Most Schools You Will/Have Applied To?

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Doc of the Walk

Doc of the Walk

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I just looked at Noshies MDapp page and I noticed she applied to 48 😱 schools! Is that normal for an average applicant? I was only thinking about 15 at the most.

What about you guys?
 
Yea that's fine, you can do whatever you want. It will just obviously cost more money. Better be safe then sorry.

When it comes time for me, I'll probably apply to 30 something schools.
 
I applied to 16 schools, all in/near NYC. I also had a high MCAT and good gpa though. But if you replace some of my upper tier picks with lower ones and had an mcat in the low 30s, i still feel 16 is enough.
 
I applied to 10 schools. I was reasonably confident in my ability to get into both of my state schools, otherwise I would have applied to more.
 
Depends on your competetiveness, and the state in which you reside. Some state schools are very easy to get in to if one is competitive enough, and that will allow you to apply to fewer schools overall. Other than that there is no such thing as a safety.
 
I applied to 44. I think your stats, risk tolerance, and time you apply should play heavily into how many apps you send out. I'm very risk averse, and in hindsight, probably should have cut out a bunch of schools, but then again, if I wasn't sitting on an acceptance, I'd be pissed at not applying to enough.
 
amcas was sent to 31 schools but I only applied to 23.... ridiculous waste of money, but I have no idea how people do 20+ applications in a timely manner
 
MediCynical said:
amcas was sent to 31 schools but I only applied to 23.... ridiculous waste of money, but I have no idea how people do 20+ applications in a timely manner
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I haven't actually applied yet, but I'm going to guess that secondary questions tend to overlap a bit if there really are people that apply to 40 schools.
 
Five. I didn't even send back the secondary for one, though, so I guess you could say 4.
 
Doc of the Walk said:
I just looked at Noshies MDapp page and I noticed she applied to 48 😱 schools! Is that normal for an average applicant? I was only thinking about 15 at the most.
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Is that the person who had a low GPA and, after taking the MCAT like 4 times, wound up with a mid-20s score? And then applied to some top-20 schools? :laugh:

No, that's not typical. Do EVERYTHING reasonably possible to have a great app, including killing the MCAT. Have a great college experience at the same time. If you do that and choose thoughtfully, 15 should be plenty. There's no need to apply to schools where you don't fit their profile or mission.
 
I sent AMCAS to 15 and then did secondaries for 12. Interviewed at 3 so far, 2 acceptances out of those, and have 1 interview coming up. Below average GPA, solid MCAT score. I applied later than I should have. Sent AMCAS early July, secondaries August/September.
 
Doc of the Walk said:
I just looked at Noshies MDapp page and I noticed she applied to 48 😱 schools! Is that normal for an average applicant? I was only thinking about 15 at the most.

What about you guys?
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Noshie had reason to apply extremely broadly, not the least of which the fact that she's a re-applicant and costs accumulate (yes it costs more to apply to a ton of schools, but its far better than another cycle.)

Personally, I don't think I'd ever apply to more than 20, and I most likely won't go over 15.
Musclemass said:
Is that the person who had a low GPA and, after taking the MCAT like 4 times, wound up with a mid-20s score? And then applied to some top-20 schools? :laugh:
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No need to be a jerk.
 
Doc of the Walk said:
I just looked at Noshies MDapp page and I noticed she applied to 48 😱 schools! Is that normal for an average applicant? I was only thinking about 15 at the most.

What about you guys?
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Hehe. My ears were burning... So... I don't regret applying to so many schools, as the poster above said, this is my third time applying. In the past I only applied to less than 15-20 DO schools and all of the schools in Texas (7 of them before, now there are 8. This cost less than $200 total). I never received an interview before. Mainly due to my MCAT. My undergraduate GPA sucks also, which is the main reason I applied to so many schools this time. I knew going into this cycle that I have come a long way and have had several unique accomplishments. I knew that I would be successful, but I am not taking a chance this time, and I am not taking anything for granted. As I have said before, go big or go home. If I didn't apply to so many places, and I didn't get an acceptance this cycle, I would have regretted it. For me, regret is worth more than any amount of money could be. I filled out over 40 secondary applications, and the time I put into it was a testament to how dedicated to this journey I am.

The money I spent the last two times I applied was a waste. I wish I had waited to apply, until I had a better MCAT. But more importantly, if you don't have amazing scores or a strong array of ECs, you want to make sure that you make your application cycle count. That means getting things to the application service/schools in a timely manner, finishing as many secondaries as it takes to get an interview, and applying broadly. This is all about how much risk you are willing to handle. You have to ask yourself if you are willing to take years to fix your application after a failed application cycle, just as you have to ask yourself if reapplying is not going to upset you greatly or mess up your future life plans...

