OOS question!

[tbone1234]

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Hi all, second post of the day! lol.

I'm looking through the MSAR I just received today... after taking a look at the number of total matriculants, and how many of them were OOS... I'm getting worried about applying to OOS schools. Can anyone give some advice or more info/tips about applying to OOS schools?

P.S - I'm a TX resident

Thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

Everyones' risk tolerance varies. Personally, I feel that if the OOS matriculants are >15%, it's worth a try. I've read that others only go for it if it's 25% or more. Another thing to be careful about, is that sometimes the OOS matriculant % is misleading, as the school may prefer regional applicants, like Brown, UWashington, Arizona, or applicants with strong state ties, like Indiana, Kansas, Arkansas, as examples.

 

[bravofleet4]

just keep in mind that even if 50-60% of those accepted at any school are OOS, that doesn't mean your chances are close to an IS. The total number of OOS interviewed may be close to the IS but the total number of OOS applicants will MUCH MUCH HIGHER. I guess you could say that your chances of getting an interview are much harder compared to an IS, but once you get an interview you're relatively equal terms.

 

[phantomx87]

It definitely helps if you have some sort of significant ties to the state in question. By significant, I mean "I have a lot of family there" and/or "I lived there / spent every summer there growing up" (or something along those lines) and not "I REALLY LOVE YOUR STATE BIRD!!!" or "I think I took a piss on the side of one of your highways on the way to Disney World".

That being said... Why would you want to leave Tejas?! It's such a great state, you have amazing medical schools and (the UT system schools) are CHEAP!!! I have a ton of family in TX, and would've applied heavily if I had known how early the Texas app service deadlines were 🙁

(If you can't tell... I love Texas 😀). Good luck though... PM me if you have any more questions!

 

[phantomx87]

PS - Keep in mind that OOS students (if going to a state-subsidized school) pay SIGNIFICANTLY higher tuition rates than IS students. Case in point - COA for me is ~$70k/yr vs ~$47k/yr (for VA residents). Just food for thought...

 

[bold text]

see this thread:

what schools should out-of-staters not apply to?

 

[phantomx87]

see this thread:

what schools should out-of-staters not apply to?

👍 And boom goes the dynamite

You might also want to check which schools do pre-secondary screeners as well. That way you won't spend all the money applying even though you'd never have a shot of getting in as OOS (like applying to UMASS).

 

[venacontracta]

1) http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/table1-facts2009school-web.pdf

2) School web sites and school-specific threads on SDN add a few things to the data available in that PDF. First, they make you aware of any sudden changes in school policy (e.g. University of Arizona has recently become much more out of state friendly than the above PDF indicates) and secondly they educate you regarding a few situations where the statistics alone are misleading (e.g. University of Washington has a program where applicants from certain other states are treated preferentially. If you didn't know from other sources that they do this, and their outside-of-favored-states acceptance rate is near nil, the statistics in the PDF file would convince you that you actually have a shot of getting in when you don't)