2009-2010 Med school applicants

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Nope, Curm’s DD is from TX, DD is from WA, a much tougher state, with only one school and it is friendly to all sorts of other special states- Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, who don’t have med schools. If a person wants to stay west and does not get into their state school, it is a tough road, as most of the states either do not take any one OOS or take a limited percentage (I believe TX schools are 10%) as they are protecting themselves from the mad hordes of Californians!!</p>

<p>Watching my DD & Curm’s DD should be quite interesting. Both were highly ranked HS grads with a sports state championship to their names, and got great acceptances, from Yale to Vassar, Berkeley to UVA, Rhodes to Baylor.</p>

<p>Curm’s DD has been focused on medicine all along the way, has a small private school with great prof relationships, tons of research and other interesting ECs and a famous research award. I believe her stats are 32+ and 3.9+</p>

<p>Somemom’s DD did not decide on medicine until this past summer, Berkeley, much tougher to get strong LORs, as it is harder to get to know the profs, lots of ECs including national sport team, no research until her job that starts this week, average stats, 29 MCAT and 3.6+ GPA. Nothing below a B and all As for the senior year in all upper div bio classes. DD is also rural and may be interested in the whole rural under-served primary care thing that is so popular.</p>

<p>Both should have great LORs and great ECs, but in which pile of 5000-10,000 will they be noticed?</p>

<p>So if the girls applied to the same lists, they would not compete against each other, they are so different. Research Wiley Coyote Super GEnius and small town sporty primary care kid.</p>

<p>DD deliberately waited until her Berkeley transcript arrived to submit (taking the time to edit, etc) as she wanted that final year of excellent marks to show on the app and in the GPA.</p>

<p>So, with a 29MCAT she may do a few DOs, but will likely wait a couple of weeks, until she moves to her new town and new country and gets settled in her research job and then decide about the DO yes/no.</p>

<p>I have been researching on SDN for the past year, thank God, because Berkeley’s advising was not helpful to DD as she is not a cookie cutter kid, she does things her own way and that did not fit the mold.</p>

<p>I will be interested to see where she makes the cut because she is unusual and where she misses on numbers, she hit the lower stats schools pretty hard, but threw in some reaches, too, like Mayo, since they say they look at the entire picture not just numbers.</p>

<p>She printed last years secondaries for many of the schools so she can begin formulating ideas for answers to those types of questions.</p>

<p>I do believe Mudgette has done several TX secondaries already.</p>

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<p>I hope what you said is true. But it is a virtue to be on the safe side, isn’t it?</p>

<p>I have the 2008-2009 MSAR document in front of me now. For UT Medical School at Galveston, there are only 4 matriculants whose ethnic group is the same as my child’s. So, I would imagine it is still an uphill battle for my child next year. (The total Hispanic are 42 and the total matriculants are indeed a whopping 229 – I wonder how many of these 229 matriculants were admitted via an alternative route like JAMP.)</p>

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<p>Somemom, your D is applying wisely and widely and has presented herself uniquely. More than one school is going to take a shine to her. I am confident that few on the adcomm will forget her profile. And that’s a good thing.</p>

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<p>You folks seem to be applying late for the 2009 year?</p>

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<p>These are actually for the 2010 matriculation year, the title could be misleading!</p>

<p>AMCAS does not release the apps until the 24th…we shall see if DD is verified in time, but her final transcript just arrived Friday and we made an executive decision to wait for that as it looks so sweet with the great finish her senior year.</p>

<p>Theoretically she could be in that first batch, it all depends on the vagaries of AMCAS verifiers!! I don’t think it is late, but she could have pressed submit on Jule 1-10 without that final transcript and been guaranteed a spot in the first download, we just thought (and got agreeing feedback) that the final transcript would be a better profile more likely to make it through screenings. I’ll let you know how that works out ;)</p>

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<p>DocT, To clarify (in case it is not clear), my child is not applying this year. I just lurk here in order to learn from these folks who are “in the battleground” now :-)</p>

<p>Curmudgeon, somemom, Steeler, eadad, shraf, Icarus, BDM, NCG, etc., thanks for sharing your first-hand experiences with us.</p>

