<p>DD is still trudging through secondaries, I think she has the bigggest load this weekend, just got another (3rd, I think) screened one (AZ as OOS ;)) and will hopefully have the majority submitted by Sunday.</p>
<p>She already did that crazy thing of applying to one school and then deciding not to do the secondary- I could never understand why people did that, why waste the $31 if you don’t want the school, but now that I have watched the process unfold, how tough it is to create your list, esp adding the ‘extra’ schools, the just in case ones, how difficult it is to learn every one’s requirements, I can see why some people do that.</p>
<p>DD decided after serious consideration and serious conversation that she did not want to apply to USUHS after all, but that is such a huge lifestyle school, being military and all, I can see why it took her longer to figure it all out.</p>
<p>Interesting, Curm, your post about USC, DD has plenty of units to fit the humanities bill, bit that bit about PF is NOWHERE on the website and at her college they offer a ton of really interesting seminars which are only offered PF so we shall see how that works out.</p>
<p>Somemom, as to the P/F thing I should have made it clear that I was discussing the ongoing conversation at sdn. I have NOT checked that with USC, but a poster on sdn “said” they asked the P/F question specifically. I should have made that clear.</p>
<p>TX is very slow, DD is still not verified there, she is going to call on Monday, just to see. Everything that is sent from her school to both sites on the same day seems to take an extra week to show up on the TX board and it has been a while since she was verified and all on AMCAS, like she has 10 secondaries done, so she needs to bump the TX people.</p>
<p>Also really annoying, one prof uploaded an unsigned letter and the others have not submitted the TX evaluations :(</p>
<p>i didn’t realize that AMCAS got more expensive until reading this thread. last year the fee for each additional school was $30. though that extra buck doesn’t sound like a lot i’m sure it makes quite a big difference in their bottom line.</p>
<p>Just stopping by to say hello and let you know there is life after the med school cycle. My son is starting his second year and it is nice not to have to worry – at least for a year! LOL Then we can worry about resident placement. It never really ends for us parents.</p>
<p>Yeah - my kid sent me a list of schools that she is applying to and has finished the secondaries for and is now looking for some cash. Some of the applications are $125.</p>
<p>At the start of this app season I was thinking screened secondary apps were a negative. Not any more. If you are an unlikely admit at least you don’t spend time and money on secondary applications. I wish more schools screened and not just a cursory screen either. I like the ones that if you get a secondary you have at least a decent shot at an interview.</p>
<p>I agree with curm. I really appreciated the fact that U of A and U of Wash rejected me before taking my secondary money (I hadn´t realize the whole OOS thing with them).</p>
<p>I agree, it is good to not have to suffer over writing all those essays and then be rejected immediately. Even worse to have to pay for it!</p>
<p>My DD was thrilled to make the UAZ screened secondary (ties to the state). Same with a few others that are screened, it means more.</p>
<p>BTW- 2 rejections and 1 interview offer came thus far this week. My DD’s attitude to and rejection is basically, "next’ as she has enough secondaries that she is too busy to be hurt by it. Some schools have notified that they won’t have a secondary until August and that is great whilst she is suffering under so many. With a statistically average MCAT-therefore feeling dismally low on SDN :D- she applied to well over 20 schools and has tons to write, though many are similar enough that they need only be refined to use the same</p>
<p>Big congrats on the invite. That’s great! Mine has her first interview Monday. Time for her to shut down the app machine for a bit and start concentrating on her interview plan.</p>
<p>Ooops … I posted this under the Ask the Med Student thread, but it’s probably more prudent to post it here:</p>
<p>I know this has been discussed in older posts, but I am asking this of those who have taken the MCAT recently. How did your Kaplan and AAMC test scores compare to actual MCAT scores? Were they in the ballpark?</p>
<p>twinmom, I have almost completely forgotten but I believe the last 3 AAMC tests my D took averaged 2 points higher than her test day result. So yes. In the ballpark. Just in the cheap-seats. ;)</p>
<p>I was in the range of my exams, actually on the higher range (but that’s probably related to my study habits). I made the same score on AAMC 10. AAMC #7-10 are the money ones.</p>
<p>My actual MCAT was equal to my highest AAMC score and 2 or 3 points above my average. My actual score was very similar to the scores on the earlier AAMC tests (which I averaged higher on), but I felt the content and difficulty was more comparable to 8 - 10.</p>
<p>Make sure to take all of the AAMCs and do so under test day conditions. I tried to take them early in the morn, the entire test at once (timed wihtout solutions), and sometimes in the campus computer lab to simulate the environment. Worked out well for me. Good luck.</p>
<p>My son spent the last week before the MCAT in “exam mode.” He got up everyday at the time he would have to be up on exam day, had breakfast, took a drive that lasted the time it would take to get to the test center, took the practice exam under real test timing conditions with timed breaks etc. He said it really helped.</p>
<p>That may be way over the top for most, but considering that he never even opened a practice book for the SATs and scored a 1580 one sitting (old score) we were really impressed with the level of pre exam prep he gave the MCAT.</p>
<p>EAD: I’d worry about burnout, at that level of prep! I made sure not to touch anything for 48 hours prior to the test, then gave myself 12 hours of light review the night before.</p>