<p>To the people who have been accepted, can you post your stats, or pm me your stats, it would really help the freshman/sophomore pre-meds gain perspective on the med school process.</p>
<p>The MSAR provides statistics for accepted students at all the American medical schools.</p>
<p>Vandy- the golden rule seems to be 30/3.5 to be even in the running plus ECs etc and improvement on both those numbers is a good thing.</p>
<p>That being said, my DD is going to ask her friends who are also applying, one is 36/3.6+, one is 34/3.4+? and another should have good stats (they are careful about asking each other too much detail and not being rude and pushy) but of of those three who all have higher MCATs, one has had 2 interviews and another none yet and another has only heard from Caribbean schools 
I will try to get some details to add to the anecdotal evidence for future readers. My DD was June AMCAS and July/August for most secondaries. The kid with no interviews yet was about a month behind. The kid who has only heard from Caribbean schools had never heard of SDN! :eek: So you wonder what kind of advice they are getting as to timing and how to complete the apps.</p>
<p>It would be great if we could consolidate something for a sticky for future reference " taking all our “what I did right” and “what I wish I had done differently” stories into a more concise-well less than 40 pages at least- reference so if any of us want to give a good link to a future applicant, it would be easy to send them to a CC med school sticky with a short list of hints and perhaps locked to posts after a period of time. Something not necessarily designed to be interactive, but a starting point. Thoughts?</p>
<p>BRM and I compare notes here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/397658-okay-get-b-biology-lab.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/397658-okay-get-b-biology-lab.html</a></p>
<p>Somemom-Seeing how it is only November, this will end up being way more than 40 pages! I like the idea of having something more condensed but with a link to this thread if anyone has the time and interest to go through it. </p>
<p>Vandy, DS has found that no one likes to talk about their grades or their MCAT. At least it is this way at his school and among his friends back home. Everyone is a bit vague and gives adjectives to describe their academic standings. I think you are best at looking at the MSAR or med student applicant site to get a better idea.<br>
I second somemons advice- apply early. Be prepared in June to write your applications. Have your MCAT scores by then. Spend time every day, even if just a few minutes, working on those secondaries. Get those secondaries out soon after you get them. Most schools want them back in two weeks. You can look at SDN ahead of time and get an idea of what kind of questions are asked on the secondaries so your essays are nearly/already done when you get the app. </p>
<p>What can you do now? Study, do your best in your classes. Get involved with clubs/activities that interest you. Volunteer and shadow. Join the pre med club at your school so that you can talk to some of your upper classmates. Learn how your school handles the application process. Do they have a committee or not? Get to know your professors and keep in touch because you will need them one day to write your references.
Look at the MSAR and see what requirements are necessary at some of the med schools that you are interested in right now. Make sure you have those pre-reqs done. Even if you change your mind about applying there, you will find that you are prepared for other schools.</p>
<p>[MDapplicants.com</a> - Home](<a href=“http://www.mdapplicants.com%5DMDapplicants.com”>http://www.mdapplicants.com)</p>
<p>All the stats that you could ever gargle.</p>
<p>^^^ I know no one likes to talk about their gpa/mcat scores but we are on an internet forum, I mean know one knows your identity.</p>
<p>Yeah, but if some one has posted for a long time, one could figure out who they are. Any determined used could find my DD or curm’s DD from info posted, of course we both reveal stats anyway, but DD’s Berkeley friends have not revealed exact #s to her, just ball parks and DD says at school and in interviews no one asks, it is uncouth.</p>
<p>Maybe we could take the info from NorCal & BDM & BigRed etc and add to it our own summaries at the appropriate time. Their format is pretty good for outlining the comprehensiveness of the picture at which AdComs look. And for showing the wide variety of ways to be successful.</p>
<p>I nominate Curm to take our submissions and put them all together in a fun & amusing package- can I get a second on that? ;)</p>
<p>uhhhh…Thank you, and no. 
</p>
<p>I love the idea but we have to continue to have as many unique perspectives as possible. Our two are living proof that there are different paths up med mountain. We need more voices on this thread. More students and more parents of current and recent applicants. (Yeah. I’m talking to you, lurker-person. ;)) Then somemom, …I mean somemom, oops again, sorry, my bad, I mean someONE needs to do the compilation. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, as far as internet anonymity goes …anyone with 6,775 posts :eek: can kiss that g’bye.</p>
<p>I don’t see what good isolated anecdotes would do you since unless you are the applicant, you will never have the complete picture. Average stats (which can be found on US News.com or the MSAR) are much better. And if you want portraits of individual applicants, Mdapplicants.com should have plenty to keep you occupied.</p>
<p>The descriptions that were on that B- thread certainly gave a detailed and varied picture of what = success. I found in preparing for this journey, it was a compilation of hundreds of anecdotes that was the best guide for helping DD stay in her path to med school.</p>
<p>Your schools may have been better, but I was unimpressed with the advising DD received at Berkeley, I found it to be both cookie cutter and inadequate. Anything that helps future applicants understand the broad spectrum of categories in which they can make their mark their way could be helpful.</p>
<p>Of course the numbers & your state of residency are definitely the primary filter for choosing which schools and how many.</p>
<p>mdapps doesn’t respond to you when you ask questions. </p>
<p>I also find the sample on mdapps rather self-selecting although I use it (and value it) as a resource. For example I was looking at the acceptances at 4 top 20 schools of interest to my D for caucasian applicants in the last 3 years with MCAT scores 34 or below. I won’t tell you the outcome but let’s just say that if they formed a flag football team, they’d have to play 7 on 7 and they wouldn’t have many subs. ;)</p>
<p>But that misses the point of the compilation IMHO. I agree stats and “histories” would have limited value but the strategies and experiences of the individual applicants? That’s where the big nuggets are.</p>
<p>Then again, it could suck. Nothing ventured…;)</p>
<p>But, Curmie, dear, if you edited it, we would be guaranteed not to suck :D</p>
<p>It’s just like when you were applying to college. SAT scores and GPA only went so far in determining who got in where. Extracurriculars, essays, etc… played a big role in whether one was accepted or not. It is similar to med school except now you have to throw in longer applications and interviews and stiffer competition.
