Here is one piece of advice I give to accepted med students in choosing a medical school: if you have a good idea what field or specialty you want to go into, look at the med school’s match list over the past 2-5 years (if available). For example, the three O’s are the most difficult to match (ortho, otolaryngology, ophtho). A med school with 4-6 students matching every year consistently in those specialties is much better that 1-2 student matching in those fields.
Match lists are not a very useful tool for picking a med school because who gets matched into 3 “O” specialties is much, much more directly related to the student’s med school performance rather than a function of the school attended. Match lists don’t tell you anything about student performance. A wannabe ortho, otolaryngology, ophtho student who picks a med school because of match lists and ends up with say a 210 Step 1, negative evals in his/her MSPE, etc is almost certainly going to be making other post med school plans than 3 “O”.
^^I was going to post much the same thing. Match lists are not useful for choosing a medical school. Match lists are much more a reflection of the individual students’ interests and achievements than the “quality” of the school attended.
Choose a med school for the fit and finances, not because you liked the look of last year’s match list.
Well, I guess I have a skewed view where I serve on a med school admissions committee where the average admitted MCAT is 36. I should have clarified my post. Agree completely that fit and finances should drive the final decision.
UPDATE! 2nd interview invite…thank goodness…
I was looking at a list of admitted students and found it quite interesting in terms how varied the ages are. Some of them graduated 9-10 years ago from college.
@redyellowblue - how about the step 1 score average?
Step 1 scores correlate with MCAT scores of admitted students. The med school that I interview for has a Step 1 average of 239. Most competitive med schools will post their match list and Step 1 scores. I think another factor in deciding which med school to apply/attend is obviously their curriculum. Is the first year or two truly a Pass/Fail grading system?
@redyellowblue like most schools in the top 25 or 30 have moved to pass/fail at least for the first year.
However, there are only so many seats at those schools. Most medical school aspirants are aspiring to make the cut at their instate financial safeties and money matters a great deal in the end…
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Usually if there’s a committee, you dont need specific teacher letters. I think son’s committee required 3 to 5 letters. He submitted 4. 1 from professor that taught him in sophomore and junior year, one from his advisor and head of his research lab, one from the doctor he shadowed, and 1 from a doctor he worked 3 summers for.
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my son similar for committee,…2 from profs, 1 from on-campus research, 1 from summer research, and 1 from shadowing
@bajamm “She has interviewed other places, also, so she will wait a bit to hear back from them before she decides how to handle this acceptance. She is just relieved that she will be a doctor.”
she may need to deposit soon. That’s fine to deposit now. She can still “really” decide later when she hears back from others (and deposits there as well). She can hold multiple acceptances with deposits until some later date (April? May? don’t remember exact date. She’ll get her MD deposits backs from the schools she ultimately declines.
Yep, @mom2collegekids there is a $1000 deposit, $500 of it due within a month of the acceptance. The rest is due in May. She hasn’t paid yet, though will soon.
DO deposits are usually non-refundable and are much higher than the $100 required by MD schools.
None of the MD schools D has mentioned is at the $100 deposit level. They have been all over the place. One doesn’t require any deposit at all.
That’s strange. All the 26 schools that son applied to have a $100 deposit according to MSAR
@bajamm That’s strange. Are those Texas MD schools? I’ve never seen AMCAS MD schools require more than $100 and it’s always refundable.
Because it’s one of the rules schools agree to when they become part of AMCAS.
AMCAS Traffic Rule #7:
https://www.aamc.org/download/364264/data/2014trafficrules.pdf
@mom2collegekids D has not applied to any schools in Texas. She has applied to 25ish schools, mostly MD schools, though there are a few DO schools in there.
I have tried hard to not be a helicopter parent in this. I just offer support when she asks without offering it. So, she made her list herself with out help from me. I may be a bit confused which schools are MD and which are DO. I do know she has told me that only 5 of her applications were to DO schools. So, when she starts talking about deposits, my mind goes the MD route since that is where the majority of her Apps are. That may be my mistake.
I am certain that the school without a deposit is an MD school.
Happy to report that I got an excited text from DS about the school where he almost didn’t interview. Apparently, the campus is beautiful, the city is interesting, the fellow students are friendly. It is now his second choice. It just goes to show that it is sometimes worth a closer look.
Is anyone thinking of getting their future Med Student a holiday gift in this “theme”? I am considering a nice stethoscope?
Don’t buy a stethoscope!
Why?
- many med schools/alumni associations give students a stethoscope as a White Coat gift
- med schools offer special discounted prices on stethoscope/otoscope/ophthalmoscope sets to new med students thru the bookstore
- med students really don’t use stethoscopes during MS1 & 2 unless the school does early clinical exposure
- a stethoscope is personal preference kind of thing (stethoscopes come in different sizes and have different sound quality)
(Also once the student does to get clinic, there are always stethoscopes, ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes lying around in exam rooms.)
Save buying a nice stethoscope until student has had time to try several different styles & brands and has some idea about what specialty s/he wants to pursue.
Suggestions:
Amazon gift card (to buy supplemental texts and study guides)
Apple/Google Play gift card (to buy medical apps)
a promise of cleaning/maid service or food delivery for next year
grocery store or restaurant gift cards
Starbucks gift cards
clothing store gift cards (for professional clothes they'll need to see patients in clinic)
note-taking app/software
new laptop and/or tablet (be aware, however, that the school may have specialized hardware/software requirements so the device can interface with the hospital's network)
If you want to get something medically-themed--
a plushie of their favorite organ
<a href="http://iheartguts.com/collections/plush-organs">http://iheartguts.com/collections/plush-organs</a>
something with the staff of Asclepius
a set of personal scrubs (though students get free clean scrubs at the hospital from a dispenser so long as they're returned their previous set)