What is an excessive amount of schools?

[PharMed2016]

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Providing that you have enough money to apply to the programs, what would one consider to be an excessive amount of schools?

Currently, I have about 21 schools on my AMCAS app but I'm thinking about increasing it to 30 or so. Anyone else think I'm crazy? I keep on thinking that I'm not a competitive applicant despite what my professors and classmates think. 😕Same way with pharmacy school applications but I didn't apply to nearly as many schools. For a comparison, I had 6 pharmacy school applications - 5 interview requests, attended 4 (all accepted), and declined one, along with 1 rejection pre-interview.

My school selections are on my MDApps page with a few being reach.

***Wrong Area for Post - Can Someone Move This to NON-Trad. Thanks.

 

[PlacentaSac]

Providing that you have enough money to apply to the programs, what would one consider to be an excessive amount of schools?

Currently, I have about 21 schools on my AMCAS app but I'm thinking about increasing it to 30 or so. Anyone else think I'm crazy? I keep on thinking that I'm not a competitive applicant despite what my professors and classmates think. 😕Same way with pharmacy school applications but I didn't apply to nearly as many schools. For a comparison, I had 6 pharmacy school applications - 5 interview requests, 1 rejection pre-interview.

My school selections are on my MDApps page with a few being reach.

***Wrong Area for Post - Can Someone Move This to NON-Trad. Thanks.

Apply to as many schools as you can afford and have time to complete secodaries in a reasonable amount of time. If your stats are good, more school means more chances. 30 schools is not crazy, but applying smart will help you save money.

 

[ejw5075]

I submitted my primary to 42...only submitted 30 secondaries? Something like that. CRAZY and a huge waste of money. Of my interviews, I could have predicted 5/6 of them... and thrown out the schools I had absolutely no connection to/no shot at.

 

[DrMidlife]

Don't apply to a school unless you've put in the time to read their entire admissions website and hopefully also the MSAR writeup. Of interest: in the website FAQ you can usually find out how likely you are to get in from out-of-state and what is meant by "out-of-state".

If you can research, and verify your eligibility at, 50 schools, and you can afford to apply to 50 schools, have at it. You're the only one who can say what number is going to make you feel like you did everything you could.

Applying broadly with low stats and hoping something will stick, imho, is a waste of money, particularly at the Gtowns & GW's who get 10,000+ apps. Wishing for Dartmouth with a 3.0...you might as well give that money to a good charity. I speak from (bad) experience.

Best of luck to you.

 

[nabeel76]

Wishing for Dartmouth with a 3.0...you might as well give that money to a good charity. I speak from (bad) experience./QUOTE]

I thought the OP had a 3.45? Which is still pretty low for Dartmouth, but not ridiculously low at least. Is it a 3.0? I would think however, that the lack of a BS/BA would hurt him more than anything else in his app - especially since med schools are more concerned with undergraduate coursework / grades than they are graduate school coursework / grades.

 

[PharMed2016]

I thought the OP had a 3.45? Which is still pretty low for Dartmouth, but not ridiculously low at least. Is it a 3.0? I would think however, that the lack of a BS/BA would hurt him more than anything else in his app - especially since med schools are more concerned with undergraduate coursework / grades than they are graduate school coursework / grades.

I think DrMidLife was talking about her own experiences.

I admit that I threw in a few reach schools into my application. Hoping early app will help me in both respects.

 

[pfaction]

...If your application isn't competitive, mine is absolute ****.

 

[gman33]

Giving your list a quick glance, I saw about 20 schools, 6 of which you have virtually no shot at getting an interview. No problem applying to schools like that, but I wouldn't even count them in my numbers. That leaves you with 14 schools, which I think is a low number given your below average stats.

My thought process is that you want to give yourself the best odds each cycle you apply. Apply to all and any schools which you would be willing to attend. If money is a problem, drop the reach schools and apply somewhere where you have a realistic shot.

With your stats, I would also apply to DO schools.

 

[n3xa]

I thought Indiana was not-so-OOS friendly, but you might want to double-check on that at least. I remember Univ of AZ used to be meh as far as OOS friendliness goes, but this year Catalystik said something about them accepting more OOS'ers this year.

 

[Frazier]

OP has 21 schools and worried about adding more...I need to cut down my school list to ~35. 😀

 

[PharMed2016]

I thought Indiana was not-so-OOS friendly, but you might want to double-check on that at least. I remember Univ of AZ used to be meh as far as OOS friendliness goes, but this year Catalystik said something about them accepting more OOS'ers this year.

Yea Indiana isn't friendly as far as OOS goes but they do interview 10% of their application profiles. Of those 10%, they accept 1/7 of those for admission.

 

[PharMed2016]

Giving your list a quick glance, I saw about 20 schools, 6 of which you have virtually no shot at getting an interview. No problem applying to schools like that, but I wouldn't even count them in my numbers. That leaves you with 14 schools, which I think is a low number given your below average stats.

My thought process is that you want to give yourself the best odds each cycle you apply. Apply to all and any schools which you would be willing to attend. If money is a problem, drop the reach schools and apply somewhere where you have a realistic shot.

With your stats, I would also apply to DO schools.

I have most of my application together. Thinking about submitting to about 2 or 3 DO schools. My future alma mater is currently debating whether or not they will let me apply since I don't have a BS unfortunately but will have a PharmD that they will be granting me.

 

[pfaction]

I have most of my application together. Thinking about submitting to about 2 or 3 DO schools. My future alma mater is currently debating whether or not they will let me apply since I don't have a BS unfortunately but will have a PharmD that they will be granting me.

I'm seriously still WTFing at that.