<p>I am trying to stay as far away as possible from getting involved in this area of my D's life right now. It is just too overwhelming! She recently took her MCAT and, after talking to her for months about it and noting her stress leading up to it, I now realize just how stressful all of this has been for me! I have so much anxiety about the process, you'd think I was going through it myself! Am I the only one? How have you parents in this situation handled your own anxieties and stress levels? How can I best help my D at this point? I'm just trying to be really supportive and positive with her, and I think that's done some good -- for both of us.</p>
<p>My D is taking the MCAT this summer and applying next year, you might look at the pre-med topics on this forum and find the student doctor forum which is busier and has more details:
Student</a> Doctor Network Forums
I am not sure i am allowed to post the link, so if it disappears, just Google it.</p>
<p>You can read a lot of postings and get a feel for the realities of it so you know how to be supportive</p>
<p>I just finished this process, and fortunately my son will be starting medical school in a little over a month. Here are some thoughts.
This is a very long and grueling process, much more so than undergrad, so expect this to last a long time. Between filling out 15 to 20 applications, interviews, etc., this will take most of senior year. In addition, the students do just about everything, so about all you can do is get some status reports and chip in where they welcome some help. Here are the few areas where we provided help:
1. They need to prepare a personal statement for the AMCAS application that goes to every school. We reviewed a draft and offered a few comments. Then, they have to write additional essays for each school they apply to (usually between 10 and 20). We didn't look at those, but occasionally we'd talk about what he could write about if he was stuck.
2. I helped, becase my son wanted it, pick the list of schools to apply to. There is a book put out by the central organization that lists every medical school, the statistics how who gets in, and critically, how many out of state students they take. We just went through the book together and worked out a list.
3. When, hopefully, they get interviews, we helped put together the outfit, and I helped with some of the travel arrangements, although he got eventually quite good at that. </p>
<p>There isn't much else you can really do, and you won't relax until that first acceptance arrives. So just prepare for a long grind!</p>
<p>I went through this process almost 20 years ago with my MD husband. It was grueling. My advice is, give whatever help he will accept. I kept files, typed applications (yes, on a typewriter), got things to the overnight mail service, etc. We were both working full time, and it took both of us to get this done. He only applied to three schools, ultimately, but still very time-consuming, meticulous work is required to be competitive. No regrets, however! Best wishes!</p>
<p>I don't think it hurts to do what riverrunner suggests and also to research how things work and pass on the info. For example, in surfing med school websites it appears the deadlines are fall and Jan; but once you read the SDN & CC you learn you'd better apply in June and many people are reapplying because they applied too late. So, if you can learn from others sharing, better for your applicant, as they need to be busy acing OChem and curing cancer to have a chance at admissions, they may not have the time to reserach well, too. </p>
<p>These days it seems kids have to apply to 20-30 schools and still 50% of applicants do not get in.</p>
<p>WOW- 50% get in. In my year only 1 in 3 got in, and it was mostly men- we women were getting in more each year, my medical school class doubled the previous year's women (still only 1 in 6 of the class). Never want to go through all of that again... Be prepared to go to medical school in your home state, better there than nowhere. Hope the craziness of undergrad applications doesn't overtake the medical school ones- at least there are rolling admisions (I think) so students can drop one in favor of another sooner so another person can take that place... Started thinking about strategies in picking the schools other than the obvious instate ones- so glad son isn't premed...</p>
<p>Somemom and I are in the same place. What I have been able to do to help so far is wade through the MSAR book she referred to and the websites and make a few calls to verify med school policies on AP credits, dual credits...it is a quagmire of epic proportions. Don't assume aything. Verify everything. I think I have a handle on it somedays, somedays I think I have to just start over. Thank God we live in Texas (lots of in-state schools) . </p>
<p>D is a rising junior and is in the throes of MCAT studies as we speak. She is doing well on practice tests but........this ain't like the SAT or ACT. This thing is for keeps. They don't like retakes. If she is not supremely confident of a score she wants (hitting 2-3 points above that on practice tests with no score below 11) then she will just wait until she is. The process seems made for her as she is quite good at interviews but those supplemental essays are spoooookkkyy. Duke usually has 6 separate ones. </p>
<p>Adding to this stress is her desire to attend a research heavy school, especially one where a research year or years is encouraged. The schools which cater to these kids are supremely difficult to get in. Just hideously hard. Kids have to have the whole package. Time management is an unbelievably important part of the process. 100's of hours of meaningful clinical experience, serious medical research with some recognition, near perfect grades, MCAT above 34 (at least for the top schools), and of course the ever popular "soft factors". </p>
<p>She has some pretty feathers in her cap but it will be the challenge of her life to get in. </p>
<p>It will be difficult but she's ready. Once she gets the MCAT out of the way she will start her personal statement and her 15 EC's, and she'll work on the app throughout her junior year. There is no substitute for hard work. Plan the work, work the plan.</p>
<p>curm, best wishes. If she is bright, compassionate and willing to put in the hours, she'll be just fine. My D1 is 18 and starting down this path. Hard to watch (again!) but the daily rewards of the job make it worth the struggle, at least in our family's experience.</p>
<p>My D is going to be a sophmore and she is already concerned with what the best time to take MCAT (how much time she will need to spend studying?), and when to apply. She is planning to take Kaplan. She would like to apply to few, probably no more than 5 med. schools. She is in bs/md and has a spot at her Med. school as long as she keeps up her grades and gets 27 on MCAT. However, she wants to try to apply out, she is not going to lose her spot doing that. How hard is it to get 27? She knows that to apply to other schools she will need much higher score.</p>
<p>I interview for a (top Ivy) med school. This year I interviewed about 10 candidates- all supremely academically qualified, total overchievers- and 1 was accepted. Last year none of the applicants I interviewed was accepted.
