2010-2011 Med school applicants and their parents

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>lollybo, I am having an oldtimer’s moment. I can’t remember how my D accomplished this. I know it required extra work from her HPA (and that he had never done it that way before). </p>

<p>When she gets back home in 2 weeks, I’ll ask. I remember that she researched heavily to determine which schools would be receptive to greater than 3, and which schools would pitch a “hizzy”. Whatever the “max” was that someone had sent and been accepted, she always sent that # as she was blessed with what she believed to be excellent rec’s. </p>

<p>There are also schools that do NOT want LOR’s until sometime in the future. It’s far from standardized. </p>

<p>I have always wondered whether her literally instantaneous rejection to Chicago was because of not following the LOR rules. (I’d check that one out. Twice. )</p>

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<p>Curm,
Wow, even with her score she got rejected from Chicago? Will keep this in mind. Do you mind sharing her list w/o mentionning acceptance?</p>

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<p>Chicago has very high stats. Not just rejected…shot down immediately. I still think she did something very wrong to be so unceremoniously dumped. </p>

<p>I don’t mind sharing the list with the results. I’ll pm you later.</p>

84

<p>My school writes a Committee Letter, and then includes the three LORs in the packet. Interestingly, we are asked to specifically follow the requirements of the Health Careers Office: one science letter, one non-science letter and and a letter from “whoever” (this could be a science, non-science or an outside letter). We are told that medical schools prefer a Committee Letter over any of the individual letters, because the former is more comprehensive. </p>

<p>So I am guessing, that requirement of 2 science and 1 non science letter that some people mention is not such, at least if there is a Committee Letter included. BTW, I have checked this with our office way too many times.</p>

85

<p>D1 is not applying this cycle, she’ll be taking at least a year off and maybe two. I was wondering, are there any Med schools that require more than 2 science LORs? Just asking because she finally got those two taken care of after much prodding. She’s a non-science major and despite good grades in classes, didn’t feel strongly connected with the instructors in her science courses and so didn’t feel particularly confident in asking. Mainly, I don’t want her to leave UG without getting whatever she might potentially need for applying in her file.</p>

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<p>Yes, the committee letter will let you bypass any med schools’ individual requirements (except for UCSF’s I believe and Harvard’s “research letter from every PI you’ve ever had” requirement). It’s one of the advantages of attending a school that writes a committee letter. Cornell only required 2-3 letters of your choosing and its committee letter was good enough for every med school I applied to.</p>

<p>For those without a committee, 2 science + 1 non-science should be able to satisfy the requirement of any school in the country.</p>

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<p>DS is a science major and didn’t feel particularly confident in asking letters from his science professors either.</p>

<p>One surprise DS found out is that the professor who supervised his senior project for a year does not count. This is because he is his PI. A letter should be from a professor who taught him in a regular science class. The premed advisor at UCS probably assumes that the PI rarely knows the student well enough to write a letter – This is true in most cases (esp. when the lab is a large one), as it is often the postdoc (whom the student is assigned to work with) would know the student.</p>

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<p>curm, could you share the list with us also? Thanks!</p>

<p>entomom, By any chance, does your D know that the professor who taught the cell bio is “nice” enough to be willing to write a letter for his student?</p>

<p>DS vaguely remembers that one of the science professors (who teaches a popular science class) openly told the class that he would write a letter for any student who receives an “A” from his class (Without this policy in place, he would have to write too many letters each year.) But DS could not remember which professor said this. But he thinks it is either the cell bio professor or the orgo professor. I am prodding him to ask at least one professor from his department (mcdb) but he is not too enthusiastic about this idea. (Give me a break! to be graduated with distinction from this department but still could not get any letter from any professor there?! It does not make any sense to me. Granted, it is not that difficult to be graduated with this kind of departmental honor.)
Thanks!</p>

89

<p>D applied to the following TMDSAS schools:</p>

<p>UT-Houston- Interviewed, No Pre-match, Withdrew After UTSW acceptance
UT-SW- Interviewed, Pre-Match Acceptance , Withdrew (made final 2)
UT-SA- Interviewed, Pre-Match Acceptance , Withdrew
UT-MB- Interviewed, Pre-Match Acceptance , Withdrew
Texas A&M- Interviewed, Pre-Match Acceptance , Withdrew</p>

<p>And the following AMCAS schools:</p>

<p>UCSF- Rejected
Chicago- Rejected
Stanford-Rejected
Northwestern-Rejected
Harvard-Rejected</p>

