How to Choose the right schools..

[DrKepha]

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Hi, I have read many posts that often mention certain schools to avoid applying to unless you fit a certain profile on paper. I was wondering if anyone knows how to go about finding out what schools accept what kind of students and look for what kinds of attributes? Any Help?! Also, If anyone has anything to add outside of what the books out there lists about the statistics of the entering class please feel free to share! Thank you!

 

[NGCSUstudent]

I'm somewhat new here, so take my words with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure you're going to have to do individual research on the schools you want to apply to, although there's a pretty good amount of resources here on SD under the "School-Specific Discussions" forum.

A lot of the profiling gets me down though. I have no sad story, no unfortunate background, and no desire to work in the ghetto. I'm white from a 130K+ family in a nice part of town. Both my parents are alive and I've never gone hungry. I didn't recover from poverty and my early education was spent in a private school. Not only does my boring story keep me from getting into scholarships, but it's also going to make applying for med school a lot harder.

 

[aSagacious]

The mission statements on school websites are quite telling as to the types of applicants that they are looking for. For example

University of Kentucky:

At the University of Kentucky College of Medicine we pride ourselves in educating future physicians and scientists. We conduct breakthrough biomedical research and lead in providing quality, complex patient care to the Commonwealth and beyond.

Eastern Virginia Medical School:

The M.D. program at EVMS is designed to educate compassionate and skillful physician-scientists, with a special emphasis on preparation for residency training and careers in the primary care and other medical disciplines.

While every school gives you the same degree, they distribute their resources differently according to their goals. As evidenced above, UK probably encourages their students to spend a lot of time researching whereas EVMS encourages their students to participate in community involvement and volunteerism. They also made this abundantly clear in their presentations at interview day. They might also allocate larger blocks of time during your core rotations in order to emphasize a particular specialty, depending on where most of their graduates end up. Of course there are no absolutes and you can do what you like during med school, but that's how I perceive the 'personality' of a school.

 

[NickNaylor]

How I selected my list of schools

1) Purchase the MSAR (https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/requirements/msar/)
2) Flag schools that you're interested in (I used those little Post-It sticky things)
3) Eliminate schools that you wouldn't attend for whatever reason (location, cost, etc.)
4) Focus on schools at which your numbers are comparable (see MSAR)
5) Research schools using their websites to determine if you think you might be a good fit

The final number of schools you apply to will likely depend on the strength of your application.

 

[LizzyM]

How I selected my list of schools

1) Purchase the MSAR (https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/requirements/msar/)
2) Flag schools that you're interested in (I used those little Post-It sticky things)
3) Eliminate schools that you wouldn't attend for whatever reason (location, cost, etc.)
4) Focus on schools at which your numbers are comparable (see MSAR)
5) Research schools using their websites to determine if you think you might be a good fit

The final number of schools you apply to will likely depend on the strength of your application.

^This. Also note the schools that interview very few (<5%) of its out of state (OOS) applicants and scratch them. (Sometimes the only OOS applicants interviewed & admitted are applying to MD/PhD programs).

On the other hand, some schools can change their tune when they need some of that sweet OOS tuition revenue.

 

[ppfizenm]

How I selected my list of schools

1) Purchase the MSAR (https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/requirements/msar/)
2) Flag schools that you're interested in (I used those little Post-It sticky things)
3) Eliminate schools that you wouldn't attend for whatever reason (location, cost, etc.)
4) Focus on schools at which your numbers are comparable (see MSAR)
5) Research schools using their websites to determine if you think you might be a good fit

The final number of schools you apply to will likely depend on the strength of your application.

I mainly did this but additionally went through and found schools with good out of state interview and acceptance rates. You can have amazing stats but screw yourself over if you only apply to schools that focus specifically on in state students.

 

[NickNaylor]

I mainly did this but additionally went through and found schools with good out of state interview and acceptance rates. You can have amazing stats but screw yourself over if you only apply to schools that focus specifically on in state students.

Very good point - should've included that as well.

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

To the OP: do a vision exercise. Picture yourself with an acceptance to many schools. Where would you chose to go? Why? Really think about it. What made college a good or bad experience for you? Can you see some of those aspects in med schools? Look over the school's match list and see if you see yourself as one of those people in terms of location and specialty. I would suggest doing what those posts above suggested as well.

I'm white from a 130K+ family in a nice part of town. Both my parents are alive and I've never gone hungry. I didn't recover from poverty and my early education was spent in a private school. Not only does my boring story keep me from getting into scholarships, but it's also going to make applying for med school a lot harder.

As compared to what? Be careful with your attitude. It may show through.

 

[bucks2010]

How I selected my list of schools

1) Purchase the MSAR (https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/requirements/msar/)
2) Flag schools that you're interested in (I used those little Post-It sticky things)
3) Eliminate schools that you wouldn't attend for whatever reason (location, cost, etc.)
4) Focus on schools at which your numbers are comparable (see MSAR)
5) Research schools using their websites to determine if you think you might be a good fit

The final number of schools you apply to will likely depend on the strength of your application.

This is what I did.

Also, apply liberally. Your priorities in choosing schools will likely change once you're out interviewing. You may not think you like a certain school just going by their website, but if you're able to interview there and go see it for yourself, you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Buttermellow]

I mainly did this but additionally went through and found schools with good out of state interview and acceptance rates. You can have amazing stats but screw yourself over if you only apply to schools that focus specifically on in state students.

I did the same. I made an Excel sheet of 25 or so schools at which my stats were competitive, then calculated the % of OOS applicants that received interviews. And also the number of spots to be filled divided by the number of applicants, to take into account the fact that some schools may interview a lot of people, but also have very large classes, which may give better chances that a school with fewer applicants but a significantly smaller number of seats to fill.

Moral of the story, I love Excel, and it really helped me to stay organized.