Need help deciding where to apply...

[majahops]

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I can't seem to narrow down the list of schools I am going to apply to. Right now I have 35, but I want to have around 20. The only ones I will definitely apply to are the California one's I have listed (my state schools). If anybody could please go to my mdapplicants and look at my list and help me chop it down, based on my stats, it would mean SO much to me. Thanks so much!

My mdapplicants profile is here: http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=09806

 

[nevercold]

As you already know, your GPA is on the low side (but not so low as to prevent you from going to medical school, of course). Your MCAT score is decent, but unfortunately doesn't particularly make up for the GPA. As a result, you might find yourself benefiting from keeping more schools on your application list. This will result in a heavier financial burden through AMCAS and secondaries, but if you ended up with more interviews than you could afford to go to you can always cancel/decline some. A lot of SDN'ers with your numbers seem to benefit from applying to a larger number of schools. The ones who don't get in are the ones that trim that number below 20.

The first schools I would cut off are any schools in locations you do not want to live in and that University of Texas. I'm pretty sure the Texas schools favor in-state pretty strongly and your numbers would be less competitive in the out-of-state group. I believe someone previously posted information on here regarding which state schools accept more out-of-state students and that would be beneficial for you to search for and find.

 

[crazy4clana]

Narrow it down A LOT. Adcomms will see how many schools you've applied to and if it's more than 15, then you just end up looking desperate and ready to go to the first school that picks you. Since you have slightly lower stats, you should apply to DO schools as well. You can't pick and choose when you have no other options.

I suggest private schools and DO schools since all of the UC schools are crazy competitive and have a cutoff GPA. You have a better shot OOS.

 

[lala2626]

will adcoms see the names of the schools u apply to? or just the # of schools?

 

[crazy4clana]

They will see the names of the schools you've applied to as well. You have to turn in the AMCAS application to every school you're applying to and it has the list on it.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Narrow it down A LOT. Adcomms will see how many schools you've applied to and if it's more than 15, then you just end up looking desperate and ready to go to the first school that picks you. Since you have slightly lower stats, you should apply to DO schools as well. You can't pick and choose when you have no other options.

I suggest private schools and DO schools since all of the UC schools are crazy competitive and have a cutoff GPA. You have a better shot OOS.

I 100% disagree with you. First, adcoms DON'T know where you applied. They don't get that information. Next May, they will know where you've been ACCEPTED, not where you applied. Second, getting in is very important and there are thousands of people who apply to 20+ school because of marginal stats.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

They will see the names of the schools you've applied to as well. You have to turn in the AMCAS application to every school you're applying to and it has the list on it.

This is not true.

 

[crazy4clana]

IT IS TRUE. Stop arguing and ask your pre-med advisor or anyone else that has applied to med school. 🙄 You have to fill out the AMCAS of all the schools you are applying to, this generic list goes to EVERY school. And applying to 20+ is EXCESSIVE, and is not advisable. Where are you getting your information?

 

[MedStudentWanna]

IT IS TRUE. Stop arguing and ask your pre-med advisor or anyone else that has applied to med school. 🙄

Dude, my brother applied to med school. LOL

 

[Depakote]

IT IS TRUE. Stop arguing and ask your pre-med advisor or anyone else that has applied to med school. 🙄 You have to fill out the AMCAS of all the schools you are applying to, this generic list goes to EVERY school. And applying to 20+ is EXCESSIVE, where are you getting your information?

This is not true.

 

[crazy4clana]

My brother is in med school.

My pre-med advisor said this and my brother said in his interviews they knew where he applied. They didn't ask him because they had the list. I don't get why this is hard to believe, you have to fill out the AMCAS which goes to every school and lists EVERY school you've applied to.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

My brother is in med school.

My pre-med advisor said this and my brother said in his interviews they knew where he applied. They didn't ask him because they had the list.

I'm telling you, it's not true.

 

[wing14]

it says it right on your amcas application:

"4. Designated Medical Schools: The list of your designated medical schools is provided here for your information. The schools to which you apply do not receive such a list of all schools you have designated."

 

[crazy4clana]

Well then, how did the med schools know?

Anyway, back to the OP. Apply broadly and to many schools under 20.