<p>Cleveland Clinic-Interviewed and Rejected
Mayo- Interviewed and Rejected</p>

<p>U of Pittsburgh- Interviewed, Wait-listed, Withdrew
Case- Interviewed, Wait-listed, Withdrew</p>

<p>Tulane- Interview offered- Withdrew after UTSW acceptance</p>

<p>USC- Withdrew after UTSW acceptance
Emory- Withdrew after UTSW acceptance</p>

<p>UVa- Accepted (made final 5)
Dartmouth - Accepted (made final 5)
Baylor- Accepted (made final 3)
Yale- Accepted, Attending (We have a winner.)</p>

<p>Seems like I’m forgetting somebody, but for the life of me, I can’t remember who it is.</p>

<p>Remember, folks. If she was someplace other than Texas, her list would have looked quite a bit different. She’d have had more mid-tiers and less reaches. Since she was comfortable she’d get in somewhere in Texas, she was free to shoot for the moon.</p>

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<p>Oh, I know!! Duke.</p>

<p>Duke- Withdrew after looking at secondary again. ;)</p>

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<p>curm, Thanks a lot.</p>

<p>According to what you posted, it appears that:
the top one: Yale.
the next two: UTSW and Baylor.
the next two: UVa and Dartmouth.
the next few: others like UTSA, UTMB and A&M.</p>

<p>Huge congrat. to your D!</p>

<p>BTW, I think UT-Houston should be a non-pre-match acceptance to your D if she did not withdraw. This is because it is rumored that, compared to other UT schools, UT-Houston more heavily depends on match to admit its class. If this is true, she was essentially admitted to all IS schools she applied to.</p>

92

<p>UT-H appears very aware of “yield” statistics. They are an excellent school with great facilities in the heart of one of the world’s finest medical centers. They want to move up the rankings ladder and they rely much more heavily on the match, whereas UT-SW selects almost all of their class pre-match. If you apply to UT-H, and they are your numero uno…convince them of that.</p>

93

<p>Somehow I have the impression that either UT-H or UTSW “stole” some research funding from Baylor one or two years ago. I believe it might be UT-H. Is it about which medical school should get the funding from the Cancer Center? (Maybe I should not use such a word “stole” here because the accounting is purely on paper only and no money is actually stolen.)</p>

94

<p>ncg, thanks for the reassurance on the # or LORs, glad that that part is taken care of. </p>

<p>mcat2, it’s reassuring to hear that D1 isn’t the only one concerned about their science LORs. She went with Physics from this year, and the other was either Molecular Bio or BioChem, I can’t remember which; I know that it wasn’t Orgo and she didn’t take Cell Bio. I haven’t heard her mention a prof that sounds like the one your DS remembers. I agree, being PBK in such a demanding major is outstanding and I can’t believe that there aren’t several instructors who would be more than willing to write a LOR for him.</p>

<p>Thanks for providing the credit conversion for the TX schools, unfortunately it made me realize that D1 won’t be applying to any of them since she will only have 1 year of bio coursework. Oh well, it helps to cut down the future list I guess.</p>

<p>Best of luck to everyone during this cycle! I will have to live vicariously through you all but hopefully when the time comes I’ll have learned a few things so that we can at least avoid some of the larger potholes and bumps in the road.</p>

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<p>This is because some medical schools specifically ask for “instructor” as opposed to “professor” recommendation letters. In general, letters from people who’ve taught you in a class are preferable to LOR’s from PI’s, volunteer directors, etc.</p>

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<p>hahaha I hope you guys stick around when its my turn to apply, I am really confused by half of this thread…</p>

<p>Curm I am curious, what were the reasons your D had baylor > UT-SW (both are AMAZING schools)? I am asking because I am interested in applying to both schools.</p>

97

<p>entomom, Thanks for sharing your experiences with me. Regarding TX schools, I heard that IS applicants are highly favored so your D may not lose much by not applying there. But somemom’s D had no problem in getting invites from TX schools in the past cycle. So who knows!</p>

<p>ncg: Thanks for clarifying the difference between a professor and an instructor for me.</p>

98

<p>Colleges, Baylor was once ahead of UTSW in her mind. By the end of the process, they had fallen behind and then FA was the nail in their coffin. Baylor doesn’t have a second look weekend. That hurt them, too. Excellent school and she would have been proud to attend, but UTSW would have been her clear choice without the Yale acceptance.</p>

<p>As for specific reasons, I’d have to ask her. I’d bet $ had something to do with it. And the social nature of the kids.</p>

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It was M.D. Anderson $.</p>

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<p>Is one group more “stuck-up” than the other? From current Baylor Med Students that I have spoken with, they described their fellow students as pretentious ******bags.</p>