<p>AMCAS will verify your application without your MCAT scores. Infact it is good idea to submit early and include one school. When you get your MCAT score update the score and add schools.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/faqs/171618/can_i_submit_my_amcas_application_without_my_mcat_scores.html”>https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/faqs/171618/can_i_submit_my_amcas_application_without_my_mcat_scores.html</a></p>
<p>^oops … didn’t see the question was already answered. 
</p>
<p>S2 is starting to think about his list. He has the LizzyM spreadsheet and access to the US News info. I know he should apply to every school in his home state as well as his undergrad university. I know he needs to be careful about OOS percentages and to not waste time and money on schools that accept few OOS. What else should he consider when making his list? His LizzyM is >76 so everything came up “go for it” or “safety” (haha). The LizzyM spreadsheet wasn’t as helpful as I’d imagined unless I’m missing something.</p>
<p>No, D2 didn’t find it especially useful either other than as a first screen.</p>
<p>I think your son needs to consider other personal preference items:</p>
<p>Stuff like:</p>
<p>---- Location:
Big city vs smaller town/suburbs
East vs Midwest vs South vs West </p>
<p>---- compressed didactic vs traditional 2 year classroom </p>
<p>---- early clinic exposure vs traditional 2+2 programs</p>
<p>---- P/F grading for didactic years vs traditional A/B/C/F grades</p>
<p>---- traditional lectures vs small group learning/PBL/self-paced</p>
<p>---- mandatory lectures vs optional lectures with lecture available for DL</p>
<p>~~~~</p>
<p>I know D2 had her laundry list of what she could and couldn’t live with and selected her schools accordingly.</p>
<p>OOS percentages can be tricky. D2 has had great success this year with acceptances at several OOS publics with very low (<3%) OOS acceptance rates. But it’s important to make sure that the applicant matches the profile the specific school is looking for w/r/t applicants. The applicant needs to be able to articulate clearly “Why this school?” IOW, don’t apply to random OOS schools; have a good reason (i.s. specific mission or research program or curricular emphasis, etc) to apply to a specific OOS school. The OOS school wants some reassurance that if offered a position you’ll come.</p>
<p>Thanks WOWMom. Great list of things to consider. I found myself nodding in agreement as I read it. This will be a big help. Next question – how many schools? I’ve read 15 - 20, 25 tops. Does that sound reasonable? My older son is a 2nd year student at an osteopathic medical school. He wanted osteopathic and was a strong candidate, so applied to way fewer schools. So, though we’ve been through the process, it was different with the first one.</p>
<p>Ohiomom. re applying to schools in homestate. I certainly echo that CC recommendation, however it will depend on what your kid wants to do and how stubborn or not they are :-* Mine decided not to apply to any instate public, but did do an instate private. I worried until he had his first acceptance and thats when he withdrew the II from that instate Private.</p>
<p>He also submitted below your hyphenated numbers. As such, from what I have observed and as WOWM listed above, a lot of personal preference has to be factored in. What will work for student A won’t necessarily work for student B.</p>
<p>His approach worked for him and the results could not have been better. </p>
<p>I am sure your son will do well and good luck to him.</p>
<p>I think 15 is the absolute minimum number of applications I’d suggest. I would nudge that number up if he has strong preferences about what he absolutely must have in a program. But once you start getting into the mid-20s, all those secondaries can start to get unmanageable. I see kids applying to 40 schools and I wonder–where do they get the stamina to answer all those essays? And how do they keep their answers fresh and sounding sincere & unrehearsed? Not to mention that at $100 per secondary and $35 per primary ($160 for the first one)–it starts to get expensive fast.</p>
<p>Top 10, some would even say top 25, research schools are notoriously hard to predict for most unhooked applicants. Every year over on SDN, you’ll see so many tales of woe of top stats applicants getting shut of everywhere because they restricted their application list to just top 10 schools. Tell him to look beyond the USNWR rankings–because really they’re fairly meaningless-- to find schools that appeal to him in some way.</p>
<p>Texas app has only one or two with secondaries and they rest just go with what you did for the ones needing secondary from what I have heard. So you could apply to 1 and expand to 6 or something like that.</p>
