I Only Applied to 6 Schools

[SanDiegoSOD]

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Best reason right there. Seeing "what happens." 👍

You'll never know if you don't try, and there are certainly some amazing schools around the country.

You bet. Not even the top candidates are shoe-ins at top schools. Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, etc., all state that there is no way that they can admit every qualified candidiate, and they actually mean it. I think I'm going to have to take a stab at more of them then I previously thought...

 

[leechy]

Yeah, it very much depends on what you're willing to be content with. If your stats are good but your expectations are not high, you could get away with under 10 schools. Six does seem a bit too low, but it's hard to say without knowing what your particular situation is in terms of stats / schools you're applying to.

im' applying to about 20, for the same reason mentioned earlier - to find out what happens. 👍 i'm gonna deplete my bank account though 🙁

 

[StanfordGirl]

It really depends on your stats and which schools you choose. I applied last year before discovering SDN and only applied to 5 top 10 schools for MSTP. I decided against applying to back-ups, because I didn't really want to go anywhere else (and I was naive about the process). Things worked out great for me, but if I were to do it again, I would probably choose one back-up to put my mind at ease but still wouldn't apply to more than 6 schools. If you can see yourself being happy at more than 10 schools, though, it would probably be worth the $30 per school to apply to all 10+ through AAMC and then see how many secondaries you get and narrow the number of schools down to 6 (i.e. only complete 6 secondaries) once you are certain that you at least have secondaries from all 6 (this is assuming all of the schools you choose screen applicants--if the school doesn't screen and you know that now, only apply if you are sure it is one of your top 6 choices).

 

[Jim Picotte]

I would apply to a few more and all of your state schools. When I applied, way back, I only applied to my 3 state allopathic schools and got interviews at all 3 with 2 acceptances. I was cocky and naive though and if I did it again, even though it worked out, I would apply to at least 10.

 

[ambrosia]

I actually considered applying to only 2, UMich and Wayne State (both instate for me), because I was almost positive I'd get into Wayne and probably also UMich. But then I changed my mind and decided to add some other schools out of state as well, just to keep my options open. However, I am still pretty confident that things would have worked out had I only applied to the 2 schools (I already have an interview at UMich), so I guess what I'm saying is...as long as the schools you're applying to are very much within your range in terms of MCAT and GPA and you are putting lots of effort into the personal statement and secondary essays, I think you will be fine🙂

 

[thackl]

I knew where I wanted to go and had good stats..... applied to 1 school (one with average stats)