It depends on the college, but many transcript requests can be done online, and don’t have to be done in person. In fact, some schools use a 3rd party company such as Parchment and require that transcript requests be done online. D studied abroad last May and did all of hers this way - she had to request transcripts from 4 colleges. After completing the AMCAS forms they were scanned in and submitted with the transcript requests to the colleges, and they attached the form when they sent the transcript to AMCAS.
The 2016 AMCAS application will open May 5, not May 1. Transcripts can be sent on this date.
https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/faqs/147526/amcas_2010_faqs-6.2.html
If anyone is interested, a poster over at SDN has proposed a new “predictive” tool to rank applicants and suggest the probability of getting an II to various schools.
Totally untested and still undergoing development, but if you want to look at it and maybe play around with it–
http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/threads/wedgedawgs-applicant-rating-system.1131149/
There’s a link to a downloadable excel file in post #19
Obviously a lot of time and effort was put into WedgeDawg Applicant Rating System (ARS). I commend wedgedawg for his/her effort. But like LizzyM score, IMO, ARS is of limited value and may place unfounded weight/reliance on an applicant’s own ARS analysis.
As I understood it, LizzyM formula offered an applicant a quick way to allow applicant to compare their Lizzy score to a given school and then provide an applicant an idea of where they might have a chance for an INTERVIEW only. It was a starting point, period. Formula had its flaws as it ignored the many other factors that go into whether or not an applicant actually gets an interview, much less an acceptance. The formula to my knowledge was never used by any med school. As time went on, however, people seemed to attach a great deal more weight to formula than was ever intended with end result giving misplaced hope to many.
ARS author states …” ARS does not assess where an applicant will be accepted; rather, it determines the best collection of schools for the applicant to apply to maximize chances of success at the best schools realistically possible.” To me that actually sounds a lot like a dressed up Lizzy M formula with the only difference is that now a number is assigned to some, but not all, the subjective factors used by “mythical “adcom. I say “mythical” because adcoms are not robots where you stick in some definition (e.g research experience-slight research activity –level 2, etc) and get a number… They are living breathing people who bring to the table their own varying subjective opinions and weight to the different factors, many not used in ARS, during the admission process leading up to an interview offer
I’m sorry for rambling. My point is that LizzyM provided a very limited starting point for wannabe med school applicant. ARS may push the ball a little down field, but not by much. My concern is that as time goes on people may attach the same misplaced weight to the results to their ARS analysis as was seen with LizzyM formula…
Interesting read. @Jugulator20 do you know what the poster means by low yield med schools. BU, Georgetown, Tufts and others are on that list. And why are the applicants with high ARS score shouldn’t apply there?
Low yield med schools are schools that get an unusually high number of applicants relative to its ranking (Most probably due to a desirable location) or interview <5% of applicants annually.
High number of applicants (10,000 -15,000 annually) means the likelihood of getting an II is low for any given individual–even those with high stats. ( One might consider these med schools as “lottery schools”.)
Brown is on that list because it interviews < 3% of applicants annually. (Small program and a significant number of seats have been committed to the PLME program.)
I thought “yield” related to a school wanting to fill seats and was related to % of those who started out of those who got offers, so wouldn’t schools like Georgetown, Tufts be low yielding schools as many of the people who were extended offers had many other offers to pick from and as a percent of offers made yielded only a small number of students who actually started?
Would case still be the same if the applicant attends one of these low yield schools as an undergrad? What I mean is would such applicant still have a low shot of acceptance?
Yield is often used that way when talking about admissions from the admissions side. But Wedge Dawg is talking about a time/money vs. outcome yield for applicants. (IOW, a ROI on their application dollars/efforts.)
Most of the schools s/he lists as “low yield” have been on US News list of schools with the most applicants for years.
@momworried Probably better than most, but still a low probability from a purely number of applicants standpoint.
P.S. There is a US News list of med schools with highest yield w/r/t to accepted kids choosing to attend. As you might expect, the schools with best admissions yield were state Us (often with low COAs). IIRC, Kansas was #1, Arkansas was #2, Oklahoma was #3, New Mexico was #4, UWash #5.I think some level of granularity has disappeared in this methodology. There is a cap of 119 points but starting at 85, the people move into the top bracket which means a lot of people could land there. I find 85 to be a very low threshold. Anyone with a LizzyM score of 76 can get there quickly.
The grouping of colleges was a bit more interesting.
The comments were very interesting about undergraduate colleges. I did like the effort and a way to quantify those soft factors. It will be interesting to see if the chart pans out as this application cycle comes to a close.
That chart also has some issues that don’t make logical sense… you lose 4 points if you don’t have an upward GPA trend, which doesn’t accommodate for people who start and finish with a very high GPA.
Some of those “low yield” schools are still worth applying to if you fit into certain groups, such as in-state for Penn State, Temple, and Jefferson. Tulane also highly values extensive volunteering and loves applicants who have done things like Peace Corps or Teach for America
(Also, holy moly the process is starting so soon! Trying not to think about it :-S)
Where do I find the mission for each med school?
To find the mission of each med school it is best to check out their websites. You can also read the mission statements in the MSAR. If.If they talk about physician leaders or physician scientists, the school will not have a lot of family practice doctors. and the school will have a large percentage of applicants with research. If the school brags about how many graduates gained residency in primary care or how many of their graduates are practicing in state, they will have an in-state bias and want to see community service.
I found most mission statements to be pretty useless since so few of them are actually explicit.
And
And
Can you tell which is from:
State U with strong in-state bias (and the state’s only med school)?
Top 10 private?
Mid-ranked private (range 50-75) without much of a research program and no defined service area?
I would say the state school is the third one, since it specifically mentions communities. The top 10 private is the first one and the mid-ranked private is the second one. They may also have a decent amount of MD/MBA or MD/MPH.
Am I close?
Score: 1/3
Darn. That is why I said to explore the websites first. When a school makes a big deal out the number of people that stayed in state or went into primary care, they are touting their mission. I was just reading the student body section or PR and it made it obvious to me that whether or not their mission is working, some schools really do want to educate primary care physicians while others brag about the residency spots in prestigious hospitals that their graduates attained. Of course, lurking on SDN school forums is not a bad way to get some insight.
Oh, and for those who haven’t seen this. The AMSA student surveys can give you a lot of information about particular schools and fit. http://www.amsa.org/premed/medsurvey/
A couple of cautions about AMSA survey results–
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AMSA is a highly self-selected population. At most schools only a minority of students join. (Sometimes a very small minority–like less than 5-10% since the organization charges an annual membership fee and chapters tends to be–for lack of better word–“political”.)
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Many of the comments 10+ years old. Curriculum, administration, faculty, even the teaching facilities may have all changed in the intervening time.