<p>Just submitted my pre-health professions packet three days before the deadline. 
What an ordeal that was. So many questions. So, since I now have a LizzyM score(79) and will be competitive everywhere, does anyone here have recommendations? Any MS grads/current students have something good or bad to say about their school? I will be applying only to MSTPs (with maybe one exception) so I guess I’m mainly looking for info on the associated medical schools. I’ll probably want to stay east of the Mississippi with the exception of perhaps adding some Texas schools and Washington on the west coast. I’m hoping to run up some frequent flyer miles this fall! 
Would love to get an Ox/Cam interview :D</p>
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<p>Kristin and I were just talking about this. You have Steps 1, 2CS, 2CK, and 3, then specialty Boards, then subspecialty Boards, then periodic renewal of those, plus any others that you might (stupidly) voluntarily sign up for.</p>
<p>Well, I will agree to take any tests in any numbers if it guarantee me a job. Think about it from this prospective and feel blessed, pat yourself on a back and say, I made a good choice.
I say it to my kid all the time, way back to when she was about 12 y o or so and wanted to be a Marine Biologist (with no job prospects, as appeared after short investigation). I still ocasionally remind her about it. Look on another side, the grass is not always grinner, despite the fact that it may appear to be. Put on glasses and look much closer.</p>
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<p>Definitely true. I should have clarified that I was referring to scoring on the lower end of my practice test range (a 31 as opposed to a 33). In my mind, the latter would have made choosing a list of schools slightly easier.</p>
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<p>What other exams are there besides the USMLEs and Boards? CME exams?</p>
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<p>Did you purchase MSAR access yet? It’s your chance to fill your head with medical school trivia. :)</p>
<p>Hey guys, I’m a Junior and long time lurker of these boards. Got my mcat score yesterday (yay!!) and decided to join the convo! good luck to everyone who’s applying this cycle and hopefully we can get some good advice here. can’t wait to get this application started :D</p>
<p>@mcatflow,
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<p>I assume you mean the AMCAS 
April 1st is a big date for me, amcas resources go online and I register for Fall semester senior year, :D</p>
<p>Does your school have a committee? A lot of schools have a packet that you must submit about now. What a year this is going to be.</p>
<p>@plumazul haha yes i meant AMCAS. and same here, my time ticket for fall registration opens that day too!!
My school doesn’t have a committee written letter, but there’s an online service from the career center that can store all your letters and send them together. My advisor said not to ask for rec letters until at least after spring break (so last week of March), which I thought was weird. What do you (or anyone else) think? Would profs really be annoyed at asking this early?!</p>
<p>^It was a mixed bag for me. Some of them agreed to write them, but wouldn’t start writing them until after spring semester; some said they’d do them soon. You might bring it up with the profs who you want to write for you soon, and then officially ask them (ie, give them a copy of your personal statement, CV, any signed “I won’t read my letter” forms, AMCAS forms, a nice cover letter reminding them of the deadline, etc) around spring break. Don’t forget to send sincere thank you notes! And remember that sending them at strategic times can help remind poky writers :)</p>
<p>I would also advocate getting one extra letter, so that you’re prepared if somebody drops out entirely. I did this for my last two admission cycles (though not for med school) and it proved to be necessary both times.</p>
<p>Okay thanks!!! I also bought both the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 MSARs from our bookstore today since together they cost $6.50 (a steal I know!). it lists MCAT score by the median of accepted applicants. I checked some schools’ websites that had info from those years on the matriculates, and they have lower GPAs and mcat scores listed. What should I go by? Or should I look at the Princeton review’s book or USNWR online data? (Would they be different?)</p>
<p>Except for the Top 20 or so schools, the GPAs and MCAT of matriculants are lower than accepted applicants because a number of high stats acceptees at mid tier schools will choose to matriculate at higher ranked schools.</p>
<p>So both the data at the school website and in the MSAR are likely correct.</p>
<p>Use USNWR matriculant data for making your list. The accepted student data will just depress you. ;)</p>
<p>mcatflow? you were able to get a hard copy msar for 2011-2012?.. i thought the last hard copy was the 2010 one… this year for sure it is only online (which i personally hate)</p>
<p>plumazul… i’ll put in a plug for uab on your list… oh and it is one of the programs that coordinates with Ox/Cam… the dean of uab’s program is on this video: [NIH</a> VideoCasting - NIH Graduate and Professional School Fair - MD/PhD: Is It Right for Me?](<a href=“NIH VideoCast - NIH Graduate and Professional School Fair - MD/PhD: Is It Right for Me?”>NIH VideoCast - NIH Graduate and Professional School Fair - MD/PhD: Is It Right for Me?)</p>
<p><a href=“http://oxcam.gpp.nih.gov/prospectiveStudents/MD_PhD_ProgDesc.asp[/url]”>http://oxcam.gpp.nih.gov/prospectiveStudents/MD_PhD_ProgDesc.asp</a> click on participating schools link</p>
<p>^ Thanks for the video link. I know most those people! </p>
<p>I hadn’t even considered UAB before, but I will check it out. GPP support may be important to me so I am including several schools that offer it on my list.
Thanks.</p>
<p>plumazul… fully supported for the entire mstp program… 26-28K stipend if i recall correctly… cost of living in birmingham is quite reasonable. </p>
<p>uab med school has many programs in top 20 and some in top 10. Highly ranked research school</p>
<p>Just looked up the USNWR subscription…kind of pricy but oh well.</p>
<p>@parent56 yes, 2011-2012 hard copy with all the MCAT and GPA info in the book. you can get it off Amazon: [Medical</a> School Admission Requirements (MSAR) 2011-2012: The Most Authoritative Guide to U.S. and Canadian Medical Schools (Medical School Admission Requirements, United States and Canada): Association of American Medical Colleges: 9781577540939: Amaz](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Admission-Requirements-2011-2012/dp/157754093X]Medical”>http://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Admission-Requirements-2011-2012/dp/157754093X) </p>
<p>I think even the 2012-2013 is also hard copy, but comes with an online subscription for all the data.</p>
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<p>If all you’re concerned about is the gpa/mcat stats, it might not be necessary to make that purchase. You can often get the matriculated students numbers off each school’s website and the accepted students numbers in the MSAR are adequate as long as you fully understand the difference.</p>
<p>last year, google paid for 1 year of us news subscription. used it more than msar.</p>
<p>@trapezius, was last year your app cycle? If so, then I hope you stick around, you could be a valuable resource. :)</p>