The best advice is to do your best, study what you are interested in, be involved, learn what the medical field is like and prepare well for the MCAT. You can look at the MSAR and see where you are a good fit and decide whether you are interested or not. </p>
<p>And cur. maybe if you compiled it you could write a book and then publish it and then be rich and famous and go on tour and promote your book! We would all come to your book signings and get your autograph and have a great time meeting you. How about it?</p>
<p>Start a book title thread?</p>
<p>Title it "“Never Gonna Happen”. IF I was ever going to write a book, it would have been in 2006 about UG admissions. And I have about as much interest in being famous as I have in getting hemorrhoids. To me they’d both be a pain in the :eek:. Anyway, the tour would cut into my motorcycle riding time. Rich? I’ve been kinda rich but it’s been a while. Now I could stand that again. ;)</p>
<p>Well, my D will be home Tuesday and the first order of business will be withdrawing apps and acceptances. First to go will be 3 IS state schools as UTSW is her #1 . What’s not to like? Top 20 school at a reasonable cost with (what to her is) a favorable location combined with a smart socially adept student body, great research opps and reputation already had her primed post-interview. The 4 year merit scholarship they offered her late last week 
may have made it irresistible. </p>
<p>It was a target school all along (one of 4- UTSW, Baylor, Mayo, and Cleveland Clinic). Her LizzyM score [MCAT + (gpa x 10)] made them possibles. Those 4 were well researched and matched where she wanted to be in 5 years (an extra year for research). </p>
<p>Next to leave will be OOS schools that don’t match up (in her opinion) to UTSW on some element(s) she finds valuable (but are great schools in their own right). Right now that list includes USC, Case, and Tulane. </p>
<p>So she is keeping acceptances at UTSW and UVa, is waiting on her other 3 targets, and hoping for some late season love from some of the uber-reaches (and a couple of her sentimental favorites that IMO will fall soon enough). </p>
<p>For those who apply early and turn their secondaries around quickly, be aware that there can be an incredible burst of interviews at the start that plays out quickly. My D got 7 OOS interviews (and all 5 IS interviews) as fast as anybody reporting on sdn and then…absolutely nothing for the last 3 months. </p>
<p>With her stats and EC’s she has done remarkably well at OOS schools where she is even with or slightly lower than the reported matriculant stats (and I credit that to her EC’s , rec’s, and awards). She can’t buy an OOS interview at schools where she is 2 or more LizzyM points below matriculated student stats or 2 or more points above.
I attribute the former to the obvious (numbers) and the latter to yield considerations (and being from Texas doesn’t help at those schools). </p>
<p>Hindsight being 20/20 , maybe even more research would have yielded a better (even more targeted) approach to OOS schools. Not knowing that she would get an acceptance to either of her initial IS target schools (Baylor and UTSW) caused her to put several OOS schools on the list that she felt would take the place of her IS targets and had matriculant stats where she would be competitive. Maybe a couple or more could have been culled there and 11 was clearly too many. </p>
<p>And the uber-reaches. Sheesh. I don’t know what to say here. D’s attitude is that it was clearly a mistake to apply to 6 (2 rejects and 4 ignores). (Relatively) Unknown UG and an MCAT a couple points low may be enough to go 0-6, even with a “great” app. If you are going to give it a shot with those negatives, my advice is to look at your entire app. If it is merely “great” or even “exceptional on a local level”, maybe think about it again. If ,OTOH, it is “truly unique” and “awe-inspiring” maybe you can be the outlier. IOW, always keep in mind that you may very well be a legitimate star, but there’s a whole universe of star applicants out there competing for one of the relatively few outlier (lower stats) spots at those tip-top OOS schools.</p>
<p>(EDIT: Keep in mind that there was a 95%+ chance that she was going to get into an IS medical school this cycle. Her strategy would have been wildly different if she had been from California or many other states.)</p>
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<p>I believe you meant “Her BDM Index.” =)</p>