Maximum # of schools to apply to?

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Premedgirl27

Premedgirl27

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So what do you think is the maximum number of schools someone could apply to, and have time to complete quality secondaries ? Assuming no job/school/life during that time? 🤔
 
eteshoe said:
The number will be dictated by how much abuse you're willing to wrought upon your wallet. Typical numbers are in the 20-35 range.
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So from what I have been reading on SDN, the initial application is 160, then $30 per school. And anywhere from $35 to $200 per secondary? Is that correct?
 
It will depend on your stats and your bank account. I did 20 and it was fine since I spent time pre-writing secondaries. I probably would have been fine with 15 but I insisted on reaches in a certain state. My friend that did 30 with no pre-writing felt her secondaries suffered.

Sent from my QTAQZ3 using SDN mobile
 
I have known people to apply to 60.
 
Spinach Dip said:
I have known people to apply to 60.
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damn....

But 5-30 is what I've heard of so far. I think your finances and how prepared you are plays a big factor. I always like to think, if I can't imagine myself attending that medical school, I would never waste the time and $$ for IIs and traveling... Best of luck 🙂
 
NotAnotherPreMed said:
That is some next level ****. That's enough words in those secondaries to fill out a novella.
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Well, first off it requires lots of cash. I think that is obvious.

Second, secondaries are much easier if you are willing to liberally recycle material, leave some optional spaces blank, and do a real half-ass job. You're essentially accepting a bird-shot tradeoff where each one has a small chance of hitting its target, but you fire off so many that one is BOUND to hit.

For those with big bank accounts and willing to go to any school that accepts them, it's actually a viable strategy.
 
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People with a 3.9/36+ without clinical volunteering or community service will be rejected by most schools due to low clinical exposure and/or yield protection
People with low stats plus no clinical exposure will also get rejected by most schools for obvious reasons

The ONLY time where I would suggest someone to apply to many schools are people with very decent activities (300+ hours clinical volunteer, a year of research, a leadership position in a club, and maybe even a personal, interesting activity) and decent stats (3.7+ and 32+) because these applicants are strong, well balanced applicants and almost all mid tier schools want that. These people are almost always on the pile of applicants are that further evaluated rather than automatically rejected for mid tier schools. So increasing your school list can help in this case because you might get rejected by some schools due to chance (residency, not a good fit for school, the school feels that your goals don't match up with school mission, an oversensitive interviewer rejecting you by making a big deal out of nothing that happened on interview day, etc)
 
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LoveBeingHuman:) said:
People with a 3.9/36+ without clinical volunteering or community service will be rejected by most schools due to low clinical exposure and/or yield protection
People with low stats plus no clinical exposure will also get rejected by most schools for obvious reasons

The ONLY time where I would suggest someone to apply to many schools are people with very decent activities (300+ hours clinical volunteer, a year of research, a leadership position in a club, and maybe even a personal, interesting activity) and decent stats (3.7+ and 32+) because these applicants are strong, well balanced applicants and almost all mid tier schools want that. These people are almost always on the pile of applicants are that further evaluated rather than automatically rejected for mid tier schools. So increasing your school list can help in this case because you might get rejected by some schools due to chance (residency, not a good fit for school, the school feels that your goals don't match up with school mission, an oversensitive interviewer rejecting you by making a big deal out of nothing that happened on interview day, etc)
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Wouldn't you encourage someone with lower stats to apply to more schools rather than someone with 3.7, 32 and 300+ hours of volunteering....? Why would someone with those stats need to apply to 30 schools?
 
Spinach Dip said:
Well, first off it requires lots of cash. I think that is obvious.

Second, secondaries are much easier if you are willing to liberally recycle material, leave some optional spaces blank, and do a real half-ass job. You're essentially accepting a bird-shot tradeoff where each one has a small chance of hitting its target, but you fire off so many that one is BOUND to hit.

For those with big bank accounts and willing to go to any school that accepts them, it's actually a viable strategy.
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Oh yeah completely forgot the financial part of it..It would be like 8-9k wouldn't it for all primaries and secondaries. I did 22 and was tired by the end.
 
Premedgirl27 said:
Wouldn't you encourage someone with lower stats to apply to more schools rather than someone with 3.7, 32 and 300+ hours of volunteering....? Why would someone with those stats need to apply to 30 schools?
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Low stats = automatic rejection at most schools

Once you get to know more of the process, you will realize that a degree of invariability is involved. The reason I say that with decent stats you should apply to many schools is because, for every school that you apply to, there is a chance that you get rejected because of random chance. Furthermore, 3.7-3.8 and 31-34 are smack down averages of at LEAST a quarter of all medical schools. So you are competitive with these stats. Applying to 40 schools that you are competitive for means that you are CONSIDERED at 40 schools, which means that chance has less of a role in making you empty handed in the spring.

