<p>Cur,</p>
<p>When will you get the FA numbers for Yale?</p>
<p>I’m making a toned down version of the same choice for grad school, and so I’m interested in hearing what she decides!</p>
<p>Good luck to you both!</p>
<p>They have had the needaccess and fafsa forms available for a while. When she called Monday they had not downloaded the tax returns she had emailed (and since we were fedex-ing a “clarification”, we stuck an extra copy in to avoid delay). It sounds as if the process is just now starting for her.</p>
<p>Declare and bet day is “by 5/15”. I hope they give her a couple of weeks at least to mull it over. I know Harvard, Michigan, and Hopkins are sending stuff out now.</p>
<p>Are Dartmouth and UVA still in play, or is it down to Yale v. UT-SW?</p>
<p>As of now, she is down to Baylor, Yale, and UT-SW. She has not withdrawn from the huge wait-list at Pitt…but she doesn’t appear to be on their immediate radar either. </p>
<p>It was really hard for her to let go of Dartmouth and UVa. But…other kids are on the wait-list and it was time to adios.</p>
<p>Just found out tonite that a friend’s D may be deferring her admission to UT-SW for a year. She’s apparently also in at Baylor, UVA and one or two others but just decided on UT-SW and is now trying to determine if she wants to take a year off first.</p>
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<p>This scenario happened to my friend. She and her H lived frugally, worked several jobs and paid full fare for 3 kids’ private UG tuition and 2 private law schools tuition. Her son fortunately was doing a PhD at MIT which was tuition free but they had to supplement living costs. However, he married a fellow student at MIT who went on to a private med school and her debts was north of $250K. This has caused a huge wedge between my friend and her son, daughter-in-law and her parents. She thinks they are taking advantage of their son and their generosity towards their children since the DIL is an only child and her parents have the ability to help out financially.</p>
<p>I know a few kids who have been unable to turn down Harvard. My son’s then GF had 4 free rides, including Pitt and Penn but chose to attend Harvard which offered much less aid. Same for friend’s D who turned down UCSF (in state tuition) for Harvard.
My H’s medical school tuition at Baylor 40 years ago was less than what we paid for our kids’ private tuition at the elementary level. Thank goodness, neither went into medicine.</p>
<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>Ist time poster but long time reader. Thanks for all the great advice throughout the grueling process of med school application. </p>
<p>D is trying to decide between UMich (OOS) and NYU. The COA is about the same expensive. She likes the higher ranking/ reputation of UMich, but would most likely want to do her residency back in NY. At this time, she is thinking she may want to go into some kind of surgery? Anesthesiology? She is presently doing research in school, and will be continuing in med school Im sure. Shes afraid if she chooses NYU, shell be playing second fiddle to students at Columbia and Cornell when it comes time to competing for a NYC residency. Is this true? Opinions on which school to choose?</p>
<p>I’m a little incoherent right now, but I just had to weigh in.</p>
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<p>Bluntly, no. Residency programs are looking at things like Step 1 scores, clerkship/sub-i grades, and class rank/AOA. The name of the medical school you come from is, practically speaking, a non-issue.</p>
<p>Now, going to medical school in NYC may help with getting into a NYC residency program. Residency programs tend not to question applicants’ interest in NYC if they’re lived here in the past.</p>
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<p>As someone who turned down a top-15 medical school for a top-25, let me just say that choosing a medical school solely on the basis of USNWR rank or perceived reputation is not a good way to do things. Applicants really need to take school culture into account when picking a school, since it will end up mattering a lot.</p>
<p>Since finances are not part of the consideration here, the best advice I have for your D is to think very hard about the students she met at UMich and NYU on her interview/revisit days. Did she like them? Did she want to be like them, did she want to be friends with them, did she want to be co-workers with them? Because those are exactly the people your daughter will encounter over the next four years. If it turns out that the school, its goals, its culture, and its students are not in line with your D’s natural inclinations and aptitude, your D may end up pretty unhappy with no good way of getting out. Frankly, 4 years is a long time to be unhappy.</p>
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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/careers-medicine/164956-competing-residency.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/careers-medicine/164956-competing-residency.html</a></p>
<p>I suppose I should have specified that within the NYC area, no residency program is going to look down on NYU SOM grads.</p>
<p>Happy Birthday to this thread! It was one year ago that Curm kicked it off and it has been so interesting to follow all year and learn so much about the process. I sure hope that there’s more to hear about as final decisions are made. It would also be great to hear impressions/advice as the posters from this year’s application class enter med school and share their stories. Many thanks to all those who have shared their experiences and helped us to learn more along the way.</p>
<p>Best of luck to the Class of 2014!</p>
<p>
Has it really been a year? lol. Feels like two months ago some of the time, and 2 years ago the rest. 
