Some schools now...then add more later?

[Mountain Cow]

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So my list of schools hovers around 24. Applying to all will be a bit pricey and maybe unnecessary work.

Should I just go for all of them or should I apply to 12 schools now with the option of adding more later in the season? I know applying later will put me at a disadvantage though. And if I apply to "just" 12 schools, how and when will I know if I need to add more? Based on the number of interviews, since it will be too early for official acceptances? 😕

 

[solitude]

So my list of schools hovers around 24. Applying to all will be a bit pricey and maybe unnecessary work.

Should I just go for all of them or should I apply to 12 schools now with the option of adding more later in the season? I know applying later will put me at a disadvantage though. And if I apply to "just" 12 schools, how and when will I know if I need to add more? Based on the number of interviews, since it will be too early for official acceptances? 😕

I think applying in two "batches" is risky, because you probably won't have been accepted anywhere before it would be well past time to apply to the second batch. I think you should either apply to all 24 now, or apply to fewer schools with the insurance that some of the schools are going to be relatively easy acceptances (not sure if these exist in MSTP admissions). The process will be costly, but you only apply to medical school once if you do it right the first time.

 

[SpeakLittleB]

I agree that two batches may not be the best solution. You should give this your all.. however, are you sure that all 24 are schools you would be happy to attend? You can narrow down between 12 and 24 to a price that you think is reasonable. It's much easier to decide you won't do certain secondaries or won't attend an interview (interviews are the main $$ concern) than to add more schools later. You can decide not to do certain secondaries by seeing how many schools (that select for secondaries) offer you the secondary to gauge your competitiveness. You also might find out more information as you go along that makes you decide not to apply to a certain school. I only submitted secondaries to a portion of the schools on my AMCAS and decided to interview at even less.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

So my list of schools hovers around 24. Applying to all will be a bit pricey and maybe unnecessary work.

Should I just go for all of them or should I apply to 12 schools now with the option of adding more later in the season? I know applying later will put me at a disadvantage though. And if I apply to "just" 12 schools, how and when will I know if I need to add more? Based on the number of interviews, since it will be too early for official acceptances? 😕

Do all 24. Then sit on the secondaries of a few schools that you are reasonably sure you would get in to, and see what schools give you interviews. If the overwhelming majority of schools for which you completed secondaries are inviting you to interview, then maybe you don't need to complete the secondaries of the few less desirable schools.

 

[ThatOne]

I applied to 12 schools myself -- and at the time (I wasn't a frequenter of SDN back then) it seemed like a LOT of schools to me! Of course, my stats were solid, and my recs were glowing... I ended up with 4 acceptances and one waitlist position.

This process is certainly stressful, and this forum can certainly help alleviate stress and give you great advice sometimes. However, since so many of the people on here are stressed themselves, they can magnify your own anxiety.

For me, I'd say applying to more than 12 would have been too pricey and far more work than I wanted to put in. Luckily I was in the northeast, and applied only to east coast schools so interviews weren't even as expensive to get to (Chinatown buses are cheap'n'easy) etc. I'll go against the grain and say narrow things down if you have a strong program size preference or geographical preference or city/rural preference etc. -- and especially if you feel your stats are strong. I will agree, however, that two batches is probably ineffective.

 

[owlet]

I applied to 10 and got into 3, but I was very picky b/c there weren't that many places that we knew my husband would be able to get a job, and no job = no school. I made sure to apply to about 5 I thought I could reasonably get into and 5 "reaches". As I turned out I had pretty good choices in the end. If you feel you'll really be able to do a good job on all the secondaries, though, applying to more schools may actually be less stressful.