If you have low stats, you barely have any chance of getting in, and applying to 40 schools is a waste of money.
 
Definitely apply to 20+ schools, and apply intelligently. I applied to 22 schools but I did not apply intelligently and ended up sending a bunch of applications to schools that receive an obscene number of applications for a normal number of spots. Don't just look at the GPA and MCAT, look at their mission and what they look for in an applicant and really critically evaluate if this is a place that might accept you on the basis of more than just your numbers. Good luck.
 
Premedgirl27 said:
Wouldn't you encourage someone with lower stats to apply to more schools rather than someone with 3.7, 32 and 300+ hours of volunteering....? Why would someone with those stats need to apply to 30 schools?
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Generally the better an applicant you are the fewer applications you can get away with, with one big caveat. Every year on SDN there's some person who miscalculates, and wrongly believed he/she "belongs" in a top 20-25 school, applies to most of them, and comes up short. Those people really should throw in a couple of safety" schools to boot. They can still apply to the top 20 but throw in a few more modest places to avoid being a reapplicant. So if you have a very top heavy list, you probably still need to add more to balance it out a bit.
 
I wrote 24 secondaries, and it was brutal. Probably applied to way too many, but was nervous about 2 MCATs. Definitely prewrite those secondaries, or you will be miserable. Good luck to you.
 
I did 9 but I think 20 would be reasonable
 
Depending on numbers I'd say anywhere from 15-45.

If you actually are doing nothing but secondaries and have the cash, you could probably bang out 1-3/day (I did 1/day but was working) if you stay dedicated.

If you're a >70 LizzyM stay around 15-20, if you're <70 write 25-45 depending on the overall strength of the app. I wrote ~35 between MD and DO because I was worried about my low sGPA, but felt the quality only suffered for maybe the last 5 or so.

If you come up with a few strong flexible essays for things like diversity, clinical experience, etc. then you can reuse and tweak one generic essay for many schools with minimal effort.
 
Californian here. Applied to 35 schools. By the end of it I felt like I was dying ( I believe all my secodaries were of good quality). I would estimate 40 would be the upper limit of what's humanly possible.

I do know this one guy (low verbal, ~7) who applied to 60+ schools, but I'm willing to bet his essay quality suffered as a result. He did eventually get in though.
 
I think I ended up applying to 14 in all. Wish I woulda applied to a couple more slight-reaches though.
 
I applied to 21 and was completely burned out by the end (both my wallet and my brain). Yes, you can recycle some material for secondaries but you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't customize your application to each school beyond swapping the institution names.

If you start prewriting now and you have a generous bank account, 30 might be reasonable. If you don't, you can apply broadly successfully with 15-20 schools. Look at Wedgedawg's applicant rating system for guidance.
 
I think 20 is solid - once you start pushing 25, you'd get so burnt out on secondaries that you'll just send crap in to get it done. I applied to 17 and didn't even submit the last 2 because I got so sick of writing/paying and could not force myself to sift through another schools website full of generic nonsense and come up with a reason I'd be a good fit.
 
mimelim said:
Highest I've heard of was in the 70s, most people I know applied to 5-15.
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5 is probably too few for 99% of the applicants out there unless it's only 1 reach and you've got an easy to get into state school in the list. I know plenty of solid applicants who ended up getting on more wait lists than that. 10-20 is probably the sweet spot for most. If you are a somewhat weaker applicant or applying to a large number of reaches you might want to go higher. Over 30 is territory you probably only go into if you are objectively a longer shot for med school.
 
mimelim said:
Highest I've heard of was in the 70s, most people I know applied to 5-15.
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I wish I was joking here, but I knew someone who applied to literally every possible U.S. MD or DO school (100+). I got the feeling she was either well off or just super neurotic.

Edit: Point here is anything is possible, but 20-30 is a healthy number for a normal, sane human being who sleeps regularly. I finished 23 apps writing a few hours a day on top of a full time job and managing volunteers in a hospital internship.

I believe Wedgedawg has some numbers in his applicant rating system thread for the # of schools people should apply to based on their stats.
 
Law2Doc said:
5 is probably too few for 99% of the applicants out there unless it's only 1 reach and you've got an easy to get into state school in the list. I know plenty of solid applicants who ended up getting on more wait lists than that. 10-20 is probably the sweet spot for most. If you are a somewhat weaker applicant or applying to a large number of reaches you might want to go higher. Over 30 is territory you probably only go into if you are objectively a longer shot for med school.
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*shrug* depends on the applicant and their application.
 
I believe the reported average in terms of schools the average applicant applies to is 13. When you consider the sizeable proportion of applications every school gets from applicants who arent competitive(just look at the AAMC charts and see how schools that take 95% IS get 60% of their applications from OOS as an example) in reality many people might only be "really" applying to say half that many as the rest are just essentially donations.
 
