Regarding application

[jam21]

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hi, guys. I just took my MCAT this April. I had some questions about the application process 🙂

I read from the previous posts that you are can start working on the application before you submit it. Do I make an ID? Should I make an ID before I send my transcripts? ( one of the previous posts said that you are supposed to send it during mid-may...)...

I went to the AAMC site but it wasn't very useful.. 🙁 If you guys can help me out , it will be great! Thank you so much!

 

[UCLAMAN]

Yes, you can enter all your information in right now once you make your ID or account or screenname or whatever it is called. You will create a password as well. This will give you access to all the online forms. You can save the info you enter on these online forms. Everytime you log on to your screenname the info will be there. When it is complete and the first day of submission arrives you just have to click "submit". (At least I think its "submit." Either way there will be some sort of button you have to click to send your info off.) When you submit you must put a credit card number down so they can charge you for however many schools you choose to apply to. You will not be charged for merely creating a screenname and entering data. You will only be charged for submitting.

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by Slickness
Hey uclaman, thanks for helping us applicants out. You've helped me a couple of times before and you always seem to help other newbies. Anyways, do you know how much it would cost to apply to 21 schools?

hehe...quite a chunk of change...😀

actually if i remember correctly its like 120 for the first school and 30 for each additional. Don't quote me on the 120 figure. I'm pretty sure it is 30 bones for each additional school though.

Then figure each school's secondary fee in...I'd say most schools cost $60 for their secondary...Some schools are $100. I'd say when you avg it all out you'll probably be looking at a figure of $70 per school.

There are postage fees, plane tickets, motels, a suit to purchase, etc. Those figures will definitely vary.

 

[Natalie03]

jam21,

Hope your mcat went well! I would recommend downloading their trial form (I wonder if they're still using that this year). It's a form you can fill out that is not the actual form but has all the questions that the real form has. If you print that and fill out all the information, it will make filling out the real form much easier, especially the grades part.

Some more suggestions:
- Have everything ready before the first day you're allowed to submit. Then, click submit about an hour after the site opens to avoid any kind of weird computer hangups that might happen due to everyone trying to submit at the very moment it opens.

- Choose your schools very very wisely and apply to a max of 10. If I had to do it again, I would've applied to 5 schools (or maybe even 3). I paid all my application costs using the money I earned over the summer, and now I'm nearly broke (perhaps a good but painful dieting strategy for the end of the year). Plus, I unnecessarily applied to some ridiculous schools. Talk to people at the schools... It's the best way to do research on them.

Good luck!
Nat 🙂

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by Natalie03
jam21,

Hope your mcat went well! I would recommend downloading their trial form (I wonder if they're still using that this year). It's a form you can fill out that is not the actual form but has all the questions that the real form has. If you print that and fill out all the information, it will make filling out the real form much easier, especially the grades part.

When did you apply?

Instead of downloading the trial form why don't you just enter data in as you please? The site saves the answers you enter so you are always free to make changes and additions before you submit. There is even an audit function which you must run before submitting to make sure you entered all the information necessary. Just have an unofficial copy of your transcripts in front of you for the grades part. If you ever get tired of entering data from your transcripts then save, logoff, and continue another day.

Originally posted by Natalie03

- Choose your schools very very wisely and apply to a max of 10. If I had to do it again, I would've applied to 5 schools (or maybe even 3). I paid all my application costs using the money I earned over the summer, and now I'm nearly broke (perhaps a good but painful dieting strategy for the end of the year). Plus, I unnecessarily applied to some ridiculous schools. Talk to people at the schools... It's the best way to do research on them.

Unless you have an awesome mcat score(33+), an awesome gpa(3.7+), and awesome EC's(published research and is a master concert pianist or something) I dunno if 10 schools is such a great idea. 10 Schools is definitely not be a good idea if you are a cali resident(which it seems you are from Florida but even so 10 is too few IMO)

Just keep in mind that the number of schools you apply to should be based on how strong you feel your application is. At the very least I'd say 15 si what you should aim for. 5 reach schools, 5 middle of the road schools, and 5 schools where you have higher stats than their avgs. Even then, just because one's stats are higher than a school's avg doesn't mean you are a shoo-in at their school.

