<p>Some schools will email the applicant a link to their secondaries. Some schools expect an application to log into their school-specific application file (not at AMCAS) and get the link to the secondary there. </p>
<p>Once AMCAS forwards your son’s file to specific schools–they’re basically done with their job until May 15.</p>
<p>So far all of D1s have come via email notification, but like WOWmom says, no absolutes.</p>
<p>SDN is a good source of information for things like this as there’s constant chatter about the current status of secondaries, interview invites, etc. You just have to be able to deal with CC on steroids ;).</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>lol…that’s why I find it easier to ask Q’s here. I want to avoid all the drama on SDN…</p>
<p>I am so excited for all your kiddos! This is when it can get crazy! Filling out all those secondaries and when the first interviews come in it is so wonderful and hectic. Best wishes to all those applying right now and I hope there are so many interviews yall are stacking them up like planes in a holding pattern!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Thanks for the support and encouragement Kat and everyone here, so far so good.</p>
<p>like the analogy of airplanes- D looking for one smooth landing then she can relax</p>
<p>And I expect all of you folks to hang out here NEXT year for moral support and hand-holding when D2 leaps into the fray. (So far I’m hearing all I’m getting from her is a lot of whining, irritability, “I can’t be bothered to look this up so you do it” and plenty of “You’re just my mom and therefore you don’t know anything.” All of which is not making me look forward to the next cycle…)</p>
<p>But to the parents enduring this cycle–I wish you patience, fortitude and much good fortune for your sons/daughters!</p>
<p>WOWMom: 1 down and 1 to go…</p>
<p>* “You’re just my mom and therefore you don’t know anything.” All of which is not making me look forward to the next cycle…)*</p>
<p>lol…remind her that you might not know where you put your debit card when that’s needed.</p>
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<p>I’m keeping my fingers crossed that D2, who has said that she wants to be a doctor since she was 10, ends up going the grad school route instead. Our relationship is just now recovering from the UG application process, med school would set us back years!</p>
<p>And grad school (in science anyway) is a heckuvalot cheaper than med school.</p>
<p>(Which is why I keep pointing out MD/PhD programs to D2. Who keep resisting the idea.)</p>
<p>how do you answer "why do you want to come to XYZ med school without sounding cliche?</p>
<p>I think each individual’s reasons are going to be different. While saying “I want to go here because it’s ranked X” is not going to impress anyone, an honest answer might. (“It’s close to home and affordable and I want to practice in my home state.”)</p>
<p>that works for schools close to your home state but for the others- mainly the Ivies, how do you not say because of the reputation etc.</p>
<p>You need to look at the the program, how it’s structured & what’s appealing about it, what opportunities that are offered there that are not available elsewhere and why they’re meaningful to applicant.</p>
<p>IOW, the writer will need to do some research about each school beyond the USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>In son’s opinion within the ivies the med schools differed to him. So he did not apply to all of them since he did not feel they would necessarily be a good fit for him. He had figured out ahead of time (through research, visiting during undergrad, research at some of the med schools during undergrad, contact with profs and current students) which ones he liked and of course why. </p>
<p>Made it easy when he had to answer the “why here?” Must of worked, he interviewed at all (ivies) but one he applied to.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>What my D realized in app process was that for some schools the “why us, specifically” essays were very, very difficult. Her interview invites suggested a correlation. lol</p>
<p>the truthful response is something like “look- i’m applying to a lot of schools just hoping to get an interview. my numbers are around the 60-95 percentile for just about all the schools on my primary application. yes- you’re school is highly ranked and i’m sure i’d get a great education, i get along with everyone, don’t have a cut throat attitude and i really want to be the best physician i can be …” not sure what my D will put down since she hasn’t visited any med schools, knows no one who goes to med school and believes that any type of curriculum would work-problem based, lectures, etc. after looking at websites they all seem quite similar- how do you prefer cornell over columbia or for that matter einstein, nyu, or your own state school- are they all that different other than perceived prestige? putting aside name recognition, how do you really know where you’d fit in?- statistics on admitted students don’t tell you a whole lot.</p>
