<p>Thanks for digging out this info. From this data, it appears to me that male matriculants really have some noticeable advantages on PS (by 1.0 - 0.9) and BS (by 0.5 - 0.4). The “total GPA” advantage for female is there but it is not that big (0.02 only.)</p>
<p>It is nice to learn from you that “Once you pare down the data to who you are “demographically”, the numbers can change quite dramatically.” and “If you are ORM or white , the general numbers could lull you into a false optimism.”</p>
<p>However, I am not sure whether the parents should inform their children of this fact. It may induce additional anxiety which they may not need.</p>
<p>Inform them? Heck, I had it tatooed on her hand so she can’t forget it. Data is your friend. I admit that it can and does lie to you, or at the very least it can obscure the truth from time to time, but the more you learn the better equipped the student is to make the travels. </p>
<p>At least that’s always been my plan. Prepare her for the voyage with the best data available and then watch her sail off. Alone. And then I very privately start lighting candles and chanting. ;)</p>
<p>I envy you that you could still be so open with your D on this. If I remember correctly, I think you said not so long ago that parents should know when to accelerate and when to decelerate. In our family, we were allowed to do that when the child was in middle/high school. After that, it is kind of like auto-pilot for us. We can only observe when he decides to accelerate and when to decelerate. As long as he does not stand still for too long, we should not have too much complaint :)</p>
<p>But I believe that whatever I think he needs to know in general, we had it imprinted in his brain a long time ago when we still had the chance. Detailed data? He has made it clear to us that he would rather not know too much about it as knowing too much will make him too nervous. He thinks the Kaplan’s practice score minus 5 will likely be the score that would be close to his real score in the end. (I do not understand his logic.)</p>
<p>His MCAT goal was 33. (His reason? It should be a good score for his purpose.) Recently, he seems to be willing to bump up his target score by one point after he got a series of high scores on his Kaplan practice tests. He still does not believe the scale that Kaplan uses.</p>
<p>As to why I yearn often for the “brake”- on a day I suggested here that she might have been rohypnoled when she filled out her overly demanding fall schedule, mine called me tonight and said “I have been asked to be a ‘Faces of Rhodes’. I think I want to do that.” (Me- Well. It’s a website thing. O.K. Doesn’t sound that bad. How long could it take?) “Oh, and Dr. Blank wants me to be a chemistry TA. Whattya think?” (Me- :eek:) I thought about tearing up but instead I laughed out-loud. </p>
<p>I think sometimes she may be truly insane. </p>
<p>I made a half-joking statement the other day that “I sure hope nobody tells her that the space program has doctor/astronauts as she’d probably try for that, too”.</p>
<p>Yes, curm is right, DD got two more interview invite this week and from the school that (at least until she checks them out in person and learns more about them) would be top on her list after her in state school. Very exciting.</p>
<p>DD is worried about missing time from work which is a university lab and she is allowed to work extra hours to make up for time missed, so won’t be docked any pay. She is so glad she is not missing class for this.</p>
<p>What is realistic on the number of interviews to plan for? If DD already has three set up ad has gotten a slew of screened secondaries, meaning they have an interest in more than the money, what if, (dare i say it our loud and not risk a jinx?) she gets too many interview offers? </p>
<p>I know if she goes to one in mid-Sept and gets an offer mid-Oct she would likely delete other far away interviews because that first school showed her the love first and why stress over every detail. To us, every school back east is just that…one of those generic back east schools. That no doubt includes vastly different schools in all different sized towns with all different styles and attitudes. But they are generic to us as they are the last 10 added to the list. Randomly selected based on their style, their website/MSAR info, etc. How much does one even worry about the whole ‘fit’ thing?</p>
<p>And what about schools that seem to not make offers until the spring. If you’ve got interviews in the fall, do yuo just keep racking up the frequent flyer miles and expenses? Just bought the 1st ticket and it was pretty ugly.</p>
<p>What would ya’ll recommend as a rule of thumb for limiting the number of interviews, if a student gets many offers?</p>
<p>Honestly, I wouldn’t cancel any interviews at all until she’s got at least one offer in hand. She can push some lower-choice interviews later (e.g. December or January) to try to give her a chance to cancel them.</p>
<p>But you’d hate to start canceling interviews and then get a couple of rejections.</p>
