How many schools did/will you apply too?

Applying to Med School? Get In Or Your Money Back
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sapalee

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I went with 10, wondering if I should cast a bigger net :)

What's your magic number?
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7 MD, 1 DO.
I'm tempted to apply to more OOS though..
 
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Depends mostly on your numbers and how many interviews you expect to get. Many successful MD applicants apply to 15-20 schools.

Assuming you have average stats, if you want a rough idea of what your chances are of getting a single acceptance after receiving multiple interviews, take the complement of the ratio of accepted/interviewed students and multiply all those number together for every school you interviewed at and that's the chance you have of not getting a single acceptance. It's why people say that assuming average stats, expect an acceptance for every 3-4 schools interviewed. Unless of course you're weird or a geed.
 
i applied to 8 MD last year. i was from nc though and if you live here, you usually have a good chance of getting into either UNC or Wake Forest if you have a competitive app.
 
Hmmm I plan on:

VCU
UVa
EVMS
Wake
UMiami
FIU
USF
Howard
George Washington
UofF
UNC

and maybe a D.O. in Virginia, soooo

12 schools in all
 
4 MD, 1 DO. Didn't send back the secondary for the DO school. I was in an uncommon situation and wouldn't generally reccommend that, though.
 
Applied to 10 and got rejected by 9. Aww yeah.
 
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Add in Brody, haha

UnclePhil said:
i applied to 8 MD last year. i was from nc though and if you live here, you usually have a good chance of getting into either UNC or Wake Forest if you have a competitive app.
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21 MD, 1 DO. Don't plan on submitting secondaries to Dartmouth, Mayo (Fee), and Northwestern b/c I don't feel that I'm competitive there. Secondaries should keep me busy for a while.
 
The Magic Spreadsheet suggested 20 for me, and I went with 16 MD.
 
IMO anything over 20 is kinda nuts unless you have a severely deficient MCAT/GPA + extenuating circumstances. Very strong applicants can get away with 10 or less, average is 15, weak = more. Be wise and hedge your bets applying to more low-stat schools (effectively increasing your chances of getting in somewhere).

I don't personally agree with applying both MD and DO. Both have pretty different philosophies, or at least personalities as far as medical schools go, but it is statistically easier to get into DO so you see people applying for that reason.

I'm doing 18 this cycle, but thats not MD-only.
 
I am planning to apply to all IS schools, (UF, UM, UCF, FSU, USF, FIU), 2 DO (MIDWESTERN ANS NSUCOM) AND 4 OOS (UIC, MOUNT SINAI, MAYO MED, UC-PRITZKER)
 
EsseQuamVideri said:
IMO anything over 20 is kinda nuts unless you have a severely deficient MCAT/GPA + extenuating circumstances. Very strong applicants can get away with 10 or less, average is 15, weak = more. Be wise and hedge your bets applying to more low-stat schools (effectively increasing your chances of getting in somewhere).

I don't personally agree with applying both MD and DO. Both have pretty different philosophies, or at least personalities as far as medical schools go, but it is statistically easier to get into DO so you see people applying for that reason.

I'm doing 18 this cycle, but thats not MD-only.
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AT Still had a good intention... but unfortunately the DO route still gets you to the same place the MD route does. And most people nowadays don't really care MD or DO.

Big deal, DO students learn OMM... as an MD student you can take an OMM class at Harvard as part of your CME credits.
 
CodeBlu said:
AT Still had a good intention... but unfortunately the DO route still gets you to the same place the MD route does. And most people nowadays don't really care MD or DO.

Big deal, DO students learn OMM... as an MD student you can take an OMM class at Harvard as part of your CME credits.
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In hopes of not :hijacked:'ing, but elaborating further:
I agree, it's nearly the same thing in the end. But shouldn't you apply to a school because you believe in it's mission and are a good fit? I'm much less familiar with DO schools but in visiting and discussing with some of the adcom members/students at one osteopathic school, I felt like the DO mentality was a much different approach to health care in general.

Not to say it's not as valuable or doesn't get you the same place. I just don't see why you would want to apply to both save for the statistical advantage.
 
26, soon to be more.

Had a Kaplan speaker guy tell me being from California was a GOOD thing. I guess it is, in a way, seeing as I at least have a chance at being accepted to a CA school unlike OOS people.
 
