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<p>Huh. She had the same reaction. Well, she did after all the ROTFLMAO stuff that is. Saved by my ineptitude again. "Curmudgeon the Codebreaker’…not so much. ;)</p>
<p>My kids often call me to do some internet thing or another because they know i work at a computer all day and can easily do it when they are out and about, but I don’t save the password info.</p>
<p>My case is easy. I do not know my child’s screen name so there is no chance that I will ever use his name and mess up his account by mistake.</p>
<p>The first time I found CC is very useful is when we need to find out what to pack before we sent our child to an OOS college. For example, we had very little idea about the winter clothing needed there, but we picked the knowledge very quickly by browsing the parent cafe forum here. At one time, I saved $240 dollars in airfare (no kidding here, the airfare for thanksgiving and/or christmas was $900-$1000 a few years ago while the fuel cost was very high), by following a hint posted by a CCer.</p>
<p>Well after my D’s break from the app process she hit the ground running tonight and emailed me her latest “Why Blank Med School?” essay. I’m fairly sure the folks at UVa School of Medicine have never had an essay citing as a plus their location in the city that gave the Dave Matthews Band their start. Sometimes what comes out of her head just amazes me. </p>
<p>We’ll have to see how that one goes over. lol.</p>
<p>Been waiting for verification since 7/3…this is killing me. Hopin to get these secondaries done as soon as possible.</p>
<p>inthebay, be sure to go to sdn and get the secondaries and start working on them now. Most are up and posted in the 2009-2010 section. Here ya go. <a href=“Student Doctor Network Communities | Student Doctor Network”>Student Doctor Network Communities | Student Doctor Network;
<p>Beware though inthebay. Make sure you see if anyone has received their secondary yet. If not, that is last years prompt and you risk writing something that doesn’t fit.</p>
<p>Here’s what I remember about my son doing secondaries (a year ago):
- Virtually every school asked for them (no screening), and why not, they get a fee.
- In essence, he had to fake most of them, because he had no real reason why he wanted any particular school. Northwestern, for example – it’s a great school and it’s in his home town, but you have to make up something other than than.<br>
- There were a couple of schools that, despite getting secondaries, never gave him a decision. I mean no further correspondence, even though he confirmed they got everything. This is apparently not unusual. </p>
<p>There is certainly an attempt by all schools to reveal the “character” behind the numbers and find “matches” for their kind of school; whether it’s worth the effort, and whether they really can accomplish this, I don’t know.</p>
<p>I think they do a surprisingly good job. You don’t necessarily have to fake interest in the school, just read the website and focus on things that you like the sound of.</p>
<p>Yeah those questions about “why do you want to come to our wonderful school?” are really meant to make sure that you’ve invested some time reading the website, finding out about the curriculum, maybe talking to students if you are able, etc. Everyone pretty much writes the same things.</p>
<p>For all you hopeful’s out there, do some research on schools BEFORE you designate (and pay for) schools on AMCAS and TMDSAS. It has been surprising to me to see very intelligent (based on their mdapps) students: </p>
<p>1) applying to schools where they are automatically/almost automatically rejected</p>
<p>2) not sending the secondaries because they finally see the futility.</p>
<p>Examples. OOS kids not from WWAMI (and not applying MD/PhD) at U of Washington. Kids without 30 hrs of (liberally defined ) “humanities” courses at USC/Keck. </p>
<p>This is NOT a standardized process. Each school has unique requirements. </p>
<p>And (for AMCAS) at $31 to $131 a pop , this gets expensive real quickly.</p>
<p>curm, I am confused on this. Are you saying they don’t send in the secondary because they probably should not have applied in the first place? Or are you saying they should send it in anyways, knowing it is futile? (confusing myself face)</p>
<p>I know in UG you should apply to safties, matches, and reaches. I guess my question would be, if you were to apply to say 20 schools, what should the breakdown be of each?</p>
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<p>I think curm is saying that you should research your schools before applying to them so you don’t find yourself in the position of not sending in a futile secondary in the first place. For medical school, you have to try to figure out which schools you have zero chance at due to residency, grades, etc. Some schools really only take in-state residents (ECU, Hawaii, and others).</p>
<p>Thanks, Icarus and sorry GA2012MOM. </p>
<p>Yep. Icarus has it right. </p>
<p>There was an engineering student who after paying his $31 (and maybe after doing his essays) but (I hope) before submitting, realized he/she was 20 hours short at Keck. Others realized that AP and P/F courses in (what is VERY loosely called) “Humanities” did NOT count against the 30 hours. Others who have Keck high on their list are scrambling to change their senior year schedules to pick up a class or two.</p>
<p>I’m sure most/all students miss something (and I’m sure mine did, too) but I"ve noticed on this board some students are seemingly trying to find a “formulaic” “standard” approach to class selection to meet pre-req’s, for example. I could just have easily used AP credit or BioChem or Calculus or Stats. </p>
<p>Although it takes some digging, most requirements are “findable” for every school. I’m just suggesting that finding them at the end of July in your app year is not that good a plan. ;)</p>
<p>okay, so outside of state schools, how does one know where to apply?</p>
<p>Assuming you have X gpa and X mcat, you know what your safeties, matches, and reaches are for just the numbers. What distinguishes one school from the other?</p>
<p>Haha – well, I never bothered to find them at all. I wonder if I was a little short on requirements at a few schools? I’ve always suspected…</p>
<p>First, the requirements start the pruning. Engineering kids are probably going to have a hard time meeting that 30 hrs at Keck. My kid wouldn’t take a higher calc course so good bye to Harvard HST. No psychology. Good-bye to whoever it was that required that. Good-bye to the Cali schools who wouldn’t accept AP credit for Calc.</p>
<p>Second I’d say to prune the OOS schools that don’t accept anybody OOS (or from surrounding states) . ECU, Mercer, Mississippi, U of Washington (except WWAMI) etc.</p>
<p>yea, D doesn’t want to do a second calc either, lol, not that she is presumptuous to think anyways. What is keck?</p>
<p>For allopathic there’s only about 130 schools. After the first 2 culls, you are probably down to 100 or so. If the kid has no interest in research CCLCM (Cleveland Clinic) is not a good choice. No interest in primary care or rural medicine? That eliminates some that stress their mission as that. (One of the Minnesota schools comes to mind.)</p>