Musclemass said:
Is that the person who had a low GPA and, after taking the MCAT like 4 times, wound up with a mid-20s score? And then applied to some top-20 schools? :laugh:

No, that's not typical. Do EVERYTHING reasonably possible to have a great app, including killing the MCAT. Have a great college experience at the same time. If you do that and choose thoughtfully, 15 should be plenty. There's no need to apply to schools where you don't fit their profile or mission.
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Um… 5 MCATs, thank you. Haha. And I got a 27… Which I am very proud of. My MCAT is the least exciting part of my application, so for me, my MCAT does not define who I am or how great of an applicant I am. I am older and wiser than I was in my past application cycles, I have come to realize that being confident in my ability to become an effective physician is more important than a test score. It's more important to me, and it has proved to be more important to my interviewers in every interview I have been to.

Also, I did not apply to hardly any top 20 schools… I applied broadly, and I think I made the most of the schools I applied to… I am very realistic, I know what I have a chance at… I know my odds at an acceptance... and I know what I am worth. 😉
 
Kevin Baker said:
I applied to 44. I think your stats, risk tolerance, and time you apply should play heavily into how many apps you send out. I'm very risk averse, and in hindsight, probably should have cut out a bunch of schools, but then again, if I wasn't sitting on an acceptance, I'd be pissed at not applying to enough.
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Same -- I applied to 36-38 schools and got wayyy too many interviews and acceptances... but I don't regret it. I'm re-applicant -- and I applied to 23 schools the first time (but lower MCAT/GPA and late application.) Applying to that many schools isn't that hard... just expensive (MDapp for costs). I ran into many applicants who have applied to 30... and honestly, I would aim for 20-25 for your first time applying. Better to do too many than too little.

Noshie -- I am super proud of you!!
 
Doc of the Walk said:
Wow, keeping it pretty clse to the chest I see. I'm glad you got in to at least one school though
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Not an ideal situation to be in, trust me, but it was what's best for my family. My husband just got a great new job in April and almost all of our family and friends are here. We wanted to stay close to home, and we really didn't want to take our daughter away from most of her relatives. We're really fortunate to live in a medical school-heavy area, and this would have been a much more nerve-wracking process if I hadn't done as well as I did on the MCAT.
 
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I did 25, originally 20... then I got waitlisted by my first interview school in October... had a freakout and applied to five more that I didnt really want to go to but were way below my numbers.

After that I got my first acceptance and I've had more interviews... needless to say I think I freaked out prematurely. But 20 seems like a good number. Make sure you do some below your stats, most within your stats, and a couple above. With my 25 I'm totally broke! but I wanted to be safe I suppose 🙄
 
Before the cycle began I told myself that I wouldn't apply to more than 15 schools for both time and money issues. I think I ended up applying to 16, and that was more than enough. I can't imagine applying to 20+ schools. That's nuts.
 
I'm applying to around 20 for my first cycle. About average/slighty above average stats.
 
noshie said:
Um… 5 MCATs, thank you. Haha. And I got a 27… Which I am very proud of. My MCAT is the least exciting part of my application, so for me, my MCAT does not define who I am or how great of an applicant I am. I am older and wiser than I was in my past application cycles, I have come to realize that being confident in my ability to become an effective physician is more important than a test score. It’s more important to me, and it has proved to be more important to my interviewers in every interview I have been to.

Also, I did not apply to hardly any top 20 schools… I applied broadly, and I think I made the most of the schools I applied to… I am very realistic, I know what I have a chance at… I know my odds at an acceptance... and I know what I am worth. 😉
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Good for you! Some people are just naturally not good test takers but you did improve. Way to not let random pre meds bring you down. 👍 Although that is a lot of schools lol but if you have the money go for it! Congrats on your acceptance
 
Supernerd said:
needless to say I think I freaked out prematurely.
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Lol, me too. I had 17 I think, then freaked (way before you actually, in mid-SEPT!) because I hadn't gotten any interview invites yet. I ended up with around 21 or 22, mostly within my range and "safeties." Total misnomer though, I personally don't believe ANYWHERE is really a safe bet with med school admissions. A few of those I didn't finish the secondary for, though, especially not after that magical first acceptance. :laugh:

FWIW, I think it's awesome what noshie did. It shows tenacity and commitment to a degree that I wouldn't be able to maintain. I had to reapply this year, and couldn't even fathom having to do this again. Good for you noshie!!! 👍
 
I have 34 completed applications. My initial aim was 25 schools... but I'll admit, I was worried about not getting in anywhere. But with way too many interviews and several acceptances in hand, I do not regret it at all. It was a relief to get my first interview late August, then my first acceptance mid-Oct. Those two things made me feel so much more relieved.

