<p>2 interviews from tx schools is different than 2 interviews elsewhere. some of my classmates only applied to texas schools, barely got any interview invites, and are now attending med school. it’s a diff game in texas, and an avg mcat can get you a prematch</p>
<p>someone told me a story couple of years ago about this girl who went to Harvard and Yale (dont remember which order) for undergrad and med school, went through residency and with one year left decided medicine was not for her.</p>
<p>I have stopped pressuring my kids to think about medicine ever since. It is assumed Asian parents pushed her through to medicine.</p>
<p>
DS went to interviews at 2 tx schools. After he had been lucky to get into one in October, he stopped going to the interview at other IS schools even if he received an invite. For him, 2 IS schools are enough.
Is her family rich? If not, how can she pay back the loans?
Recently, one of our friends asked DS what he would do if it turns out he does not like medicine. His reply was that because he has already carried so much debt, changing the career path right now is no longer an option – and he started MS2 less than a month ago. (His idea of “carrying too much debt” may be different from some other’s.)</p>
<p>BTW, do any parents of med school students here start to pay down the loans (at least the interests portion)? We just create DS’s Sallie Mae online account and notice some interests for the unsubsidized Stafford loan for the second year starts to accrue. We are also confused by the fact that his Perkin’s loan does not show up in his online account.</p>
<p>^My parents aren’t paying down my debts per se, but instead are contributing some to me directly so that I can take out less in loans. I use that money to pay rent in chunks of like, 6 months at a time so I’m not tempted to spend it on something frivolous. By taking out a smaller principal, I have less interest accruing, and my (certified financial planner) pop thinks that gives us the biggest bang for our buck. Just a thought.</p>
<p>We actually can not afford to pay down that amount of debts. We are just toying with the idea of whether we could still be capable of helping pay the interests of unsubsidized Stafford loans in the first couple of years.</p>
<p>It is not easy for us to predict exactly how much we will be able to help financially in the next few years. But likely not much. Of course, we prefer to help as much as we can; but after having paid for everything during his UG, it is really not possible for us to pay everything now, as we did for his UG. I think he will understand.</p>
<p>I appears to me different med schools have different ways of arranging how the students/parents will pay for the COA. One school seems to ask the student to shoulder almost all of the financial burden (in loans), but others just ask the parents to shoulder more (i.e., more like how the college treats the parents’ income and assets as a drawable “piggy bank” :)) DS’s current school is more like the latter. not shy about asking for parents’ contribution while being more concerned about the total amount of the student’s accumulated debts at graduation, although not as extreme as a typical private college would treat the parents.</p>
<p>MCAT2…son did as kristen suggested for this year MS2 and took less in loans and will take even fewer 3rd and 4th year instead of paying the interest. He didn’t use as much as he thought he would first year and even less this second year.</p>
<p>He changed roommates (kept the same place) and in doing so asked for an increase in the rent from roommate while negotiating a lower rental rate on the lease with the management company…it wasn’t a large difference but made him happy. And the supplies/equipment he bought first year he did not need to purchase again this year. He has projected how much he needs for the following years and figured he could decrease the loans even more.</p>
<p>His tuition and its increases along with fees are covered from his scholarship so he is managing his living expenses. The school feeds them several times a week and between Sam’s and the local farmer’s market his food expenses are very small.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>mcat2,
My impression was that it is family choice who pays tuition and other expanses. Not sure why Med. School would care one way or another. Did I misunderstood your post 165?<br>
We never had any communication from her private Med. School that indicated preference in regard who is paying.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Some of my friends have gotten a lot more Texas interviews then I have so I am worried. Also, I don’t know how well I am at interviewing. I hope I am good at it, but there is no way for me to know lol. </p>
<p>The two schools in Texas that did interview me, UTMB and A&M, were amazing schools that I would be really happy going to. </p>
<p>SDN is driving me crazy watching others get interviews from schools in Texas lol, once a couple of weeks go by and other AMCAS schools have reviewed my application, SDN will drive me crazy again because I will be watching every1 get interviews lol.</p>
<p>Quit SDN, it drives everybody crazy, not just you! unless you shield yourself and able to sort things into facts and fictions and not let them under your skin, do not go there, damaging to psych!</p>
<p>Houston is very individual, maybe even peculiar. Show them the love. I have no explanation for SA. I would be on the phone to the Tech schools myself. Applying joint degree shouldn’t put you this far behind. If you have something to update, update. Texas is a different animal and the whole process is compressed. Be pro-active but not a pest.</p>
<p>I go with Curm. Push the schools to give you an interview in Texas. If you wait until November to attend one, the seats might already be allocated (happened to someone i know 3 years ago who started the process quite late and Southwest filled all seats by october and she interviewed in November). I know at least one candidate this cycle who received interviews at all schools already except for Baylor which I believe is not in Texas process.</p>
<p>Houston usually leaves some slots open for each round of interviews until they finish all rounds.</p>
<p>Agree with Miami. Ditch SDN, it doesn’t sound like it’s doing you any good. You will find much friendlier and still very accurate advice here, as you already have from bigreddawgie (a current med student from TX, but not at a TX school), curm (dad of current med student from TX, but not at a TX school), and texaspg (can’t remember!). I know there are some residents and attendings and med students and advisors on SDN, but really, the vast majority of posters are premeds who, quite honestly, don’t know what they’re talking about and are just feeding you hearsay from God-knows-what unreliable source.</p>