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<p>I’m a little surprised at this blog. My kid is graduating in June and is working on med school applications right now at school. She’s applying for med school entrance in 2010. We’re not involved in the process at all -she’s 21. We don’t have a clue when this stuff is suppose to be completed or anything else for that matter. I understand to some degree parents being involved in the college admission process (they’re only 17 or 18) - but med school? It seems like parents here are overly involved - just my opinion.</p>

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<p>Everyone has one DocT. Thanks for showing us yours. :wink:

I do have to ask, why are you reading this “blog” if you are so laissez-faire about the process? lol.</p>

<p>And yes, you have my permission to feel superior to me because I couldn’t give a rat’s :eek: what you think. Remember, your Uncle Curmie always says “if it ain’t vicarious, it ain’t really living”. ;)</p>

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<p>I’d like to be educated to some degree such as a rough idea of when applications are suppose to be in. We also have a joint account. My D puts money into it and I move it around to get the best return. Apparently its time to move some money back into the bank account for application fees? Even if I wanted to help, its impossible as my D has spent every summer at school doing medical research.</p>

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<p>Read a few pages back in this thread - we just covered this topic - you and I agree on this one</p>

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<p>A rough budget for my D is $5K for apps and interviews. A big number for us. So far, maybe she’s at $1400. </p>

<p>She’s also away doing another research summer.</p>

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<p>I don’t really think so. Knowing what your child is getting involved in/how your child is preparing for the next four years of his/her life is fine. I think it’d be great if my parents knew the process and such. However, just knowing about the medschool process and how your child is faring - is, i think, completely different than nagging your child to make sure he/she is actually getting it done. I think there is a fine line that parents need to make sure they dont cross in order to make sure they dont become “overly involved.” I’m sure that most parents on these forums dont “nag” their children that in college. Rather, they just want to be knowledgeable about the medschool application process. Personally, I feel that this is far better than,

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<p>I know that my child is doing what she is suppose to. Medicine has been her motivation from the time she was 14. There are also premed advisors who know significantly more than me or for that matter you.</p>

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<p>I wouldn’t be so sure. :wink: It worked out pretty well for my D in UG. Every family needs to find what works best for them. And I’m not criticizing your family’s choice. It’s not my place.</p>

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<p>What’s UG? At Harvard, she has received plenty of guidance including from the MD’s that she works with.</p>

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<p>oh that totally changes things…if the ultimate goal is to “become a doctor” then yes, do DO…if your daughter really does have an interest in rural primary care then 1. play that up in MD apps at rural/suburban schools 2. apply DO </p>

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<p>correct me if i’m wrong but are you saying that your kid is hispanic? if so then that is the single biggest advantage imaginable in med school applications (along with being african american) …the only reason there r so few matriculants is that there are so few applicants.</p>

<p>if your son is indeed hispanic and has good scores, there is absolutely no reason to apply DO. it’s one thing to “play it safe” and another to go completely overkill. one kid on SDN with very good numbers applied to 70 schools and ended up with 30 interviews…he spent $15k applying to med school…that is absolute overkill </p>

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<p>i think i brought this up either earlier in this thread or in another thread. but at the end of the day, to each his own. if it works for them, so be it. personally my parents were not involved in the process at all (not even financially) </p>

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<p>parent fight!! </p>

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<p>uh oh…here comes the name dropping! lol </p>

<p>some schools definitely have better premed advising than others</p>

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<p>I’m not questioning this… I was simply responding to the statement you made about parents being overly involved in the process. I’m not quite sure if you misunderstood my post, as you seemed to take it i thought that parental guidance trumped pre-med advising, which is NOT what i said.</p>

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<p>There have been several mentions of SDN. That place just seems overwhelming! It is almost like one is afraid to enter without “directions”! Does anyone have any recommendations of where to start and/or threads that were especially good or useful? Are there any threads that outline the unique attributes of different med schools that a student could use when deciding which schools to apply to?</p>

<p>Another newby questions - do you find “last year’s secondaries” by doing Internet searches or is there a good place to locate these?</p>

<p>Thanks again for all the assistance from those who have been through this process in the past and this year’s applicants (AND their folks). :)</p>

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<p>Gee. I already gave you permission to feel superior , DocT. No need to drop the H-bomb. lol.</p>

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<p>MP, SDN has them all on the 2008-9 secondary section. I’ll send you a link.</p>