How many secondaries should I submit?

[glasshaffull]

Hi everyone, I'm having some trouble deciding how many secondaries I should submit. So far I've planned to submit 20 secondaries, out of the 31 I've received. LM ~71, WARS 79, 3.92 cGPA, 3.92 sGPA, and 512 MCAT (129/129/127/127). Trad student attending a top 10 public school, and the basis of my application is cultural competency (this is the focus of almost all of my activities). I'm from SoCal, and these are the schools I already have/am in the process of submitting secondaries to:

USC
UCLA
UCI
UCSD
UA Phoenix
U Colorado SOM
UPenn
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Drexel
Geisel
Geisinger
Georgetown
Utah
Temple
Rosalind Franklin
Loyola Stritch
Kaiser
Loma Linda
Emory

My question is, do I need to add more schools? There are 11 more I could apply to, but the ones above are all within my GPA or MCAT range, or both, and they're programs I'm genuinely interested in. Financially, I'd rather keep it to these 20. Any advice is appreciated 🙂

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[deleted972488]

Why did you submit the primary application to 11 schools for which you never intended on submitting secondaries? That's $440 down the toilet for nothing.

 

[LizzyM]

Why did you apply to more than 31 if you had no intention of following through with secondaries? @EmbryonalCarcinoma types faster than I do.

 

[deleted972488]

@EmbryonalCarcinoma types faster than I do.

Hopefully my CASPer score reflects that.

 

[Wolvvs]

Loma Linda

Are you SDA (or at least Christian in general)? If not, you're not going to be able to effectively respond to their secondary and the school might not be a good fit.

What schools are you planning not to fill out the secondary for?

 

[glasshaffull]

Why did you submit the primary application to 11 schools for which you never intended on submitting secondaries? That's $440 down the toilet for nothing.

To be honest, I wasn't sure which pre-secondary screen schools would screen me out and the other 11 were kind of my insurance. There are still a few schools which haven't responded to me, and if they do my total secondary count would go above 20.

 

[AnMDtoB]

To be honest, I wasn't sure which pre-secondary screen schools would screen me out and the other 11 were kind of my insurance. There are still a few schools which haven't responded to me, and if they do my total secondary count would go above 20.

Most schools send secondaries to every verified applicant. AAMC has publicly available data on this that you could have checked in advance

 

[glasshaffull]

Are you SDA (or at least Christian in general)? If not, you're not going to be able to effectively respond to their secondary and the school might not be a good fit.

What schools are you planning not to fill out the secondary for?

I'm Muslim, so a lot of my values align with SDA values. Plus it's local and my parents would rather that I applied, on the off chance that I get past the secondary.
I'm planning to skip the following:
UMass
University of Illinois
Jacobs
Albert Einstein
Wertheim
Quinnipac
Central Michigan
Tufts
GWU
Brown
UNC (I'm 50/50 on this one, but their website basically says that being OOS and having less than a 514 is an automatic no)

 

[Wolvvs]

I'm Muslim, so a lot of my values align with SDA values. Plus it's local and my parents would rather that I applied, on the off chance that I get past the secondary.
I'm planning to skip the following:
UMass
University of Illinois
Jacobs
Albert Einstein
Wertheim
Quinnipac
Central Michigan
Tufts
GWU
UNC (I'm 50/50 on this one, but their website basically says that being OOS and having less than a 514 is an automatic no)

Makes sense, as long as your religion is important to you and you can speak to that, the school would be a good fit.

Definitely skip UMass, Illinois, Central Michigan, and UNC, they heavily prefer in-state applicants. Tufts and GW are kind of low yield, so from a financial perspective skipping them could make sense.

https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/factstablea1.pdf

Take a look at this chart. I'm assuming you're from California, so take a look at in-state/out of state ratios for the schools you're applying to not in CA, compare interview % and matriculation %. If there's a huge drop, it might be worth reconsidering.

 

[LizzyM]

Have you looked at the Loma Linda Medical School web site?
The mission of the School of Medicine is to continue the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ.

Then there's this: The University expects students to attend the midweek University chapel service designed to focus the University community on its mission and to facilitate students' personal journey with God.

I entered "Muslim" into the search box and the response was "Do you mean music?"

I'd think carefully before plunking down $85 for the secondary fee.

 

[Bonne Nuit]

If you haven’t yet submitted to Utah or Colorado, don’t. Both have heavy IS preference for averageish stats candidates like you and me. You would be better off keeping Einstein, Tufts, and Quinnipiac.

 

[glasshaffull]

Have you looked at the Loma Linda Medical School web site?
The mission of the School of Medicine is to continue the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ.

Then there's this: The University expects students to attend the midweek University chapel service designed to focus the University community on its mission and to facilitate students' personal journey with God.

I entered "Muslim" into the search box and the response was "Do you mean music?"

I'd think carefully before plunking down $85 for the secondary fee.

I know it's a long shot, but I don't think it's any more of a long shot than UCLA or USC. My faith is really important to me, and there's a lot of overlap between Christian values and Muslim values (aside from the obvious theological differences). If by some miracle I get into Loma Linda and another school, I'd probably choose the other school, but I wouldn't mind going to Loma Linda if it really came down to it.

 

[gyngyn]

If by some miracle I get into Loma Linda and another school, I'd probably choose the other school, but I wouldn't mind going to Loma Linda if it really came down to it.

I'm always surprised by applicants who apply to LLU because they could put up with the religious stuff to go to medical school in CA. The last time I looked, LLU and Stanford were the only schools in CA with a preponderance of OOS acceptances.
They are looking for folks who cherish the opportunity to be surrounded by those whose mission is to serve Christ! They've gotten pretty good at detecting this.

If you are from the IE, a better choice would be UCR.

 

[Faha]

From the list of schools you have not yet submitted to, send your secondary to GWU, Tufts and Quinnipiac. Also consider applying to these schools:
Vermont
New York Medical College
Seton Hall
Jefferson
NOVA MD
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Medical College Wisconsin

 

[Goro]

USC
UCLA
UCSD
UA Phoenix
U Colorado SOM
UPenn
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Geisel
Geisinger
Utah
Loma Linda


My question is, do I need to add more schools? There are 11 more I could apply to, but the ones above are all within my GPA or MCAT range, or both, and they're programs I'm genuinely interested in. Financially, I'd rather keep it to these 20. Any advice is appreciated 🙂

The above schools will be donations. They don't need the money.

Here is a more realistic list.
UCF
Hofstra
U Toledo
U IA
U VM
Pitt
Miami
St. Louis
Albany
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Rush
Rosy Franklin
Wayne State
MCW
NYMC
VCU
EVMS
Wake Forest
Jefferson
Temple
Tufts
Drexel
Creighton
George Washington
Georgetown
Emory
Tulane
Dartmouth
Loyola
Netter
Oakland-B
Western MI
Seton Hall
UCD
UCI
Nova MD
CUSM
Kaiser
TCU/UNT
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Any DO program. I can't recommend Touro-NY, Nova, Wm Carey, LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me. CalHS is too new and appears to be too limited in rotations sites.

 

[glasshaffull]

Thanks for the input everyone. I decided to add Quinnipiac and UCR (received the secondary like 10 minutes ago which is why it wasn't originally on my list).