<p>More NYC love today! :D</p>
<p>I have the feeling most schools are not too forthcoming with how they handle things. For example I only knew UCSF screened pre-secondary because I was rejected. I got invited to do a Vandy secondary and no where did they indicate that my application had actually been screened prior to it. Without a doubt though there are many techniques for how schools handle things and I agree with kal’s son: same difference/who cares. Other than what you put on the application and how you perform in the interview there’s nothing else you can do so just sit back and perform when it counts and don’t stress over the parts you can’t control.</p>
<p>*2013-2014 Applicants and their parents…
If you are interviewing at YSM and the interviewer uses the perfectly acceptable word “y’all”, just smile.
*</p>
<p>Is your D an interviewer?</p>
<p>Last week, D got her first II!! Just going to be able to get it in before classes start. She got secondaries from all the screened and consequently has 10! More to write and send in. I’m afraid to open the credit card statement this month.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D on the II!</p>
<p>The first one is always exciting</p>
<p>(I made my kids pay for their own app fees–primary and secondaries both. I know, I’m mean…)</p>
<p>If D were paying for her own app fees, she wouldn’t be applying. She has worked but part-time TA work doesn’t come close to paying the thousands and thousands we will be putting out for the application process. So far it’s about $1300 for the primary, $400 for suit, blouse, shoes, bag, 29 secondaries at between $80 and $130 each, and one airline ticket at $350. </p>
<p>No wonder most med school applicants come from the upper middle class or the wealthy, it costs a fortune just to apply!</p>
<p>TatinG,</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter! I feel your pain with the costs.</p>
<p>
IWBBB, they were very clear this year. Here is what they said to my son as part of the acknowledgement e-mail:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Subsequent to that he got the following e-mail:
</p>
<p>Guess they changed it (or it’s an MD vs. MSTP thing). Here is mine from 2009, which as you can see, is much less clear:</p>
<p>Dear Mr. XXX,</p>
<p>Thank you for your application for admission to the Medical Scientist Training Program at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. We are pleased that you are considering Vanderbilt University for your training and are very interested in pursuing your candidacy to our program. We invite you to complete the application process to the Vanderbilt MSTP. To complete this process, we ask that you submit a secondary application and three letters of recommendation that will address your qualifications for the dual-degree program. Your on-line secondary application should be submitted as FINAL, and letters of recommendation must be received by the Medical Scientist Training Program Office before the admissions committee will proceed with your application. You should send letters of recommendation to AMCAS Letter Service as soon as possible. Your submitted secondary application must be received by December 31st. However, we encourage you to complete the process by December 1st. The secondary application fee has been waived for MSTP candidates.</p>
<p>Re: Screening for Secondaries
D applied to three schools that screen. I sort of just presumed 2/3 sent out secondaries to pretty much everyone. After a bit of research, I discovered that one does send them out to most everyone. (BTW, D said this was her most challenging secondary. The final completed version was almost nine pages! It had numerous questions. She discovered this school has tons of people who submit primaries but a much smaller percentage that completes the secondary.) The other I thought did, actually only sends them out to about 30% of applicants. (She just completed this one about a week ago. It was her last secondary to submit. Glad this part is done.) The third one is considerably more selective about who they send a secondary to. My point is that the pre-screening selectivity varies considerably from school to school. </p>
<p>Curm…Should D interview at YSM, it looks like she’ll be in good company…she’ll be twanging “y’all” as well! :D</p>
<p>"If D were paying for her own app fees, she wouldn’t be applying. She has worked but part-time TA work doesn’t come close to paying the thousands and thousands we will be putting out for the application process. So far it’s about $1300 for the primary, $400 for suit, blouse, shoes, bag, 29 secondaries at between $80 and $130 each, and one airline ticket at $350. </p>
<p>No wonder most med school applicants come from the upper middle class or the wealthy, it costs a fortune just to apply! "</p>
<p>-My D. did not spent any close to these. It does not have to be that expansive. Many at D’s school come from the poor Asian families - over half of her Medical School class are Asian.
There are ways to apply to Med. School cheaply if the application cost is a major concern.</p>
<p>AIUI, you have to be very poor to get the fee waiver on the applications. And she wants to do this application cycle once, hence the many, many applications. I don’t think this spending is out of the ordinary. I’ve read many of the MDApplicants who tote up the costs and they do tend to run anywhere from $6,000 to $8,000 for the application process. </p>
<p>I feel for applicants who are from Hawaii or Alaska. The airfares would be ridiculous interviewing in the other 48 (which Alaska students would have to do).</p>
<p>^ I was not talking about fee waiver, I did not know they exist.</p>
<p>Certainly not unusual numbers, TatinG. As a matter of perspective, my kid blew through the $8k barrier like it was a speed bump. </p>
<p>And rocking the “y’all” at the interview is a good “diversity” angle. My kid wrote it in her “app” materials. ( I think it was in her Hail Mary letter. It drew comments, wherever it was. ;)).</p>
<p>I’m cracking up, Curm! D wrote similar essay (not diversity prompt – different one) where she talked about how she missed hearing “y’all” and “fixin’ to”. This school must have liked the essay because she has an interview there in September.</p>
<p>I don’t even want to know how much we’ve spent thus far :eek: !!!</p>
<p>All part of writing an app that only you can write.</p>
<p>^ this relates so much to the interview questions directed at all those CA applicants that D. stumbled on during her Med. School interviews, they went something like…“And how do you feel about driving in a snow?”…Also from D’s experience actually being in car with the CA driver, they kept asking her what to do while sliding and gliding. I told her that she better be driving herself.</p>
<p>Like offering to make Christmas posole for the class holiday party?</p>
<p>First interview invite!!!</p>
<p>Yay!!!</p>
<p>Many congratulations! May it be the first of many.</p>
<p>Congrats, Pinkstufzz!</p>