Yes, it was a LOT of money... the primaries, secondaries, plane tickets, hotels... whichI could have saved for a car, those boots I really want, or just for reducing my loans in the future. But what the heck. And also, in hindsight, I wouldn't even know what school to cut from my 34 schools. I got the opportunity to interview at an impossible reach school. And fell in love with another school that I had a bad impression before visiting. So who knows--I'm attending all my interviews because I realized that I will never really know whether I like a school across the country until I visit it.

Oh and, for the person who wondered how can you even fill out so many secondaries... I actually sent in 20 secondaries in July and the rest in August. Yes, it was effing burnout, but when there's a will, there's a way. Just takes perseverance and hard work.
 
I completed 19 applications. If I were to do it over again with the same credentials, I'd apply to fewer schools and instead be smarter about where I applied.
 
I'm still a year and a half off, but I plan on applying to 15 schools. I don't have the money to do any more.
 
ColeOnTheRoll said:
Before the cycle began I told myself that I wouldn't apply to more than 15 schools for both time and money issues. I think I ended up applying to 16, and that was more than enough. I can't imagine applying to 20+ schools. That's nuts.
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That's because you have a very competitive application which virtually guaranteed at least one acceptance. I'd imagine if you had something like a 3.5ish-GPA/low-30s-MCAT, applying to 20+ schools would sound less crazy. 🙂

With that being said, I applied to 20+ schools. I have a strong MCAT score, but my GPA was just around the average for matriculants. Spending a couple hundred extra bucks >>> losing a whole year due to having to reapply. I'm happy with my choice so far, but in hindsight, I could've probably cut down on a couple of schools.
 
Kevin Baker said:
I applied to 44. I think your stats, risk tolerance, and time you apply should play heavily into how many apps you send out. I'm very risk averse, and in hindsight, probably should have cut out a bunch of schools, but then again, if I wasn't sitting on an acceptance, I'd be pissed at not applying to enough.
Click to expand...
Yea that's the kinda person i am. Might as well ya know? I would not want to wait another year...
 
I think the rule of thumb is the stronger your application, the fewer schools you need to apply to (although minimum would probably be around 10?)
 
I applied to 22 schools (although I only sent in 20 of the secondaries). Of those, so far I've had 5 interviews, 2 acceptances, and 1 waitlist. Looking back, I might have cut out a few schools, but being from CA and with good but non-stellar stats, I wanted to apply broadly.
 
AMCASed 20, only mustered the willpower to do 15 secondaries, 2 pre-secondary rejections and the last three were a waste. Stanford was never going to take me anyway 🙄

i think i read somewhere that the average now is 13? (for AMCAS, likely higher then if you consider people like Noshie who applied MD and DO)
 
I applied to 25. There were 20 on the original list and I added 5 late. Of the 5 I added late, I got interviews at 4 of them and so far have been accepted to 1 of them.

With the exception of 4 schools, I turned all of the secondaries around within about 48 hours. The others were within 7 days.

I busted my butt and some other things did suffer. I was taking a summer class that was 4 hours a day and working and volunteering 40 hours a week. Every night I came home and wrote and revised secondaries. I woke up 2 hours early and did the same in the morning. I had no life, totally ticked off my friend who read my essays for me, but it was worth it to have everything in and done super early and have so many opportunities and now options.

When I got my first interview I cried like a little girl for like 15 minutes 🙂
 
dbeast said:
I think the rule of thumb is the stronger your application, the fewer schools you need to apply to (although minimum would probably be around 10?)
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I'd agree with that assuming you aren't geographically restricted. For example, Geekchick only applied to 5 cause she needed to stay in Philly.
 
gettheleadout said:
I'd agree with that assuming you aren't geographically restricted. For example, Geekchick only applied to 5 cause she needed to stay in Philly.
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Ah, understandably. I know for certain I will probably have to go to school in Virginia, but I would loveeeee to go to school in Florida.

warm weather + hot girls in bikinis = motivation to become a doctor 😎
 
I had a good GPA but below average MCAT and very late application (Nov/Dec complete). Applied 2009 to 22 schools, got 3 interviews and WLed at all three. By the time I realized I wasn't getting into medical school, my options were retake MCAT and be late AGAIN or apply super early and broadly as possible. Filled out 38 applications, got 5 interviews, 2 acceptances, 1 WL, 1 rejection, and 1 interview I withdrew from. It was worth not going through a third cycle.. what a few thousand more dollars in the scheme of things when I will come out of school owing $200K. I figured I would give it my all and hope 1 out of 38 places would give me a chance.
 