I applied to 8 in-state MD schools (Ahh, the perks of being a Texas resident :D)
 
14 MD. That's what FAP covered and I wasn't about to pay for more. It's stressful enough filling out 14 secondaries, I can't imagine doing more than 20. Also, keep in mind that answers on SDN are likely to be skewed towards the high side of average.
 
I applied to 32 MD schools, but I applied to a ton of reach schools hoping that the odds of me getting in somewhere awesome increases. In retrospect I regret it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The more schools I looked at the more I liked and I was like %$#@ it I'll add this one and then this one and all of a sudden I'm dropping 3 stacks on secondaries.
 
Doc of the Walk said:
Hmmm I plan on:

VCU
UVa
EVMS
Wake
UMiami
FIU
USF
Howard
George Washington
UofF
UNC

and maybe a D.O. in Virginia, soooo

12 schools in all
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No UCF or FSU?

I'll apply to my 7 IS MD schools (not too sure on the 2 IS DO schools), and that's it for this cycle because I really want to stay in-state. If I get no love from my state schools this cycle, I'll cast the wider net next year.
 
Ellipsis1104 said:
No UCF or FSU?

I'll apply to my 7 IS MD schools (not too sure on the 2 IS DO schools), and that's it for this cycle because I really want to stay in-state. If I get no love from my state schools this cycle, I'll cast the wider net next year.
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He is a VA resident, why would he include the schools you mentioned??
 
Ellipsis1104 said:
No UCF or FSU?

I'll apply to my 7 IS MD schools (not too sure on the 2 IS DO schools), and that's it for this cycle because I really want to stay in-state. If I get no love from my state schools this cycle, I'll cast the wider net next year.
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I'm from Virginia, and I heard that FSU isn't none too friendly for OOS applicants. I did forget to add UCF however. So that brings my total to 13
 
33 MD schools. (28 in first wave, added a few more in late June.)
GPA 3.57, MCAT 39R, good research, other ECs so-so.

So far, I've gotten 3 screened secondaries. 17/33 total secondaries completed, 20 secondaries received, 1 rejection pre-secondary (OOS).
 
I plan on applying to all eight schools in Texas, I might apply in Oklahoma just for the hell of it. I refuse to go anywhere else in the "deep south" lol.
 
UnclePhil said:
I honestly believe for a lot of applicants, getting into Brody is tougher than UNC or Wake Forest.
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I would strongly agree with this statement, as it is a salient point missed by many NC premeds. Dr. Peden can tell you himself, Brody is looking for a very specific type of applicant, while unc and wake look for more general applicants. You MUST show a commitment to NC in a medical specialty that is needed in the area to be seriously considered. This is why their stats are so misleading, as the reason they have a relatively lower mcat/gpa is not because they cannot attract more qualified applicants, but because their requirements are so stringent. They are willing to overlook shoddy stats, but you have to provide a solid argument for staying in NC after you finish your residency and provide medical support to a region lacking your specialty (overwhelmingly PC but not exclusively). They are looking to immediately cut Duke, Davidson, Wake and even UNC kids out, as these kids probably don't follow the school's mandate and are bull****ing the school. If you explain profusely that you are interested in PCP, yet you shadowed an orthopedic surgeon once, played varsity/club sports in college, and say you like to go to the gym, you are portrayed as a future ortho resident. Stupid? Totally.

Brody also has other quirks, such as preferring 9-9-9 MCATs over 11-8-11s, strongly preferring heavy volunteering/altruistic applicants, and essentially requiring applicants to have 100 hours minimum of shadowing. These components are critical to their admissions process, yet they are not publicized anywhere by the school. Finally, being from eastern nc is HUGE! Anyone west of the triangle is held to a disadvantage, which is one of the reasons why unc expanded their class size with a specific emphasis on accepting more students from western NC. Any NC applicants interested in BSOM would be wise to heed this advice.
 
22 MD - finished my last secondary yesterday :)
 
I plan on applying to 15, a mix of MD and DO schools in PA and NY. Maybe a few schools in the south west.
 
If you were to add more schools prior to verification, would this delay verification or when it was sent to original schools?
 
