr09]

i was definitely thinking about the costs of secondaries plus travel if i were to get an interview. but I'm scared about limiting my chances.

I'm not sure which stats you saw, lewist02, but the DO application had my science GPA listed as a 3.0 since they take the retake over the initial class so my stats for DO would be: 3.0 sGPA, 3.3 cGPA, and 28O mcat. 2.8 sGPA for MD.

and yea im applying to MD as well. Realistically, I know my chances for MD schools are slim to none but I was thinking about applying broadly.

maybe I should just do 15 DO schools, 5 MD schools? For MD I was thinking UMDNJ, Robertwood, Commonwealth, Florida International and University of Central Florida. (or maybe also Temple, Drexel, GW, Jefferson, and Georgetown?)

Hey traitorman, I have stats very similar to yours and I applied to 13 schools (cycle that just opened, all D.O). It wound up costing a little over 500 for the primaries. If you really scout out the schools you'll see some that have strong preferences for people from specific regions or interest. Example, I noticed PNWU-COM had almost over 80% of northwest student acceptance. Seeing as i'm from NY and my stats are a little low I thought it was best to save the primary plus $125 secondary fee. Point is, if you look into the schools you'll see some schools favor a category you may fit into. I also saw OSU was heavy instate, and pikeville really wanted rural medicine exposure/interest. Hope that helps.

 

[Firewalkwithme]

do not apply to every school. there's no need. if you're competitive, you'll get in somewhere. if your stats are 2.0 w/ 15mcat, applying to 1000 schools won't make a difference.

^ that was the advice i got last cycle... ignored it and applied to almost every school. spent my entire summer in a bookstore writing essays.
was accepted to my #1 in sept. 2009 (dmu!) and realized i waisted A LOT of $. f***'n s*** did I write a lot of essays! dmu didn't even require any either! Still bitter ;b

Can't blame you for wanting to apply to every school though. I'd probably do it again with all the uncertainty and all.

What were your stats for gaining acceptance to Des Moine?

 

[traitorman]

Hey traitorman, I have stats very similar to yours and I applied to 13 schools (cycle that just opened, all D.O). It wound up costing a little over 500 for the primaries. If you really scout out the schools you'll see some that have strong preferences for people from specific regions or interest. Example, I noticed PNWU-COM had almost over 80% of northwest student acceptance. Seeing as i'm from NY and my stats are a little low I thought it was best to save the primary plus $125 secondary fee. Point is, if you look into the schools you'll see some schools favor a category you may fit into. I also saw OSU was heavy instate, and pikeville really wanted rural medicine exposure/interest. Hope that helps.

hey thanks for the advice. I definitely plan on checkin out a book at one of my libraries that list DO schools and filter through it.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Unless you're a *****, you apply to all except the couple that cost $73 million a year for out-of-states to attend.

Why apply to every D.O school? With decent enough stats you can probably pick and choose 10 which you want to go to. Unless your stats are really bad then you might want to apply to every school you can.

 

[traitorman]

Why apply to every D.O school? With decent enough stats you can probably pick and choose 10 which you want to go to. Unless your stats are really bad then you might want to apply to every school you can.

should i pick and choose or apply to all with my stats?

 

[drctother]

Im applying to 18. Im not looking forward to FILLING OUT the secondary's but I think its worth it for the money in the long run. What if i applied to 8 schools and got rejected by all 8...but 9th school i could have applied to for an extra $100 would have accepted me.

You totally can be picky if you have good stats. I dont. Im also Canadian. Two disadvantages. Therefore, I have to throw a hail mary

Just my opinion.

 

[sustentacular]

Ignore me at your peril. (PS: I told you you can get out of secondary fees if you truly can't afford it, so if $600 is holding you back from applying to all schools, good luck to you).

Hey do you happen to know how little you have to make in order to qualify for the fee waiver. I've tried searching for the Census' low-income threshold but just keep finding the poverty guidelines.. is that supposed to be the same thing?

 

[judasreznor]

No way I'd apply to every school. That's overkill unless you have a 2.8 GPA and a 22 MCAT. Pick the schools you like and apply to them. In addition to picking ones that you like, and more importantly, check on the admissions stats for the schools and pick at least a few for which you're competitive. With your stats, you should get in somewhere without having to apply to all D.O. schools. Save your money.

 

[traitorman]

i actually just checked out one of those U.S medical school books and I basically crossed out schools with heavy in-state preference (95%+ instate).

it was a 2008 edition but im thinking that those in-state preferences havn't changed even til now

 

[GuitarFreak]

whats the average number of schools everyone is applying to? are any of you guys applying to all D.O. schools?

