US News Medical School Compass

[pensieve]

Has anyone paid $20 for the US News Medical School Compass?

It says it includes

• Expanded Profiles & Advanced Search for 146 Medical Schools
• All Entering Class Stats, Including Average MCAT Scores
• Average Student Indebtedness By School
• Most Popular Residencies By School
• New "My Home" - Save Schools, Compare & Take Notes
• All Other School Data also Included (Access good for 1 year)

I was reading an old SDN post and someone had said if you pay the extra fee you can see how many of the interviewees get accepted. (bc the number we see matriculated is misleading for OOS candidates since many of them choose in-state schools or another school).

Anyways, as a CA resident needing to apply OOS, knowing how many OOS are accepted from the interviews is really helpful.

Has anyone paid for this? Pros/cons? Helpful or not?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[RogueUnicorn]

they do give you the data of how many acceptances were given out, as well as interviews, which is not something that is found on the msar. i personally thought it was worthwhile.

 

[pensieve]

they do give you the data of how many acceptances were given out, as well as interviews, which is not something that is found on the msar. i personally thought it was worthwhile.

Do they separate the acceptances by IS/OOS?

Thank you.

 

[rHinO1]

Do they separate the acceptances by IS/OOS?

Thank you.

yes

 

[WhizoMD]

this looks interesting...is it matriculant data? or just the acceptee data like the msar?

 

[medzk]

yes

How many acceptances do the CA schools give out? UCLA, Stanford, UCSF, UCI, UCD, etc...

 

[Morzh]

I paid for the online thing and I don't regret it. As I've been making my school list, I have the MSAR open in one tab and the USNews in another. They are both very useful.

I really couldn't care less about the "rankings" themselves, but they do provide a lot of interesting data. As others have mentioned, they give you not only the number of applied/interviewed/matriculated like the MSAR, but also the raw number of acceptances (broken down for IS, OOS, women, and minorities). It has been very interesting to see how some schools accept ~20% if of those they interview while others accept ~60% of their interviewees but over half of the accepted end up matriculating elsewhere. In these cases the MSAR really doesn't tell the whole story, whereas the USNews report does.

Other useful things include residency directors rankings (out of 5) for schools, peer-assessment rankings, faculty:student ratio, and a bunch of other little things.

There is a lot of overlap with the MSAR, and the MSAR is definitely a must because it does a better job of telling you things like mission statements, financial information, student activities/lifestyle, school statements on what they look for in applicants, detailed prerequisite info, and the 10%/90%/median/mean for GPA and MCAT (USNews only tells you the average).

How many acceptances do the CA schools give out? UCLA, Stanford, UCSF, UCI, UCD, etc...

It is against SDN policy (and the law) to distribute copyrighted material without permission. Go lay down the $20 if you really want to know.

 

[WhizoMD]

I paid for the online thing and I don't regret it. As I've been making my school list, I have the MSAR open in one tab and the USNews in another. They are both very useful.

I really couldn't care less about the "rankings" themselves, but they do provide a lot of interesting data. As others have mentioned, they give you not only the number of applied/interviewed/matriculated like the MSAR, but also the raw number of acceptances (broken down for IS, OOS, women, and minorities). It has been very interesting to see how some schools accept ~20% if of those they interview while others accept ~60% of their interviewees but over half of the accepted end up matriculating elsewhere. In these cases the MSAR really doesn't tell the whole story, whereas the USNews report does.

Other useful things include residency directors rankings (out of 5) for schools, peer-assessment rankings, faculty:student ratio, and a bunch of other little things.

There is a lot of overlap with the MSAR, and the MSAR is definitely a must because it does a better job of telling you things like mission statements, financial information, student activities/lifestyle, school statements on what they look for in applicants, detailed prerequisite info, and the 10%/90%/median/mean for GPA and MCAT (USNews only tells you the average).

thanks. I think i'll go ahead and buy it.

 

[Naijaba]

I bought it last year and this year. It was worth it.

 

[pensieve]

yes

I paid for the online thing and I don't regret it. As I've been making my school list, I have the MSAR open in one tab and the USNews in another. They are both very useful.

