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<p>Members of the armed forces/reserves are allowed to apply if they get permission from their unit. There is no restriction on civilian applicants who meet all requirements.</p>
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<p>You’re wrong westmom. </p>
<p>[F</a>. Edward Hbert School of Medicine - Uniformed Services University](<a href=“http://www.usuhs.mil/medschool/somfaq.html#10]F”>http://www.usuhs.mil/medschool/somfaq.html#10)</p>
<p>Columbia,
You are incorrect in belief that we are experts here. There plenty info on Internet with contact numbers at each Med. School and statistics for each. I would recommend to research every possible school in details, if you want to have this kind of info. I also strongly believe that you are wasting your time, there is no easy to enter MD/DO school in the USA. But you are in big fog if you think that this is hardest aspect. Nope, keeping up with academics at every MD/DO school is the hardest part, not getting accepted.</p>
<p>Columbia, in order to matriculate at USUHS you must enlist in a branch of the armed forces. You’re asked on your application and again at your interview to rank your preferences for which service you want to enlist in. Civilians may be able to apply, but only military (or PHS) personnel can enroll. (If accepted to USUHS and you plan to attend, you will have to report earlier than the first day of class so you can be inducted and go thru some minimal basic training. The summer after MS1 is officer training school.)</p>
<p>Please–D1 got as far as the preliminary interview and balked since she didn’t want to go military and she was told her application to join the PHS wasn’t likely to get her accepted since the number of slots allotted to the PHS was in the low single digits.</p>
<p>Being semi-retired, I have some free time. I researched a few of the medical schools that are claimed to have acceptance rates of 30-45%. I found that the figure is more like 18-20%.
Keeping in mind that the basic prerequisites for medical school are more stringent than those for most other fields of postgraduate study, I think we can say that these medical schools are
reasonably selective. Having worked with medical students in America and Ireland, I find the sneering comment ‘anyone with a pulse’ to be arrogant and offensive. Medical school admission committees are usually averse to accepting students who are lacking in tolerance and empathy.</p>
<p>Some comments/attitudes on this thread are more suitable for SDN than CC :eek:</p>
<p>And that’s another thing why does the student doctor network have a bad rap for?</p>
<p>SDN = Super Duper Neurotic</p>
<p>Where anyone who has under 4.0/38 and has fewer than 3 Science first author publications, 2000 hours of clinical experience, 200+ hours of shadowing AND cured cancer is never going to get into med school.</p>
<p>^Also, you better apply to at least 37 schools (including ~10 DO and 3-4 Caribbean) regardless of your stats. I mean, you just never know man. And obviously the best people to analyze what astonishingly vague aspects of your app you choose to broadcast over the internet are other undergrads themselves–didn’t you know that if you join SDN, you’re automatically as knowledgeable as a seasoned admissions committee member, and thus qualified to crush dreams of premeds everywhere?</p>
<p>But seriously, WOWMom, you think 200 shadowing hours is enough? Any person with a pulse could get that many. You probably need close to twice that if you’re even going to have a shot at your state school, let alone the lower-tier privates (might as well not even bother with elite schools). And what about leadership and volunteer experience? I sure hope you forgot to mention that you are the student body president and started an after school program for underprivileged youth or something…if not, you might consider a gap year (don’t kill me for suggesting it! Who knows, it might be really eye-opening; you could spend another year volunteering in an ER or getting your EMT certification–sure ways to prove that you’re in it for the long haul). </p>
<p>(for the record, my SDN tag is different than my CC tag…and my post count there is 3)</p>
<p>hoping S2 will avoid sdn until later in the process! think it will be helpful in finding secondary questions, perhaps info on the “feel” of a school, interview process etc.though</p>
<p>Only trust “feel” of school comments from actual students.</p>
As different caliber applicants appliy to each place (while difference is really minimal, there is still a difference between college GPA = 3.7 and 3.9) and every place has about 5000 applicants for about 200 spots (or less), I do not see how one place could be less competitive than another. It is like races are in different heats - in swimming, there are 6 - 8 swimmers in each heat. Heats are put together based on a swimmer’s personal best time. Who is to say that the fastest heat is more cmpetitive than the slowest? Surely for competitiors, there is still only one heat winner and only one who took a second place and so forth. So, applicant is still competing for the same number of spots with the same number of applicants at the “best” place and at the lowest ranked place. But just as for the fast swimmer it would take no effort to win in the slow heat, the same here. If a very high caliber applicant applied to a very low ranked school, he has a better chance, that is if adcom does not decide that the applicant is such a mismatch that to invite him to an interview would be a complete waste of time as he would not choose this school. This type of thinking actually is very common during residency application, maybe not so much in Med. school application cycle.
On the other note, to be accepted at any American Med. School is a great accomplishement (including DO schools)
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I’m not sure why this thread was resurrected, but I’m closing it. Old threads should be used only for research. Answered questions should be posted in a new discussion.