<p>Yep, nothing to beat 16k per year in state tuitions and some of those endowments.</p>
<p>Thanks, y’all! We feel very blessed. She still hasn’t decided where she’ll attend; however, it’s certainly nice to have options.</p>
<p>Congratulations to jc40’s blessed daughter. Great news! </p>
<p>kal123 - 17% is a lot! Glad your son may be one of the 88.</p>
<p>Congrats to kal’s son and jc40’s D— great news for everyone!</p>
<p>Adding in my congrats to kal’s S and jc40’s D! That’s terrific news! The CC contingent is doing quite nicely this cycle.</p>
<p>All those advice columns for pre-meds should add “Move to Texas” to their “How to get to Med School” articles. :)</p>
<p>D and kals son could be attending the same medical school next year. </p>
<p>Congrats to all accepted and their parents. And it’s still not over. Could be more good news to come.</p>
<p>Congrats to TatinG’s D and jc40’s D.</p>
<p>DS was applying as a Texan several years ago. I totally agree with both curm and TatinG on their comments on the advantage of applying as a Texas resident. It took a lot of pressure out of the application process because of its relatively better “predictability”. (Not so many “missions” related stuff.)</p>
<p>Congrat’s to Tatin’s D. Are we discussing the 17% cut school? </p>
<p>Texas does sound easy but it gets that predictable only for a top group of students from instate or attending top 25 schools OOS and doing well.</p>
<p>Another side of that “excellent situation” in Texas.</p>
<p>[A</a> Galveston Med Student Describes Life and Death in the “Safety Net”](<a href=“http://www.texasobserver.org/a-galveston-med-student-describes-life-and-death-in-the-safety-net/]A”>A Galveston Med Student Describes Life and Death in the "Safety Net")</p>
<p>Oh, btw, I got an II to Harvard’s MSTP yesterday, :D</p>
<p>For a Texas resident who is interested in applying to OOS med schools, applying from Texas could be a liability rather than an asset - depending on the range of the ranks of the targeted med schools. He/she may lose some points for the following reason: “since you have a plenty of cheaper and comparable med schools in your own state, how can we believe you will choose to attend our school if you are offered an admission?” An easy choice is to apply IS schools only, as many Texans do.</p>
<p>Plumazul, congrats!</p>
<p>^ or to the student’s advantage. “Texas schools are so cheap, why dont we offer you a scholarship to convince you to come to our school”</p>
<p>^ That advantage is more likely for a student who fits right into one of the categories of school’s mission.</p>
<p>A real case that happened around the years DS was applying:
The med school: Columbia P&S in NYC
The stats of applicant A: 4.0/40 from Baylor U.
The stats of applicant B: 4.0/32 from UT El Paso.
Outcome:
Applicant A: wait-listed
Applicant B: accepted with a significant amount of scholarship
Key differentiators between these two applicants: middle class vs poor class, and white vs (Mexican?) Hispanic.</p>
<p>Actually, even for the college application cycle, elite schools in those NE blue states came to some of the red states, most likely eager to recruit the students with the background like “applicant B”. They have more than enough upper or middle class students who have aced the GPA/standardized test games. For “applicant A” type students, the true merit that is used to evaluate them is their EC’s merit while the other two numeric merits are taken for granted, for some schools.</p>
<p>Plumazul, The article in the link you posted is touching. Hopefully, DS will not have the day-to-day life of that author. It is just too sad.</p>
<p>mrpenguin & WayOutWestMom,</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>
While that would be nice (assuming your are talking about UVA and/or Vandy), your daughter to UCSF and my son to Stanford won’t be that bad, would it? :D</p>
<p>Congrats, Plum!</p>
<p>Wonderful news!</p>
<p>Plum, TatinG, and kal…a big congrats! </p>
<p>I think I agree with MCAT…residing in TX probably hurts applicants somewhat when applying to the OOS schools for they presume candidates will undoubtedly choose the lower price alternative. I also agree with MCAT in that it’s about how well you fit in with the school’s student body or mission statement. Our D, for instance, received an II to a school that’s known for not giving many interviews; however, it screens the applicants carefully for fit. Most of those few interviewed are eventually offered acceptances. It’s a very conservative/religious med school. Given her essays/background, I feel the school recognized she’d probably be a good fit. Similarly, she recently interviewed at a school where the students are known for being athletic and attractive. Since she’s a D-1 athlete, they probably thought she’d find a connection which, BTW, she did…she really, really liked this school. Maybe this whole process is like UG – they say you land where you’re meant to be. Let’s hope that’s true!</p>
<p>Plum. Typical and expected response from you. Bless your heart. 
</p>
<p>I agree with the idea that Texas residency hurts at some OOS schools. At some merit scholarship granting schools I think they only interview/accept those Texans that will be receiving scholarships. Still. It is an enviable advantage to be a Texas applicant if your goal is to be a doctor. And, I sure thought that was the topic. ;)</p>
<p>Congrats to JC40 and Tatin’s DD’s.</p>
<p>Kali- Thanks for enlightening me.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t think any of those stories from plum’s article are even remotely unique to Texas (except maybe the hurricane ike one, but you could easily swap in something else and the story would still be the same). That’s just the state of the US healthcare system and the great divide that exists between the haves (insurance) and have nots (insurance).</p>
<p>In the spring of 2009 our entire family visited Rice campus with my son for an information session. The adcom doing the presentation, as they all do, started touting how their medical school acceptance rate was always above 90%. I remember vividly the guy sitting next telling me not to give it any importance because Rice’s class was made up of 50% Texans and they all get into med schools.</p>
<p>Now, some details about my son’s Yale interview. It was a group of 12 interviewers. There were two from Harvard, two from UPenn, one from Brown and one from UCLA besides my son. The interviews went pretty well for him. Yale has a new curriculum. However it most likely not going to be implemented for the class of 2018. Yale is very proud of their system with mini schools. They showed their latest (rather impressive) match list. Apparently 15 kids got matched at Yale itself, a whopping 35 kids got matched at Harvard (mostly at Brigham and Women) and several others at other top medical schools. Decisions are going to be out in mid March.</p>
<p>15 plus 35 = 50.
So 50% of the class either stay put where they were, or go 130+ miles to the direction of north east? If we also include the neighboring states to the west, NY and NJ, could the percentage be even higher, like 70+%?</p>
<p>The NE region is like a large magnet in terms of attracting students there due to its abundance and high density of educational opportunities. Once you are in it, it is like defying the physical law to get out of it until you are completely done with it. (If finding the significant other from that region in those years, the parents may as well accept that their loved one will most likely keep staying there forever.)</p>
<p>For Rice College, this is the rumor I have heard of (many years ago though): If you are from Houston, the odds is against you for getting into Rice College. OOS applicants have an easier time as they try hard to diversify the composition of their relatively small class (more along the line of geographical diversification, rather than the typical diversification.)</p>