I really couldn't care less about the "rankings" themselves, but they do provide a lot of interesting data. As others have mentioned, they give you not only the number of applied/interviewed/matriculated like the MSAR, but also the raw number of acceptances (broken down for IS, OOS, women, and minorities). It has been very interesting to see how some schools accept ~20% if of those they interview while others accept ~60% of their interviewees but over half of the accepted end up matriculating elsewhere. In these cases the MSAR really doesn't tell the whole story, whereas the USNews report does.

Other useful things include residency directors rankings (out of 5) for schools, peer-assessment rankings, faculty:student ratio, and a bunch of other little things.

There is a lot of overlap with the MSAR, and the MSAR is definitely a must because it does a better job of telling you things like mission statements, financial information, student activities/lifestyle, school statements on what they look for in applicants, detailed prerequisite info, and the 10%/90%/median/mean for GPA and MCAT (USNews only tells you the average).




It is against SDN policy (and the law) to distribute copyrighted material without permission. Go lay down the $20 if you really want to know.

Thanks for all the input. It really helps!

 

[tkp]

Even though I am done with this cycle and all set for the next four years, I went ahead and bought this year's edition just out of curiosity. It definitely gives a very detailed breakdown of each school in terms of academics, research funding, top specialty choices of grads, demographics etc. etc.

The residency director rating, although very useful in theory, can be slightly misleading because according to US News' methodology, only about 19% of directors actually filled out the survey and returned it to the magazine. I am not saying the data is completely wrong or out of whack or anything like that - just that the small N is something to keep in mind when evaluating the scores.

The peer assessment ranking, on the other hand, perhaps has slightly more weight because about 50% of the administrators returned the surveys.

 

[chronicidal]

Tell me if this error in the print USNWR rankings is corrected in the online thing.

UVA's acceptance rate in USNWR is greater than its interview rate in 2010 (12.6%, from UVA's website).

 

[tkp]

Tell me if this error in the print USNWR rankings is corrected in the online thing.

UVA's acceptance rate in USNWR is greater than its interview rate in 2010 (12.6%, from UVA's website).

The acceptance rate in the online version is 15.1% (424/2795)

 

[beckmancoulter]

I don't think this is worth the twenty dollars.

-There are 10+ schools I am applying to that are unranked/have no data available for them.
-User interface (I think you call it) is difficult to use-lots of links to clicking to get where you want to.
-Each school is grouped with all their med, law, undergrad, etc. so that is a little annoying. The 'my profile' does not really distinguish between med school and undergrad.
-Accepted data is not available for every school either.

I would just stick with the MSAR...

 

[Hafez]

Tell me if this error in the print USNWR rankings is corrected in the online thing.

UVA's acceptance rate in USNWR is greater than its interview rate in 2010 (12.6%, from UVA's website).

I think that is the year they overaccepted

 

[235788]

Hmm sounds valuable. I'll have to check that out.
​

 

[nysegop]

Hate to bring back a dead thread, but I really want the compass. I don't have it.

 

[Tots]

Hate to bring back a dead thread, but I really want the compass. I don't have it.

You need to pay for it. It is 29.99.

 

[armybound]

why do people care so much about this information?

 

[ScholarStud]

why do people care so much about this information?

They are looking for as much information as possible about schools to maximize their application cycle success.

 

[prado]

They are looking for as much information as possible about schools to maximize their application cycle success.

The MSAR is all you really need to plan for a successful cycle in my opinion. While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles as USNEWS, it's pretty sufficient for what it's intended for.

Oh, and strong username

 

[armybound]

They are looking for as much information as possible about schools to maximize their application cycle success.

Apply to more programs if you want to maximize your chances. If your stats aren't good enough for an interview, they won't give you one.

Things tend to work themselves out like that.

 

[ScholarStud]

Apply to more programs if you want to maximize your chances. If your stats aren't good enough for an interview, they won't give you one.

Things tend to work themselves out like that.

ok.

 

[speakwhales]

They are looking for as much information as possible about schools to maximize their application cycle success.

How do you maximize your chances of getting into a school with this info? Write about their ranking in your secondary essays?