<p>My strategy was to use SDN very sparingly (2x/month?) to see what the schools were up to. Otherwise, you’ll just stress yourself out and provoke some anxiety attacks because of all the vitriolic nonsense that absolutely fills those threads.</p>
<p>I applied 2 years ago, and I’ve been a decently regular poster here since the beginning of my application cycle. I’m pretty sure I’ve read enough posts by these folks to believe they know what they’re talking about and will almost always provide advice in a polite and friendly way. I am extraordinarily confident in the advice you’ll get here, and believe you will be much happier and less stressed out–and still successful–if you delete your SDN account and focus more here. Welcome :)</p>
<p>riseagainst2009,
I noticed you posted: “Applied to a lot of schools ,35.” Unless your list of applied schools are not properly selected, I would think you have applied to enough number of schools. Considering the fact that you do not have serious defficiency in any area, and the average MCAT scores for textas applicants tends to be not very high, my educated guess is that you will get into at least one school in the end.</p>
<p>Many think U of Texas at Houston is an odd ball. It appears it requires the demonstration of “school love” from the applicant. I believe DS got the contact from them very late, likely on the day of prematch offer (around 11/15?). The “style” of UT-SA appears to be more typical. UT-SW is more about the stats, and it appears it works very hard to get the students it prefers to recruit (from BCM? LOL.)</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, What I talked about was: In the financial aid letter receieved at the beginning of the school year, some schools refrain from putting down too much money on the “parents contribution” item, but some other just goes ahead and put down a larger amount for “parents contribution.” One potential benefit to the school may be that the school could boast that the average debts of their students upon agaduation is lower. With the interests rate of 6.75% for federal direct loan these days, some families may choose to not take student loans (for example, rely on mortgage loans instead.)</p>
<p>I notice many med school applicants (DS was one two years ago and behaved the same at that time) tend to ignore the financial aspect of going to a med school during the application cycle. But once they got in and are lucky to have choices, this aspect becomes more important.</p>
<p>Yes, 6.75% is way too high and there are also fees as far as I remember. Equity is cheaper and we try to pay it off as we go. It helps to be able to withdraw from 401k without penalty, I am very light on that one, money will go down the drain anyway as they will be printing them at increased rate. Might as well use it while it has any value.</p>
<p>kristin - i am a parent of a kid starting college this year. I pay attention to the med forum because i have several friends’ kids who have gone through the process or going through now. hopefully my kid starts working on applications in 2015. </p>
<p>what i know about houston and dallas. Dallas does interviews early and admits most of the students from interviews in August, sept, and at the latest october. They keep interviewing in Nov, Dec, January but only to accept more when people start dropping out of their list.
OTOH, houston admits some people from each round of interviews. They keep some slots open until the end even if the interviews are in january. I heard they like to admit a diverse group of students and have students coming from all over the country, although they might be texas residents. So they have lots of kids who went to elite schools around the country, some of them non-resident.</p>
<p>Other than lucky TX residents, if an applicant is applying to 15-20 schools (a couple of reaches), the rest falls within the average range from prior year’s matriculants data, how many interviews/acceptances would be reasonably expected? </p>
<p>From hearsay… about 4-7 interviews and 1-3 acceptances. Fairly depressing …</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I did what you told me to do. I called up the Tech schools and UT-San Antonio to see what was going on. Texas Tech Lubbock told me that that my application was complete and that they interview students until December, that was it. They didn’t tell me anything specific about my file. Texas Tech El Paso’s Director of Admissions told me that I was “eligible” for an interview but that they can’t interview everyone who is “eligible” because they receive 2X as much students who are “eligible” than they can accommodate for an interview. I wasn’t told if I would be getting an interview in the future or not. Just that. UT-San Antonio told me that I was complete and that I can try sending an update letter but other than that there is nothing else that I can do. They didn’t tell me anything specific about my application either. :(</p>
<p>Some things that I decided to do this year that I have not mentioned on my original application. I decided to do the Honors program at my college and I will be graduating with highest honors. This activity requires writing a thesis, defending it, and then publishing it. Some of my research has been cleared by my institutions internal review board for submission to mid-impact medical journals. I am also undertaking more research projects. Is this “new” information worthy of an update letter? My update letter will also include information on why I am interested in that particular school. </p>
<p>What should I do? I know my mcat is not stellar but it was enough to make the first cut at Mayo, Medical College of Wisconsin, for which I am OOS, Wake Forest, and Wayne State, for which I am out of state, and interview at 2 texas schools on the first day. The rest of application is above average. Any advice? Should I send an update letter to all those texas schools, UT-San Antonio, Tech Tech Lubbock, and Texas Tech El Paso? Texas Tech El Paso said that I seem like a candidate who is eligible for an interview, but that they can’t interview every1 who is eligible AND they said that they don’t like update letters. UT-San Antonio said that an update letter is fine. Texas Tech Lubbock said that they don’t want an update letter either. </p>
<p>There aren’t any red flags on my application. I never got arrested, never was written up by my RA or another other school official, I don’t drink or smoke, I have never got anything below a B in a class, never even got had a W. </p>
<p>At the end of my premed committee interview, the committee told me “thank you for being you, because there are not a lot of twenty year olds like you”. So I know my recs and committee letter should be solid. </p>
<p>Any Advice? Do I have serious cause for concern at this moment? Starting to panic a little and I don’t know the best course of action at this moment.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My last year’s project in Texas got 2 interviews. Total. She’s in medical school. 
