<p>How does my daughter go about formulating a tentative application list? She will be taking her MCAT in April, so by the time her score comes back she will only have a couple of weeks to finalize the list. She will have an approximate GPA of course and geographical preferences, but other than that, if you don't know if your MCAT will be a 28 or a 38, where do you start?</p>
<p>My method:</p>
<p>1) Apply to all state schools and schools in your state (Missouri, SLU, *didn’t bother applying to WashU)
2) Apply to any schools that have something unique you want (Catholic/Jesuit–Georgetown, (SLU), Loyola, Creighton)
3) Apply to some that fit your stats range (30S/3.8–Drexel, (Creighton,) (Loyola,) (SLU,) (Missouri,) UVA, Boston)
4) Throw in a few elites with programs you like (Northwestern, Harvard, Mayo, Duke)
5) Round it out with the rest from cities you’re already applying to (eg, since I applied to Harvard, I also applied to Tufts and Boston)</p>
<p>Ended up with: Boston, Creighton, Drexel, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Loyola, Mayo, Mizzou, Northwestern, SLU, Tufts, UVA</p>
<p>Results: Interviews at Mizzou, Northwestern, Mayo, and Duke (Jan). Rejected from Georgetown. Accepted to Mizzou. Subsequently withdrew applications before a potential interview invite from Boston, Tufts, Drexel, UVA, Creighton (apps to all were submitted in September, and as of 12/20 hadn’t heard from any). Would interview at Harvard, Loyola, or SLU (St Louis native) if offered.</p>
<p>I have an account to US News and would be happy to share login info with you only, GAMOM. PM me if you’re interested–the numbers really help a lot!</p>
<p>Pssst… kristin, you already shared! :)</p>
<p>I think I am just confused on how to make the list without any idea of the MCAT score. I guess maybe just make it based on other criteria then pare it down at the last moment whe scores come out?</p>
<p>Seems like a reasonable plan to me. Did she take the ACT? My advisor mentioned that MCAT score is usually +/- 2 from the ACT, which held true for me and most of my friends. Maybe you can use that as a guideline.</p>
<p>Hmmm, that is interesting. She got a 33, one and done. Thanks, I’ll suggest she uses that as an initial starting point. She is a URM, so not so sure how to figure that factor in as well. Ugh, so many things to take into account! Maybe I can get curm to adopt her for the next year since he obviously did a good dad job. :)</p>
<p>* My advisor mentioned that MCAT score is usually +/- 2 from the ACT, which held true for me and most of my friends. Maybe you can use that as a guideline. *</p>
<p>If you took the SAT, can you convert to an ACT score and then use that? Or does SAT not have the same guideline?</p>
<p>"if you don’t know if your MCAT will be a 28 or a 38, where do you start? "</p>
<p>-You can approximate. On average it is known to be couple points below the BEST practice test score. It was exactly that for my D. Also, if you do not have your own personal criteria, talk to pre-med advisor. They are the best since they know history of kids with certain stats getting into specific Med. School from thier UG.</p>
<p>^
Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, D’s school is in transition of having an official pre-med advisor, so she is basically flying solo, with a little help from cc friends.</p>
<p>Kristin…</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your strategy. Very well thought out. :)</p>
<p>Kristin’s plan is about perfect. The only thing I would tweak would be to consider the possibilities of some State Schools that have shown a willingness to admit OOS applicants - Look towards small population states that don’t categorically restrict to only in-state students (from up close and personal experience I can offer Nebraska and Arkansas as examples of extremely welcoming schools) and then some of the really large schools in the Big 10 conference - Michigan and Indiana in particular have huge entering classes each year.</p>
<p>If you are an URM, then I think taking a gamble on some of the more elite schools is worthwhile, and certainly all of the med schools affiliated with HBCU’s (Morehouse, Howard and Meharry) should be considered even if you are URM but not African-American. </p>
<p>As a former Kaplan MCAT instructor, I will co-sign on the ACT +/- 2 in terms of giving a range for possible MCAT score, though when you really think about it, it’s probably not difficult to put people in a box that encompasses a range of 5.</p>
<p>Bigred…thanks for the info about welcoming OOS publics.</p>
<p>Are any of the Catholic med schools easier to get into?</p>
<p>Just curious like mom2collegekids, if you convert SAT to ACT then use the said +/-2 rule would that be valid too?</p>
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<p>^^^ I don’t think you can really use the SAT to predict MCAT scores like you can with the ACT, because the SAT’s don’t have a science section. I guess you can use SAT verbal for the MCAT verbal section. I think if you have around a 750 on the SAT verbal, you should be able to score a 12 on the verbal section…or at least I hope thats the case.</p>
<p>I gave lollybo a quick warning here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065111067-post195.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065111067-post195.html</a></p>
