1. Pick up a part time job the summer before you apply, to finance your apps.
2. Start writing your supplemental essays early with the help of info found on SDN
3. Believe me, when those interviews invites start pouring in, it is well worth it.
4. You may think this is a lot of money (the shotgun approach) but it is better than reapplyin', or registering for more post bacc courses, or retaking the MCAT!
5. So you may think it is crazy, but for us, it was well worth it.
6. Think of the mastercard commercial "acceptance to medical school for 2004 = priceless
Cheers!
rmp
P.S. FYI: applied to 21 schools through AMCAS, submitted 19 secondaries. I ran out of steam for the last two, plus an acceptance helped me nix the last one from my list.
7 interview invites, attended 5 so far, 1 upcoming, and I'll decline the last.
In the long run it was definitely worth it. Few of my safety schools contacted me, but thankfully my reach institutions quickly responded with interview invites, go figure, but I'm ecstatic.
So, if I had been conservative in my numbers and only applied to safety schools I may have been S.O.L.
It has been said many times before, but, I will repeat it again, THIS PROCESS IS A CRAPSHOOT!
Application Disclaimer: If you have a 34 and above MCAT, 3.75 and above science and cum gpa, excellent EC's, and glowing LOR's you can DISREGARD THE ABOVE POST. It does not apply to you, enjoy your golden status.
Again, cheers to all my fellow SDN'ers, from your friendly, soon to me be M1, rmp.
Originally posted by stwei
How do you guys handle the pressure of applying to 20+ schools,
spending thousands of dollars on application fees, interviews, writing 20+ autobiographical essays, and having to work? I got dizzy from reading some of your inputs - why go through hell for all of this? How are you going to handle rejections if you don't get in after spending so much money?