I applied to 40 schools this year on my amcas. narrowed it down to about 30 for secondaries and so far have walked away with 10 interviews, a lot of waitlists, and 2 accepts. Now I'd say 30 or 40 may be overboard for someone not in california. But I'd say 10 is too few for anyone with avg stats to apply to. Now the definition of "avg stats" is arbitrary I guess and ultimately depends on how you feel about your application. So if you feel you are stellar, then yes, 10 may be a good idea. But if not, I would apply to more schools than 10.

I just want to point out that there really isn't any practicality to the "10 max" rule. The number of schools one should apply to should depend on a case to case basis. It may work for some but not for others. Many factors will come into play, from finances(whether you can afford to pay for the number of schools you want to apply to) to the strength of your application to the state you claim residency in.

However, I agree with Nat on the research part. Definitely research the schools you are thinking aout applying to to cut back on costs. You may find that you wouldn't want to go there at all or that they rarely accept people from your school or have a strong state preference or something.

 

[Mike59]

Originally posted by UCLAMAN
I just want to point out that there really isn't any practicality to the "10 max" rule. The number of schools one should apply to should depend on a case to case basis.

I agree. This process is completely random and even a top student would be foolish to limit themselves to 10 schools. Of the schools I applied to, I was rejected from nearly all the schools with average numbers lower than my stats (without an interview). There is no safety net, so apply and apply generously.

 

[Natalie03]

Ok, yes, I agree with most of your points about the 10 max thing, UCLAMAN. I did not mean that it should be a max for everyone. My comment was misleading.

I only speak from my own personal experience, which of course is limited. Most of my friends applied to about 10-20 schools. I myself applied to 15 (which is what my pre-med advisor recommended). He did not recommend more than 20 for anyone. Everyone I knew who took the honors sequence with me and was doing well got accepted. I go to a fairly good undergrad, but I don't know how much of a difference that really makes. A friend of mine who was probably running upwards to a 3.9 and got a 40mcat applied to 6 schools and got accepted to all, WL at 1. So they say hindsight is 20/20... but among the people in my pre-med class that I know personally, I feel like I could have predicted among them would get accepted, who would be WL and who would either wait a year or not get accepted, knowing what I know now about the whole process.

Some people I know who took the regular science sequence (and I don't know how well they did, but they seemed like decent students, although I only knew them from the vast extracurric's they did) applied to 20, 30+ schools. Ok, so I know 3 of them. And none of them got in (1 is on 3 WLs). It pains me to think of how painful it must be for the person who chucks out the $$$ for that many applications (not to mention the work involved). To me, if you were really that unsure of your chances, why not take a year off and get more confident? I'm curious, why did you apply to that many schools, UCLAMAN? I'm not assuming you had bad stats (b/c I don't know), but I am assuming that you just went overboard on the pre-med anal mentality and that you had lots of $$$ to burn.

A few reach schools is good, but there are enough numbers for you to calculate a fairly accurate probability of your acceptance at a particular school... based upon numbers, extracurric's, interview personality, CONNECTIONS, time you turned in your apps, etc (just like you're saying). And why apply to ANY schools you can't see yourself going to? I myself am very picky about where I want to live.

As for me, I have no idea why I applied to some of the places I applied to when I submitted my primaries. Reading the MSAR definitely does not qualify as "researching schools". It definitely made it hard to write the BS on some of those secondaries. And unless you have something truly amazing (or an amazing connection to someone in the school) that sets you apart, follow the advice the schools send with the secondary apps. (I feel now that I was forewarned.) Because, if a school gets upward to 9000 apps for a 150 member class and you are not close to avg for them, and they don't see that amazing thing about you on your primary, they've most likely already put your app in the "no unless something amazing" pile and are just waiting for your packet to arrive so they can cash your check and throw away the rest. This scenario gets exponentially worse with every passing day of the whole application process. And you can tell from other people's experiences which schools have set gpa/mcat cutoffs and which don't (and of course these can always be trumped by connections... notice a recurring theme?).

Alright, this rant must be boring you by now, so enough about that topic.

As for the trial form... I mostly used it for my grades, since it is in a very different format from my transcript, and it was just easier for me to not have to keep searching through my transcript for everything. Plus, instead of handling several different papers while input-ing the data, you just have that one packet. And I wanted to get the whole thing done in one day (except for the PS, which took almost a month).

Anyway... I hope it's at least helpful that you get different perspectives. Best of luck!

