List of Schools

[zempa]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this, but here goes:

I'm about to submit my app should I already choose all the schools or should I choose one and wait till my MCAT score comes in to choose the others?

What are the pros and cons of each?

Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mattabet]

At this point in the game, you should probably just select your schools. Some people play games, waiting until they can see their score with just one school before they add all the rest. It's a little silly though, because schools can see past MCAT scores. And unless you're signed up to take another MCAT, your application is going to be pretty late in this cycle if you got it sent out at all.

If you're confident in your MCAT performance, just drop the hammer and choose all your schools.

Really though, you shouldn't get hung up on looking at state schools. Oftentimes, private schools are more friendly to OOS applicants, and the cost of tuition OOS at a public medical school is not going to be that different than private.

 

[Stratego]

Pro: If you are not confident of the outcome, you'll save a lot of money if you scored poorly by not applying fruitlessly to schools you have no chance at, or if you scored spectacularly by not including a lot of less-selective schools you don't want to attend. When the score comes back, you can add and pay for more schools in the range appropriate to your score. The newly-added schools receive the entire application within one business day.

Con: You have to remember to go back into your AMCAS application to add schools. That's not much of a con, is it?

Incidently, while you wait for your score, start writing Secondary essays from the prompts you'll find here on SDN, so your turn-around time will be a day or two when you are formally invited to complete Secondaries. Many of the essays are the same and can be used on multiple applications.

 

[jal06c]

you just need one school to submit your application. and you can add schools at anytime without it affecting your place in the verification line. so i would just pick a school and submit your primary to get your place in line, because its currently taking about 3.5 weeks to get verified. FYI, you can't delete a school once you've submitted, so if you apply to a reach, and they get a less than spectacular score, you may have wasted that money. so in this case, waiting until you have your scores to submit your complete list of schools might be better financially. either way, good luck with the process!