How many medical schools did you apply to?

[Lawpy]

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They may have low cGPA, but great trend (like 1.5, 1.5, 4.0, 4.0 kind of great), and a great MCAT. So it's really hard to know how schools will interpret applicants like these. And MSAR doesn't really work for cases like this because it doesn't capture this crazy upward trend these applicants have.

Same, this is my issue. It's just hard to predict which schools will be receptive to such disparity.

You would apply to schools that favor the MCAT over GPA like Hofstra for example. Upward GPA trends are extremely valuable, as the AAMC survey has shown. I don't see the point in applying to OOS schools with very low OOS % acceptance rates. There's also the notion of yield protection by lower tier schools if your MCAT falls above 90th percentile even with subpar GPA.

The discrepancy is a problem, but does that really justify spending thousands applying to 50+ schools and burning yourself out? Having a good school list still matters

 

[summergirl]

You would apply to schools that favor the MCAT over GPA like Hofstra for example. Upward GPA trends are extremely valuable, as the AAMC survey has shown. I don't see the point in applying to OOS schools with very low OOS % acceptance rates. There's also the notion of yield protection by lower tier schools if your MCAT falls above 90th percentile even with subpar GPA.

The discrepancy is a problem, but does that really justify spending thousands applying to 50+ schools and burning yourself out? Having a good school list still matters

See the problem is, most of these applicants don't know (perfectly normal) which schools favor MCAT over GPA and which schools exercise yield protection.

 

[Lawpy]

See the problem is, most of these applicants don't know (perfectly normal) which schools favor MCAT over GPA and which schools exercise yield protection.

That's why SDN WAMC helps . The MSAR also helps because you can look at the accepted MCAT medians relative to accepted GPA medians to have a sense of what schools prefer (i.e. a school with a 3.6/34 median would favor the MCAT over GPA, addressing the low GPA/high MCAT discrepancy).

 

[Goro]

This process isn't random (although it may seem that way to applicants).

I can understand applying to 40-50 schools if one is really against reapplying and wants as high of a chance as possible at getting in. More schools=higher chance of acceptance right?

 

[chrisjh]

4. Because.

 

[oznefu]

I applied to 25 MD and 15 DO. Uneven Lizzy M ~72 (high MCAT, below average GPA with upward trend) and a red flag (IA). Received several DO acceptances and was fortunate to recently get off the WL at the only MD school that interviewed me (instate).

I would agree that applying to this many schools effected the turn around time and quality of my secondary essays. If I could do it again I definitely would have tried pre-writing as many as I could....and perhaps a better job with my school list.


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[dreee]

35 schools -- I'm a CA resident and have a fee waiver, so basically I have to pay for 20 primaries and almost no secondaries. I was going to do 25, but I prewrote all of them and had some time, so I ended up adding more schools. I mean, why not if there's time + no secondary fees?

Some schools do not accept FAP for secondaries btw

 

[dreee]

6 MD, 8 DO. 2 DO acceptances, 1 MD acceptance

I don't understand how people do 30, I could barely do that!

 

[sharkbyte]

Applied to 31. Probably would have applied to fewer were I not a CA applicant. Received 6 II's, attended 5, accepted at 2.

I qualified for FAP, though, so I saved a lot of money on secondaries and a good amount on primaries. For interviews I bought the absolute cheapest airfare possible (even if the itineraries were terrible) and stayed with a student host wherever offered. It was still expensive since all of my interviews were in the Midwest or the East coast, but I was able to save some using these methods

 

[DingoPingo]

What kind of mistake?

I'd say the worst mistake is to be overconfident.

 

[Pusheen]

FAP covers secondaries for almost all schools. There is a thread floating around with a list of schools that don't accept FAP, and it's pretty short.

So far I have gotten all of my 21 schools covered.

Thinking about maybe adding a few more, depends on how good I am at ploughing through these secondaries. CA applicant, 72 LizzyM

 

[Benjoe11]

4. Got into 2. 30 seems like a lot.

 

[21Rush12]

The first time I applied to ~15 and got nothing. MCAT retake and applied to 6 this year, 2 interviews, one acceptance and one withdrawn from waitlist.


