<p>Wow, she’s really booking through them eh?</p>
<p>Curm: Would you say that she is in the “average” range of those Texas schools (GPA and MCAT) or higher?</p>
<p>twinmom: As far as I know, Curm’s D is VERY VERY special because she has won a prestigious science competition at the college level. No wonder everybody believes she is a shoo-in at many medical schools. In CC’s language, she has a very good “hook.” I do not know her stat.</p>
<p>I do not know whether this is true, but I suspect that, after the stat of an applicant exceeds some threshold (This is by no means an easy task), it is really other factors that distinguish one applicant from another. Maybe an exception is the very top one like wustl.</p>
<p>Somebody here once posted that there may be a big different between a 3.5 GPA and 3.6 GPA (or between a 3.45 and a 3.55, I could not remember exactly), but there is no significant difference between a 3.85 and 3.95. This is because both 3.85 and 3.95 are good enough, that is, both are within the acceptance range of that school. I wonder whether there is some truth in this. (I happen to know one student who got admitted to both ucsf and ucla with a 3.8 and an astonishing MCAT score. Her 3.8 did not hurt her chance at such superly competitive medical schools at all. Granted, her ECs and MCAT really shine. This was two years ago.)</p>
<p>An analogy here is that during the college application cycle, there seems to be very little difference between a student whose rank is 1 (and/or a 2400 SAT) and another student whose rank is 3 (and/or a 2300 SAT), as long as they come from a competitive high school. Their other qualifications would determine whether they will be admitted to a college.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everybody here who has had an invite.</p>
<p>Nah. We old timers know the real reason why Curm’s daughter is special. Has to do with her hangin’ around baby goats for a few years …</p>
<p>Seriously, I forgot about her award, so the question is probably irrelevant. </p>
<p>And, yes, congratulations to all who have had invites!</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to suggest that the net not be widely cast. I was naive to suggest to my daughter that she only apply to four schools. I was just trying to encourage the applicants not to miss the forest for the trees. My daughter, as she often does, didn’t take my advice. Everyone who matriculates at a medical school probably applied to too many schools. After all it only takes one. The problem is: Which one?</p>
<p>Curm- do you think when the acceptances roll in, she will pick a best option TX school and then just see if any OOS offers blow her out of the water or would she keep them all on the hook until she sees financial awards?</p>
<p>From reading SDN it seems some schools offer some sort of merit awards, though probably not many and also some offer grant need based aid. I am not sure if the few stories I have read are something extra like URM or other recruiting factors or if it is something any of us could actually hope for.</p>
<p>Since we are not in TX and our single school for our state, and the other 4 surrounding ones with no med schools, has not begun interviews and has stats somewhat above DD we are incredibly pleased to have an interview with a private school far away. DD is also emailing other schools near enough to that one that she could combine in one plane trip- maybe that will push some of them to interview her ;)</p>
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<p>Because of the match system used by TX medical schools, I believe she could only keep a single TX medical school after January 31. However, I think she could keep more than one OOS schools in addition to the single TX medical school she keeps. Am I right, Curm? (You are the expert on this!)</p>
<p>Hmm…I take it back, since BCM is not a TMDSAS school, if she gets into BCM as well as another TMDSAS school, she could possibly keep two TX medical schools (in addition to multiple OOS schools.)</p>
<p>The pre-Match and Match process hurts my head. 
