How many schools is too many?

[star6927]

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Where did u find that medical schools can see how many schools you apply to? When I submitted AMCAS it said specifically that the schools do not see the list of schools you apply to. Please let me know so that I can look up that information...I applied to 24, my application is ok (I have some sticky spots), but I wouldn't want medical schools to think that I don't have a general idea of where I want to go. I just only wanted to do this process once!

Too many does NOT look good. They can see how many schools you apply to (within MD and within DO). You should apply to 20 MD schools TOPS. And NO more than HALF of the DO schools (= ~10 or so).

You can read any med school admissions book, etc to verify this information.

Same goes if you only apply to 1-5 or so. You look cocky. My Uncle took this route...he didn't get in. These people really surprise me. They only want to go to 1 school (maybe a couple more) and decide to put all their eggs in one (to 5) baskets. When my uncle got rejected from his 5 schools, he called them up (after his interview) and asked what went wrong. They said they didn't believe he really wanted to go to school because he applied to so few, and that if he was serious about going he would have applied to a few more schools to show that he was really driven about medicine, and that he didn't care about where he went to school.

 

[Twitch]

[/B]

I disagree. A doctor who helped me with my PS told me to explicitly state in my PS I want to work in the rural underserved area I'm from. I did and I am glad I did. The essay is about why you want to be a doctor, after all, and if that's your intention then it is a big part of your motivation. I would never, for instance want to be a beverly hills plastic surgeon. Putting it in your PS would only make your motivation for medicine more clear.

I don't think we're talking about the same thing. I agree with your mentor on stating a desire to work in a rural underserved area, if that is what you want to do. What I'm talking about is the need to state that you'll work in the state you're from. The latter is an implicit assumption forming the basis of preference to state residents. It is in the state's best interest to subsize the training of people who will take care of their sick rather than pay for someone who will go practice elsewhere.

 

[Haemulon]

Are there seriously at least 25 people on here that have applied to 40+ schools?? Good grief. That is going to be very expensive (and time consuming!)

 

[Neuro27]

Where did u find that medical schools can see how many schools you apply to? When I submitted AMCAS it said specifically that the schools do not see the list of schools you apply to. Please let me know so that I can look up that information...I applied to 24, my application is ok (I have some sticky spots), but I wouldn't want medical schools to think that I don't have a general idea of where I want to go. I just only wanted to do this process once!

I'm kind of curious too. I thought the schools do not know the list of schools you apply to, but when schools start accepting you, then they can only see schools that have accepted you.

😕

 

[Anastasis]

Are there seriously at least 25 people on here that have applied to 40+ schools?? Good grief. That is going to be very expensive (and time consuming!)

I thought I was extreme applying to 18!

 

[Twitch]

I thought I was extreme applying to 18!

With a 29, I'm applying to 40 which I think is way too much. Just need to sell a kidney to finance this now.

 

[jsnuka]

If you have a fee waiver, apply EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

The travelling for interviews might be a problem, but that might be mitigated if you group them all regionally over the course of a week.

Even still, there will be some places where you will not even want to go to school, I am sure after you have submitted the AMCAS and received the secondaries back.

The secondaries are another concern. The real question is whewther or not you want to do that many essays or not. If you do or if you will just recycle and update the mas needed, then go for it.

 

[DryDoc]

i applied to 46 schools because I was unsure of my competitiveness (3.59 GPA, 34P MCAT) and had a "questionable" state residency situation. I was offered 35 or so interviews and chose to go to about 20. I was lucky to get a fairly early acceptance and so was able to withdraw from a number of other schools pre-interview. I ended up with 10 acceptances (including both of my state schools). In retrospect, I think 46 applications was overkill but I sure would rather err in the direction of too many rather than have too few. Some of the schools I would have considered "safeties" didn't offer me interviews at all, or offered them after the first of the year, so I would have been going crazy if I hadn't applied to a number of other schools. I think that if I were to do it again, I'd apply to 25-30, but fortunately i don't have to. I probably spent $6000 on the interview process

 

[Anastasis]

i applied to 46 schools because I was unsure of my competitiveness (3.59 GPA, 34P MCAT) and had a "questionable" state residency situation. I was offered 35 or so interviews and chose to go to about 20. I was lucky to get a fairly early acceptance and so was able to withdraw from a number of other schools pre-interview. I ended up with 10 acceptances (including both of my state schools). In retrospect, I think 46 applications was overkill but I sure would rather err in the direction of too many rather than have too few. Some of the schools I would have considered "safeties" didn't offer me interviews at all, or offered them after the first of the year, so I would have been going crazy if I hadn't applied to a number of other schools. I think that if I were to do it again, I'd apply to 25-30, but fortunately i don't have to. I probably spent $6000 on the interview process

Wow that's a crazy amount of traveling. Congrats on the acceptances though.

I'm worried about paying for interview travel but I'm more worried about getting no interviews 😛 Somehow I think the latter would be worse.

 

[fyi411]

Hi everyone! I was just wondering how many schools you guys are applying to. I'm thinking about applying to 35 (I live in Texas so I have 8 in-state schools). I just want to cover my bases. Is that too many???

why bother
if you did not get into the top twenty
what are the chances of you getting in the rest

 

[Kimka83]

I applied to a lot of schools, but that was because I was shooting for some very competitive programs. If you are applying to "top tier" or "top 20" ranked schools, you should also apply to a good number of more realistic programs.
Folks on here say that applying to 20 schools may be overkill, but if you only apply to the top 20 schools, then you certainly are not guaranteed an acceptance.

 

[DrVanNostran]

The amount of schools that one applys to varies PER INDIVIDUAL. A person with a 4.0, 43 may still want to apply to 20 programs because he or she wants to make sure that they get into a top twenty program.

A person such as myself who is a reapplicant with borderline stats may not want to take another year and decide to apply to A LOT of schools. Some people might be confident with only 5 schools, its all relative.

To the OP, there is no correct answer to this question, it really depends on your numbers, ecs, lors, residency, finacial situation, travel schedule, etc....apply to what YOU think is appropiate. Someone on SDN might say you are applying to many, but who cares, do you what you think is necessary.

Good luck on the admissions cycle!