<p>D. applied on 1/7 to 7 schools. She got only 2 secondaries, the ones that were quaranteed. One (Chicago) is sending automatically to every applicant, another one is part of D’s program (she has the spot). Nothing else, even from public in-state, which D. feels she has a good chance at.<br>
What is “verified”? I am not following very closely, just trying to be informed. </p>
<p>In regard to location discussion, D. cares about being within 4.5 hours to drive from home and reasonably safe neighborhood. But it is only if she has a choice. When she was advised about several other schools, the first thing she checked was how far they are. She rejected all based on distance. I am not convincing her one way or another, she deserves to make her own decisions at this point. She worked very hard to get here.</p>
<p>Well, D <em>finally</em> completed her AMCAS yesterday and hit the send on her list of 11 schools. She is still waiting on one, maybe two LORs, but everything else is in. One of her schools has an “open” secondary (i.e. it’s posted on their 2011 admissions page)–I’m assuming she ought to go ahead and get started on that now.</p>
<p>She’s also applying to 6 clinical PhD programs in medical physics (5 top ranked US schools, plus the state U–which has a newly certified MS program–as a fall back position. She’s already ‘made friends’ with the med physics dept at the state U and was told they’d love to have her in the program. They’ll even fully support her with a RA [tuition, fees+ $22,000] if she does end up going there.)</p>
<p>She figures she’ll apply to both types of programs and let the fates sort out her future.</p>
<p>And if worse comes to worse–she just got her teaching license approval and is now certified to teach HS math, bio, chem, physics and health.</p>
Hence the ambivalence. With this and the med physics “thang” she has viable life options. If mine flunks outta med school she’s at Taco Bell pushing enchiburros.</p>
<p>I missed the earlier discussion about location. Husband is from St Louis. It is truly some of the worst summer weather imaginable – unbelievably humid. His parents were quite poor and I spent many a summer day in an unairconditioned stifling house trying not to complain while visiting the inlaws. I thought it was even worse than the worst of Washington DC days. His parents rule was that you could not go swimming unless it was at least 90 degrees but they had plenty of time to go swimming when he was growing up.</p>
<p>DS’ approach to location is that he’ll go anywhere that will take him. He’s doing a dual focus on OH and VA schools because my husband I plan to move in that direction hopefully within the next six months and our daughter is already doing undergraduate there. But geography isn’t playing a role. The main driving force is that his GF is also applying for the second time to med school. You’ve heard of the horrified parents who don’t want their debt free child marrying someone with college debt, well that’s us. So the way this plays out will determine more than med school I suspect.</p>
<p>You probably won’t get very many assignments or problem sets while in medical school.</p>
<p>My point still stands: you can have a life and attend medical school at the same time. I study a few hours each day and my test scores are around the 70th percentile at my medical school. I co-authored a review article during my M1 year with one of my professors. I completed a fellowship during my M2 year at the same time I attended medical school. I still had to time to enjoy the city with my gf each weekend. I studied for the USMLE for 6 weeks with just 1 review book and 1 question bank and scored 240+. Obviously, I’m not the absolute best student my school has to offer, but with test scores in the top 30% and a USMLE score above 240, I’m still in decent shape while managing to have fun. You will still have time to have EC’s and to enjoy your life. I agree with BDM that the quality of the program should trump location. But, it doesn’t mean location is entirely moot.</p>
<p>I once learned from somewhere that female students tend to be better at getting high GPAs but male students tend to be better at MCAT, at the undergraduate/premed level. (ditto for GPA vs SAT 1 at the high school level. I heard some organizations even consider to sue colleges or college board because of this gender difference. Some even said one reason why the SAT scoring is changed from 1600 to 2400 is to remedy this.)