I’m counting on HubbellGardner to explain it to me (again) later.</p>
<p>She’s above the MCAT stats at all but 1 TX state school and at/below at that one. She is below at BCM on the MCAT. Her GPA is finestkind. Her EC’s are big. Her rec’s are solid. I think she did a “more than decent” job on her PS. She interviews very well. Her secondaries have been “unique”. She puts in things I’d leave out. Leaves out things I’d put in …but it’s working so far. </p>
<p>On the way to dinner she got the invite for her last Texas school. ;)</p>
<p>somemom, she doesn’t allow herself the luxury of thinking too far ahead but …when she has mentioned things she says that if she’s lucky enough to get an offer 10/15 or 11/15 she’ll pare down the process considerably. If that offer is from one of her favorites , I think it will be pared down to that school and maybe 2-3 others. </p>
<p>And I don’t think finances will be the driver this time around. Between equals , yes.</p>
<p>@eadad:</p>
<p>Hahaha, I am not as stressed out as I seem, ROFL…Lol, I just don’t want to be complacent like I was in high school (I partied way too much in high school, when I could have done a lot better)…</p>
<p>Some medical schools are actually pretty darn generous with merit scholarship. Some, such as Mayo, basically give everyone a full or half scholarships. Other schools give a huge chunk, like 40+% of their students, some form of merit scholarship. Pitt, U of Chicago, and U of Michigan come to mind. I have heard Vandy is pretty generous as well.</p>
<p>Where do you find merit or need based or URM scholarships on the websites? D and I have looked, and it is not so apparent. Do you need to call each individual school? Websites seem vague.</p>
<p>I agree, websites are vague. Almost all merit scholarships do not require an application and you are “auto-considered” as soon as you are accepted. Any that aren’t automatic usually are mailed to you in your acceptance packet.</p>
<p>Any news anyone?? I don’t want this thread to fade into oblivion!!</p>
<p>somemom’s kid might have some news. 
</p>
<p>My D is looking at her fall schedule and wondering if someone slipped her a rohypnol right before she filled it out. For next year’s crop of victims, plan your schedules so there is some chance you can actually pass your courses. You’ll need to do that for admission as I’ve heard they’d actually like to see you graduate. I’ve also heard that’s hard to do if you don’t go to class fall semester. ;)</p>
<p>D has managed to put off some interviews to October and even some to late October during her fall break. Some schools make that easy, some don’t seem to like it so much. :(</p>
<p>I am not quite ready to give this process the “Seal of Clarity” (far from it, actually) but…D is doing very well at her target and good-bet schools (invite-wise) and all she hears from the reaches is a deafening quiet. Coinky-dinky? Could be. But maybe not. It’s still pretty early. </p>
<p>As a kid from a less than house-hold name (but still excellent) school she knew everything would have to be dang near perfect to have a shot at an interview at those schools. Very little margin of error. For un-hooked kids like her it may well be that the MCAT score has to be stellar (IMO 35 plus for women, even higher for men) to make up for not going to a top 10-20 type school, even with an other-wise “stellar” app. But again, it’s early. She may pull out an interview or two yet. Some of her reachiest schools haven’t granted any as of yet. </p>
<p>I’ve learned not to bet against her.</p>
<p>Yes, plenty of time still for interviews. I didn’t interview at some of the big daddies (or mammas) until December.</p>
<p>Regarding:
Is it really so? I thought these days many men/boys are actually in need of some form of affirmative action protection in college or graduate/professional school admissions. They are often beaten by women/girls. There are often much more high achieving female students (e.g., in terms of class rank) than male students in the high school graduating class.</p>
<p>I think I know what you meant to say. I heard that SAT is considered by many as not gender-neutral. I do not know whether MCAT is similar or not.</p>
<p>If (action) video game skills are a part of evaluation, boys as a group will definitely beat the other half of the population :)</p>
<p>As far as GPA I wouldn’t doubt that it happens the same way in med school admissions- high gpa females. That’s one thing I’ve learned about this process. Once you pare down the data to who you are “demographically”, the numbers can change quite dramatically.</p>
<p>If you are ORM or white , the general numbers could lull you into a false optimism. Male? The same with MCAT numbers. Female matriculant MCAT numbers are (IIRC) 1.6 below males. IS/OOS? Could be a HUGE difference in stats but only at some schools.</p>
<p>There are some odd ducks out there . Private USC give great preference to IS. Private Stanford gives (what appears to me to be) none.</p>
<p>Data is your friend and there is no single repository or compendium. USNEWS , AAMC, MSAR, and the medschool websites are the “go to” texts, with sdn and our little burgh being right behind them (and in some cases a little ahead ;)).</p>
<p>Here ya go. [AAMC:</a> FACTS Table23: MCAT Scores and GPAs for Matriculants to U.S. Medical Schools by Sex](<a href=“http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpabysex4mat.htm]AAMC:”>http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpabysex4mat.htm)</p>