Percentage, application, success?

[miniman]

Ok I know I am a million steps away from applying to med school, but I was wondering what percentage encurages you to apply to a school. Ex. Out of state at Duke have 2% in state 2.5% acceptance rates. Would that small margin be enough for you? I know
There are tons of others factors in applying but this percentage is important as well. I was talking with my Dad (he wants me to go there) and he said that was enough... but I said it's .5%! This made me wonder about other schools and the like. What do you think?

Edit: I'm not against Duke. I personally don't want to throw away my time applying for schools that don't make sense acceptance wise. Just saying.

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[Iz_FtB]

Forget about percentages. The near majority of people who apply to schools like Duke have no business applying in the first place. Check MSAR, makes sure your stats and ECs are sorted out, and roll the dice.

 

[efle]

How do you know Duke's in state and out of state acceptance rates...? Are you looking at matriculation rates?

 

[deleted781806]

Acceptance/Matriculation percentages don't really give you a good picture of what your chances are at a school, you need to look at the median GPA/MCAT scores for accepted applicants via MSAR to really understand how you stack up. As for the IS/OOS problem, you should look at the Class Profile of a particular school to see how the ratio is in the current student body to see if it is worthwhile applying to an OOS school (particularly if it is a public institution).

For schools like Duke, just being an IS applicant is not going to give you a significant advantage over OOS applicants, and you'd need to have a stellar application put together either way.

[Addition: Also really don't waste your time of Duke's fairly extensive secondary application if you do not think you have a real shot getting in, it's long as heck. I thought I had an alright chance and devoted way too much time into it and they never even gave me the courtesy of a rejection letter haha]

 

[DrHart]

Ok I know I am a million steps away from applying to med school, but I was wondering what percentage encurages you to apply to a school. Ex. Out of state at Duke have 2% in state 2.5% acceptance rates. Would that small margin be enough for you? I know
There are tons of others factors in applying but this percentage is important as well. I was talking with my Dad (he wants me to go there) and he said that was enough... but I said it's .5%! This made me wonder about other schools and the like. What do you think?

Edit: I'm not against Duke. I personally don't want to throw away my time applying for schools that don't make sense acceptance wise. Just saying.

In my opinion, acceptance rates should be an afterthought. Look at your stats before you apply, how far below the median are you? The general rule of thumb is... unless you bring something unique (URM, military service, very interesting background) you shouldn't apply to schools that you are below the 10th percentile for MCAT/gpa.
Next, look at the make up of the class in terms of matriculants. What % is OOS? Public schools can vary. Some have a very heavy bias for IS, others don't. Some take up to 50% OOS. If the % OOS is above 35%, I would generally consider it an OOS friendly school. Under 15% is not very friendly. What is the relative age of MS1s? Does the school really like older applicants or younger?
You can't look at it from just the "acceptance rate" perspective because there are a lot of different parts to the application.

Duke has ~90% OOS class and is a private institution. They have a negligible preference for IS.

 

[efle]

I checked MSAR, OP was def looking at matriculation rates, not acceptance rates. The likely explanation is that instate people are especially likely to matriculate if accepted - it's home for them. Totally makes sense for a little bit higher matric rate.

The acceptance rate for instate vs out of state I think would be similar.

 

[miniman]

Forget about percentages. The near majority of people who apply to schools like Duke have no business applying in the first place. Check MSAR, makes sure your stats and ECs are sorted out, and roll the dice.

Sorry, how do you know that? And you could say the same for every school out there.

 

[miniman]

Acceptance/Matriculation percentages don't really give you a good picture of what your chances are at a school, you need to look at the median GPA/MCAT scores for accepted applicants via MSAR to really understand how you stack up. As for the IS/OOS problem, you should look at the Class Profile of a particular school to see how the ratio is in the current student body to see if it is worthwhile applying to an OOS school (particularly if it is a public institution).

For schools like Duke, just being an IS applicant is not going to give you a significant advantage over OOS applicants, and you'd need to have a stellar application put together either way.

