Where to apply?

[uclakid]

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How do you know where to apply, considering you're a California resident? Like, applying to state schools is futile..so would applying only to private out of state schools would be a way to go?

 

[jlee9531]

im assuming you are a cali resident....

applying to state schools futile?????

true as that may be....you still gotta apply man. you never know whats gonna happen.

so apply to ever damn california school aiite?

now since that is over with...your career center should have a list of med schools that ucla kids have matriculated at over the years and you can use that as a guide to see which states are receptive to ucla (or just cali kids) in general. gotta check to make sure which schools strongly prefer their own state kids rather than out of staters (ie...msu, mcg, etc...) unless you feel that you strongly match their philosophy and can show it.

depending on your stats...prepare to apply to around 30 schools. we cant get away with applying to 10 or so.

my gpa is relatively low but mcat is decent and i feel i have had meaningful ecs...applied to 43 schools...

 

[Adapt]

Originally posted by uclakid
How do you know where to apply, considering you're a California resident? Like, applying to state schools is futile..so would applying only to private out of state schools would be a way to go?

If you're Christian and want to stay in CA, Loma Linda is an excellent school to look at.

If you really want to stay in CA as I know most Californians do, you can look at WesternU/COMP which is a DO school here in southern CA.

Otherwise you have your typical out of state schools that lots of CA residents get into. These include the following:

Drexel, Temple, Jefferson, Tufts, SLU, Mount Sinai, Finch, Georgetown, MCW, BU, Loyola, Tulane

These are just a few but there are a lot more. The DO schools are mostly private and some of the better ones other then COMP include:

PCOM, NYCOM, CCOM, AZCOM, KCOM, NSUCOM, and TUCOM.

I would try to avoid the caribbean schools unless you are desperate or you are rejected from MD and DO schools.

 

[BaseballFan]

In my opinion, applying to over 30 schools is ridiculous, and a huge waste of money. If your stats are sub par, then focus on schools where you will have a better chance of acceptance. If your stats are good, then change the profile of schools. Dealing with 30+ applications is a huge pain in the a$$...right jlee?

My advice is this- apply to 2 or 3 reach schools, 5-6 at which you feel that you have a strong chance for acceptance, and then another 4-5 (including possibly DO or others out of the US) where you are overly qualified.

Lastly, I've been a californian for my whole life... but contrary to popular belief, it is actually possible to MOVE away from california, as I did for undergrad, and have a great experience. You have your whole life to move back to california, so don't overlook going out of state for a few years.

Good Luck!

 

[skypilot]

Originally posted by Slickness
Otherwise you have your typical out of state schools that lots of CA residents get into. These include the following:

Drexel, Temple, Jefferson, Tufts, SLU, Mount Sinai, Finch, Georgetown, MCW, BU, Loyola, Tulane

I put all the schools in a spreadsheet and sorted by the number of out of state applicants accepted then applied accordingly. This will keep you from wasting your application money. The schools above will definitely appear on your list. Of course you should also apply to the schools you dream of going to.

 

[Heal&Teach]

All of the above, plus I would make sure to apply to places where you think you could actually live and be relatively happy for four years of your life. In the event that you only get one acceptance to a school that's not your top choice, you would at least want to make sure that it's in an environment that you would feel comfortable in. Med school is med school, yes, but sometimes folks tend to underscore location as a factor on the happiness scale.

Best of luck to you,
H&T

 

[meanderson]

UCLA, UCI, UCSD, UCSF. You can do it. Several hundred people a year do.

If you take the attitude that it's futile going in, you're wastign a good chance.

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by BaseballFan
In my opinion, applying to over 30 schools is ridiculous, and a huge waste of money. If your stats are sub par, then focus on schools where you will have a better chance of acceptance. If your stats are good, then change the profile of schools. Dealing with 30+ applications is a huge pain in the a$$...right jlee?

My advice is this- apply to 2 or 3 reach schools, 5-6 at which you feel that you have a strong chance for acceptance, and then another 4-5 (including possibly DO or others out of the US) where you are overly qualified.

Lastly, I've been a californian for my whole life... but contrary to popular belief, it is actually possible to MOVE away from california, as I did for undergrad, and have a great experience. You have your whole life to move back to california, so don't overlook going out of state for a few years.