</p>
<p>One month (and 2 days) till declare and bet day. I had always thought that FA would be known by now and she would be looking for an apartment. Somewhere. As it is I spent an hour or 2 dredging old Class threads on sdn at her 3 contenders to get a sense of what students thought of their FA. Not many nuggets to be found. That was followed by scrounging around the FA portals on the websites looking for clues. She has received notification from everybody that they have everything and now she just waits. </p>
<p>FWIW- Some schools are noticeably faster than others (JHU, Harvard, Michigan).</p>
<p>My impression is that the numbers (MCAT/GPA) are more important than we want to believe in this world of fit & holistic university admissions, for secondaries and interviews. DD had a 29 MCAT, everything else was top drawer. She was unenthusiastic about going east so we added many schools in middle America, which is usually not recommended on SDN. We thought, why not give it a try, especially with her rural roots & interest in rural primary care.</p>
<p>She did get several screened secondaries from places like KS/OK, etc, but no interviews. She did get a couple of TX interviews, so that was smart to add TX to the mix.</p>
<p>Also, if some one has a fair MCAT or GPA, it is smart to apply early and widely and to those schools that people on SDN recommend, the ones with lower stats. DD picked about half the usual eastern schools and instead added middle American. If she needed to do it again, I would not bother with those in the middle, but include all the eastern ones that are usual for low stats.</p>
<p>As it was she was blessed with a fall admit to her top 10 ranked state school and had 10 interview invites, darn impressive for a 29.</p>
<p>29 gets the kiss of death, “think DO” advice on SDN, and that may be the case if everything else is not outstanding, but med school admissions can happen. In DDs case she has a genuine processing problem and always had extra time on tests, until college. In real life she is excellent and can do things very well, in university it meant a few A- instead of A, but really hurt on the MCAT and probably will on Step 1 USMLE. So, that 29 does not indicate the person profs saw her to be in personal interactions and her LORs and ECs were far better than average.</p>
<p>So, yeah, take the numbers and suggestions to heart, but recognise where you are different than the average profile with whatever your low item is, be it MCAT, GPA, EC, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. Happy Birthday, Thread!</p>
<p>D liked both places during her interview and could see herself being happy at both places…that’s the problem. There’s not a whole lot she could do about the big fat loans only packages at both places. She will be going to the NYU’s 2nd look, but not the Michigans Can you believe it…waitlisted on the 2nd look?!? As a parent I’m rather annoyed at this, D is just disappointed having to choose blind.</p>
<p>WL’ed on the second look weekend? 
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<p>Sounds to me like Michigan hosts fewer students for 2LW than it actually admits, which is… well, it’s a little horrifying.</p>
<p>1 month and 2 days to go. Yikes. As curm said, it feels like 2 months ago and then 2 years ago on other days. DS is not much closer to making a decision than he was a couple months ago. FA packages are slowly trickling in. He got one today that was disappointing but last weeks’ package was a very pleasant surprise. One more FA package to look over and then he can decide. Unfortunately, the last FA package is not expected until just a few days before a final decision has to be made. That school is waiting for the state budget to be approved before they can announce FA. </p>
<p>He went to second look weekend last week and liked it a lot but unfortunately that was the FA package he got today and it does not look good. Another second look at another school next week.</p>
<p>curmudgeon: Yes, it’s just unbelievable, especially after students worked so hard to try to be admitted to this great school. It makes me feel they don’t really want or care about some of their accepted students, which is worrisome to me. Don’t know of any other schools that do this. D wanted the opportunity to meet some of her potential classmates and to confirm and see if she still have the same feeling for the school in this environment.</p>
<p>bluedevilmike: Sorry, but what’s 2LW?</p>
<p>I believe he means second (2) look (L) weekend (W).</p>
<p><<<<pssst. 2lw=“” is=“” second=“” look=“” weekend=“” in=“” cool=“” text=“” language=“”>>>></pssst.></p>