<p>DD received her MCAT scores this week-36S. YAY!!! So now that we know that, I said I would ask the very knowledgeable and helpful people on this board for some Med school suggestions.</p>
<p>Current Junior- will be applying to enter med school directly upon graduating undergrad
Cum.GPA 3.97 (b+ in one semester of physics)
All the usual shadowing, volunteering and research
IL resident, attends school in NOLA</p>
<p>D said she would like to attend a school where the students are NOT cut throat. More laid back. She is definitely a wanderer and while it may make the most sense money-wise to attend a state school here in IL, I am not sure I see her being happy returning home to attend school. Who knows? So far, I have heard her mention Baylor and Emory(UG dream school but decided to attend where she received the best scholarship). As for what area of medicine she is attracted to? Not sure yet but she does say she wants a life also so she is realistic about what areas would allow that. </p>
<p>Any other suggestions would be appreciated. It will give her some ideas to start investigating.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>copy pasted from another thread. </p>
<p>i would apply to a good number of top tier schools that give full tuition merit scholarships. off the top of my head, mayo, northwestern, vanderbilt, michigan, chicago, penn, washu, case.</p>
<p>none of these schools are known to be cutthroat</p>
<p>^I’d personally consider NU and WashU to be pretty cutthroat, but that might just be me. Congrats on a great score! Good luck. Apply intelligently and you should definitely find a seat somewhere that you’d be happy to go :)</p>
<p>My advice would be to think critically about what you’re looking for (start by thinking about how you like to learn and what kind of environment you like best) and then work to find programs that fit those criteria. Not all med schools are created equally, but all of them are “good enough” for anybody who is qualified to be an MD. Enjoy the search!</p>
<p>OP, cograts, great score and great GPA, your D. is all set to choose what she likes.
“D said she would like to attend a school where the students are NOT cut throat.”</p>
<p>-I believe that she will have choices of “her” crowd at ANY place. it is great to learn how to deal with any type of personalities. At D’s school, it is the reason, why they are purposely re-assigned different groups every block. The last block (which happened to be academically the most challenging so far), she had to deal with very “intense” (her vocabulary) crowd. She was fair about it though. She was pushed a bit over the edge. On the other hand, she said that it is very valuable experience as she has been avoiding people like this her entire life instead of choosing to deal with them. At some point of life everybody is pushed to deal with different personalities, the earlier, the better. It is better to learn at school…school is NOT just for academic learning, it is also for personal development…if person is taking advantage of all opportunities and if school is “smart” enough to present them with various opportunties to grow.
Do not be afraid, just plunge, choose the best match, but be prepared to find that it is never 100%. D. was also choosing based on criteria of certain student body and she said that it is slightly different from school to school, so your D. is correct, but it is never 100%. NU was one of my D’s top choices and she was leanning towards this school, but flipped her decision after Second Look event at both “finalist” schools. Apparently, location was very important for my D. and she did not care for Chicago, but it was not the main reason. She said, that programs are also different and some schools appear to focus on students more than others.<br>
As for current block, my D. got lucky with her group. Well, she has only one more block after this, then rotations, and I strongly believe that many times she will have to deal with various personalities there and it will be more learning, it is a long way…</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice so far. Good point MiamiDAP, I will pass this along to her. Nothing will be 100% but she would like to start with a school that isnt known to have super intense students. I told her about choosing how she would like to learn and her response was " I am not sure, I always just did what I had to do. Weird to think I can choose…" She will have to put some thought into it. She is in Spain right now and has more free time than usual so I thought she could begin looking at schools in her downtime. She is hoping to be able to maintain the GPA through this travel abroad experience.</p>
<p>Keep the suggestions coming. Love the help</p>
<p>^Another plus to her in regard to being in Spain (BTW my D. was also abroad right before she started her Med. School). Spanish is equal to more opportunties at Med. School and I bet later also. D. was lucky to be chosen for trip abroad in June where they had great opportunties and were allowed to do more than here in the USA. The trip had less spots than number of applicants. She has no idea how they choose, but I think that her Spanish was a big plus. They had to use Spanish there not only speaking but also translating for docs if needed. The trip could also be counted as rotation, they had MS3’s there in the same group.</p>
<p>She just said earlier this morning that being able to do a rotation abroad would be part of her list of wants in a med school. Very cool for your D to have been chosen Miami. D wants to travel alot in the future. She has already spent a bit of time on Docs without borders website so I see that kind of volunteerism in her future. She went on a medical mission trip to belize recommended my Kristin here on CC and loved it.</p>
<p>^Sorry, she is not at Miami, we are not anywhere close to FL, we are in OH. My D. has done significant traveling in her life also, to some very far places on some relatelvely long trips, mostly for R&R and cultural learning, but during the last one with group of docs and med. students she was working at clinics and it was very rewarding.</p>
<p>Sorry MiamiDAP, at work and didnt type out your whole name. I didnt mean to insinuate you are in FL, I know you are in OH. DD looked at Miami of OH for UG.</p>
<p>^It is fine, the best to your D! Keep us posted in her progress!</p>