<p>I can’t believe they don’t have a free test!</p>
<p>My son will be applying next June. I got bunch of books from the library about application process to get me started. @texaspg I haven’t looked at our state schools yet. We have 3. One of them has a preference for a new MCATs but will consider the old one according to the chart that someone posted before. He would like to stay close to home for med schools. </p>
<p>Question to the veterans out there. Does it make sense to apply to a state school as an out of state resident? For example university of Connecticut accepts Out of state applicants. But it says that. ‘Strong preference is given to residents’. So is it a waste of time?</p>
<p>I am no veteran but the main issue usually is the low acceptance rate for non-residents and high tuition for the non-residents when applying to OOS state schools.</p>
<p>I looked at U CT and find that they enroll about 10-20 OOS students and charge 55k OOS tuition vs 27k instate. They had 2500 non instate applicants which means their admit rate is quite low for OOS.</p>
<p>However, their MCAT average seems to be below 32.</p>
<p>Sometimes it makes sense to apply to OOS public med schools. Your need to look at 3 things:</p>
<p>1) number of OOS interviews and acceptances offered (If a school only accepts 1% of its total enrollment from OOS, it’s a waste of time to apply. Different people have different ideas about what percentage of each class is from OOS is a good threshold. For D2 it was 15%. If at least 15% of the class was from OOS, then she would consider the school. )</p>
<p>2) the average stats of in-state students (OOS applicants need to have higher stats than in-state applicants)</p>
<p>3) if there is a very good reason to apply to that school (Does the school offer a special program/facility that your students would be a good match to? Does your student fit the mission of the school?)</p>
<p>D2 had excellent results applying to OOS publics where her stats were above the instate average and where she could articulate a strong reason for applying there. (National research center for her research specialty, for example.) </p>
<p>~~~~</p>
<p>You can find how many OOS applicants apply, how many are interviewed and how many are accepted in US News. No other place will have that info.</p>
<p>Every year there’s an article in JAMA that lists every med school and the in-state vs OOS percentages of matriculants for the past cycle. I think it usually comes out late in the year. November maybe?</p>
<p>(JAMA is subscription access only but your son can request an ILL copy of the article for free thru his college library if his school doesn’t have a JAMA subscription.)</p>
<p>Score one for the librarian!</p>
<p>I found a free copy of Barzansky’s JAMA article: Medical Schools in the United States, 2012-2013 </p>
<p><a href=“http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1787392”>http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1787392</a></p>
<p>You can download the article along with all its associated tables by clicking the PDF icon on the right side of the page.</p>
<p>Tables include
</p>
<p>Momworried: be happy you don’t live in CA. CA exports a ton of its students to both OOS private and public med schools. Along with many many qualified applicants, CA considering size of population simply does have enough med school spots. I know son like many CA students end up applying broadly and are very happy to get any acceptance. Fortunately, there are plenty of residency positions here and most, like son, return.</p>
<p>As you begin considering schools look carefully at cost and see how OOS public med schools consider residency status of OOS student. Look at school’s policies to see how or if an OOS can obtain in state residency status. Also dont overlook school’s mission statement as some have religious aspects.</p>
<p>My bad, I meant to say …simply does NOT have enough…</p>
<p>wowmom - why does anyone want to pay a lot more tuition for an OOS school?</p>
<p>^^^^I can answer that texaspg, or at least try. Son (MS4) had several friends from our local state schools apply to the 4 med schools in our state (2 public) and be rejected from all 4 year after year and friend after friend. Good GPAs 3.9-4.0 decent MCATs 31-35 and lots of EC with STEM majors, biochem, micro, chem e… After an unsuccessful app season they then expanded their search to OOS publics here in the south. They were again rejected from our in-state med schools but accepted to the other OOS publics, in VA, AL, LA, MS. So rather than never attend med school they bite the bullet and pay the OOS fee at the school they were admitted to.</p>
<p>Son has several current classmates who were admitted on their 3rd and 4th tries. Some even moved here after graduation somewhere else to become state residents, work and then apply after a year or two or FIVE of employment and then apply, apply and apply. In-state tuition is so incredibly low at both state schools that to many they would rather wait it out. That and for residency slots there is a distinct advantage to being their med school graduate. Distinct and clear.</p>
<p>Son’s friend with the same undergrad degree as him is in VA taking out loans from the fed govt. and private loans to pay COA. One year of his loans exceeds son’s 5 years worth of loans (MD/MBA) by more than TRIPLE. But as that was his lone acceptance he is in for the long haul. Son thought he should try again but his friend was not willing to risk his OOS public acceptance.</p>
<p>kat</p>
<p>Very surprised that the new MCAT sample test isn’t free also, texaspg. They had a free one for the old one.</p>
<p>@texaspg
</p>
<p>Because they didn’t get accepted to an in-state school.</p>
<p>Because an OOS public offers a particular program or research opportunity not available at an instate school.</p>
<p>Because the OOS public has a higher ranking or greater prestige. (People are influenced by US News rankings, even if the rankings are rather artificial.)</p>
<p>Because an OOS public is located in an area that’s perceived to be more desirable by the applicant. </p>
<p>Because an OOS public is close(r) to an applicant’s family or significant other than the in-state school.</p>
<p>Plus all sorts of personal reasons I can’t begin to guess.</p>
<p>@wayoutwestmom @katwittens - I can see all sorts of reasons to apply to OOS if the goal is to attend a medical school and they don’t know where they can get in. </p>
<p>I can see someone from Connecticut attending OOS in Texas since the costs for OOS in Texas and instate for CT seem about the same. Many at UT Houston seem to receive a scholarship to make the cost equal to instate which would make it even more cheaper for CT resident who gets in to attend compared to instate.</p>
<p>I can’t see someone who gets into a state school paying an extra 125-150k for OOS State for whatever if they have to borrow the money. It makes no financial sense. Someone using the family bank OTOH…</p>
<p>I agree it makes no financial sense, but having good financial sense is not a pre-requisiste for admission to med school. 
