UChicago & Mayo

[Carleton College kid]

UChicago & Mayo, could someone give me some inside information on the cons and pros of both schools?

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[Barton]

I know lots of people at Mayo. I'm from rochester. I did 2 summers research (published) at Mayo. My parents work at Mayo. About everyone I know works at Mayo. Every pre-med from Rochester knows lots of people at Mayo and has done research/volunteer work at Mayo. I probably have 20 friends who applied to Mayo with this type of connection. I know one who got in (4.0 honors from Duke, 39 MCAT, major research and Volunteer, father chair of a surgical dept. at Mayo), and 1 who got a phone interview. Everybody else pretty much got rejected right off the bat. Thus, it can't possibly be all about who you know. All this having been said, I am not applying to Mayo. Good luck, though.

 

[Barton]

One more thing about Mayo: D-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y is the key. Mayo has world-class resources, faculty, and staff. And these people come from everywhere. Similarly, the students are quite diverse. I don't want to start any race wars, but white males are in short supply at Mayo (and I am totally in favor of this). Mayo picks people based on individuality (as well as wicked-awesome numbers). But it's tough to become one of the 42 students/class.

 

[abbeydesert]

Apply to Mayo if you want to make a donation to the Mayo scholarship fund. After you pay your AMCAS fee, you get a letter from Mayo informing you that they won't look at your application until you send them another fee (I think $60). They cashed my check and sent me a rejection letter the next day. What a scam! I wish they at least had the decency to PRESCREEN AMCAS applications before extorting huge sums of cash from us poor starving applicants. If they already KNOW from looking at my AMCAS that I'm such an impossibly weak candidate that I don't even deserve a second look, why don't they just reject me outright?

 

[ewells]

abbey, while I do not like that schools send out secondaries (or in Mayo's case, just a bill) without prescreening, it is a common practice. I have two secondaries, with requests for money, right now from schools that have never seen my app.