<p>Thanks somemom. I’ll check out the state school threads.</p>
<p>But do be aware, there are an incredible amount of neuroses on SDN, don’t take the angst there too much to heart.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/2012factstable1.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/2012factstable1.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the link parent56! That is really an eye opener on some of the schools.</p>
<p>OK, I’m going with the no question is a stupid question: I see “II” referred to all the time. I originally thought it was referring to the secondary application (II being 2 or secondary). I now believe that it refers to “Interview Invite”. Am I correct on this one? Any other abbreviations I might come across?</p>
<p>DS is down to three days before MCAT. He was doing well on tests, but took one the other day and it was the lowest score he’s gotten (not by much though). I think he was a bit bummed by that. He’s taking one right now, hopefully he does better to boost his confidence. He will maybe take one more tomorrow or this may be his last one. He’s a good test taker and he’s done well in all his courses so hopefully it will all come together for him on Saturday!</p>
<p>Yup, II = Interview Invite.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed for your S on Saturday!</p>
<p>Thanks for the well wishes mrpenguin! He’s done!!! </p>
<p>Now the waiting for results begins. But he’s glad he got it done before heading back to school. He said some parts seemed really easy, some were kind of tricky and he was surprised he was a bit tight on time on at least one section. He hadn’t been pressed for time when doing the practice tests, but I’m sure he was spending more time on each passage for the “real deal”. He even said there was one passage that was almost exactly like one of the practice tests (I’m guessing one of the released tests?). So I’m guessing he got that one right! :)</p>
<p>He took the optional section because he said he enjoys those type of things, and for the gift card, of course!!!</p>
<p>Gee, I took a look at those statistics that P56 posted in #23 and that’s an eye-opener. For instance, the applicants at Harvard were 41.6 female and 58.3 male, yet the matriculants were 52.4 female and 47.6 male. That indicates more men applied but they accepted more females. Wonder why that difference? Were the men inferior, or did they want more women? That’s just one possibility. What does that say to you?</p>
<p>I would think that the female premed students, especially among the pool of applicants who are more competitive, are “better” than the male students, general speaking.</p>
<p>I also suspect that in some other career paths, the males still dominate.</p>
<p>When DS was in college, he went to a lab session at the beginning of a semester. When he entered the room, coincidentally or not, all the premed students that had been in the room were females. He told us that, he thought he went to some wrong place, like a meeting for females only, at that moment.</p>
<p>He also told us once that in some “elite” political club at his college (likely called Political Union?), there are full of “alpha male” type students there. It seems that all of the “popular among peers” (especially more popular among the opposite sex) male suitmates in his freshman year suite end up choosing other career path (even though several of them took organic chemistry like many competitive premeds did as a freshman.) After all, there are A LOT who choose to go into finance type career paths at his college. Maybe more competitive males than competitive females there? For one thing, males tend to play competitive games including poker more, I think.</p>
<p>Another point, one med school student at DS’s med school got into some big trouble just because he had too many of his own strong opinions and won’t back down even when he was instructed to do so (i.e., to follow their order) by his superiors like the attending. He actually got kicked out after too many of these incidents as I heard.</p>
<p>I should point out that there are many med schools that skew the other way with more male applicants, fewer male matriculants. I suppose none of this should surprise me. I don’t know the statistics of all men vs all women applying or getting into med school, but I think women have surpassed men in college admissions since 2005. Now it’s something like 58/42.</p>
<p>One CCer once posted that the medical schools are mostly very conservative - and most schools he referred to were on the coast.
This is very unlike the college.</p>
<p>limabeans,</p>
<p>
This is probably where the more competitive male students choose to go:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1551039-gender-equity-issues-hbs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1551039-gender-equity-issues-hbs.html</a></p>
<p>DS once told us that some student who he met in some club activities would have a hard time to be in a premed class. He said if the said student raises questions in a way like he tends to do in an orgo class, he would immediately be shot down by the professor, like he’s wasting everybody’s time.</p>
<p>DS also once said that you know you are in a premed class when a fellow student tries to find out what the professor just teaches few days before the test will or will not be in the upcoming test. Almost all students are quietly and busily taking notes, worrying about failing to take down some key points. The gap of knowledge between the professor and the student is so huge that students rarely have the nerve to “challenge” their professor in any way, unlike the “born to be a leader”, “CEO to be” types of “students” as described in the article in the above link.</p>
<p>Quick MCAT score question–do the scores tend to always come out on the posted date or does that date shift depending on other factors? Just curious. DS’s scores are currently set to be released on DH’s birthday. Might have two things to celebrate (or not?).</p>
<p>Usually scores have been release on the posted dates for each exam. Occasionally a day early.</p>
<p>Joining this club… for our second kid who is a junior. He’s studying abroad this semester so he took MCAT in Aug. and got the result (on Erev Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year’s Eve). We started to look at possible schools and found a few (like Miami Miller) will be changing their requirements for next cycle because of the changes in MCAT. For applicants applying in 2014, they will require biochem and 2 courses in Hum, Soc, or Psy (not Anthro, I asked). I thought it’s early to come up with a list of schools but may be not since we have course planning to do. His EC is average nothing stellar, his research is good (had a paper published this summer), GPA 3.75 (don’t think it will move much), MCAT 37. Besides our state’s school, suggestions of schools will be appreciated (we’re also hoping to apply to some schools that are generous with merit aid).</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>His MCAT is fabulous! :)</p>
<p>Krug–congrats to you DS–great MCAT score! He will have lots of options for schools. Maybe WOWMom can give you some direction on schools that offer merit aid?</p>
<p>krug, Congrats to your S’s great achievement!</p>
<p>Merit aid is an elusive beast for medical school. Students are evaluated holistically for merit and often there is a need component as part of the calcuations. So guessing where a student will be offered merit is tough. </p>
<p>I believe the MSAR may have some data on merit awards. (I don’t have access.)</p>
<p>I would guess non-need based aid is more likely at privates than publics. OTOH, kat’s son received a very generous merit offer at his state public med school, and both kristin and D1 received small non-need based awards at their state med schools.</p>
<p>Mayo and CCLCM both offer very generous non-need based aid, but both also are tiny programs which are looking for a very specific type of applicant.</p>
<p>D1 is at our state’s SOM and received a small merit but the instate tuition is really the BIG help and made her decision for which school to matriculate to less difficult (not easy though). </p>
<p>Knowing that the process is tough to predict outcomes’ successes (which is an acceptance anywhere), can you suggest SOM that he has a good chance of acceptance with his stats? M2CK was kind enough to suggest Wake, Vandy, Emory and I thought Miami and OSU might be possible, anywhere else? Mayo and CCLCM would be a dream come true for him since he really wants to do research but it’s a reach since the programs are so competitive.</p>
<p>FYI for all those planning on MCAT test dates in the first half of 2014–AMCAS has posted on Facebook today that the Jan-May 2014 MCAT registration will open on Oct. 16 between 9 and 12am.</p>