<p>any input on usual number of applications if going for md/phd (mstp) programs</p>
<p>I did 23 which was considered a little high. I believe 15-20 is the range most people recommend.</p>
<p>thanks iwannabebrown…that was what i thought… …the number accepted for these programs is low so i was worried it could be higher… S2 had mentioned a total of about 20…only 5 of which he seems to have investigated at this point.
i assume those would be divided into reach and match. there is no safety :)</p>
<p>well it might vary a little based on his profile and whether you can entertain non MSTP MD/PhDs. On that list of 23, I think only 2-3 were non MSTP MD/PhDs, at least one of which was still full pay.</p>
<p>True about no real safety. I actually didn’t get interviews at most of my “safety” schools even though I got a few top 20 interviews and ended up at a top 20 school after being invited to interview on their first day and getting accepted at the first meeting of the committee.</p>
<p>My app wasn’t strong enough to be “too good” for those schools. What kind of research the individual departments/profs do is a factor that can affect an applicant’s chances without any bearing on their or the school’s stats.</p>
<p>most likely the majority will be mstp…think he mentioned one that wasnt, but still funded at least partially.</p>
<p>2nd time i’ve seen…“too good” for the school so no interview… pressure on both sides…not good enough, too good, low number of positions…geez</p>
<p>2 more questions for you:1. with the high number of apps did you have any conficts with interview dates…i looked at the interview calender for 2013…a lot of overlap!</p>
<ol>
<li>did you take your gre too? seems most schools dont require it, a few programs could require it, but also if not accepted anywhere would need it. S2 just trying to decide when to take</li>
</ol>
<p>Just to add to mix of answers, DD applied to 11. IIRC, two of those were fully funded, non mstp, and the others were mstp. She never had an interview conflict, but did have some that were back-to-back or very close. Those two day interviews are rough–she missed a lot of classes. However, professors were very kind–communicate, communicate, communicate. I think her most stressful moment was flying back from an interview and her first flight was canceled, as were ALL flights out of the airport(Weather related, but it didn’t seem that bad). She had a big test the next day and was determined to get back. The rental car agencies were not allowing one-way rentals. She found another passenger who needed to get to the same hub, and they split a two-hour taxi ride and made the next flight.</p>
<p>note I said that I don’t think I was “too good” especially since of those 23 schools, I only got 9 interview invites, canceled 3 of them, and ended up with only two acceptances and two wait lists that I didn’t bother to stay on (in contrast to one kid I met at a 2nd look who ended up with something like 12 acceptances from 16 interviews out of 18 apps. To top it off, this kid went to some small liberal arts college I’d literally never heard of-ironically, the academia oriented MD/PhD program is probably less prestige based than med school because of the large role your research experience plays). </p>
<p>I did not have any conflicts but I did do a thurs-fri+mon-tues as well as one where I would have had to wake up at one school and travel straight to the other school but I subsequently canceled one of those because I got into the school I go early enough to cancel their interview. I did have all of my interviews before new year’s though so in addition to going to a few conferences for work and home for thanksgiving, I was traveling literally every week for two straight months. I was impressed with the kids who did this while still in school (one of my roommates at one of the interviews was working on a paper he had due while I was able to spend that night before the interviews reading up on the school and the profs I was meeting).</p>
<p>As shyparentalunit mentions, the MD/PhD interviews are usually 2-3 days long with dinners and evening social events and have more faculty interviews per visit (I think at the schools I went to the average was 5). The typical schedule was that you’d arrive in the afternoon, have some tours and info sessions, go out to dinner with current students, then the next day have all the interviews and potentially other talks/info sessions. In total you’d probably spend something like 15 hours interacting with people from the school. Contrast that to my medical school where the kids have 2 faculty interviews and the whole thing including tours and talks and everything is about 6 hours on one day.</p>