loyola..or reapply

[sjashark]

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So here's my situation:

31 MCAT, 3.5 GPA(biomedical engineering major), good LORs, decent ECAs, and good research experience. I applied to 13 schools(applied very late, october-november), got rejected by 12, and I'm currently sitting on the waitlist at Loyola. Tomorrow I'm going to start the 2006 AMCAS.

Loyola isn't a bad school by any means, but I'm just not very excited about it(primarily because of the religious affiliation thing). I would love to reapply and attend a school like Northwestern or UIC, or U of Chicago. If I do get accepted from the Loyola waitlist, should I take it, or should I reapply again EARLY this year, and take my chances for a better school. Would I be foolish to give up an acceptance?

Thanks for the advice

 

[newhavenjake]

loyola's a great school and the religious stuff is super low key if you want it to be. I'm a pretty non-religious jew and am going to georgetown next year (with the same jesuit philosophy).

Even if you reapply early you're not a shoe it at either chicago or northwestern, and uic is inferior to loyola. Plus reapplying is a huge hassle and without much new info your application looks worse not better. If I were you I'd be busting my ass to get into loyola this cycle.

 

[LizzyM]

If you didn't want to go to Loyola, why did you waste your money applying there? Why did you take an interview spot that could have been given to someone who really wanted to attend Loyola? Why are you sitting on their waitlist if you don't want to go there?

Knock yourself out trying to get into Loyola this year and start the ball rolling to get your applications in early next year. Don't be a jerk, only apply to the schools you'd actually be willing to attend. (You can change your mind later if the interview reveals problems that weren't evident on paper but pleeeze, Loyola's religious affiliation is pretty obvious, isn't it?)

31/3.5 puts you below the mean for Northwestern, I don't know how you'd do at U Chicago or UIC (inferior to Loyola, perhaps, but highly sought after because the in-state tuition is such a bargain).

 

[MrJiggyLee]

Lizzy, how would you rank all the Chicago Schools?

If you didn't want to go to Loyola, why did you waste your money applying there? Why did you take an interview spot that could have been given to someone who really wanted to attend Loyola? Why are you sitting on their waitlist if you don't want to go there?

Knock yourself out trying to get into Loyola this year and start the ball rolling to get your applications in early next year. Don't be a jerk, only apply to the schools you'd actually be willing to attend. (You can change your mind later if the interview reveals problems that weren't evident on paper but pleeeze, Loyola's religious affiliation is pretty obvious, isn't it?)

31/3.5 puts you below the mean for Northwestern, I don't know how you'd do at U Chicago or UIC (inferior to Loyola, perhaps, but highly sought after because the in-state tuition is such a bargain).

 

[newhavenjake]

Lizzy, how would you rank all the Chicago Schools?

having applied to all but one, and interviewing at three I feel like I can answer this question.

Statistics
Northwestern GPA 3.7 MCAT 33.3
UofC GPA 3.64 MCAT 31.5
Loyola GPA3.66 MCAT 29.8
Rush GPA 3.67 MCAT 29.8
UIC GPA 3.54 MCAT 29.7
Rosalind Franklin GPA3.4 MCAT 28.6


My Personal Feelings based on visits, conversations with chicago doctors, and living there for a few years actually end up following the MCAT rankings:
Northwestern, U of Chicago, Loyola, Rush, UIC, Rosalind Franklin

 

[blingblah]

If that ranking of schools helps ya ....wonderful!! But what the ranking tells you is nothing but incoming mcat stats and GPA. Where do those wonderful 3.7 GPAs match? Rosalind Franklin's match list is pretty impressive but its at the bottom of the list (i dont know how they do it either).
There is no arguing Northwestern and U of Chicago's status among the top tier. But really for UIC, Loyola, Rush or Franklin (Rush could be a little higher because of their hospital but even then) they are all middle tier. So if you are thinking of the ranking as a guide to how presitigious they are, good luck! They are all about the same.

 

[newhavenjake]

If that ranking of schools helps ya ....wonderful!! But what the ranking tells you is nothing but incoming mcat stats and GPA. Where do those wonderful 3.7 GPAs match? Rosalind Franklin's match list is pretty impressive but its at the bottom of the list (i dont know how they do it either).
There is no arguing Northwestern and U of Chicago's status among the top tier. But really for UIC, Loyola, Rush or Franklin (Rush could be a little higher because of their hospital but even then) they are all middle tier. So if you are thinking of the ranking as a guide to how presitigious they are, good luck! They are all about the same.

Just curious, did you read the bottom of my post before you got all self righteous? Typical U of I student...

 

[maygirl]

I disagree with newhavenjake's Chicago schools rankings, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion - it's largely subjective. To the OP, I really advise you to take the acceptance from Loyola if you get it. There are several reasons.