I'm looking at 20-25, want to get one acceptance next cycle......hopefully:shrug:
 
Kaushik said:
That's because you have a very competitive application which virtually guaranteed at least one acceptance. I'd imagine if you had something like a 3.5ish-GPA/low-30s-MCAT, applying to 20+ schools would sound less crazy. 🙂

With that being said, I applied to 20+ schools. I have a strong MCAT score, but my GPA was just around the average for matriculants. Spending a couple hundred extra bucks >>> losing a whole year due to having to reapply. I'm happy with my choice so far, but in hindsight, I could've probably cut down on a couple of schools.
Click to expand...

But I couldn't even imagine doing all the secondaries for those, let alone going on interviews. I felt swamped with 16 secondaries. I really don't see how people can write 40+ quality applications in the span of a couple months.
 
17 AMCAS, 16 secondaries, and even then at least 4 secondaries were really not up to my standards. Really can't imagine doing more, props to you guys who did.
 
kiwifruit487 said:
I have 34 completed applications. My initial aim was 25 schools... but I'll admit, I was worried about not getting in anywhere. But with way too many interviews and several acceptances in hand, I do not regret it at all. It was a relief to get my first interview late August, then my first acceptance mid-Oct. Those two things made me feel so much more relieved.

Yes, it was a LOT of money... the primaries, secondaries, plane tickets, hotels... whichI could have saved for a car, those boots I really want, or just for reducing my loans in the future. But what the heck. And also, in hindsight, I wouldn't even know what school to cut from my 34 schools. I got the opportunity to interview at an impossible reach school. And fell in love with another school that I had a bad impression before visiting. So who knows--I'm attending all my interviews because I realized that I will never really know whether I like a school across the country until I visit it.

Oh and, for the person who wondered how can you even fill out so many secondaries... I actually sent in 20 secondaries in July and the rest in August. Yes, it was effing burnout, but when there's a will, there's a way. Just takes perseverance and hard work.
Click to expand...
+1 This is all me. SDN freaked me out so I added new MD schools and DO schools to my application list. I don't regret it at all.

ColeOnTheRoll said:
But I couldn't even imagine doing all the secondaries for those, let alone going on interviews. I felt swamped with 16 secondaries. I really don't see how people can write 40+ quality applications in the span of a couple months.
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After about the first 10-15 completed applications, it gets really easy because you already have most of the essays written, so you just have to spend some time adjusting them to fit the school. For example, people complain about Loyola's 7 essays, but Loyola was one of the last schools that I completed my application to and by then I had most of those 7 essays written... I just needed to reshape and restructure them. It really took no time. There was also a lot of sheer will power happening. haha.
 
I think that regardless of the number of secondaries you write the last few are the hardest. So it may seem that if you sent 15 and were burnt out and you couldn't do any more (or were struggling to do the last few), you'd get the same feeling if you wrote 30. I sent like 25 secondaries and was burnt out in the end. One school I never submitted because the secondary came out late, even though it wouldve been among my top choices.
 
Avoidthetiger said:
+1 This is all me. SDN freaked me out so I added new MD schools and DO schools to my application list. I don't regret it at all.
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Haha. I avoided SDN precisely to avoid the freakout.

Avoidthetiger said:
After about the first 10-15 completed applications, it gets really easy because you already have most of the essays written, so you just have to spend some time adjusting them to fit the school.
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That was my experience as well, and a great source of paranoia making sure I didn't leave in incorrect school-specific information. 😉
 
How do you fund these applications too? student loans? rich grandparents? you island fortress in a volcano?
 
Doc of the Walk said:
How do you fund these applications too? student loans? rich grandparents? you island fortress in a volcano?
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I'll be using hamburger...er pt flipping money. I suppose you could use student loan money to help pay for the applications.
 
Doc of the Walk said:
How do you fund these applications too? student loans? rich grandparents? you island fortress in a volcano?
Click to expand...

I funded about half of the application costs with money I'd saved, and I took out a small loan with my parents to pay for the rest of it.
 
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