<p>krug,
congrats! but I never heard of Med. Schools that are generous with Merit awards. We are paying full price. D. got tiny Merit at OSU, not enough to steer her decision. She is at private. She did not think that she would fit into one of the free ones, she withdrew after being put on hold. She prefers focus on clinicals over research.
I bet your S. decision will change several times after interviews and visiting places. My D. had to attend Second Look events, she was still debating and her decision changed after these.<br>
Best wishes!</p>
<p>MiamiDAP,
I know of a couple of kids that got really great Merit (half to full tuition!) and of course that is like winning the lottery. Did your D have a feel when she was applying which SOM is more research oriented? I got the impression from my D that all 4 (all different) state schools that she interviewed at were focused on clinical/patient care.</p>
<p>I guess I will pop into this group as well. DS is a sophomore but has decided to apply to the Flexmed program this year. It is such a long shot, but he has nothing to lose, as it will be good practice with interviews, etc. Otherwise I will be joining texaspg in the 2015 thread.</p>
<p>^Oh, yes, the free one was 5 year program, they do research for this additional year. I guess, that is how they pay it back (at least part of it). The others were probably the same in this are. She applied only to 8 schools (total) with one acceptance in her pocket from the start (combined bs/md). OOS did not work for her. She did consider one, but IS won at the end (after Second Look). She does not feel comfy outside of our state. Maybe Nashville is an exception, she will apply there since it is inside her “circle”. Anyway, she was even adviced to apply in Midwest. The theory goes that if you spend your entire life in Midwest including all schooling, then you have better chances at Midwestern programs. I am talking about residency now, sorry.<br>
D. did not consider state schools at the end because we told her not to consider price at this point. There are others who make an opposite decision, they do not consider price for UG. It all depends on family situation at the time when they apply.</p>
<p>
Sorry that my response is so slow to your post, but I’m so sad to think this exists. It certainly doesn’t exist at my son’s school, which is a top research uni. Maybe it just doesn’t occur to my son to behave this way. It’s not like he’s all buddy-buddy with his professors, but he works at learning his material. And he appreciates it’s not an uber competitive environment.</p>
<p>Limabeans, Glad to hear that your S’s premed class is not like that.</p>
<p>DS had many non-premed friends, so he could sense that the environment of their classes could be somewhat different. His roommate for 3 years was also not a premed.</p>
<p>DS took a single class in a another department in almost every semester for fun. He noticed the non-premed students in that kind of class are also more relax about the grade even though most still work hard (esp., on time-consuming final project.) One of them could, for example, devote like 60-70% of his “study” time to his favorite class project. (That classmate was working very closely with a “campus singer” Sam Tsui.) Many premeds tended to be more dull in their after-class activities - like joining one of the premed clubs and participating some activities because they are “must-have” items for med school application.</p>
<p>The application process for, say, the law school requires much less work as compared to med school’s one.</p>
<p>The environment of asking whether something will be part of a test exists in most competitive schools because they are all concerned about how much the test covers because they have so much to study for in each class and missing one class of material in preparation might cost them the A in a curved class.</p>
<p>They don’t really care in the non-premed classes since it won’t make that much of a difference.</p>
<p>I remember hearing about “another school” where the kids rip out pages from an assigned book in the library just so no one else can read it. My dear son cares about doing well, but not at the expense of losing his integrity. He’s a smart kid, but not a gunner. That will hurt him, no doubt, because he doesn’t have the most amazing gpa although he did well with the MCAT. We’ll see in about a year from now.</p>
<p>^ I think people love to spread these kind of stories without any substantiation. Why would there even be one required library book?? Not going to happen with today’s digital age and the other affected students would simply report this behavior to professor. </p>
<p>My D is at a top 25 school with loads of pre-meds all striving for perfection and yet still has found much more cooperation than competition.</p>
<p>My S is Junior and planning to take MCAT Jan 2014 apply for Med schools in summer 2014. He is not able to spend quality time to prepare for MCAT due to current course work and ECs. Can he register for MCAT for the plan date (Jan 2014) and reschedule it to a later date?</p>
<p>hellorn-yes, I believe he can change to a later test. There is a deadline to change and there is also a fee for changing. Have him check MCAS website for details. My DS didn’t change dates, but he was able to change the location to a closer testing center when slots opened up just before the deadline. He had to pay a fee for the change, but it was worth the price so he didn’t have to travel hours to his test site.</p>
<p>On MCAT news, DS received his score. I think he’s pretty happy but would have liked a few more points (but isn’t that true for any score?). He won’t have to worry about a retake, so that’s one and done! Whew!</p>
<p>VAMom2015, Thanks for your quick reply. Sounds like he will need to keep an eye on registration site to pick the closet location. I agree. It’s important. I am really hoping he can take the test according to his plan date but wanted to understand the options.