[Addition: Also really don't waste your time of Duke's fairly extensive secondary application if you do not think you have a real shot getting in, it's long as heck. I thought I had an alright chance and devoted way too much time into it and they never even gave me the courtesy of a rejection letter haha]

Yeah, I know. But I think that if you look at these numbers, you can still see roughly what it means in relation to the average applicant... you, me, the joe next door... I understand what you are saying though. Yeah I heard of that secondary... I personally would like to go to UNC or Wakeforst. But yeah flip the coin, hope the sun is shining, and the wind in blowing from you right, while standing on your left foot... that is essentially the application luck to any med school.

 

[SuaveCardigans]

Sorry, how do you know that? And you could say the same for every school out there.

Previous editions of MSAR showed applicant data, and illustrated this point fully. I do not believe it is still accessible on the new update however...

 

[miniman]

I checked MSAR, OP was def looking at matriculation rates, not acceptance rates. The likely explanation is that instate people are especially likely to matriculate if accepted - it's home for them. Totally makes sense for a little bit higher matric rate.

The acceptance rate for instate vs out of state I think would be similar.

Sorry about that! Yeah I used the 2015-16 numbers. I must have made a mistake. ( I did the math on my phone, and looked at the MSAR on my phone too a bit hard on the small screen...) but still I heard that they do consider instates a bit more than oos... at least that's what my pre-med advisor said. Idk

 

[miniman]

Previous editions of MSAR showed applicant data, and illustrated this point fully. I do not believe it is still accessible on the new update however...

I didn't realize that. Sorry!

 

[Iz_FtB]

Sorry, how do you know that? And you could say the same for every school out there.

Last year's MSAR had applicant data along with matriculant data. Majority of applicants were below the 10th percentile for schools like Duke, Yale, Penn, etc. Of the ~5000 who apply, only a fraction are actually competitive.

 

[miniman]

Last year's MSAR had applicant data along with matriculant data. Majority of applicants were below the 10th percentile for schools like Duke, Yale, Penn, etc. Of the ~5000 who apply, only a fraction are actually competitive.

Thanks I'll look over that... off my phone and on a computer!

 

[deleted781806]

But I think that if you look at these numbers, you can still see roughly what it means in relation to the average applicant...

Not really, looking at matriculation/acceptance rates doesn't control well for how many applications each school receives. Some mid-tier schools might have lower acceptance rates than top-tier schools solely due to the fact that some mid-tiers receive an insane amount of applications each year, there are a few that get an application from 1/4th of all applicants for the year. Since class size is roughly the same at most schools, the acceptance rate on MSAR isn't that helpful.

I personally would like to go to UNC or Wakeforst.

UNC has a really strong IS bias (like most public schools), so that's probably a good bet to apply there if you are from NC.

But yeah flip the coin, hope the sun is shining, and the wind in blowing from you right, while standing on your left foot... that is essentially the application luck to any med school.

I mean, to some extent sure, but there are definitely myriad ways that you can work on improving your chances of admission at any given school and those pieces of advice have already been given earlier in this thread (look at MSAR average matriculant metrics!)

 

[Iz_FtB]

Thanks I'll look over that... off my phone and on a computer!

As mentioned previously, the new MSAR doesn't have applicant info for schools, but that isn't really the point. Try to get your stats north of a school's accepted 10th percentile, at minimum, and gauge the #s of OOS interviewees and matriculants when crafting your school list. If everything else is in order, you'll be fine.

 

[efle]

Sorry about that! Yeah I used the 2015-16 numbers. I must have made a mistake. ( I did the math on my phone, and looked at the MSAR on my phone too a bit hard on the small screen...) but still I heard that they do consider instates a bit more than oos... at least that's what my pre-med advisor said. Idk

They interview instate at a slightly higher rate, but no doubt that's largely because they interview a massive number out of their own undergrad, which in turn is going to be the alma mater of a disproportionate number of the brilliant Carolina premeds of the nation. I really would not factor instate vs out of state into your decision making for any of the private top 20s, at all.