Before we offer help, there are some typical questions that you need to answer:
Most students come out of the MCAT feeling they didn’t do well, it’s just the nature of the beast. Just start formulating your list and writing secondaries. When the score comes back, you can then adjust as necessary.
For informational purposes this cycle…2 applicants here…same extracurriculars.
lizzym 77 applied to 22 schools 9 II 8 attended. 6 acceptances 2 waitlist (which will ultimately become rejections at this point) attending a t30
lizzym 72 applied to 22 6 II 6 acceptances. Attending a t10
Both are two smart kids who submitted competitive applications and had a successful application cycle. Congrats to both applicants. But how do two applicants attending different school have same ECs?
@jugulator20, I didn’t see where @liNYandnePA said they attended different schools.
@CottonTales: I took attending t30 and t10 to mean their current college, not which med school they will be attending. My bad if I misunderstood.
@Jugulator20, I see what you mean. It could be taken either way. OP?
I am new at this, so I apologize if my jargon is off.
Since I last posted, I have worked on a list reach/target schools using MSAR and prospective doctor medical chance predictor. Also subscribed to US News Compass, but was not pleased they had the old MCAT scores listed. Trying to now determine residency match rates for medical school to figure out which med schools might be stronger than others, but seems hard to find.
Thanks and I’m sorry for the confusion. They attended the same UG. T10 and T30 are the med schools which are in the same city. Similar Ecs because they we’re together for 4 years so they ended up recruiting each other into their own interests.
Thanks for clearing up. Again congrats to your children.
@Belle315
Re post #207
Belle,
Thanks for providing some very good advice and we plan on following much of it. I did want to point out that I think that we have found a way of leveling (to a certain degree) the playing field with those from very wealthy backgrounds. My NMF d accepted a full ride scholarship at a large university that had a very good honors program and offered paid research positions to many in the honors program starting their freshman year. So, she has the research experience as well as the benefit of having some smaller introductory classes. She has been Captain of the Dance Team (not available usually at smaller colleges), leadership position in Sorority, and applying for one in professional fraternity as well as volunteering in health field 2x/ week since freshman year. She hopes to be published at the end of this year for her research. She did land a very good research position this summer at a top medical school- largely as the result of the research she has done through the Honors Dept.
The biggest disadvantage has been the larger classes and little interaction with professors for getting letters of recommendation. I read a blog from a Harvard pre-med student and she discussed this seminar class with 15 students that met all year. Something like that has a great opportunity for getting to know your professors, them getting to know you, and writing a very good recommendation. And it appears the small classes at the more exclusive universities provide plenty of opportunity for that. And, of course, we don’t have the connections you speak of and that I have seen that my daughter’s friend has whose parent is CEO of Fortune 500 company has.
One of the biggest advantages is that her full-ride scholarship has allowed her to have a really full college experience without worrying about cost. She was able to study abroad (partial scholarship), do a medical trip over Spring Break, and have extra funds for Dance Team and Sorority.
Overall, I think that Honors programs at the large universities offer some of the best opportunities to be had for middle-class students. If someone can’t afford a top 30 university (without taking on large debt), I think these programs help make students competitive in medical school admissions. Additionally, getting scholarship funding can free-up some money to help pursue ECs that help a person’s med school application.
“2. The application process heavily favors the wealthy and connected. I’ll probably get some blowback from this, but it’s my perspective, and mine only. Getting into medical school is both a very long marathon and a full out sprint at the same time. You have to start early with things like shadowing, research, volunteering, leadership positions, etc. Those with family members who are physicians have a leg up in two major ways. First, they know to a much greater extent what the student needs to do and when. Second, they have connections in the medical/research world that make it much, much easier to get access to the most impressive ECs. My daughter’s bff at college is the daughter of a doctor. He was able to pull some strings to get her a plum research assistant position there the summer BEFORE she entered as a freshman. Although he lives across the country, he had the financial means to set her up in an apartment each summer and pay her living expenses so she could continue to volunteer in the lab full time. Another one of D’s friends has a father on the Forbes 100 list. I don’t think I need to go into detail about how his name opened door after door for his D. If you are neither upper middle class (or above) or well connected, be prepared that medical schools do not care at all about how much help an applicant did or did not receive along the way.”