<p>Question for applicants and their parents:
How many schools are you/your kid applying to? I’ve read that the national average is about 12; I’ve read of people applying to 18 or more.</p>
<p>Thanks Curmudgeon. I’m relieved to know that we won’t need to take a med school road trip as we did for college. Can certainly live without that!</p>
<p>My daughter applied to twelve. If you believe what you read on the other med school board some applicants apply to many more and don’t go as far as the secondary app or pull some applications as soon as they get into a school.</p>
<p>My daughter withdrew five of her applications without waiting to see if she was invited to interview as soon as she got her first acceptance. Her initial acceptance was at one of her top three or four picks so she saw no benefit in proceeding with schools where she would have only gone if it was the one school she got into. That happens quite a bit.</p>
<p>My daughter first visited schools when she had interviews. Many schools have “second look” weekends for accepted students (if they have the time and the money to travel there a second time).</p>
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<p>hg, we can only hope and …since you are in a better position to gauge that than we are, that gives me hope. </p>
<p>Which brings me to Steven’s question. I am pleased to announce that D has narrowed her list to 23 schools including the Texas 7. Counting secondaries and special programs with separate apps (and potential post-graduate scholarship apps) the total rises to an even billion essays. :eek:</p>
<p>sewhappy, I don’t derive any enjoyment from D’s pursuit of a medical degree except for the joy of seeing her do what she loves. I, too, feel that there are many uncertainties facing doctors. But…her eyes are wide-open. She has spent enough time around physicians to know some of the lifestyle issues and has read enough to know about the economic issues. Does she fully understand either? Hardly.</p>
<p>I’m applying this summer. Having a hard time picking what schools to apply to - I’m fairly confident I can get into my state schools, so just getting in isn’t an issue, but I’m worried if I’m missing out not applying to more OOS schools.</p>
<p>My list at the moment: South Carolina, MUSC, Emory, Duke, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh
Maybe: UNC, Wake Forest, UVA, WashU, Georgetown, Baylor</p>
<p>My hesitations for that second list are comprised of some being state schools, not ideal geographic location, and Georgetown gets a lot of applications and my stats are higher than their averages, so I might get screened out early. Any suggestions for schools I should look at? I’d like to stay in the Southeast, but Pittsburgh has been the only Northeast school I’ve considered (sentimental reasons).</p>
<p>Hm, I don’t want to jinx this, but my strong prediction is that Mudgette is, indeed, going to have enough to compensate for those couple of MCAT points – and then some. I think Curm & Co. might be in for rather a pleasant set of surprises over the next few months.</p>
<p>Steeler,
What about University of Chicago…wink, wink…Also, why not UPenn if you’re applying to pittsburgh?</p>
<p>I’m just about certain that I’m going to hold off on my application for a year (for myself, not because I need to strengthen my app) and apply next summer instead of this one. So I’d just like to wish everyone who’s applying this year good luck!</p>
<p>somemom mentioned GPA and it bears repeating here that AMCAS will use every college course grade , wherever and whenever taken, in calculating GPA. This becomes important in my D’s case because her high school was a big proponent of dual-credit classes ( a big boon to those who go to Texas state schools) and she amassed 24 credit hours of 4.0. So…those hours didn’t do squat for UG transcript at her OOS LAC but it was a nice (however slight) “bonus” to her AMCAS transcript. In this one instance dual-credit trumps AP …big-time. For the right student it could make a big difference.</p>
<p>Your children or maybe you might be interested in this forum for students in or going into the medical field. I hope it is ok to post it here.</p>
<p>[Student</a> Doctor Network Forums](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/]Student”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/)</p>
<p>My son was able to get a good picture of the stats and people applying to each school on his list.</p>
<p>snowball, where is your student in the process?</p>
<p>And my D posts , albeit infrequently, on SDN and it is a great resource.</p>
<p>My son is a first year at our state medical school. He had no interest in going to a private school and being that much in debt. While he has always wanted to go to medical school, he tends to be lazy although he is very smart. He thought his MCAT scores would be enough as they were very good; what they showed is an underachiever!! </p>
<p>After finishing his Masters, he took a year off and worked in an infertility lab full time and at night worked as a tech in the ER as well as tutoring for the SAT’s. While at the time he was upset not to get into Medical School the first time, I can tell you the year off was a wonderful growing experience for him. Even my son admits that he needed that time to blossom. Of course, going back to school and studying was an adjustment. he really had to get back into the groove!</p>
<p>It is funny that most of his med school classmates that are friends entered med school straight from college. My son finds them rather young even though he is only 2 years older. I think that year of working full time really was an eye opener for him and made him grow up.</p>
<p>Snowball: What type of Masters program did he complete?</p>
<p>A one year Masters in Neuroscience. When he found out in May that he was not accepted to Medical School and didn’t have a backup plan, the only real option for him was to stay at his school. As he was a Neuroscience major, he was able to get into the one year Master’s. </p>
<p>It was suggested by the Dean of Admission’s that he do some sort of Master’s to improve his GPA. He was also lacking in research experience as that is something he has zero interest in. Fortunately he put his big boy pants on and decided to work in the infertility lab where he fell in love with infertility.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^</p>
<p>lol at “big boy pants”!</p>
<p>I agree with the prior posting, take the MCAT once unless you feel there is an extremely valid reason you would bet money (which you are!) that you can raise your score. There are many people who post that they actually got lower results the 2nd time.</p>
<p>It seems that many people on SDN post about receiving a score at the LOWER end range of their practice tests, I think my DD and Mudgette both did this. MY DD would like to be 1-3 points higher, but will only try that if she does not get in. DD studied on a schedule and felt prepared, so there is no reason to retake for now</p>
<p>BTW- I don’t think I finished on DD, her GPA should end up being over 3.6 with 4.0 senior year, assuming finals work out as the classes are going, and all are upper div science courses. No HS units to help out though, so we will see how the upward trend works out. It was interesting, not being focused on premed the B+ here and A- there did not seem like that big a deal, it still seemed like a successful term to get a B+ in OChem and A in the lab, but when you run the numbers and then look at the SDN spreadsheet showing GPAs you realise, “wow, should have worked a little harder a little sooner” DD was competing in athletics, working, Greek, study abroad, etc, but so was Curm’s DD, so that does not fly as any kind of excuse.</p>
<p>I do believe she would have had higher marks had she chosen a smaller school where she would get to know her profs, she is that kid who does well in smaller situations.</p>
<p>Our state has one school and takes kids from 5 other states, but it would be the #1 choice for DD. I think a person could have an advantage by moving to WY/MT 
They are accepted at all sorts of western schools which only take residents- AZ/UT/WA/KS/ etc</p>
<p>I still am very confused about what is figured into the HS (AO) on the AMCAS? Is it only classes that were taken at a college, other than the BCMP,or is it AP/IB classes also that would fall into that catagory?</p>
<p>Only college classes taken in HS will count on the AMCAS GPA. Ap/IB class grades and AP/IB test scores do not count.</p>
<p>“I do believe she would have had higher marks had she chosen a smaller school where she would get to know her profs, she is that kid who does well in smaller situations.”</p>
<p>I agree with that statement; large university science courses are quite tough to excel in.</p>
<p>Best of luck to SomeMom’s daughter and Cur’s daughter in this cycle.</p>