</p>
<p>People make all sorts of decisions that might not be in their best interest all the time. </p>
<p>Just wanted to relay some important info about MCATS. There was a great chart posted by wommom awhile back about which med schools will be accepting the old vs new 2015 MCATS. I just called all the ones on my sons list that stated on the chart that they would either prefer 2015 or will only accept 2015. Of all the once I called only Stony Brook said that they would prefer a 2015 MCATS. Couldn’t get through to Temple and Albany medical college. But ALL the others said that they will take both and there will be no preference given. For example NYU was one of those on the chart that specified 2015 only. They said they will be accepting both. Maybe all these schools changed their policies but whatever the reason is its good news for the kids that are taking MCATS now. </p>
<p>"wowmom - why does anyone want to pay a lot more tuition for an OOS school?
Because they didn’t get accepted to an in-state school.
-Was not this reason for my D. to pick up the most expansive option. She was ready to ateend the cheaper one. But in our State the difference in total price was about the pirce of a car, something in a range of $30k. Because the price for in-state public was the same in the 3rd and 4th year as any private. So, I basically told to forget it and choose the one that she liked the best. It took a bit of repeating, but she got it. Her 4 schools were 2 in-state publics and 2 privates. 2 privates were about the same total price (considering living expence) and about $30k higher than 2 privates. So far so good, will see if it worked out in March of 2015</p>
<p>…again, what constitutes the best decision is different from family to family. While finances were huge considerationin our family for the UG, not so much for the HS and Med. School. So, D’s HS was expensive (but Merit award helped), her UG was tuition free and her Med. School is very expensive, but we have only one payment left to make, so hopefully, debt free.</p>
<p>Why apply to an OOS public?</p>
<p>There are some that take up to half the class from OOS. Some will offer scholarships that bring the tuition down to what an instate student would pay. </p>
<p>I think you also have to take into account why you would want to go to an OOS public. (For those who don’t recognize me after the hiatus I’ve taken lately, I’m finishing up med school at my state public school.)</p>
<p>Recognize that all schools teach virtually the same things because all students are required to pass the same national licensing exams. Passing all those exams allows a graduate to practice in any state (contrast this with law school which has different bar exams for each state for the most part). By and large, I contend that biochem is biochem (as far as preclinical work goes) and inpatient pediatrics wards are inpatient pediatrics wards (as far as clinical work goes, in the eyes of a medical student). Of course I agree with the advice that it is to the applicant’s advantage to apply intelligently to a range of programs that fit their stats. I disagree with adding a category (eg OOS publics) for the sake of adding a category. </p>
<p>Certainly the most pressing issue at this point is to gain admission to med school. I just want to caution you folks participating in this application cycle against coming to the conclusion that there is some correlation with perceived prestige/rigor/whatever of medical school and successfully matching to a residency program in the specialty you choose. Indeed, you can go into any specialty and theoretically match to any program from any medical school in the country.</p>
<p>For that–and many other–reason, I fully support the idea of choosing the medical school that makes the most financial sense. For most folks, that will be their in state public school. Conveniently, for most folks, that also tends to be the one where they have the best chance of being accepted. CC provides a wonderfully skewed view though because somehow it seems like virtually everyone here over the past 5 years has ended up in some prestigious private school. </p>
<p>And if there are multiple admissions offers with similar financial packages, then I think it becomes more of an issue of fit. But you guys have to get in somewhere before you have the luxury of choosing based on fit! </p>
<p>Best of luck to all of you during this complicated process. And hey, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to be a med student next year! (The sarcasm was lost in the typing. Med school is a lot more work than you’re bargaining for!)</p>
<p>Haha, lovely post Kristin…I hope applicants take it to heart. As far as the going to private schools thing… my daughter was offered aid packages at several privates that equaled or was better than her state school. Pritzger offered 40k a year, but their high COA made that cost more than a couple of other schools…go figure. She ended up at a private that is equal to what her instate would have been. And yes, she picked the school based on fit. Good luck on your match! </p>