 

[Depakote]

To the OP, I'd suggest cutting the following schools:


University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 29/3.7- you aren't a resident, check their OOS stats

Loma Linda University School of Medicine 30/3.8- maybe, how religious are you, LL is very religious and screens out based on religious ECs

Georgetown University School of Medicine 31/3.7- probably a waste of money


University of Illinois College of Medicine 31/3.6- you aren't a state resident

Indiana University School of Medicine 30/3.7- you aren't a state resident

University of Louisville School of Medicine 29/3.65- you aren't a state resident

Tulane University School of Medicine 30/3.55- not sure, but they may have a state bias, check on this

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences 30/3.55- do you want to go into the military? this involves a significant committment

University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences 28/3.7- you aren't a state resident

Wayne State University School of Medicine 31/3.7- you aren't a state resident

Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine 33/3.75- you might have luck here, but oregon doesn't like oos students from too far away

University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio 30/3.6- you have to apply through TMDSAS and you aren't a TX resident

University of Utah School of Medicine 30/3.65- you aren't a state resident

Also, note that Howard and Meharry are primarily under represented minority schools.

 

[Depakote]

My brother is in med school.

My pre-med advisor said this and my brother said in his interviews they knew where he applied. They didn't ask him because they had the list. I don't get why this is hard to believe, you have to fill out the AMCAS which goes to every school and lists EVERY school you've applied to.

I have applied to medical school personally. (multiple times in fact) I am currently a medical student.

Schools do not find out where you have applied unless you tell them. They find out where you have been accepted after May 15 or after they have accepted you. (the rules for TMDSAS, the TX system, are slightly different- they may know there, but the OP is not applying via TMSAS)

 

[SketchLazy]

IT IS TRUE. Stop arguing and ask your pre-med advisor or anyone else that has applied to med school. 🙄 You have to fill out the AMCAS of all the schools you are applying to, this generic list goes to EVERY school. And applying to 20+ is EXCESSIVE, and is not advisable. Where are you getting your information?

Schools would know where you applied if they required that you sent them a paper application, and you decided to include the page that lists your schools but those schools are rare. The only one that I'm sure requires you to include a hard-copy of your pirmary application is Tulane in LA. When you send in your application electronically, AMCAS does not include the information of where you applied or how many schools you applied to. My interviewers did not know where I applied and asked where else I applied even though they had my amcas application right in front of them.

 

[crazy4clana]

I have been told this from more than one person who has applied or is attending med school. My pre-med advisors also told us this and said not to apply over 10 schools. If you need more then your stats are probably not suitable enough for medicine. They were mean.

 

[SketchLazy]

I have been told this from more than one person who has applied or is attending med school. My pre-med advisors also told us this and said not to apply over 10 schools. If you need more then your stats are probably not suitable enough for medicine. They were mean.

I've found that advisors do not always give accurate advice, and are more interested in maintaining the school's reputation than giving you advice that might actually help.

 

[crazy4clana]

The pre-med advisor at my school is actually pretty damn good. He does wonders on students LOR's when they have really bad stats (lower than 3.0 or 30 MCAT). He turns it into gold and somehow gets students into our school's med school cause he knows the administrators there.

 

[ADeadLois]

I have been told this from more than one person who has applied or is attending med school. My pre-med advisors also told us this and said not to apply over 10 schools. If you need more then your stats are probably not suitable enough for medicine. They were mean.

I received blatantly incorrect advice from supposedly "good" pre-med advisors. The best advice comes from those who have been through the process (i.e. SDN), not those who hear about it second hand (i.e. advisors).

On topic, the vast majority of applicants apply to more than 10 schools. The norm is about 15. Statistically speaking, this is an ideal number, because you can maximize your chances by applying to a broad range of schools but not go too overboard with application material and fees.

 

[majahops]

Please help me Chop down my list of medical schools to apply to, based on my likelihood of getting in. If you could comment on my mdapplicants profile, it would mean so much to me! Thanks so much in advance!

My mdapplicants profile link: http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=09806

 

[RySerr21]

there is no need to make identical threads. you have perfectly good answerse on the thread you made earlier......which is the EXACT same thing you are asking for here....


you know your GPA and your MCAT score, and you know if you are a good candidate otherwise. do not apply to a school unless you can actually see yourself going there.....even if it is a "good" school. if you are thinking of applying to stanford, but could never see yourself living up north.......don't apply there. other than that, look at the GPAs and MCATs for the schools and see where you fall in...if you thinm you are competetive and could see yourslef going there if accepted, then apply

 

[167649]

This is a duplicate thread and will likely be closed, just bump up your other one.

 

[Bond8204]

I'd cut out Indiana (outrageous OOS tuition and hard to get an interview OOS)

Howard (why are you applying here?)

Loma Linda (aren't they a medical school for the purpose of you doing missions and service? Maybe I'm wrong and if so ignore, but if I'm right and you're not totally convinced you want to do this...drop it).

