Is applying to a TON of school a problem?

[BoilerWolverine]

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Lets say I was to submit the primary to 60 schools, would this be an issue other than the time and money involved? I have a strange situation and want to leave ALL my options open. I know its crazy but yes, I am serious.

 

[proclivity]

Lets say I was to submit the primary to 60 schools, would this be an issue other than the time and money involved? I have a strange situation and want to leave ALL my options open. I know its crazy but yes, I am serious.

What is the difference between applying to 60 one year, 30 two separate years or 20 on three separate years. You won't regret it if you get in.

 

[tdd340]

Lets say I was to submit the primary to 60 schools, would this be an issue other than the time and money involved? I have a strange situation and want to leave ALL my options open. I know its crazy but yes, I am serious.

No it wouldn't be a problem except for the time and money aspects. Schools won't know where you applied. But the time and money problem will be HUGE with 60 schools.

 

[Abilene85]

I don't know the details of your situation, but if it's not really necessary for you to apply to 60 schools, I would recommend narrowing your list. Secondaries will be hell and if you are offered a lot of interviews, I bet you will get exhausted part way through. A lack of enthusiasm will probably start to show in your personal interviews.

Money and time aside, however, it will not be a problem I'm just not sure you know what you will be getting yourself into. But good-luck with it all!

 

[BoilerWolverine]

Believe me, I will not be getting 60 secondaries back (low undergrad GPA/awesome graduate record). I just don't know which schools are keen on what, so I feel like I need to spread it out a bit.

 

[postbacker]

Seems like a logistical nightmare to keep track of that many schools.

For me, I find that thinking seriously about more than 25 to 30 schools is a stretch. I would love to boil the app list down to maybe 15 schools...I would not want to keep track of 60 primaries, 50+ secondaries, and so on...

 

[postbacker]

Believe me, I will not be getting 60 secondaries back (low undergrad GPA/awesome graduate record). I just don't know which schools are keen on what, so I feel like I need to spread it out a bit.

Now you have revealed your "strange situation" - you have a low GPA - so right off the bat, you should probably severely limit apps to schools in the top 30 - toss one or two in for grins - but if to arrive at 60 you are applying to all of these "just in case" you are kidding yourself and wasting your money...apply to your state schools, and then concentrate on the out of state schools where your profile is a good fit - that could easily amount to 20 to 25 schools which is still more than enough to keep track of...

 

[deleted103644]

Most schools would send secondaries back to a dead raccoon on the side of the road if it somehow submitted an AMCAS primary. You will get >45 secondaries back if you send out 60 primaries even with a 0.0 and a -10 on your MCAT. AMCAS charges $30 per primary (I think + a fee for the first one) and most secondaries are $100. That's over $6000 already without getting into travel costs if you get interviews. By all means apply broadly, but you will probably never get through the pile of secondaries you receive - so maybe you should try to narrow it down a bit to the places you can realistically get into and would want to attend. Good luck.

 

[MChitty]

I can't imagine the quality of your secondaries would be that good with so many schools. Even if you cut out half the secondaries, which would mean 30 secondaries, most people would consider that a huge amount of schools to apply to. I applied to around 15 last year and found myself exhausted by writing all of those secondaries.

By the way, I have a low GPA as well and am applying to around 20 this year. As someone else suggested, I would try and make a list where you definitely fit the profile and throw in a couple of reaches if you want.

 

[brainfry]

My count says there aren't even 60 private schools, and practically all the public schools prefer in-staters unless you have ties to the area or an EXCEPTIONAL application. For example, I'm from South Dakota, and our med school takes 99% in-state applicants. On mdapplicants.com I see many out-of-state students wasting their money on USD because they see lower than average numbers and don't do their homework. They all get rejected pre-secondary. Moreover, a student with killer stats and awesome EC's would be rejected if they weren't somehow connected to the state. I know this because my boyfriend is a professor at a different university and has collaborated with people from USD med school. So do some research before applying to a bunch of public schools.

Good Luck!!!
S

 

[Abilene85]

Most schools would send secondaries back to a dead raccoon on the side of the road if it somehow submitted an AMCAS primary.

So true.

 

[TMP-SMX]

You will get a secondary from 90% of the schools you apply to whether you have a 1.0 GPA or a 4.0 GPA. Secondly, don't apply to out of state public schools. You won't get in unless you have close ties to the state. Third, keep your money and sanity and don't apply to more than 25. If you are worried about getting in then apply to DO schools. Be smart about this and pick up the MSAR to narrow your list.

 

[postbacker]

My count says there aren't even 60 private schools,

I wonder about the OPs numbers too, curious what he is including to get a list of 60 schools. I did a spreadsheet, and eliminated all of the state schools that accept few or no OOS, and then added in the OOS privates, and I think I came up with an absolute max list of around 55 schools (including my state schools). Then I whittled away at that list based on personal preferences (location, curricula, grading systems, etc) and I now have a realistic list of around 30 schools that I hope to cut down a bit more...

Frankly, I would be surprised if anybody could come up with more than about 50 schools to apply to - some residents in states like CA, TX and Ohio have more in state schools to apply to, but still I think 50 schools represents the typical absolute ceiling for most people...

 

[thrilledfuturMD]

You will get a secondary from 90% of the schools you apply to whether you have a 1.0 GPA or a 4.0 GPA. Secondly, don't apply to out of state public schools. You won't get in unless you have close ties to the state. Third, keep your money and sanity and don't apply to more than 25. If you are worried about getting in then apply to DO schools. Be smart about this and pick up the MSAR to narrow your list.

I agree that the MSAR should be used to narrow the OP's list, but the bolded statement is not universally true. If you want to apply to out of state public schools, use the MSAR to find ones that take a high percentage of OOS applicants (e.g. MCV, which takes ~40% OOS).

 

[Falco2525]

the difference in applying to 30 vs 60 is nothing. If you dont get into one of the 59 before it you will not get into the 60th. Apply to a broad range of schools but limit it to 30 at most 40 because you will get 90% of the secondaries back. And the secondaries matter a lot to schools so you need to focus on them. PS how bad is bad GPA becuase you may just be throwing money away when you could try and fix it first

 

[remo]

I submitted 50 secondaries last year due to a low gpa and it was hell and expensive but it was worth it. I got bites from schools I never thought would be interested and I didn't get interviews from ones that I thought I would (Drexel, NYMC, etc...) You never know who is going to be interested and I'm ending up at a school that I thought was out of my league.

If you have the time to pound out the secondaries then go for it. You don't want to be a re-applicant. You can always turn down interviews once you are accepted somewhere (that's what I did at the end). You can also always withdraw and not do the secondary once it shows up.

 

[nick_carraway]

I submitted 50 secondaries last year due to a low gpa and it was hell and expensive but it was worth it. I got bites from schools I never thought would be interested and I didn't get interviews from ones that I thought I would (Drexel, NYMC, etc...) You never know who is going to be interested and I'm ending up at a school that I thought was out of my league.

If you have the time to pound out the secondaries then go for it. You don't want to be a re-applicant. You can always turn down interviews once you are accepted somewhere (that's what I did at the end). You can also always withdraw and not do the secondary once it shows up.

PHEW! After reading through half of those comments, I was starting to get discouraged. I'm applying to 51 since I'm from Cali, my stats are poor, and I'm unsure about the quality of my LORs so I want to cast a wide net.

My commitments next year will be relaxed so I have a lot of time to devote to secondaries and I hope it'll pay off for me like it did for you.