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[Ezra Redden]

I attended 20 interviews, including some on the other side of the country, and my overall travel expenses never exceeded $1000 (maybe $1100). I managed to take buses most places and never stayed in a hotel (student hosts for everywhere) or ate out. I also have no license so I used public transportation in every city (no uber). It is doable. While yes that is still a high cost, still comes out to be $50/interview. BUT this is only manageable if you live near a city with easy/cheap access to a lot of nearby cities (i.e. NYC, philly, Boston, etc)

I applied to 26 schools because I felt this process was an investment and wanted to take a chance at every school that interested me.

How many schools did you eventually get accepted into?

 

[DumboOctopus]

How many schools did you eventually get accepted into?

I got into 13 schools

Edit: stats are 3.85 gpa and 95th percentile MCAT

 

[FCMike11]

17 DO schools and all TX schools. Wanted to be one and done. My stats are "ok". Started getting invites really early and I ended up not submitting 3 secondaries (was on the fence originally-all of the rest I submitted).

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[DocFarnsworth]

12 schools, 5 II, attended 4 interviews, 3 acceptances and 1 waitlist

Stats: ~3.7s/cGPA, 88%ile mcat

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[mitch8017]

I think it would help a lot here if people included their stats, I know people who have high stats and just hope to stay in state so they apply to just 3-4 schools. I understand if people with lower stats feel the need to spray and pray so to speak, but I would have to imagine there is a significant difference in the school submission process for high and low stat individuals.

 

[FCMike11]

I think it would help a lot here if people included their stats, I know people who have high stats and just hope to stay in state so they apply to just 3-4 schools. I understand if people with lower stats feel the need to spray and pray so to speak, but I would have to imagine there is a significant difference in the school submission process for high and low stat individuals.

That's true, here is my original post
"17 DO schools and all TX schools. Wanted to be one and done. My stats are "ok". Started getting invites really early and I ended up not submitting 3 secondaries (was on the fence originally-all of the rest I submitted)."

Stats: ~3.4 sGPA & cGPA, ~80th percentile MCAT.

 

[bond00712]

About 30 schools. Why? 3.3 ugpa. I'm damn near broke after 25 secondaries, so I think I'll stop there.

I'm in a similar boat GPA-wise, what schools did you apply to and eventually get accepted at? What did you score on your MCAT?

 

[Lawpy]

Just for comparison, this is from 2015 Matriculating Student Questionnaire

View attachment 218702

Confused. The median number of secondaries submitted is 13? And the median number of interviews is 3? If someone applies to 26 schools, is it reasonable to expect they will get roughly 6 interviews assuming everything else is strong?

 

[Lawpy]

That assumes a model of probability and randomness and this is system isnt that. The data I gave you is from matriculating students and 60% of the applicant pool doesnt matriculate.

Sorry still confused. I know the data are from the matriculant student survey but what surprised me is median number of secondaries is 13 and median number of interviews is 3 for matriculants. That's an interview success rate of just below 25%.

If admissions runs purely on a random model, it's reasonable to expect 6 interviews from 26 secondaries. But as you said, admissions isn't a random process, which can mean the interview success rate could actually be higher? The matriculants did something right to get 3 interviews from 13 secondaries so I thought it could be extended for more interviews from 26 secondaries.

 

[iqe2010]

Initially I said I said I would do 24, all 12 IS and 12 OOS.

But I think I'll do all Texas schools and maybe 6 out of state, maybe 3 MD and 3 DO.

 

[JJRousseau]

I applied to 21 programs at 19 schools. Two applications had two programs that didn't cost more to apply to. I should've chiseled my list to 13/14 schools and 14/15 programs. I didn't realize California would not be a fan (perhaps because I came across the pond and plopped down in the northeast, albeit for my wife's job but that wasn't on my application). I had a 3.8 and 522 with excellent ECs. Thing is I felt like I applied to too many, but maybe I applied to less in another life and end up with 0 acceptances. My application was weird in many respects, so I was nervous about a low school number and I had no state school. As gonnif said, it feels rather random. Im very happy with my result I just think I would recommend to a future me to apply to 3/4 or half as many schools.


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