1) If you reject it, schools are going to question why. Some schools care, some schools won't, but you need to come up with a better answer than wanting to go to a better school because some schools will automatically disregard you.

2) Loyola is a wonderful school, and personally, I think it's on par with UIC. Let's not fight over which school is better than the others. I heard great things about Loyola. Students at Loyola are happy, and a lot of them are not religious. I understand if you may want to wait out another year for UIC's in-state tuition (though 26,000 is kind of ridiculous for in-state tuition), but not if you want to go to a "better" school.

3) Most of my experience comes from NU and U of C (went to undergrad at NU, worked at the med school for 2 years, am heading towards Pritzker in the fall because I frankly need a new environment). Unless you improved your stats significantly, I unfortunately think that Northwestern will reject you again. U of C may have lower stats, but that doesn't mean that they're not as selective. Each school looks for different things, and U of C definitely is pretty choosy in their own way - they reject tons of people with high stats because they have certain characteristics that they're looking for (believe me, tons of friends who ended up at WashU, got rejected preinterview at pritzker). Unless you improved something significantly from last year's application, then I don't think these two schools will change their mind the next time around, early applicant or not.

Good luck on your decision.

 

[Without Wax]

So here's my situation:

31 MCAT, 3.5 GPA(biomedical engineering major), good LORs, decent ECAs, and good research experience. I applied to 13 schools(applied very late, october-november), got rejected by 12, and I'm currently sitting on the waitlist at Loyola. Tomorrow I'm going to start the 2006 AMCAS.

Loyola isn't a bad school by any means, but I'm just not very excited about it(primarily because of the religious affiliation thing). I would love to reapply and attend a school like Northwestern or UIC, or U of Chicago. If I do get accepted from the Loyola waitlist, should I take it, or should I reapply again EARLY this year, and take my chances for a better school. Would I be foolish to give up an acceptance?

Thanks for the advice

loyola is a great school, and you should definitely accept it if they offer you a spot.Why would you want to go through this process again?

However, if you can improve your credentials then you should try. But I would go to loyola

 

[bebella24]

First thing..you may think i sound pathetic, but do you know, i wouldl give me FREAKING LEFT ARM to go to Loyola. I went there for undergrad, and it is by FAR my num. one choice for medical school. Please please try to be appreciative of the opprotunities that are given to you. Just another perspective that i thought might benefit in your decision making process. I wish i was in your shoes..honestly...consider yourself VERY VERY blessed.

 

[trishias]

Just browsing as I am a pharm student but I did got to Loyola undergrad. Stritch is very competitive to get into and when I did want to do to med school, I wanted to go to Stritch, not just because I went to undergrad there but because it has a great curriculum and it has nice facilities. Most of the faculty I have come across are great teachers and want u to succeed. I don't know much about the other programs but Loyola is a great school. As for the religious aspect, it is up to u. I am Baptist and I went to my own church for "religious fulfillment" and your participation in events is totally up to you, u do or u don't. It is not forced down your throat. So long story short, if u want to go to med school, write a letter of intent to Loyola, see if a spot opens up and if so, take it. Good luck to you with your decision.

 

[bebella24]

Just browsing as I am a pharm student but I did got to Loyola undergrad. Stritch is very competitive to get into and when I did want to do to med school, I wanted to go to Stritch, not just because I went to undergrad there but because it has a great curriculum and it has nice facilities. Most of the faculty I have come across are great teachers and want u to succeed. I don't know much about the other programs but Loyola is a great school. As for the religious aspect, it is up to u. I am Baptist and I went to my own church for "religious fulfillment" and your participation in events is totally up to you, u do or u don't. It is not forced down your throat. So long story short, if u want to go to med school, write a letter of intent to Loyola, see if a spot opens up and if so, take it. Good luck to you with your decision.

Hey Trishias, what year did you graduate from LUC? 🙂

 

[Code Brown]

I personally think that you would be foolish to give up your acceptance. I would definitely go to Loyola. A medical school is a medical school. There isn't that much difference between them.

Reapplying because of tuition would be pretty stupid because while you would save some money going to UIC, this would pale in comparison to the money you would lose by losing an entire year of physician salary by graduating a year later.

As for the religious thing, I would not worry about it. I was personally turned off from Wake for this reason, but not because of the school itself. I was fine with the school. It had to do with living in a religious area for 4 years. Living in Chicago would definitely not fall into the same category. However, I had a choice. If it was the only school I got into, I would definitely be going there and would be as happy as a fly on **** to go.