Medicine4Bruhs said:
I would strongly agree with this statement, as it is a salient point missed by many NC premeds. Dr. Peden can tell you himself, Brody is looking for a very specific type of applicant, while unc and wake look for more general applicants. You MUST show a commitment to NC in a medical specialty that is needed in the area to be seriously considered. This is why their stats are so misleading, as the reason they have a relatively lower mcat/gpa is not because they cannot attract more qualified applicants, but because their requirements are so stringent. They are willing to overlook shoddy stats, but you have to provide a solid argument for staying in NC after you finish your residency and provide medical support to a region lacking your specialty (overwhelmingly PC but not exclusively). They are looking to immediately cut Duke, Davidson, Wake and even UNC kids out, as these kids probably don't follow the school's mandate and are bull****ing the school. If you explain profusely that you are interested in PCP, yet you shadowed an orthopedic surgeon once, played varsity/club sports in college, and say you like to go to the gym, you are portrayed as a future ortho resident. Stupid? Totally.

Brody also has other quirks, such as preferring 9-9-9 MCATs over 11-8-11s, strongly preferring heavy volunteering/altruistic applicants, and essentially requiring applicants to have 100 hours minimum of shadowing. These components are critical to their admissions process, yet they are not publicized anywhere by the school. Finally, being from eastern nc is HUGE! Anyone west of the triangle is held to a disadvantage, which is one of the reasons why unc expanded their class size with a specific emphasis on accepting more students from western NC. Any NC applicants interested in BSOM would be wise to heed this advice.
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Most kids with higher stats will look elsewhere in the state at the 3 research schools (although, outside of Duke, I don't think any of the schools here in NC are really that stat-heavy). I wouldn't say that they necessarily screen out kids from Davidson/Wake/UNC/Duke though, especially UNC, I know a ton of people from UNC who went on to ECU for med school. I wonder how many of their grads actually stay in NC though. Even for places like UNC, they do have a mission of training doctors for NC, but a huge number of people seem to be jumping ship out of the state after graduation.
 
Gnomes said:
33 MD schools. (28 in first wave, added a few more in late June.)
GPA 3.57, MCAT 39R, good research, other ECs so-so.

So far, I've gotten 3 screened secondaries. 17/33 total secondaries completed, 20 secondaries received, 1 rejection pre-secondary (OOS).
Click to expand...

your mcat is pretty high, don't you think that's a bit much?
 
UnclePhil said:
Most kids with higher stats will look elsewhere in the state at the 3 research schools (although, outside of Duke, I don't think any of the schools here in NC are really that stat-heavy). I wouldn't say that they necessarily screen out kids from Davidson/Wake/UNC/Duke though, especially UNC, I know a ton of people from UNC who went on to ECU for med school. I wonder how many of their grads actually stay in NC though. Even for places like UNC, they do have a mission of training doctors for NC, but a huge number of people seem to be jumping ship out of the state after graduation.
Click to expand...

Many applicants with higher stats do apply to other places as well as ECU, but the reason ECU has low numbers is that they are looking for a very specific type of student. There are plenty of 65-70 LizzyM score kids in NC for them to pick a class of 78 from, if they really wanted to boost their numbers. They just don't seek those kind of students.

As for the relatively large proportion of UNC grads going to ECU, this may be due to the large number of premed kids in Chapel Hill applying to ECU more than the fact that they prefer UNC students. Then again, where else are they going to come from? Wilmington? Pembroke? Let me tell you where they are not coming from: Durham, Winston-Salem, and Davidson. If you discount this, then you are simply unfamiliar with the sentiments that permeate the admissions process in Greenville. Ask BSOM students themselves: medical school tuition is so cheap because they intend to graduate future PCPs. Davidson students mired in undergraduate debt are more likely to specialize and leave NC than those students with less debt. Couple that with the preconceived notions by Brody adcoms that these students are more ambitious and likely to be interested in the more glamorous and high-end specialties (a student can receive largely the same education at UNC as they can at Wake/Duke/Davidson, whatever. Why then would these students then pay more to go to these schools over UNC if not for the greater prestige inherent in their degree?), and you have Wake/Duke/Davidson graduates held at a serious disadvantage when compared to their coastal brethren. This is fact.

As for your last point, UNC Med is a great school, cherry picking the best in-state talent, opening the doors for the very best residencies and future careers, yada yada. I wouldn't be surprised that these students choose to leave the state for greener pastures later in their careers.
 
kpcrew2oo2 said:
your mcat is pretty high, don't you think that's a bit much?
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I say better safe than sorry. It's also better to have a lot of options so you properly choose the school best for you.
 
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