Good Luck!

yes dealing with 30 plus is a pain....but looking at it...from the 40 secondaries i got....ive gotten only 5 interview invites. you recommend applying to around...2+6+5=13 schools. Im gonna assume that is out of state schools. That would have made it around 22 schools for me including the 9 instate schools i applied to. that means i would have had to cut out 20 schools from my out of state list. i dunno how i could have done that esp. with the randomness of the entire ordeal.

i could have easily eliminated uic(high out of state tuition) msu (required to take at least 85% instate) uvm (cause i have no ties to the vermont area which they always ask...why do you want to come here if you have no ties...) and possibly been screwed over. for me and my numbers, i couldnt afford not to apply to less than 40 schools. its hard to use my gpa to gauge where i could apply since its lower than almost every medical school out there. my mcat was decent so i used that instead to help me gauge...i read mission statements to see if i liked what the school did and maybe those schools would be receptive toward my goals as a physician...to see if they liked to take berkeley students...etc...

but yeah with it being so random esp. if you are an applicant with lower numbers...you never know whats gonna happen...so just something i had to do after talking to my friends who applied last year as cali residents.

 

[exmike]

Along with what J said.

Yes applying to many is a pain, but thats the price of living in CA and having less than perfect application. In fact I sent out 54 or so AMCAS primaries + 4 DO schools. I ended up paring it down to just 39 completed secondaries. I probably could have pared down the list even more, but the process is so random you never know what will happen. I'm definiately a proponent of the shotgun method. I had the pressing issue of an expiring MCAT so I didnt have the luxury of being that selective. If I had another year, I probabaly would have pared my list down to 30 or so schools. How do I know I overapplied? I ended up with 17 interviews and went to 10. However, many of those were from schools I didnt think I would hear from (i.e. public out of state schools), so you really dont know your chances unless you try. (examples are Kansas, Vermont, UIC, MCO, Ohio State, MSU - no ties to any of them at all) I could have saved thousands of dollars. But that is the price of security. After all, in the long run its really not that much to pay to pursue your dream.

 

[Tezzie]

I think you should apply to as many schools you feel comfortable with and you won't have any regrets later on.

There are people who apply to 5 schools and are comfortable with that and there are others that apply to 45. The approach to the med school admissions process is unique just like every applicant.

I applied to more than 20 schools although i had strong scores (for various reasons).

As a CA resident the process does become a little bit harder for you but if you do things correctly, you will come on top.

Good luck!

 

[Lochmoor]

I would suggest to do your research. Find out which schools are "nicer" to applicants from your school or schools with certian preferences. Ex. Jefferson tends to significantly favor people with ties to the school or applicants who are Deleware residents--I don't quite understand this one since Jeff is in Philly....

Also, know where/what type of school you are intersted in. Like top 50 school, warm climate, ect.

If you do this, you can eliminate a good number of schools. However, most importantly, make sure you are completely comfortable and know you wont have any regrets. (The easiest way to do this is to apply to a bunch of schools, but it's not the most economical option.)

Best of luck!!

 

[Adapt]

Originally posted by jlee9531
from the 40 secondaries i got....ive gotten only 5 interview invites.

Only 5 interviews from 40 schools and you got 3 acceptances with one of them being UC Davis?! You're a madman jlee.

 

[rebeclette]

I'm a CA resident, but I went to college in philly, and thus far I've gotten into Philly schools, but there are a few places that I havn't heard from yet, and I am hopeful.

I applied to 20 schools, and got interviews at half the schools(none at CA schools) I applied, but I went to high school in IL, and college in philly, so I had ties to several areas across the country which probably helped.

I would recommend applying to Drexel, and Chicago Medical(Finch, but it will be changing its name to Rosiline Franklin). Both take a lot of CA residents, and even though a lot of people don't like them they are solid schools. Plus Drexel lets you know after a month if you've gotten in, which is nice.

Temple only takes 40 % of its class from out of state, so unless you have good stats with a lot of community service (especially in underserved areas) I wouldn't recommend applying there unless you actually like it and would want to go there. Jefferson is really nice, but I think that having school ties is a bit important to them, and its a little bit more competative than Temple and Drexel. Also, Jefferson is the state medical school for Deleware, which is why they like Deleware people. I think they have a few hospitals there.