If we are talking about GPA and USMLE test scores for medical school students, do we see the similar trend? I am just curious.</p>
<p>Of med school matriculants, gals have a higher non-science gpa than guys. Guys have a higher, albeit miniscule (0.02) gpa than gals. And, (not surprisingly, given the grades?), guys do better on the PS & BS portions of the mcat. The VR is a wash.</p>
<p>And the changing of the SAT had nothing to do with gender differences in scoring. It was the Univ of California that pushed for the change which, as it turns out, is/was not significant. UC used to require the old Writing subject test (or whatever it was called back then), so it just got incorporated into the SAT 1.</p>
<p>2 more schools on D’s list according to her, are sending secondaries to everybody, but they do not have them yet. I wonder is somebody else is in the same situation. D’s primary has not been verified yet (3 weeks), but after that, she is up to waiting only for 3 non-automatic secondaries.</p>
<p>I haven’t been verified yet nor have I received any secondaries. I’m not sure which, if any, of my schools send secondaries to everybody (or if their secondaries are just available online, and no special information is needed to access them). So far I’ve applied to University of Missouri, Georgetown, Duke, Northwestern, SLU, Loyola, and University of Iowa. Don’t know if this helps but I know where you’re coming from! It’s a little frustrating but I figure…I’m busy with plenty of other stuff right now, so I’ll work on secondaries when they come in. </p>
<p>MiamiDAP, I know the OH schools are very behind this year in sending secondaries. S just received an email today from one of them saying they haven’t finished writing their secondary (speaking of procrastination).</p>
<p>Northwestern began sending the first group of secondaries yesterday and Duke started a couple of days ago, however Duke’s site was nonfunctional until earlier today, because of a glitch they experienced while downloading over 1500 applications from AMCAS. Georgetown started early july. Loyola also started sending the secondary recently (the only one that so far I have had to print and mail - a pain). California schools appear to be sending secondaries to in state applicants primarily and are holding off for now the OOS.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Miami and Florida sent emails verifying residency status and indicating that they do screen - in other words, wait to get invited. The Boston schools have not sent secondaries yet, except BU.</p>
<p>Thanks to kristin, and sharonohio (very helpful to know that OH is behind, D. heard that OSU is sending to everybody in OH, do not know how true is this). Kristin, NW is also on my D’s list, no other matches to your list. Thank you to MyOpinion for info about NW secondaries. Well, lets keep each other informed. D’s packet with LORs is sent by her pre-med commitee, her primary is still not verified though, over 3 weeks.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP I don’t know if OSU is sending to everyone but my son did get a secondary. From my understand of the process at OSU, they are very generous with the secondaries and very stingy with the interviews. A very high percentage of applicants (>60% if my notes are correct) who are interviewed are accepted.</p>
<p>I’ve been tracking the OH school secondaries so here’s the complete rundown:</p>
<p>OSU - one of the first secondaries out and the cream of the crop who returned the secondaries have received calls from the dean inviting for interviews (needless to say mine was not amongst those - no surprise there) This cream includes in and out of state.
Wright State - no secondary yet
U of Toledo - no secondary; supposedly coming in August
Northeastern - some secondaries out but doesn’t appear to be a very large group
Case Western - just came out this week.<br>
U of Cinci - out and apparently the worlds easiest to turn around</p>
<p>And yes, its very nice to have 6 medical schools in the state.
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, your daughter should be verified very soon! It is roughly at 3 weeks now. I also found out that Northwestern is sending their secondaries in batches, just as they download the AMCAS applications. Unfortunately, even after sending the secondary we won’t hear anything from the school until we are “complete”- meaning they got the LORs or Committee Letter. Your daughter and I are in the same boat! I am still waiting for my Committee Letter to be sent. My school just started sending them this week! :(</p>
<p>^^Not at all. Applying june and early july to AMCAS is …early. You just don’t want to wait until september.It is also important to have the LORs requested in the spring, so that your application is complete in the summer as well. One can submit AMCAS june 1st, but if the schools do not get the rest of the file (LORs and MCAT) until september or october, then that early submission really did not make a difference.</p>