Arkansas: See Indiana

Louisville: See Indiana

North Dakota: See Indiana

UTexas SA: Would need to do the separate TX application system and are OOS TX making it very hard for you to get in anyway.

Utah: See Indiana

USU: Unless you would do a military scholarship at any other school, I wouldn't apply here just for the sake of going to medical school.

Wayne state is pretty outrageous OOS tuition, but is more welcoming of OOS applicants than your typical state school.

U of Illinois: See Indiana.

I think that cuts it down to a reasonable amount. No need for you to be applying to all of these out of state public schools...if you're going out of state, private is typically the way to go unless the school has a reputation for accepting OOS and having a reasonable OOS tuition.

 

[Depakote]

I've merged the OP's threads.

Let's try to keep this on track and help the OP with his school selection.

 

[chudog15]

let me repat as someone who applied, interviewed and got accepted this cycle...SCHOOLS HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU APPLIED. the amcas form you submit and the one they receive are different. your advisor is wrong, your brother is wrong, etc. unless you tell the school, they will have no idea.

 

[link2swim]

Narrow it down A LOT. Adcomms will see how many schools you've applied to and if it's more than 15, then you just end up looking desperate and ready to go to the first school that picks you. Since you have slightly lower stats, you should apply to DO schools as well. You can't pick and choose when you have no other options.

I suggest private schools and DO schools since all of the UC schools are crazy competitive and have a cutoff GPA. You have a better shot OOS.

This is 100% WRONG, you can apply to every school you want, its not very ethical for the other schools to see whom you applied to becuase this could become grounds for acceptance/rejection. Have you ever applied to med school or are you just making up facts becuase its fun?

 

[pride4jc727]

You should use the LizzyM score and compare your LizzyM score with the schools you are considering. If the score is better than the school you are considering, I believe the assertion is that you have better than 50/50 chance of getting an interview for that school.

To figure out your own score ==> 10(GPA) + MCAT
To figure out school score ==> 10(GPA) + MCAT -1

Hope that helps.

 

[majahops]

To the poster below, I ended up eliminating every school you just mentioned anyway - before seeing your post. That means your post was particularly resinant with me. I do really want to go to USU though.

I'd cut out Indiana (outrageous OOS tuition and hard to get an interview OOS)

Howard (why are you applying here?)

Loma Linda (aren't they a medical school for the purpose of you doing missions and service? Maybe I'm wrong and if so ignore, but if I'm right and you're not totally convinced you want to do this...drop it).

Arkansas: See Indiana

Louisville: See Indiana

North Dakota: See Indiana

UTexas SA: Would need to do the separate TX application system and are OOS TX making it very hard for you to get in anyway.

Utah: See Indiana

USU: Unless you would do a military scholarship at any other school, I wouldn't apply here just for the sake of going to medical school.

Wayne state is pretty outrageous OOS tuition, but is more welcoming of OOS applicants than your typical state school.

U of Illinois: See Indiana.

I think that cuts it down to a reasonable amount. No need for you to be applying to all of these out of state public schools...if you're going out of state, private is typically the way to go unless the school has a reputation for accepting OOS and having a reasonable OOS tuition.

 

[majahops]

To the poster below, thank you very much for the thoughtful response. I could likely post a much higher MCAT if I retook. Would you recommend I do?

As you already know, your GPA is on the low side (but not so low as to prevent you from going to medical school, of course). Your MCAT score is decent, but unfortunately doesn't particularly make up for the GPA. As a result, you might find yourself benefiting from keeping more schools on your application list. This will result in a heavier financial burden through AMCAS and secondaries, but if you ended up with more interviews than you could afford to go to you can always cancel/decline some. A lot of SDN'ers with your numbers seem to benefit from applying to a larger number of schools. The ones who don't get in are the ones that trim that number below 20.

The first schools I would cut off are any schools in locations you do not want to live in and that University of Texas. I'm pretty sure the Texas schools favor in-state pretty strongly and your numbers would be less competitive in the out-of-state group. I believe someone previously posted information on here regarding which state schools accept more out-of-state students and that would be beneficial for you to search for and find.

 

[veaselhaufen]

You should use the LizzyM score and compare your LizzyM score with the schools you are considering. If the score is better than the school you are considering, I believe the assertion is that you have better than 50/50 chance of getting an interview for that school.

To figure out your own score ==> 10(GPA) + MCAT
To figure out school score ==> 10(GPA) + MCAT -1

Hope that helps.

better than 50/50 chance? Not even close to that high