<p>Kristin and I have a discussion starting with post #433:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/930486-2010-2011-med-school-applicants-their-parents-11.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/930486-2010-2011-med-school-applicants-their-parents-11.html</a></p>
<p>I insisted that she play it very, very safe – turned out to be unnecessary! (But I still insist it was a good idea at the time!)</p>
<hr>
<p>The bottom line is that it’s pretty much impossible to compose such a list without an MCAT score. Fortunately there shouldn’t be much need to do so right right now – if you absolutely did have to start in on that early, then what you’d have to do is make a list that prepared for all contingencies.</p>
<p>Talk me through the timing.</p>
<p>What year does your daughter want to start medical school, and when does she plan on taking the MCAT?</p>
<p>“As a former Kaplan MCAT instructor, I will co-sign on the ACT +/- 2 in terms of giving a range for possible MCAT score”</p>
<p>-Interesting that not only my D’s MCAT score was 2 points below her best practice test, it was also ACT +2. So, both of them seems to be applicable to approximate.</p>
<p>-In regard to strategy, I am a firm believer that it is very personal. My D’s strategy has worked very well, although most have disagreed with her major #1 criteria - 4.5 hours driving from home. She was very strong on this even in regard to schools suggested by her pre-med advisor, although she has relied on his opinion a lot. So, do not disregard your own personal desires, they are very important.</p>
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<p>BDM, she is planning on taking the MCAT in April, applying next cycle, and starting med school Fall 2012. Her preference is to stay in the Northeast.</p>
<p>Another thing to note is that it seems like all of these programs are much more similar than different–so really, you can’t go wrong. I had a lot of reservations about deciding because I kept thinking, “What if I’m missing a great school that would be a great fit?” I’m pretty sure if that were the case, you’d know about it anyway. That’s even carried through to the interviews, so I’m confident that wherever I end up I’m going to be thrilled. I made it a point to only apply to schools I’d absolutely go to if it was my only choice, and consequently each new interview is a really exciting invitation!</p>
<p>mom2–thanks for the compliment. Happy to give credit where it’s due, and for the most part I just combined much of the advice I received here–so really, I just condensed it into 5 steps. You’ll notice on that thread Mike posted that there are definitely a few pages devoted to me and my schools list. Might be a good reference for you.</p>
<p>Whoever mentioned the Catholic thing: I applied to 4 Catholic schools (love their philosophy, plus I’ve always gone to Catholic schools except for college) and must say…I think they put a lot of weight on the MCAT. Georgetown makes it very clear that unless you have something extremely awesome on your app (and I didn’t, in their eyes!), don’t bother applying if any MCAT subscore is <10. SLU also seems to informally make a round of paper cuts at about 32–my friends with 32+ have received interviews and acceptances within weeks of applying (we’re all in state), and us with 31 or lower have yet to hear anything. According to my friends at Loyola, they’re slow to offer interviews to anyone, but interview through April and accept through August. Don’t have much to offer about Creighton or any others!</p>
<p>And to Mike especially, and all the rest of you generally: thanks for the help putting together my list–I’m confident that mine was the broadest but most well thought out of any of my friends applying, and it’s definitely paying off. Hard to complain about a December acceptance and interviews at my top 4 schools!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info about Catholic Meds. My kids also have gone to Catholic K-12, so I know that my son will be applying to the Catholic Meds. Good to know about the Georgetown issues…we’ll have to see how he does on MCAT to know whether that might work or not.</p>
<p>Oh, that timing should be fine (maybe a little hurried, but she shouldn’t have to apply “blind”). Once we get a better idea of her MCAT range on her final few practice tests, we can start preparing for the “best” and “worst” case scenarios.</p>
<p>Make sure you scour the Student Doctor Network forums too. CC is good for the undergrad search, but that place is gold for application advice, tips, and tricks. It helped me learn more about specific med schools from their students (and some of their advisors are even on there) before I applied than I could have found out elsewhere.</p>
<p>I’ll disagree on the MCAT/ACT correlation… Aside from the tests being quite different, I (nor most people I know from my cycle) did not fall in that pattern. The score ranges are also different. It’s really pretty impossible to predict your MCAT score based of anything other than practice tests, and even then I wouldn’t think too much into it. The mental stress isn’t worth it, just try to take a mind vacation and hold off on too much list-formulating until the score comes in. I’ll cross my fingers for her that she got a 40+ though :).</p>