You are in better shape today than she was. So calm down. Admissions people don’t like panic and you are trying to impress them.</p></li>
<li><p>:eek: Please, please, tell me that you didn’t insist and demand and pester them about info on your “specific file”. </p></li>
<li><p>
Not exactly. What I said was
Did you find out whether or not the joint degree aspect of your file was potentially holding you back from a MD only invite? Did you ask whether or not your file would be considered MD only if you didn’t make the joint degee cut? Did you find out when that might be? Did you find out if you could switch your app to the MD only stack?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Edit: Don’t call them right back and ask!!! lol (Felt I had to say that.)</p>
<p>^ Thanks for the quick reply.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>lol no, I asked Texas Tech Lubbock, UT-San Antonio, about the status of my application. They told me I was complete. I then told them that I have been complete since 5/18 and if they thought an update letter will help. That was it. They didn’t mention my specific file like El Paso did, so I didn’t ask. </p>
<p>For Tech El Paso they told me that my application was complete and that I would be considered “eligible” for interview. So I decided to ask what percent of students that are “eligible” for admission actually receive an interview. They said it varies from year to year. I asked about an update letter and they said they don’t like one. That was it. lol. </p>
<p>lol, I didn’t ask about my specific file just yet lol, I will save that one if I get rejected everywhere this year and I have to reapply, so this way I know where my application was deficient. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I didn’t ask all of those questions for the combined degree programs, but for Tech EL Paso, MD/MPH, I asked if it made any difference and they said consider first for MD and then after I am accepted to that, then I can apply MPH. For Tech Lubbock, I know that combined degree program applicants have 3 interviews, 1 MBA, 2 MD, so I am assuming that they consider applicants for both degrees at the same time. I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Do you think that I should call back in a couple of days and ask some of those questions that you listed above? Also, when should I send in an update letter to schools like UT-San Antonio that don’t mind getting update letters? In other words, if I don’t hear back by say the beginning of October, do you think I should just send in a small, polite, update letter? Just to make sure, you don’t think I should try an update letter to any school just yet right? UT-Houston does not like getting any update letters pre-interview, they said so in my confirmation email, but they did mention in that they don’t mind update letters post-interview so I don’t know how i can show the school any love pre-interview. lol. I would be ecstatic if UT-Houston somehow accepted me! UTMB is another top choice for me as well. I liked A&M as well but its not in a big city. I know beggars can’t be choosers…sigh…lol…</p>
<p>Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Whew. lol You had me spooked. </p>
<p>Unlike what some folks like to think, the med school app process is far more nuanced, and is way more dependent on “soft factors” and “presentation” than folks realize. Your contacts with staff are important elements of the process. I always tell folks that “every contact is an interview”. Even if it isn’t, walk in faith that it is. 
</p>
<p>For your Texas schools that accept/consider such letters, I think a short, tight, well-worded combo letter “I presented my paper on _______ at __________ conference. Oh, btw I love you because _________.” I’d be looking at a school’s use of pre-match to determine the appropriate timing. UTSW fills most of it’s class pre-match. Houston doesn’t. </p>
<p>Another thing to consider, do you have an additional LOR that you didn’t submit? Can you “manufacture” an up-date? Present a poster of your research at an upcoming conference? </p>
<p>I guess my opinion goes like this…they have already reviewed you file. You did not make the “interview now” stack. Are you in the “interview later” stack? The “never interview” stack? The goal is to move stacks to a more positive stack. Sitting on your hands till after all the slots are given out just doesn’t seem to be a good plan to me.</p>