<p>I was able to avail myself of Curm's comprehensive knowledge relative to small great undergraduate schools with large scholarships. As a result my daughter has just completed her freshman year at U of Richmond on full scholarship. I knew at the time that my son wanted to pursue the same career as his daughter so I'm back.</p>
<p>My son, 2009 graduate from Case Western Reserve applied to med school two years ago without success so we're back in the pile again for this year. Would love to share experiences similar to the 2009-2010 thread as our kids go through this process.</p>
<p>My son retook MCAT and bumped his score to 32. He also had a rough Junior year which made his overall GPA not look good during his last application season. With complete senior year grades, his overall GPA has moved back to over 3.6 so we're hoping he has a decent shot at it. He's currently working on his application. For the past year he has been doing paid research in a lab at the university medical center.</p>
<p>Anyone else interested in checking in and keeping this parent from gritting her teeth too much would be greatly welcome.</p>
<p>Right now follow up on LORs from profs, before they leave for the summer!! Have them sent to Interfolio so you can forward them whenever you want.</p>
<p>Apply the first possible date (June 3rd or 4th?) to AAMCAS
Apply the first date also to TX which would be about NOW</p>
<p>Sharon, my DD’s app definitely benefited from her senior year GPA and the relationship she developed with her profs and subsequent LORs.</p>
<p>My D just finished junior year, and just got her MCAT scores. She has a 32R. This year, she got a 3.98 and a 3.96 but overall has about a 3.75 and slightly lower SGPA due to chem freshman year. She has all the usuals: major in Bio, minors in art and italian; captain of her schools equestrian team; Honors council Board of Directors 3 years; study abroad in Italy, yada yada. Shadowed for about 25 hours and will do more this summer, volunteered weekly for a year and willcontinue, had a Howard Hughes research fellowship for the last two sems and continues that this summer; prior two summers did research at a local university’s prestigious med research facility. I think she’ll have really good LOR’s as she is good at making connections with profs.</p>
<p>Here’s the deal. SHe really wants an MD/PhD, in infectious disease/virology. She has good but not great scores and good but not great gpa. Does she have a shot? And if she applies MSTP, does she put herself at a disavantage for those schools’ possible subsequent MD program submissions as it will be late? Should she take GRE’s in case she needs to go PhD alone?</p>
<p>And it was after reading the whole thing that I decided it would be worth it to start a new one. (I was also exhausted).</p>
<p>As for receiving support from Case: They don’t really have much of a premed program but DS has a good relationship with his old profs and sees them regularly so the LOR’s are doing OK (we think). No committee endorsement though. He may be able to get something from the premed advisor since she knows him in another capacity but I wouldn’t count on it.</p>
<p>His big focus has been on trying to get his research published.</p>
<p>kschmidt, I think your daughter can hold off on the decision relative to GRE’s and grad schools. I think there is still plenty of time for both as a plan B. I’d check the GRE dates just in case but I think she can take up thru December or so. You should have a better idea on the med school applications by that time.</p>
<p>I am not very sure if I would be qualified as a parent of a 2010-2011 MS applicant as of today. This is because DS still has some missing pieces in his application and he may end up not applying this cycle at all. If it turns out he applies this year (I am fully aware that it is not good to be late and it may already be late for him since he is not ready today), we know that he has good enough overall GPA and sGPA, which are very likely close to curm’s D’s (for TMDSAS GPA at least). But his ECs would definitely not be so astonishing. If he does apply in the end (either this cycle or next cycle), he will mostly be interested in applying to in-state public medical schools.</p>
<p>I am very thankful to the 2009-2010 applicants, their parents and many current MS students who kindly share their first-hand experiences with us, almost in real time.</p>
<p>MCAT- any reason not to just slog through and get the TX app on the system? pay for one school and get them to do the verifying?</p>
<p>My DD did AAMCAS first and then TX because she needed wait for her final term grades before sending the transcript, so it was mid to late June. She was a bit surprised how similar and yet different the two systems were- all the same stuff, but slightly different questions and a very different data entry format, plus the need to edit both the PS and short answers. It took longer than we thought to finish TX and we really felt like she blew that one.</p>
<p>My D1 will be taking her MCAT this Saturday. She will be a non-trad applicant. She’s 24 and has degrees in physics and math with minors in bio and chem, some grad coursework in physics and has worked in a high energy physics lab where she’s co-author on 2 papers. She has her EMT-I and has 200+ hours of clinical patient contact. GPA in the 3.5 range; science GPA about the same. </p>
<p>D1 was accepted into a top 15 Biosciences graduate program 2 years ago (in Biophysics–she was going to do quantum modeling of cognitive processes), but turned it down and instead decided she wanted try for medical school.</p>
<p>The advising at our state flagship is lousy (and D1 hasn’t really taken advantage of it). </p>
<p>So crossing fingers that things go well on Saturday–right now D1’s sick as dog.</p>
<p>This year will be very educational for me–in soooo many ways. </p>
<p>(And a bit of a rehearsal for D2 who is rising college junior and will also probably be applying to medical school in 2 years. I cannot imagine having TWO in med school at the same time–and how I’m supposed to pay for it.)</p>
<p>somemom, One missing piece for DS is the MCAT score. I thought he needs that score before he can start his application process on the TX system. He has had all grades for his final GPA though. I think he may start on the TX system first, because he cares more about TX schools. Boy…last time I had a chance to talk to him about this, he seems to have been quite sick of the application process already. His premed advisor asked him to get the fourth LOR because the LOR from his PI does not count as a LOR from two of his science professors who taught him, even though PI did give him a grade. I wonder whether he will be in one piece after all things are done.</p>
<p>I have seen people advised on AAMCAS to go ahead and submit with their score pending, usually they are advised to just do one school so that AAMCAS can get the forms in line for transcript verification. Then when the score comes in they can add the schools that are a fit for their profile.</p>
<p>Does TX not allow you to get in line for verification? It seems to me that TX took longer than we thought to verify and we were also slowed down because you had to mail a physical check not pay by CC so there was a great deal of hurry up & wait.</p>
<p>He expressed zero interest in applying to TX schools. There seems to be an incredible amount of misinformation (and he’s already been through this once). Hopefully DH and I can help him crunch data to understand what he needs to do. Obviously he needs to take the actions but he seems somewhat lost.</p>
<p>I thought I understood from last year’s thread that the odds for someone from Midwest or East for schools in PNW were about zero. Can anyone confirm that?</p>
<p>I would say don’t bother with UW unless you are WWAMI, same with NV, NM & UT; OR & AZ are open to OOS in limited numbers. DD got interviews at AZ, but withdrew after her UW admissions, no interview to OR.</p>
<p>Mike -
What about OOS public schools such as Iowa, Oregon, Vermont, and Virgnia? All of these seem to have higher than average percentages of OOS students.</p>
<p>Not really a good chance for MSTP with a 3.75/32. Only the top 35 or so med schools even have MSTP programs. So, it’s not like you can do MSTP at a lower ranked school to compensate for the lower scores. She’ll have a good shot at a MD-only program or at a phD program depending on what she wants to do.</p>
<p>You know, I’ve never studied those schools in particular, but in general I just can’t justify an application where the odds are so heavily stacked against you. Even a “high” OOS amount is what, 15-20%? You’re still fighting such a rough uphill battle.</p>
<p>Remember, it isn’t just application money you’re risking: it’s time to do secondaries. Every OOS public that you’re applying to is a wasted shot at a more balanced private.</p>
I learned a lot from last year’s thread. </p>