<p>There’s something to be said for just applying broadly in order to get an interview. And pretty much every applicant I’ve ever talked to says that they’ll go anywhere that will accept them. I imagine your kiddo is like my friends.</p>
<p>The thing is, that’s not what med schools want to hear, even if it is the truth. So, what she needs to do is research their programs, their cities, their cultures, etc. In the end, if the only reason she’s applying to a school is because its numbers fit with her stats, then the likelihood of her enjoying her education there is probably pretty slim. “Enjoying med school! What psycho enjoys med school?” I’d argue that every student should enjoy their school. They should like the environment–academic, social, other. The teaching style should fit to the way they learn. Their peers should be like-minded, not necessarily in terms of future career but in terms of educational goals. </p>
<p>I think she should start by figuring out what her ideal med school would be like. How many people would be there? Would she spend most of her time in lectures? Group work? Have some free time? Plan to do research? Does she want early (first part of first year) clinical exposure? Thinking about a dual degree? Does she plan to volunteer at a student-run free clinic? What are her hobbies? </p>
<p>From there, she can do some research to figure out how her schools meet those criteria. If she’s the kind of kid who has always had a close group of 4-8 friends, she probably won’t like a program with 300–maybe more like 100. If she’s chomping at the bit to put her new skills to work in clinical settings, a program where she has to wait until 3rd year to see a person is probably not ideal. If she values having time to volunteer, work out, and relax, then a program where she’s in lectures 8-5 everyday would probably really suck. If she hates big cities, avoid urban areas.</p>
<p>Most people say “Well, yeah, that would be great, but I probably won’t have the luxury of deciding which school to go to because I’ll be lucky to get into any of them.” Or “Really, none of that stuff matters–I just want to get in!” But the thing is, you don’t have to be that desperate. You need to have some preferences and some criteria for choosing schools. </p>
<p>I went the former route–“Yeah, that stuff doesn’t matter, I’ll just go wherever I can get in, I’m a flexible kid and a good student, I’m sure any style will work for me.” I lucked into 4 fantastic interviews and found a school that was just perfect for me in a variety of ways. But what I learned at two of the others interviews is that I don’t like big cities, I don’t like cutthroat environments, I have no desire to participate in a mandatory research year, and a big program isn’t for me. Had I thought about it more and been more picky with the schools I applied to, I probably wouldn’t have needed to spend more than a thousand dollars and about a week of my time traveling to all of these places to figure that out. (Don’t get me wrong, they were great experiences, I just wish I had done my homework better!)</p>
<p>As far as where to start, I think a pretty easy starting place is on the student profiles that are almost always featured on med school websites. Can she see herself being friends with these people? Do they seem exciting and interesting and fun to get to know? Or do they seem dry or boring or intimidating? After all, these are the type of people she’d be surrounded by day in and day out, might as well like them, right?</p>
<p>Deb: </p>
<p>"the truthful response is something like “look- i’m applying to a lot of schools just hoping to get an interview. my numbers are around the 60-95 percentile for just about all the schools on my primary application. yes- you’re school is highly ranked and i’m sure i’d get a great education, i get along with everyone, don’t have a cut throat attitude and i really want to be the best physician i can be …” </p>
<p>Lol…exactly…but I guess they really don’t want the truth. ;)</p>
<p>Seriously, my son (and maybe your D) hasn’t visited each of the schools that were applied to. So, how does one put some real substance in when there’s too much unknown.</p>
<p>I’m glad my older son wasn’t asked those questions when he was applying to PhD programs…he hadn’t ever been on any of their campuses before acceptances came in.</p>
<p>Although my daughter researched each of her schools as well as one can, in the end I’m pretty sure she just wrote BS! 
Her main goal was to get II’s, and then they could grill her if they wanted to and see if she would fit at their school. While she had an idea of the type of school and program she would like, I also thought that the adcoms would have an easier time of deciding which students would fit their school rather than the other way around. DD starts school tomorrow, so hopefully she (and them) made the right choice.</p>