2012-2013 Med school applicants and their parents

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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Hmm…Somehow I do not think DS completed significantly more than that number. Because he was thousands of miles away from us, we did not know exactly how many he had completed. Also, we stopped nagging after he had received his first acceptance in the middle of October. (I vaguely remember many of his in-state ones do not require a secondary. So he had a huge break there. As regarding to the “demanding” one like Duke, “no thanks” was his choice. Heck, he probably did not spend much efforts on his primary or PS that was common to all schools, let alone his secondary to each school. He would study hard, but he is really reluctant to “package” himself well to sell himself. This is the way he has always been. If the end result is less stellar, “so be it” is likely his reaction and I do not think he would care that much – as long as he gets into at least one, he’s contented.)</p>

<p>What the offspring is willing to do is not always the same as his/her parents are. Parents need to know that their “power” over their loved one’s will is likely ended shortly after his/her elementary school, or at the end of the middle school the latest. Otherwise, it would most likely backfire.</p>

<p>mimk6, Congrats to your S.</p>

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<p>I’d a still shot him. ;)</p>

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<p>Gotta admit, D did 32-34, if she had done 6 I would have been in prison.</p>

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<p>*Hmm…Somehow I do not think DS completed significantly more than that number. Because he was thousands of miles away from us, we did not know exactly how many he had completed. Also, we stopped nagging after he had received his first acceptance in the middle of October. (I vaguely remember many of his in-state ones do not require a secondary. So he had a huge break there. As regarding to the “demanding” one like Duke, “no thanks” was his choice. Heck, he probably did not spend much efforts on his primary or PS that was common to all schools, let alone his secondary to each school. He would study hard, but he is really reluctant to “package” himself well to sell himself. This is the way he has always been. If the end result is less stellar, “so be it” is likely his reaction and I do not think he would care that much – as long as he gets into at least one, he’s contented.)</p>

<p>What the offspring is willing to do is not always the same as his/her parents are. Parents need to know that their “power” over their loved one’s will is likely ended shortly after his/her elementary school, or at the end of the middle school the latest. Otherwise, it would most likely backfire.*</p>

<p>Yes, the Texas SOMs and I think Mayo doesn’t require secondaries. </p>

<p>All the schools DS applied to req’d secondaries. It’s just that his school req’t of that crazy summer Chem E class took a lot more time than expected. It’s listed as being M-F 8-5, but really is M-F 8am-10pm plus weekends. So, that delayed AMCAS submittal, which then delayed verification, which then delayed secondaries. So, by the time that secondary requests were coming in, Fall semester had started and senior ChemE projects were in full gear. </p>

<p>So, he “did the math” and realized that he was likely a shoe-in for at least one of the instate SOMs, and that he probably wouldn’t be successful at any of the NE schools he applied to, so he blew off those and a few others. Of course he didn’t share his decision with me. I figured it out when I wasn’t seeing expected debits on my debit card. </p>

<p>I think that if he had taken a MCAT prep class or had studied for his MCAT (another area where he didn’t listen to mom :/), he would have scored a few points higher and then his perspective would have been different in regards to the NE schools. </p>

<p>As parents, we can only advise and hope. lol Sometimes they listen and sometimes they just roll their eyes and think, “there goes Mom (or Dad).”</p>

<p>That said, S does now lament that he didn’t study for his MCAT. Hopefully, he’ll take that lesson-learned and apply it to those future exams. (I can only hope.)</p>

<p>Oh well, he’s got acceptances and that’s really all we ever prayed for, so it’s all good. :)</p>

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This is a lesson for those premeds who are in the traditional engineering major. It is not that you can not do both the traditional engineering major and the premed. You need to know what you get into and know the pros and cons beforehand.</p>

<p>In an article on DS’s school newspaper, it was mentioned that their chem eng majors have the fewest electives (that they are free to choose from) among all majors (like 4 electives only?) after all the required core education courses and the major’s mandatory courses are taken into considerations!</p>

<p>GA212MOM, if I had made DS apply (and complete) 32-34, he would shoot me :slight_smile: At least I did better than the parents of an applicant who applied to Texas schools only (an example mentioned by Hubbard’s Dad at one time.) At least I made him apply to AMCAS schools by a “threatening” technique: “You might fall through the crack if you only applied to TMDSAS schools only.” But another “scary” move was that he chose not to go to one of the interviews (not because of time conflict) before he even had an acceptance in hand!</p>

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<p>“What the offspring is willing to do is not always the same as his/her parents are.”</p>

<p>My kid’s response to not going with the combined BS/MD admission - you would expect me to apply to other med schools anyway when junior year rolled around.</p>

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<p>Texas schools don’t all require secondaries, but if I recall, there were additional questions on the application that were like other schools secondaries. For DD, an “oh no” moment as she had to think through and answer those questions after having whittled down her AMCAS PS.</p>

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<p>Just shoot me now…</p>

<p>D2 sent me her preliminary list of schools to help her narrow it down. I think I crossed 2 off. (Neither took OOS students except in special circumstance which didn’t apply to her.) Realistically, I think she’s trying to get it down to 20 or so.</p>

<p>So question for folks who have “been there”. D2 is more interested in strong research schools and she’s got the research chops. How many reach-y schools out of 20 would be reasonable number to apply to?</p>

<p>I told her 5-6 in the Top 20; the rest in the Top 50? (Plus instate, her current location and her undergrad institution) Sound about right?</p>

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<p>That seems like a good plan to me.</p>

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<p>Son applied to 24 schools, no Texas schools. He used his “extra” scholarship money and his summer job that he had saved from first undergrad to pay for the secondaries and the AMCAS primary. I only know because he could only send them in as he received his check each week that summer.</p>

