number of schools

[tcerm16]

I am applying this year with a 30 mcat 10 -10 -10, and a 3.9+ gpa. I applied to 13 schools in a broad range. Do you guys think I applied to enough or too many schools? just looking for some feedback. thanks.

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[UCLAstudent]

It sounds like you applied to a good number of schools. If you're from CA, you probably should have applied to more. As long as you have some safety schools on the list, I think you will do just fine. Your stats are pretty good. Good luck!

 

[czarbasch]

I am in the same boat as you are. I have similar stats (MCAT 29 GPA 3.85) and applied to 13 schools. I am a New York state resident and really want to go to a SUNY school. I applied to mostly NY schools and three schools in Penn. and to the U. of Vermont. I have not decided, but I may not fill out secondaries for the four non NY schools. So that would leave me with only nine schools. Does anyone think that is reasonable? Or to be safe should I just shell out the extra cash and fill out the secondaries for all the 13 schools?

 

[UCLAstudent]

I think you should go ahead and apply to the non-NY schools, just to be safe. It would be less expensive to spend the extra money now than to (possibly) not get in this year and have to apply again.

 

[ESPNdeportes]

I have a 30 MCAT, 3.76 GPA, and I've applied to 9 so far. However, I'm going to add a few more schools.

 

[quideam]

I think that what determines whether the number of schools you applied to is enough is which schools you're applying to. If you have a 30 and 3.5 and apply to 10 schools, that's probably more than enough assuming that no more than a few of those schools are top schools. I have a 33/3.83 and I'm applying to 15 schools: 4 top-tens, 6 highly ranked, and 5 "safety" (state, etc.)...

I don't think you guys should worry about whether you're applying to too few - just make sure that you apply to a good number of schools whose average stats match yours.

My 2 cents...

- Quid

 

[sacrament]

Originally posted by quideam
I think that what determines whether the number of schools you applied to is enough is which schools you're applying to. If you have a 30 and 3.5 and apply to 10 schools, that's probably more than enough assuming that no more than a few of those schools are top schools.

I concur. 1 or 2 "low tier" schools, 7-8 middle of the road schools, and a couple "top" schools seems to be a good mix for somebody with 30/3.5 or higher. If your stats seem a notch lower to you, tack on another couple of schools. Personally I never recommend applying to fewer than 8-10 schools unless you've got a 40/4.0 or something, because the admissions process is such a crapshoot and I've known people with stellar stats who confidently only applied to 2 or 3 schools and got burned. Spend the money and have a little peace of mind.

 

[Gleevec]

Im applying to 15, 3 in-state and 12 others spread across the research rankings spectrum (since I am interested in entering research). It seems that between 12-16 apps is average.

 

[emrorr]

Where is a good place to go for a list of "top", "highly ranked" and "safety" schools? thanks.

 

[kito]

Originally posted by emrorr
Where is a good place to go for a list of "top", "highly ranked" and "safety" schools? thanks.

"Top" would be the 13 or 15 brand name schools. Middle tier schools would be the excellent schools (mostly private, with a few public) that don't crack that list, and the lower tier schools would be comprised of most public schools, and a few private schools. But you really can't go wrong any single U.S. medical school. If you graduate AOA, you'll get virtually any match that you want, and when it comes to attending salaries, we're talking about miniscule (< 10%) deviations.