Nat

 

[mkmk]

i'm with UCLAman on the "10max" rule: this DEFINITELY doesn't apply to CA residents. And it just doesn't work that way in general. Even if you are golden with high GPA and MCATS and honors BS, that doesn't guarantee you an interview to a lot of schools these days. The ap process is totally f-ing random. I was straight rejected from many of the schools with lower average stats and then interviewed at some top ranked schools...

i think you should apply any school you'd be willing to go to if you got an acceptance.

okay so now it turns into a $$money$$ thing. but hey, you got to put it in perspective. applying might take 2-3000 bucks, but that is just a drop in the bucket because after med school you'll probably be $100k in debt. if you've got the means, just apply broadly. it's much easier to throw down some more cash now and get it all over with than have to reapply because you limited your options the first time.

good luck.

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by Natalie03
To me, if you were really that unsure of your chances, why not take a year off and get more confident? I'm curious, why did you apply to that many schools, UCLAMAN? I'm not assuming you had bad stats (b/c I don't know), but I am assuming that you just went overboard on the pre-med anal mentality and that you had lots of $$$ to burn.

Several reasons why I applied to so many schools on amcas...

1. This was my second go around.

2. I'm from cali...we aren't shoo-ins at our state schools...despite my decent numbers i got no interviews from the UC's. Makes no sense...I get an interview from Stanford and not one from a UC. Go figure.

3. I retook the mcat in aug and wasn't sure how i would do(was scoring anywhere from 30 to 38 on practice runs) but i wanted to make sure my apps were ready to go at the schools i applied to when my scores came out in aug to minimize the effect of the aug scores on rolling admissions. so i wanted my secondaries complete, LORs in before my scores came out. I ended up adding schools that I really didn't have a chance at which i couldn't have known i didn't have a chance at til i got my aug scores back.

4. Financially I could afford it.

the aug mcat and reapplication factor had a lot to do with it. in reality i only applied to 30 schools because i didn't return 10 secondaries. but out of those 30 schools about 10 were luck shots to begin with(the UC's and the top 10 schools like harvard and hopkins etc.)

do you consider that "anal premed mentality?"

 

[mkmk]

UCLAman i hear you bud. much cali premed love.

 

[Natalie03]

I see. It's a different world over here on the east coast. But, we're by no means "shoo-ins" at our state schools. We only have 3 over here (VA), and 2 of them are pretty much 60% private since they get almost nothing from the state (so they actually prefer out-of-stater's).

Also, there's nothing wrong with pre-med anal mentality. I think most of what I'm motivated to do as a pre-med is enhanced by pre-med anal mentality. It's how pre-meds survive.

 

[abw]

Hey!
I just wanted to piggy back onto the how many schools to apply to . . . I had a little below average stats (for allo.) and really wanted to get in this year, so I put a lot of effort into researching which schools would be worth the application. Even though my advisor suggested no more than 15, I eventually got my list down to 24 allopathic and osteopathic schools (all on the east coast, if that matters). About 5 minutes after I submitted the applications, i got so paranoid that I added 4 extra schools that were a lot different from the rest on my list. To show you how random the process is, 4 of six interviews and both of my acceptances came from the randomly added list. It really hurt my pocketbook (still paying back my parents) but those two acceptances were priceless. Basically, what I'm saying, is that if you don't have amazing stats, apply to as many and varied schools as you can afford.

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by Natalie03
I see. It's a different world over here on the east coast. But, we're by no means "shoo-ins" at our state schools. We only have 3 over here (VA), and 2 of them are pretty much 60% private since they get almost nothing from the state (so they actually prefer out-of-stater's).

Also, there's nothing wrong with pre-med anal mentality. I think most of what I'm motivated to do as a pre-med is enhanced by pre-med anal mentality. It's how pre-meds survive.

😀 I apologize. I didn't mean to imply that people were shoo-ins at their state schools if they didn't live in cali.

 

[scifi]

going back to the question of applying to x# of schools, i applied to 29 and it cost me over 900bucks (amcas only)!!! i ended up sending secondaries to only about 20 once i realized a lot of schools send secondaries to everyone who applies (and once i realized i didn't even know where some of the schools were located). once i estimated how much i spent on the application process altogether and it was over $3000 (including app fees, plane flights, hotels).

definitely do research as to what schools have a rep for accepting students from your state (or even from your undergrad) and think about whether you would even go to this school if you got in. looking back on the process i think a lot of schools have a fairly limited scope in terms of what kind of students they will accept (regardless of numbers) based on where matriculants have come from in the past. just as you may have geographic preferences for your med school, they may have geographic preferences for their applicants.