I have my top 6 down but I'm contemplating whether to just apply to all the schools. and put everything on my credit card

I'm going to agree with the whole 'made of money' argument. If you can afford to blow all the money and don't mind filling out tons of secondaries, then sure, apply to all of em.
But if you wanna be financially sensible (which is a trait one should acquire, regardless of what field they are getting into), apply to those schools that make the most sense for you (location, tuition fee etc.) and those that just generally give you a good vibe.
I had decent stats and applied to 5 schools. Got interviewed and accepted at 4 of em. Not saying that you should apply to ONLY 5 schools, I'm just giving you an example.
If you think your application is competitive (apart from your GPA & MCAT which are nothing to brag about from what you've posted), then you do not have to apply to each & every school out there.
But the rule of thumb is basically if you dont mind spending time on tons of secondary essays, then apply to as many schools as you can practically afford to.

👍

 

[Turd Furgeson]

Same here... right now I have 16 schools on my AACOMAS application...

I figure 16 is good for me... I don't have a good GPA (3.1) and won't be taking my MCAT until July 16th... I'm feeling somewhat encouraged though because I've been scoring 30-33 on the last 3 practice tests (Kaplan & AAMC)..

sooooooo

 

[drctother]

I'm going to agree with the whole 'made of money' argument. If you can afford to blow all the money and don't mind filling out tons of secondaries, then sure, apply to all of em.
But if you wanna be financially sensible (which is a trait one should acquire, regardless of what field they are getting into), apply to those schools that make the most sense for you (location, tuition fee etc.) and those that just generally give you a good vibe.
I had decent stats and applied to 5 schools. Got interviewed and accepted at 4 of em. Not saying that you should apply to ONLY 5 schools, I'm just giving you an example.
If you think your application is competitive (apart from your GPA & MCAT which are nothing to brag about from what you've posted), then you do not have to apply to each & every school out there.
But the rule of thumb is basically if you dont mind spending time on tons of secondary essays, then apply to as many schools as you can practically afford to.

👍

Would you mind sharing your stats? Im assuming you have high stats to get 4 acceptances

 

[mmikey]

My first time applying, I sent in 7 primaries. I didn't include Touro NYC because of their $200 secondary, it's a money issue. I feel the number is a bit low and I would have liked to apply to a few more, ten perhaps. My stats are fair, 3.26s 3.46c, 29Q, phi kappa phi member, plus my extracurriculars are very strong. Two DO letters I hope should help me out with getting an interview.

 

[GuitarFreak]

Would you mind sharing your stats? Im assuming you have high stats to get 4 acceptances

Sure 🙂

cGPA: 3.84
sGPA: 3.74
MCAT: 29R

 

[wolverinepwns]

better safe than sorry, I'm applying this year and I'm working my ass of to save up and apply to 24 of them! I'd rather go overboard and get in, than have to reapply again next year and lose a year of my life! and as far as the secondaries go, again nothing in life comes easy, so bust your ass once and reap the benefits for a lifetime

 

[DbDan]

Sure 🙂

cGPA: 3.84
sGPA: 3.74
MCAT: 29R

Just an FYI those are "decent" stats for an allo school and very good for an osteo school... I wish I had that GPA 🙁

 

[wolverinepwns]

Just an FYI those are "decent" stats for an allo school and very good for an osteo school... I wish I had that GPA 🙁

DbDan, ucla physci and that GPA just doesn't mix well dude!

 

[DbDan]

DbDan, ucla physci and that GPA just doesn't mix well dude!

True story... Although I've got friends that managed it and realistically I could have if I wasn't a slacker lol My last 90 units of coursework are actually somewhere around a 3.5 even with my slacker habits and 5 night a week drinking problem during college.

 

[wolverinepwns]

True story... Although I've got friends that managed it and realistically I could have if I wasn't a slacker lol My last 90 units of coursework are actually somewhere around a 3.5 even with my slacker habits and 5 night a week drinking problem during college.

I like to blame westwood! there is too much to do!

 

[Infinity6]

I applied to ten schools total and none that preferred in-state students. I figured that's too much of a long shot, why bother? I have a friend who applied last year to VCOM that got a letter back saying something along the lines of although you have a great application you're out of state... but obviously in so many words haha

 

[Lewist02]

I applied to ten schools total and none that preferred in-state students. I figured that's too much of a long shot, why bother? I have a friend who applied last year to VCOM that got a letter back saying something along the lines of although you have a great application you're out of state... but obviously in so many words haha

Just wanted to clarify for some applicants - VCOM is regional favored, not state favored, so if you're in the "Appalachian" region, you're okay. I'm from NY and received an interview invite from VCOM. They are known for sending you a letter saying that you're application is not strong enough and will hold it until you update resumes, scores, finish classes, etc.

 

[Infinity6]

Just wanted to clarify for some applicants - VCOM is regional favored, not state favored, so if you're in the "Appalachian" region, you're okay.

oh geez! thanks for catching that! I'm not in the region is what i meant to say haha

 

[Lewist02]

oh geez! thanks for catching that! I'm not in the region is what i meant to say haha

haha no prob! I know that they are pretty strict with that, unless you have stellar scores.

 

[GuitarFreak]

Just an FYI those are "decent" stats for an allo school and very good for an osteo school... I wish I had that GPA 🙁

Haha Thanks ...
I got accepted to 2 allo schools as well but decided not to go because of location (being away from home, wanted to be as close to my family as possible)🙂