<p>That IS interesting Curm. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…</p>
<p>Maybe OP’s son should consider 1 or 2 of those?? With an outstanding GPA and tough major maybe “he could be a contenda” for one of those scholies and with an ensuing low, low tuition.</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids that might be worth putting 1/2 of those on your son’s list for possibility and tuition.</p>
<p>Maybe Vanderbilt, nice locale, great school and I bet they would like his numbers.</p>
<p>Still thinking…</p>
<p>Kat</p>
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</p>
<p>^ is what I meant when I said…</p>
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<p>And it sounds like he does have some criteria, he just might not recognize it–eg sounds like he wants to be near home (you mentioned UAB would be a dream…) and is interested in the Catholics. These two things might mean that he wants a school in the South and/or one that values the approach to patient care the Catholic schools take. Knowing those two things, he could narrow his list pretty substantially. Trust me I understand wanting to go to med school no matter what and thus applying broadly, but when it comes down to it…you really have to figure out if being in an area you don’t like and being stuck with a curriculum that doesn’t work well for you is really worth it. </p>
<p>I bet you’ll be surprised to find that he actually does have preferences, even if he doesn’t realize it now–which is why I think it’s important to figure those out soon, so you won’t waste your time applying to schools you wouldn’t want to go to. (Eg in retrospect, Northwestern was a waste of a good chunk of time and money (at least $1000) because I didn’t want to live in a big urban area–had I thought that through more in the beginning, I could have used those resources to apply to a school that fit my preferences more.)</p>
<p>*What is his personal criteria for choosing?
*</p>
<p>Miami…lol…his criteria for choosing will be an acceptance. ;)</p>
<p>Kidding aside, if he were lucky enough to have 2-3+ acceptances and then have to choose, he’d probably go with location (not be too far away), cost (avoid those $80k per year COAs), facilities, etc.</p>
<p>Well, then I’d say location (not be too far away), cost (avoid those 80k/yr COAs), and facilities should be among the criteria he uses to construct his list!</p>
<p>What’s his candidacy for UAB look like? I’m not familiar with their program, but I suspect they favor UAB undergrads at least a little…</p>
<p>If he’s interested at all in going to a school in the Northeast, I can help you out with schools to look at. I had a very similar GPA and an MCAT score on the upper bound of your range. I applied to many of the private schools in the area and got lots of hits (~70% interview rate from my applications, so I must have chosen schools well). PM me. :)</p>
<p>What’s his candidacy for UAB look like? I’m not familiar with their program, but I suspect they favor UAB undergrads at least a little</p>
<p>Good question. supposedly, UAB isn’t supposed to favor their own undergrads over other Alabama system students because of how things are controlled as to which school has the med school, which one has the law school, etc. But, who knows! </p>
<p>Kat…you’re right…need to consider those schools. :)</p>
<p>Sarah…sent you a PM. :)</p>
<p>*Assuming a MCAT 30-32—what about Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth or University of Vermont?
*</p>
<p>Definitely thinking about those.</p>
<p>What about any NY schools? I’ve heard that they do take OOS. Is that true?</p>
<p>Curmy…which Texas schools take OOS? I’m concerned, though…don’t the Texas SOMs have some odd extra req’ts?? And are you saying that the Texas SOMs throw out $1k merit to OOS so that they can get the instate rate?</p>
<p>Son never took Anatomy. he did take BioChem, Cell Bio, Stats, (lots of math for Eng’g), Genetics, and maybe some other recommended that I’m not thinking about.</p>
<p>Vandy…yes…it’s very close to home (about 90 minutes away). His MCAT may not be high enough though.</p>
<p>What about Emory? Too hard to get into? One of my older son’s friends is attending that SOM.</p>
<p>Only Texas weirdness course-wise is 2 years of Bio. (Maybe a couple other school specific ones. Bio-chem at one school.) And yes. Only 10% of the spots can go to OOS and those students appear to get $1000 scholies with some regularity. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.</p>
<p>NYU could be a possibility.</p>
<p>I know that A&M, Tech, UTSW, UTMB, Houston, and San Antonio take OOS. YOu have the prereqs covered with those classes. And yea, OOS people get 1k scholarship, which lets them have instate tuition.</p>
<p>Re: applying to your university’s med school.</p>
<p>This is just my hunch and my experience, but it seems like kids from that undergrad do get some kind of boost. Maybe it’s just because there’s a good chance the adcom knows the people writing LORs. Maybe it’s because he shadowed someone who was formerly on the adcom. Maybe it’s because they know what he’s talking about when he mentions volunteer work in the community. If he’s interested in staying, maybe they like it that he’s already shown enough interest in UAB to go there for undergrad too. Maybe it’s because they know that an engineering major from UAB with a 3.99 is more impressive than it looks. Maybe they can tell he took the notoriously most difficult classes. Maybe they have a nice, unspoken context for his application that they don’t get from applicants from other schools. </p>
<p>Just saying, I go to the SOM at the university where I went to UG. There are wayyyy too many kids from my UG in my class (and in the classes above me) for it to just be some coincidence. I think there’s something else going on. And for your kiddo’s sake, I hope the same is true at UAB!</p>
<p>But her kid doesn’t go to UAB. He goes to the University of Alabama. A different school. In Tus-ca-loos-a, Al-a-bam-a. ;)</p>
<p>"Miami…lol…his criteria for choosing will be an acceptance. "</p>
<p>-This is very broad. My D. was much more specific, but she could afford, I suppose.