<p>There was a source book (I can’t recall which one), that showed for each school how many they interviewed and how many offers they made. On average, as I recall, about half those interviewed were made offers. Some schools, however, were much lower. That means 2 or 3 interviews is not even close to a sure offer of admission. My son did not turn down a single interview until he got an acceptance. He interviewed at 8 schools and ended up with 4 offers. I would also be cautious on postponing an interview until later, as slots begin to fill up, so getting an offer doesn’t get any easier. </p>
<p>Med school application is a long, time consuming, and costly process. You’re in the home stretch, and I wouldn’t skimp on a few plane fares and missed school days.</p>
<p>The MSAR has the number of applicants; US News has the admissions percentage. From that, you can calculate the number of admits.</p>
<p>The MSAR also has the number of interviewees; from those two numbers, you can calculate this percentage. Unfortunately, USN doesn’t break it out by In-State vs. Out-of-State, so you can’t do that with this data.</p>
<p>Actually, I believe USN also has # interviewed as well as # accepted (which the MSAR doesn’t have), broken down by in-state and out-of-state residents. It’s interesting to note that many in-state-residents do significantly better at private schools that you don’t expect to give preference for state residency (for example, the acceptance rates of CT residents to Yale Med, Missouri residents to WashU, Rhode Island residents to Brown, etc. are several times the overall acceptance rates). So, it might be worth spending the $15 or whatever to invest in a USN online subscription to gain access to that info.</p>
<p>I always thought USN is published on paper only. (I remember seeing one at a bookstore.) Does USN online version contain more detailed info and/or more up-to-date info than the paper version? Where to subscribe to the online version of USN?</p>
<p>Another related question: When will MSAR be out each year? Right before the application cycle (e.g., in May/June)?</p>
<p>curm should be my role model, but I doubt I could ever be as good as him. I should start to collect as much useful/relevant data as possible. (I have had an MSAR that is several years old, and do not have USN yet.)</p>
<p>DS has 4 interviews scheduled now. 3 of them he is excited about since they are definitely schools he is interested in. The 4th one - he will cancel that interview if he gets any acceptances. Many of his schools have yet to send out interview invites, so he is waiting to hear from them. He has tried to schedule them around breaks so right now he is only missing 1 day of classes. </p>
<p>One of the schools originally on his list, he has decided against after all and is not doing the secondary.</p>
<p>D is on an interview trip right now (and I got to drive down and take her to dinner at a great “Goode” seafood restaurant). Yumm! Strangely enough, I’ll get to do it again next week, too! Same city. Same traffic. But…that time I get to take her back to the ranch for 2 nights before she flies off Cavalier-ly eastward. ;)</p>
<p>IMO USNEWS online is well worth the fifteen bucks, if just for the matriculated stats. We’ve had a subscription for 2 years.</p>
<p>I don’t know if D’s list is well-thought out but she did put in the time over several months selecting them.</p>
<p>D has made an excel spreadsheet for each of her schools with interview data (apps, % interviewed, % accepted, % enrolled) then broken down by gender and whether she is IS or OOS. Her schools range from a low acceptance rate after interview of 18% (Harvard OOS) to a high of 66% (UVA OOS). Low interview rate of 6% (UCSF OOS) to 26.5 for the high (Southwestern IS). Yield is highest at HMS (79% Harvard OOS) followed closely by Baylor (74% IS). </p>
<p>By doing this type of interview invite anaylsis and maybe a heaping helping of “blind-hog finds acorn” luck she is X for X at her good bet schools (for interviews) , and also X for X at her target schools . Zero early rejections in each category. She has one good-bet school and three target schools left (one of which she’s considering dropping unless she can find a compelling difference between it and other similar schools, which she might) . She has 6 reach schools left , and one that she must have really ****ed off. ;)</p>
<p>I have a couple of questions (couple hundred actually).</p>
<p>Does the on-line USNews Graduate School source have more information than the printed version?</p>
<p>We have the printed 2010 USNews issue. The useful information we see is average GPA (2008), average MCAT score, and acceptance rate. </p>
<p>One question I have is why is the acceptance rate give in the “Schools of Medicine” table (pages 34-35) DIFFERENT than the acceptance rates give in the directory of medical schools in the back?? Cases in point - University of Colorado - '08 acceptance rate on the table is 7.7% and it says acceptance rate 8% in the directory; Emory 7.3% on table and 7% in directory, etc. Do you think the acceptance rate in the directory is figured on several years??</p>
Data is your friend. I admit that it can and does lie to you, or at the very least it can obscure the truth from time to time, but the more you learn the better equipped the student is to make the travels. </p>
I should start to collect as much useful/relevant data as possible. (I have had an MSAR that is several years old, and do not have USN yet.)</p>
But…that time I get to take her back to the ranch for 2 nights before she flies off Cavalier-ly eastward. ;)</p>