<p>Can someone help me find a link. I’ve been searching for it but not having any luck finding it. I remember looking at a chart that showed medical schools and the percentage of in-state/out-of-state acceptances by school. This would really be helpful for DS in choosing his list. I remember that some schools accept very few (if any) oos students. Thanks!</p>
<p>The only chart like that I know of is in JAMA. Dr Barbara Barzansky does an analysis of med school admissions each December. Among her data is percentage of in state vs OOS matriculants for each school’s first year classes.</p>
<p>This is for the 2012-13 admissions cycle:</p>
<p><a href=“http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1787392&resultClick=1”>http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1787392&resultClick=1</a></p>
<p>(You’ll need to DL the .pdf to see her charts)</p>
<p>The article is open access so no subscription needed.</p>
<p>~~~
USNews Med School Access (subscription required) will also have the number of instate vs OOS applications, plus the number of interviews granted to in state and OOS applicants.</p>
<p>VAmom2015</p>
<p>Click on Table 1 at the following:
<a href=“https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/”>https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/</a></p>
<p>alternately, pick up a copy of MSAR.</p>
<p>^^^^^Table was interesting… NC’s ECU shows 0% OOS with 800+ applicants all in-state. UNC shows the 85% in-state and 15% OOS matriculants with 82% of the applicants being OOS and 17% in-state! Looks like MS accepts only in-state applicants as well. UNC has a few more applicants than Duke and Duke’s in-state applicants is 7%, with 13% making up the matriculants. So NC residents aren’t applying to Duke like they are ECU and UNC. Huh. Had not looked at that before. Could have something to do with in-state tuition???</p>
<p>Great table!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>This is very useful. I had seen the table, but the JAMA article was interesting too.</p>
<p>D has asked for some help in coming up with a list of schools. Given that she hasn’t taken the MCAT, I think she should take the lowest score she’s willing to apply with and formulate her list. WOWMom - you mentioned OOS public schools - I thought the general understanding was not to apply to any OOS publics? I was suggesting to D that she make an initial list looking at scores/GPA and then trim that list based on other criteria (the mission, the learning style etc). Sound reasonable?</p>
<p>And really? It’s 35$ per primary and you have to pay close to 100$ per secondary? This is one expensive process…</p>
<p>Her process sounds reasonable. Basically what both my kiddos did.</p>
<p>Some OOS publics are more willing to take OOS students than others. I think any school which has an in-state enrollment 80-85% or lower is a reasonable school to consider so long as your student’s stats exceed the in-state average and your student can identify a good reason to apply. </p>
<p>You might set your instate percentage higher or lower depending on your D’s stats and her tolerance for risk-taking and rejection.</p>
<p>There is financial help available to pay for MCAT and primary applications.</p>
<p>It doesn’t make the process free, but does reduce the costs quite a bit.</p>
<p>The link to apply or look at the requirements is here: <a href=“Fee Assistance Program (FAP) | Students & Residents”>Fee Assistance Program (FAP) | Students & Residents;
<p>Add travel expenses to that cost of applying, and already medical school is expensive and it hasn’t even started. UGH!</p>
<p>^pennies in comparison to tuition and some have control over this by applying in driving distance. Not much control over tuition, there is some, but very few will have it free, and even “free” Medical Schools are not so free if you consider the fact that they are 5 years (at least the one that I know is 5 years) vs. normal 4, so the cost is one year of MD salary basically. The blessing is to receive a Merit award, but from what I understand, many schools want to attract applicants with the higher degrees, so most Merit awards go to them.</p>
<p>Thanks for the table. I looked at several of the other tables on that page, but somehow missed that first one–who knows what I did???</p>
<p>It does really help when looking at the OOS acceptances which should help anyone putting together a list of schools. DS will apply to all the in-state options but his UG doesn’t have a medical school, so that one’s out. I will be interested to see his list (hopefully he will come up with one in the next month or so!) ;)</p>
<p>Even if you have the chart, you have to goto each school web site to read the fine prints. For example N. Dakota only take OOS from the adjacent states, they don’t take apps from fl or ca. We are going through the details right now and after that, not too many publics survives. </p>
<p>Even instate publics can have fine print and specific missions! It definitely takes some time and work to put together a list—and it’s just the start of a very long process. </p>