Congratulations to DS on completing MCAT!!! That’s a great achievement.</p>
<p>
OK, I will reveal the “another school” limabeans heard about - Johns Hopkins University. I don’t know who started this rumor about them, but for some reason they just can’t seem to shake it. Even high school guidance counselors also seem to propagate it. The other day, I met my second son’s guidance counselor in preparation for his college app. When I reminded him that my first son is at Hopkins, the first thing says is “Oh, I hear it pretty cut-throat over there. How is he doing?”. Every school has kids that behave like jack asses. Its unfair to characterize the culture of an entire school as “cut-throat” because of the actions a few kids that may (or may not) have happened ions ago. JHU is a wonderful place where a vast majority of kids work collaboratively.</p>
<p>
In fact, the professors themselves volunteer that information. There was this one professor that taught one of my son’s classes at JHU who told the entire class that a certain topic won’t be there on a test. My son took that to heart and didn’t cover it well, only to find several questions from that very topic on the test. He told me that he would never again pay any attention to that kind of stuff. Many professors not only say what will be covered on the test voluntarily, but also put up past tests on their websites for reference.</p>
<p>“I remember hearing about “another school” where the kids rip out pages from an assigned book in the library just so no one else can read it.”
-It shows the lack of brain ont the part of page rippers, not much of anything else. They are loosers, not gunners.
However, there are other resources to get this information, including buying the books cheaply on internet (not very cheap though, none of the science books are cheap). Get used to this. All books that are needed (and sometimes not used at all) in Med. School are bought on Internet and some of them are sold back at the fraction of the cost. They do not buy though without talking to the previous years.</p>
<p>VAMom - congratulations on your S getting a good MCAT score! That’s half the battle right there!</p>
<p>Congrats VAMom on the MCAT score! My D was very similar-- last summer when she got her score she was bummed because it was 2 pts. under her average even though it was what most would consider a very good score. She will not retake either and is happy to be done while her other junior friends have it still in front of them. Hopefully some kids will buy her MCAT books off of her, lol.</p>
<p>^2 pts below average pracitce is normal if you repeating your highest socre at the end of your preparation. D. had the same (or close) score over and over while taking practice tests. it just was showing that more preparation will not result in bringing her score higher. Her real score was 2 point below. I even read that it is common that the real score is 2 points below your highest practice score. Another prediction (which was also true in D’s case), the real MCAT score is commonly within 2 points of ACT.<br>
Congrats to everybody who is getting decent scores!
Do not worry, just match your score to the list of Med. Schools and you will do just fine.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This has been my worry 
D is planning to take the MCAT in May next year…so going by timelines here, she has to be ready to apply as soon as her scores come out. In this case, do you figure out a tentative list of schools based on what you think your scores will be? And you base that score on the practice scores you are getting? Thus far, she hasn’t even taken a single practice test…so it’s hard for me to figure out how she should narrow down the school list!</p>
<p>Without a MCAT, it’s nearly impossible to create a list.</p>
<p>But you can start with all of your instate publics (everyone’s best chance for an acceptance) and the med school associated with her undergrad (if there is one). But the rest will have to wait until she has a score.</p>
<p>She can estimate her score ONLY by taking several full length practice MCATs. (Rule of thumb–assume her actual score will be 2 points lower than the average of her last 3 practice exams.)</p>
<p>There’s spreadsheet that available (or used to be available) at SDN that will help narrow her list after she has a MCAT score. Her Lizzie M score (GPA x 10 + MCAT -1) will give her and you a rough idea of schools where she might be a match. A subscription to the MSAR or USNews premium content will get you and her access to the most recent data on average scores of accepted/matroculated students.</p>
<p>AMCAS opens in June.*** Her application won’t be processed unless she has an MCAT score. But what she can do is fill out her application ahead of time (I believe the app becomes available in early May), send her transcripts ASAP after her grades for spring have been recorded, and then once she has a score–hit the submit button. It’s takes anywhere from 1-10 weeks for an application to be verified and forwarded to med schools.</p>
<p>She can always add schools to her application later. </p>
<p>***Usually the first week of June, but this cycle it was more like mid-June.</p>
<p>With that May MCAT, just make sure she does every little thing so that the day her MCAT comes out she can hit submit. Get those transcripts in early, LORs, fill out all the details of the application.</p>
<p>Over the year make a list of schools that ranges from the high to the low, when the time comes you can see where on that list her MCAT comes and quickly choose from there.</p>
<p>Another way to get ahead on the timing is to look now at SDN, read and compile a list of the questions asked on secondaries, your state school and other schools you think will be on the list no matter once. After going through a dozen schools secondary questions you will see that there are only so many things that can be asked. Start compiling answers, you may need to shorten or lengthen them for some programs, but you will have a pretty good head start on the thought process allowing a quick turnaround on the secondary submission.</p>
<p>Yes, I suggested this to my DD, no, she did not do it. ;)</p>