Also, in your 1st and 2nd year, you will probably not have to deal with this issue too much, seeing as you'll be dealing with just the pure sciences. In your 3rd and 4th year, you can probably choose to do your clinicals in locations that are not religious (ie. county hospital, VA hospital, etc.) and so this won't be an issue either.

I would talk to some 3rd and 4th years at the school and see what they have to say about this.

Just my $0.02.

 

[trishias]

Hey Trishias, what year did you graduate from LUC? 🙂

last year

 

[sjashark]

thanks for all the feedback guys. I think that I will probably attend Loyola if I'm offered admission......I hear there are a lot of people on the waitlist, so I don't know how great my chances are, but hopefully I'll get a call soon!

Also, I don't think Loyola is a bad institution at all. Jesuit institutions in general are known for providing high quality education and good student support....also, the facilities at Loyola are top notch (small, but top notch). My biggest issue is the fact that they are a Jesuit institution (don't do abortions, weird about birth control, etc) I'm just not a very religious person, and I'm not sure about having that type of philosophy interfer with the type of education I will pay 35,000/year for.


Thanks again for all the helpful advice!

 

[DrRads101]

I'll have to disagree with most of the posters in here. Not that Loyola is a bad school by any means--but because you should try and go where you want to and where you'd be happy. This is worth waiting another year and boosting your stats and reapplying. I'm not sure how old you are, but most pre-meds could use an extra year to mature before going to med school anyway. I would buy the Examkrackers series books and start reading them and studying them all summer for the August MCAT, and then reapply. It gives you a whole year to mature, you will probably do better on the MCAT, and you know which schools you like now.

And one thing other posters haven't mentioned is the fact that most schools all you to defer an acceptance. So if you get into Loyola, great, just write them a letter and tell them you are going to defer one year. During that year, reapply to some other schools and see what happens.

Just my 2 cents. Oh BTW I go to Feinberg and I'll tell you from the people they interview, they have a strong bias for prestigious undergrads, so I'm not sure where you went to school but keep that in mind when regarding your chances. And when I say prestigious I mean University of Illinois/Wisconsin (Urbana and Madison, not the other campuses) on up. I have never seen them interview anyone here from UI-Chicago or UW-Milwaukee, for instance, yet I'm sure many apply.

 

[sjashark]

Just my 2 cents. Oh BTW I go to Feinberg and I'll tell you from the people they interview, they have a strong bias for prestigious undergrads, so I'm not sure where you went to school but keep that in mind when regarding your chances. And when I say prestigious I mean University of Illinois/Wisconsin (Urbana and Madison, not the other campuses) on up. I have never seen them interview anyone here from UI-Chicago or UW-Milwaukee, for instance, yet I'm sure many apply.

I attend the University of Iowa. Is this a prestigious enough school?

 

[JasmoneLUMC]

Just an fyi, you can't defer and reapply at the same time. AMCAS tracks such movement closely, and I'm fairly certain all schools require you to drop your deferred acceptance if you plan on reapplying (or they'll do it for you if they see that you've reinitiated an application). I'm starting at Loyola this year after deferring for a year. They informed me of these policies at the time I deferred. Loyola's a great place; if you get off the alternate list you should strongly consider it.

 

[LaurieB]

Also, I don't think Loyola is a bad institution at all. Jesuit institutions in general are known for providing high quality education and good student support....also, the facilities at Loyola are top notch (small, but top notch). My biggest issue is the fact that they are a Jesuit institution (don't do abortions, weird about birth control, etc) I'm just not a very religious person, and I'm not sure about having that type of philosophy interfer with the type of education I will pay 35,000/year for.

Abortions and birth control are an extremely small part of your medical education at any school and while Loyola does not perform abortions or openly advocate birth control, they are not absent from the curriculum: http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/obgyne/pcsch.htm .

I am not a religous person and I am very comfortable with the Jesuit influence at Loyola. I think it has a very positive impact on my education and in shaping my moral character as a physician.

Laurie

 

[doozenberg]

So here's my situation:

31 MCAT, 3.5 GPA(biomedical engineering major), good LORs, decent ECAs, and good research experience. I applied to 13 schools(applied very late, october-november), got rejected by 12, and I'm currently sitting on the waitlist at Loyola. Tomorrow I'm going to start the 2006 AMCAS.

Loyola isn't a bad school by any means, but I'm just not very excited about it(primarily because of the religious affiliation thing). I would love to reapply and attend a school like Northwestern or UIC, or U of Chicago. If I do get accepted from the Loyola waitlist, should I take it, or should I reapply again EARLY this year, and take my chances for a better school. Would I be foolish to give up an acceptance?

Thanks for the advice

i just reluctantly sent a letter to withdraw my spot at loyola; hope you get it man. if you do get the acceptance, grab it and run!