I applied to 15, and that was plenty for me. I realistically could've done more like 12 and been totally fine.

As far as the maximum number a person could complete, it depends on how much time, money, and ability to write endlessly you have. I will say, though, that even if you have the time and money, applying to 60 or something like that is probably not a great idea. At that point, you're probably applying to some that aren't good fits for you.
 
25-30 max. And that's if you have pretty much nothing else to do that summer. You don't want to half a$$ the secondaries and waste all that money. Everyone I know personally who applied to more than that burned out and didn't actually submit the secondaries for more than that number. Seems stressful and wasteful.
 
gyngyn said:
I saw someone apply to 110.
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gyngyn said:
He was the protege of a university dignitary who had concluded an unsuccessful cycle. I was asked to provide a review of the application.
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NotWayneBrady said:
I wish I was joking here, but I knew someone who applied to literally every possible U.S. MD or DO school (100+). I got the feeling she was either well off or just super neurotic.

Edit: Point here is anything is possible, but 20-30 is a healthy number for a normal, sane human being who sleeps regularly. I finished 23 apps writing a few hours a day on top of a full time job and managing volunteers in a hospital internship.

I believe Wedgedawg has some numbers in his applicant rating system thread for the # of schools people should apply to based on their stats.
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Wtf?! Did these people eventually get in? That's so crazy.

I can understand one applying to 40 or even 50 schools if they have discordant stats but 100 is just crazy to me. Not to mention the burnout they probably faced with the secondaries... There is literally no need for that.

Gyngyn I'm surprised his family connections didn't help get an acceptance to your school (or whatever school he had connections at).
 
starspells said:
Wtf?! Did these people eventually get in? That's so crazy.

I can understand one applying to 40 or even 50 schools if they have discordant stats but 100 is just crazy to me. Not to mention the burnout they probably faced with the secondaries... There is literally no need for that.

Gyngyn I'm surprised his family connections didn't help get an acceptance to your school (or whatever school he had connections at).
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He did not get in. He re-applied again this year.
This level of bad judgement supersedes even the highest connections.
 
starspells said:
Wtf?! Did these people eventually get in? That's so crazy.

I can understand one applying to 40 or even 50 schools if they have discordant stats but 100 is just crazy to me. Not to mention the burnout they probably faced with the secondaries... There is literally no need for that.

Gyngyn I'm surprised his family connections didn't help get an acceptance to your school (or whatever school he had connections at).
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If you have the pockets to pay for 100+ secondaries, (and do that apparently multiple cycles) you probably have the money to pay someone to write them for you...
 
JessebenBenjamin said:
If you have the pockets to pay for 100+ secondaries, (and do that apparently multiple cycles) you probably have the money to pay someone to write them for you...
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That's so dumb. Secondaries ask personal questions so it would be hard for someone to fake that for you. I can see how that lack of thoughtfulness or personal element would hurt the applicant if they did do that.
 
starspells said:
That's so dumb. Secondaries ask personal questions so it would be hard for someone to fake that for you. I can see how that lack of thoughtfulness or personal element would hurt the applicant if they did do that.
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I can see that too. I really don't think it is actually possible for 1 person to write enough for 11o secondaries. No way.
 
JessebenBenjamin said:
I can see that too. I really don't think it is actually possible for 1 person to write enough for 11o secondaries. No way.
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I think it comes down to 80 when you leave out schools that don't have secondaries which still leaves one with an ungodly number of secondaries to complete...
 
starspells said:
I think it comes down to 80 when you leave out schools that don't have secondaries which still leaves one with an ungodly number of secondaries to complete...
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He applied MD PhD, so I'm sad to say he had way more than the usual amount of secondary writing to do...
 
I applied to around 45. I had some red flags in my application and I didn't want to have to go through the process twice. It was the right choice for me, and I have no regrets.
 
gyngyn said:
He did not get in. He re-applied again this year.
This level of bad judgement supersedes even the highest connections.
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By bad judgement, do are you referring to the decision to apply to 110 schools or something else? I am guessing his secondaries must have suffered.... Also, do schools know how many schools you apply to, and which schools rejected you?
 
Premedgirl27 said:
By bad judgement, do are you referring to the decision to apply to 110 schools or something else? I am guessing his secondaries must have suffered.... Also, do schools know how many schools you apply to, and which schools rejected you?
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Bad judgment is rarely isolated to a single instance.
His application strategy and his outcome were both terrible. I would never have known how many schools he applied to or anything about the application if he had not been referred for special consideration (after a decision had been rendered, thankfully). We never see who rejects or waitlists you or where you applied.
 
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