"Twice" as Many Applicants this Year!!

[romealone]

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hey guys
For those of you that got your apps out early....consider yourselves VERY lucky, especially this year.

I have spoken with 2 adcoms today that told me that due to AACOMAS insanely rapid verification process this year, they literally have about twice as many secondaries in now then they normally would at this time of the year.

It was explained to me that AACOMAS normally takes around 4 weeks to verify this time of year, but this year, its only taking a matter of days and consequently, schools are receiving about twice as many secondaries.

Both adcoms told me that due to this huge increase, they can afford to be more selective this year. So...good news for the schools, but terrible news for those that were late in the cycle.

Ain't life grand.

 

[UNMorBUST]

Just to clarify. There are not twice as many applicants? Applicants are just being processed faster? Correct?

So how does this equate to more selectivity?

 

[MightyMoose]

I can't remember a post about the application process that doesn't say to apply early, so I'm guessing that those who didn't can't really say they weren't informed to do so.

As to the 2x as many applicants this year, I don't think you can say that yet. It is 2x as many at this point in the game, but that doesn't mean they will finish with twice as many when the season is complete. Sure, these schools are going to be more selective having more options, but I don't think that precludes people with average stats. It's going to be more more a matter of when you interview rather than if you will get an interview. These people with "great stats" are going to start turning down interviews and declining acceptances, especially come mid-December, then every thirty days people are going to gradually be locked into a school, freeing up more interviews/acceptances at the schools that were turned down. While the med schools might be feeling really good right about now, this could mean a lot more waitlist movement that previous years just do to the nature of the game.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

So is the total volume of secondaries YTD increasing, or just the amount they have at this point in time?

 

[UNMorBUST]

they literally have about twice as many secondaries in now then they normally would at this time of the year.

So is the total volume of secondaries YTD increasing, or just the amount they have at this point in time?

.

 

[preDoGuy24]

hey guys
For those of you that got your apps out early....consider yourselves VERY lucky, especially this year.

I have spoken with 2 adcoms today that told me that due to AACOMAS insanely rapid verification process this year, they literally have about twice as many secondaries in now then they normally would at this time of the year.

It was explained to me that AACOMAS normally takes around 4 weeks to verify this time of year, but this year, its only taking a matter of days and consequently, schools are receiving about twice as many secondaries.

Both adcoms told me that due to this huge increase, they can afford to be more selective this year. So...good news for the schools, but terrible news for those that were late in the cycle.

Ain't life grand.

Um n=2 is a pretty s##tty sample size...just saying that if their are two schools with huge amounts of secondaries out does not mean their are twice as many people applying or that every school will be "more" selective.

 

[Goro]

Applications are indeed up, but I don't know about 2x as much. At our school (somewhere west of the Mississippi), they're up anywhere from 3-12% over last year, depending upon when I chat with our Admissions Office.

Apply early, and often.

 

[jphwki82]

Applications are indeed up, but I don't know about 2x as much. At our school (somewhere west of the Mississippi), they're up anywhere from 3-12% over last year, depending upon when I chat with our Admissions Office.

Apply early, and often.

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2010/10/interest_in_osteopathic_medicine_growths

According to that article from my Med School, nationally the apps are up by only 7%. Our school has doubled the applicant pool for it specifically though.

 

[wolverinepwns]

at my recent interview the they also mentioned that they have at this point in time twice as many applicant as they did the entire last year!

 

[SFO-IST]

at my recent interview the they also mentioned that they have at this point in time twice as many applicant as they did the entire last year!

this is likely a function of that particular school relaxing requirements on what is required for secondaries.

 

[theone1979]

this is likely a function of that particular school relaxing requirements on what is required for secondaries.

I dont believe so. I have spoken with several schools which all state they currently have received about twice as many applications.

The reason they give is that AACOMAS is verifying apps in a matter of days, so instead of secondaries slowly trickling in over the course of these few months, they have been hit all at once.

Note that this does not mean that at the end of the cycle they will have twice as many apps, but it DOES mean that right now, in the peak of app season, they have about twice as many apps which allows them to be more selective then usual.

 

[wolverinepwns]

this is likely a function of that particular school relaxing requirements on what is required for secondaries.

Nah, requirements have not changed (she actually brought that point up), the application pool is much larger this year and AACOMAS is rocking through those verfications at an insane rate this year, so alot of applications that would have taken a month to be approved are getting approved within days! She said if last year we applied a month from now, we would still have a great chance of getting interviews, but this year applying a month from now will have VERY low chances of interview invite!

 

[Charlie Kelly]

The only consistant advise I got from people about applying was to apply early, apply early, apply early. Some people said pray, some said emphasize research, emphasize community service, call the schools for constant updates... nothing came up more and seems for reliable than applying early, especially now. Praise the heavens for technology and those gosh-durn inter webs.

 

[fiznat]

SO weird! I heard from THREE adcoms that the applications this year were cut in half, and they are actually accepting more students than they ever have! I also heard they have a high preference for Scorpios this year, and that schools are really looking for people who like blueberries more than raspberries.

 

[angryazn88]

SO weird! I heard from THREE adcoms that the applications this year were cut in half, and they are actually accepting more students than they ever have! I also heard they have a high preference for Scorpios this year, and that schools are really looking for people who like blueberries more than raspberries.

thank god i love blueberries!!

 

[denco88]

SO weird! I heard from THREE adcoms that the applications this year were cut in half, and they are actually accepting more students than they ever have! I also heard they have a high preference for Scorpios this year, and that schools are really looking for people who like blueberries more than raspberries.

Well I'm not sure this is true... I got in to my top two schools and I clearly like raspberries wayyyyy more than I like blueberries and I'm a Sagittarius. 😉

 

[Total180]

Couldn't it also be that more people are applying to DO schools in general because it is getting more well known? Also there could be more people applying to both MD and DO schools together to have more of a chance.

 

[HW51Revisited]

Couldn't it also be that more people are applying to DO schools in general because it is getting more well known? Also there could be more people applying to both MD and DO schools together to have more of a chance.

I'm sure it's a combination of these two things. Basically everyone I know applied to both osteopathic and allopathic programs.

 

[fahimaz7]

Applicantions are down this year at MD schools. With quite a few expansions going into affect, all schools had to go deeper into their waitlist last year than expected. Result? Fewer reapplicants seen this time around.

 

[MightyMoose]

Applicantions are down this year at MD schools. With quite a few expansions going into affect, all schools had to go deeper into their waitlist last year than expected. Result? Fewer reapplicants seen this time around.

Source?