<p>He made sure to have his AMCAS in on the second day and every secondary was in by the first week and in a pinch the second week. Duke’s was a pain but he just felt it was par for the course. Once he was in at Carolina he withdrew from Duke since he knew the money couldn’t compare, both tuition-wise (in-state) and scholie money. He had to make sure he had enough to get to the interviews and a place to stay. He covered the place to stay by bunking with alum from his undergrad and saving on airfare by combining his interviews.</p>

<p>Some of the schools did reimburse him for the flights and per diem. And on 2 occasions he let himself be bumped to collect two seperate reward vouchers, Delta and United. That in itself covered 6 interviews.</p>

<p>He knew there would be no money for a second application cycle so he wanted to make sure he maximized his chances. He was in at all his top choices and the final decision came down to the money within those top choices. Son had graduated from his first undergrad and the following week began classes at his second undergrad. Completed 28 units that summer (biochem and micro major) with his med school apps while working for a rural physician to pay for all the app fees.</p>

<p>He knew this was his only real chance to apply and make it a financially sound decision for him since he is the one monetarily responsible for his entire education (undergrad and med school). He just couldn’t justify to himself or his family taking on a large amount of loans, not when there might be a chance he would not have to do so.</p>

<p>As far as how many research “reachy” schools should she apply to? Son would say all the ones she might want to attend. Leave no stone unturned. I think GAmom’s daughter had a similar approach as my son and both achieved the results they wanted and in their cases, needed.</p>

<p>Kat
Congrats again to all the recent good news!!! It’s almost over, now it’s just the $$$$$!!!</p>

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<p>This is a lesson for those premeds who are in the traditional engineering major. It is not that you can not do both the traditional engineering major and the premed. You need to know what you get into and know the pros and cons beforehand.</p>

<p>I agree. The school has (finally) decided to change their req’t and include a similar/less-demanding class offered in the fall semester.</p>

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<p>I would tend to agree with this, we found med school decisions much more unpredictable than UG. </p>

<p>D1 had two ‘must apply’ schools that were first on her list due to their missions, programs, etc. being spot on with her goals and experience. She had two others that she wanted to apply to because of location, but which were in a state known to be highly competitive and which are big on research, which is probably the weakest part of her application. Based on everything I’d read I advised her not to apply to the latter two, of course she did anyway. All 4 of these schools are similar in ranking and selectivity. She ended up with a no IIs to the first two and an acceptance and WL to the second two. Go figure.</p>

<p>Of course this is a tiny sample, but just an example that surprises abound!</p>

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Really? I found the opposite, actually. Because the SAT just isn’t calibrated high enough to be useful to Ivy Leagues, I found that the MCAT made med school admissions less unpredictable than undergraduate.</p>

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<p>I tend to agree. D also had a pre-med advisor that seemed to really understand the system and knew the schools that would appreciate D’s CV beyond the numbers. She was darn lucky in that.</p>

<p>Short of helping to organize travel and to do the old mom nag (“Are you on track? Have you sent everything in?”), I stayed out of it and am glad I didn’t realize at the time that twelve apps was a low number.</p>

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<p>predictability is all depend on the applicant’s stats (and other application things) vs list of schools and a goal for the estimated success rate. If one is aiming at 100%, then the outcome is much more predictable than if applicant is aiming at 25%. We knew for sure that D. would be accepted at ALL of the UGs that she was applying. That was not even questioned for s second. The questions were in regard to her acceptance to combined bs/md at these UGs and the amount of Merit awards. The first was unpredictable (but ended up at 50% success rate), the last was very close to the predicted based on research.
In case of Med. School, the goal was about 50% and the result was 50% (4 out of 8).</p>

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<p>Hello, I was recently admitted to a medical school and I was wondering if you guys know of any external scholarships that an entering medical student can apply to?</p>

<p>I’ve looked and they seem to be few and far between.</p>

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<p>Congrats and welcome! </p>

<p>Sorry, but other than those offered by schools, I don’t know of any scholarships for med students, wish I did!</p>

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<p>[Physicians</a> of Tomorrow Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/ama-foundation/our-programs/medical-education/physicians-tomorrow-scholarships.page?]Physicians”>http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/ama-foundation/our-programs/medical-education/physicians-tomorrow-scholarships.page?)</p>

<p>This one is for MS3s.</p>

<p>[Minority</a> Scholars Award](<a href=“http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/ama-foundation/our-programs/medical-education/minority-scholars-award.page?]Minority”>http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/ama-foundation/our-programs/medical-education/minority-scholars-award.page?)</p>

<p>For MS1s and MS2, minority students.</p>

<p>Others are listed to the left of the page. From AMA.</p>

<p><a href=“http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/[/url]”>http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>They have scholarships, loan repayment.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>NATIONAL MEDICAL FELLOWSHIPS
[Home</a> - National Medical Fellowships, Inc.](<a href=“http://www.nmfonline.org/]Home”>http://www.nmfonline.org/)</p>

<p>MS2 and MS3</p>

<p>not sure but several are posted, might be for an MS1 as well.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

<p>And depending on your state, as in NC there is one offered to NC residents for full tuition+fees+$5000 per year. This one however cannot be stacked with the scholarships offered to the students FROM the respective school. So if you take the NC state scholie you cannot take the money from the school. If you take the school’s offer the NC state offer is retracted.</p>

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<p>Son rec’d his 3rd acceptance on Monday. He finally told me today. :/</p>

<p>This is the acceptance that I expected that he would get.</p>