But if you are a strong applicant you can apply wherever you want. I applied to a lot of schools that I didn't really think I had a shot at, but applying made it so I don't have any regrets now. I would recommend applying everywhere you want to, if you can afford it, and try and ask a pre-med advisor if you have one where a lot of applicants from your school end up getting in. And apply to the CA schools, you never know, you may get in, plus the application fees for them is less than a lot of private schools.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[scrabbler]

I'm a CA resident who did undergrad on the east coast. Knowing that I couldn't deal with super-cold weather for another four years, I only applied to CA and east coast schools, not even considering places like Chicago, Rochester, Michigan, etc. and haven't regretted it. There are still plenty of schools to apply to in Pennsylvania, New York, the South, etc. Make sure that for every school you apply to, you could see yourself going there if this was the only school you got into.

 

[celticmists18]

Just so you have some more #s to look at :
applied: 29
secondaries: 28 (damn UC Davis)
interviews: 5 (none west of the Mississippi)
acceptances: 1 (Jefferson Medical College . . . they LOVE californians)

GOOD LUCK!

 

[klooless]

Originally posted by uclakid
How do you know where to apply, considering you're a California resident? Like, applying to state schools is futile..so would applying only to private out of state schools would be a way to go?

I'm a Cali resident who applied to 14 schools in total (6 of which were in California). I did end up turning down interviews with Davis, Irvine and USC (and Emory, but applying there was just a mistake), but I went on the other 10 interviews and had my share of ups and downs just like everyone else.

In theory, you apply where you think you could get lucky, where you think you have a decent shot, and where you think you have more than a decent shot...then you just wait it out.

 

[LoneCoyote]

I'm too am a California resident and took a big gamble in only applying to 9 schools (5 in California, 4 in other states). I really did not want to end up too far from home. I would not recommend doing it this way if you are dead set on getting into school the first time thru this process because it can be stressful and might not work in the end. I am just thankful that it worked out for me.

Applied: 9
Secondaries: 9
Interviews: 5 (3 in Cali, 2 out of state)
Interviewed at the 3 in California, withdrew the others
Waitlisted: 2
Accepted: Davis

 

[MErc44]

I go to a UC and applied to 26. I have a low GPA but a reasonably high MCAT. As of now I've only had 3 interviews but I got about 90% secondaries. I think I will only get 3 interviews as I was complete at all the schools in f&cking August, what is it now? F$cking adcoms. Anyway, in general most of the CA applicants I know applied to >20 schools. I would have applied to more if I had only known.

 

[Adapt]

I already gave you my opinion on the subject but I guess I should let you know how I fared in the process. I'm also a CA resident coming from a UC, with a relatively high GPA and just below 30 MCAT. I applied to 25 MD and 6 DO schools. I turned in about 20 MD secondaries and 3 DO secondaries.

The results of the process for me are shown below. I may have received more interviews but withdrew from most of the other out of state schools after I received my first acceptance back in mid October. As you can see I received no UC interviews. The only CA MD school interview I had was Loma Linda and I'm waiting on them, but they're my number one choice right now.

The lesson is, you can't count on a Cali MD school unless you have above a 34 MCAT, or have amazing ECs. If you're just another average applicant with your standard volunteer activities, fat chance trying to get an MD in CA. 🙂

 

[Spitting Camel]

CA resident, UC Student
29 MCAT 3.70 GPA (3.66 science, 3.81 non-science)
Applied: 26 Schools
Returned Secondaries: 19 (2 were not offered - UCLA, UCD)
Interviews: 6, attended 4 (2 in CA - Loma Linda, UCI)
Acceptance: 1, Loyola University Stritch
Waitlist: 1, BU
Waiting post-Interview: 2, UCI and Loma Linda


It's possible to make it in CA, but I think my ECs were really strong, as were my LsOR. GPA wasn't bad, but the MCAt was definitely the weak part of my app.

Wish me luck!! I should be hearing from UCI and LLU soon. Please, oh Please, let me get into 1 of them!!!

Slickness... I'm rooting for you, too!! Good Luck!!

I should also note that I withdrew all of my out of state apps after I got into Loyola, my number 1 out of state school. I kind of regret it because I will never know if other schools would have interviewed me. Oh well!

 

[uclakid]

good luck to all of you!