I think I'm bad luck- I should warn them! Seriously, it's over the top ridiculous. Med school is med school. You do NOT need a "top" med school to do well in medicine, or research. If you are seriously interested in research- and MDPhD combo is the way to go, and many schools have this as a possibility.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your inputs thus far! I knew this process would be grueling for my D, but I never expected that I'd be as "up in arms", so to speak, as I am now. You guys are great! Best wishes in your own endeavors, btw!</p>
<p>dufay,
unless you cannot share for confidentality issues, can you let us know what were GPA/MCAT ranges of applicants that you interviewed? Did it matter what undergrad school they are graduating and what other qualities med.school admission was interested (personal skills, their minor in college, internships, volunteering, was research important?....)</p>
<p>My D's applications went out recently.....we shall see how it goes. </p>
<p>Curm pretty much covered it from my viewpoint. The one thing I would add is that with the change in the number of times the MCAT is offered per year there is a bit of a change in the perception that the MCAT can only be taken once. Of course taking the test once and getting a great score is the best case scenario but according to some people in the advising biz a retake is not a deal-breaker. Evenly distributed scores for the sections of the test are significant as well. </p>
<p>One observation I've made this time around is that the range of schools that my daughter and the pre-med advisor at her school came up with is much, much broader in perceived selectivity than when she applied as an undergrad. There seems to be a decent amount of play off of the waitlists.....a couple of the D's friends with 40+ MCAT scores and unbelievable transcripts got in fairly early and got in everywhere. Once that type of student decides where they are going spots open up for the next group down. My niece only recently heard in the affirmative from NYU.</p>
<p>Having undergrad classmates a year ahead of her in the process has been extremely helpful in giving the D a realistic look at where students are getting in (and with what credentials). My daughter's friends seem to be applying to between 12 and 15 schools. My niece applied to eight.</p>
<p>How many schools chosen may depend in part on your in state options; if your home state public(s) are highly ranked (like the UCs) you may have a slim chance of admissions there and I am reading one should go for 20-30 schools. If you are in TX with many in state schools, maybe not so many "safeties"</p>
<p>In reading the SDN board it essentially sounds crazier than UG Ivy admissions by a long shot- 3.6 GPA at a top UG school, what's wrong with you? Less than 40 on the MCAT, good luck. Of course, the kids are brutal on themselves and others, but in looking at the number who reapply a second time, it seems like a tough tough process.</p>
<p>If my D had elected to pursue a UG/MD program and was in somewhere, no way I would suggest she pursue outside apps, it is tedious and expensive. I would tell her to stay where she is, 27 seems "low" for most med schools, so it seems like a great spot to have reserved. Mainly what I read is the majority of med school applicants are going to the school that lets them in, no matter where it is, so maybe your D would be able to be content where she is?? Kaplan is almost $2000 and several weeks (8?12?) MCAT is $200, apps are several hundred up front and more for secondaries plus the cost of interview travel. People have told me to budget $10-15k for the application process :eek: I certainly hope to do it cheaper, but even half that is a large chunk of money!</p>
<p>^ Thanks for advice. I will try to pursue her, it might be not so hard when she realizes what entails to apply out. If she decided to do it anyway, she most likely will apply to very limited number. Actually, she has only 2 schools in mind outside of her program. She will need much higher than 27 for that also.</p>
<p>Good luck to everybody applying this/next year, keep us informed about process and results, please.</p>
<p>BTW-what do you call the person who graduated last in their medical school class? Doctor.</p>
<p>This thread interests me because my own daughter who starts freshman year of college this fall is wrestling with the decision of whether or not to fulfill premed course requirements. We are not a "medical" family but have many friends in the profession who are quite negative about it. This is influencing her quite a bit to give up on this career path. </p>
<p>Just curious what is motivating your kids to go down this road in light of all the bad press surrounding the profession.</p>
<p>Hi mammall,
I pm'd you.</p>
<p>"Just curious what is motivating your kids to go down this road in light of all the bad press surrounding the profession."</p>
<p>The first time I heard about it from my D. was when we were visiting her sick grandmother in a hospital. While there, she announced totally out of blue, "That is where I would like to work". Then, she found out that she really loved Bio classes and other scinces were very easy for her, while anything history/political/economy related she had hardest time with. She started having volunteering in a hospitals, shadowing doctors and working in med. research lab. and loved it all. Still doing a lot of it this summer. She might change her mind still, she is going to be a sophmore in college next year. However, as of now, she does not see herself doing anything else.</p>
<p>I don't have MCATs, but to get an interview these candidates had to be great. They all had extensive volunteer work- including foreign countries- some had lab experience. There were no "red flags" in any of my interviews. As far as I can tell, the admissions board throws the files up in the air and whoever comes down on top gets in.</p>