Well, in this case, it is not that hard. Just match your stats to stats of accepted applicants and apply to all that match, if criteria is so broad. My D. met one girl who applied 127 Med. Schools. I had only one question, why not all? But seriously, there is no reason to apply where stats are much higher and no reason where stats are much lower as he does not have specific criteria for potential Merit scholarship.<br>
So, he does not even care where he will be living for 4 years? Most people have preferences, including more specific ones, like having a car, certain student body,…etc.</p>
<p>Kristin…</p>
<p>My son goes to Alabama…he doesn’t go to UAB. Alabama is the flagship in Tuscaloosa. UAB is part of the UA system, but it’s not the same school. It’s like UCI, UCLA, UCSB, and UCSD…same UC system, different schools. </p>
<p>I know it’s confusing because it’s called The University of Alabama School of Medicine, but it’s on UABs campus.</p>
<p>When does he get his score?</p>
<p>I am so very bad at waiting…</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>-This is very broad. My D. was much more specific, but she could afford, I suppose.</p>
<p>I was joking…what I meant was that at this point, we don’t know if he’ll have a choice to make. We’ll be thrilled with one acceptance. He’s open to applying to any schools where he’d have the best chance (even tho all chances are slim.)</p>
<p>I know that your D had a distance req’t and that’s completely understandable. I could see that my son might <em>want</em> to be within a few hours drive from home, but with admissions such an unknown and only a tiny number within a few hours drive, that may not be an option. </p>
<p>UAB and Vandy are about 1-2 hours away.
Emory is about 4 hours away
Tulane and USA are about 6-7 hours away</p>
<p>The other ones that are within that distance are OOS publics that don’t take any/many OOS students.</p>
<p>^Your S. should have a list of his own personal criteria which will definitely help to sort schools out. Then, once you have your stats (GPA, MCAT, EC’s,…etc.) he would have an idea where his stats match, so it will be very clear. Nobody expects to be accepted to all schools applied, but if he has a reasonable list based on above, he should expect few choices. And if he has doubts at the end, I strongly recommend to visit again during Second Look event. I just described the steps that my D. went thru, I do not know any other way. However, she had her own criteria pretty much cut in stone, she would not deviate even on recommendations from her pre-med advisor, let alone anybody else, and many in her place would have made a very different choice, she did not care a bit. There was no input from us at all, although I had to convince her to forget about price tag, erase from consideration.</p>
<p>
I learned something new from CC today. This particular med school was in DS’s (and several of his friends’s) radar screen last year. He said it is a very good med school.</p>
<p>BTW, I always thought that a med school is in a good position if it is on the campus of an UG college. The college is where there are more buzzing activities (and possibly where you have easier access to more varieties of food – You do not want to eat “hospital food” as long as you can – hopefully not until the residency!)</p>
<p>I heard that TAMU and Texas Tech are on the campus of its affiliated university. If the campus is in a “nice” city, an extra bonus point. (The towns where these two campus are at are too small.)</p>
<p>In nTexas at least, if a city gets the flagship state university, it will not get a medical school. I guess it is fair, because a city should not get all the “goodies.”</p>
<p>*When does he get his score?</p>
<p>I am so very bad at waiting…</p>
<p>Kat*</p>
<p>Me too!!</p>
<p>The end of this month! He just tested on Saturday. He felt really good during the exam. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>I learned something new from CC today. This particular med school was in DS’s (and several of his friends’s) radar screen last year. He said it is a very good med school.</p>
<p>MCAT…Yes…the SOM is very good. </p>
<p>I think the med school may have originally been in Tuscaloosa but was moved to Birmingham a long time ago…probably because it’s a much larger city, int’l airport super close by, etc. There is a SOM building on UAlabama’s campus, but it’s for the family practice and rural med rotation I believe. </p>
<p>The UA system Chancellor does want more med students on the Tuscaloosa campus so I don’t know if more specialty rotations will be there at some point or not.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^ This played a factor in son’s decision last year as well!! (med school being on undergrad campus)
Son’s med school is at the state flagship and is known to be “somewhat” of a sports school UG, guess that’s why they call it chapel THRILL!</p>
<p>Basketball tix are by lottery but he “won” for every game he wanted to attend, and had a blast (med students get priority!). Tailgating for football was fun, it was a wonder he had time to attend class!</p>
<p>Temps are in the high 80s today so he is out by the pool “reviewing” his lecture on his laptop, with his buddy corona, after he went for a run and had greek on franklin street. Rough, real rough. Slow week he says. He is enjoying med school waaaayyyyy too much.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I know this may sound silly, but if you go on Facebook and put in “xxx school of medicine class of 2016” you can then see what UG’s the students went to. Obviously it is very unscientific, but you would be surprised at the trends you will see at the various schools.</p>