<p>I posted this on the pre med forum but thought I'd try here too.
DS is a college junior applying to allopathic schools this year. He has a 3.9+ GPA, 33P MCAT (10V, 10B, 13P) and good LORs lined up. He's done research, shadowing, and volunteer work, but mostly in the past year. He plans to apply to the 6 schools in our state (Ohio) ands plans to drive to any interviews he gets during his senior year. He is reluctant to apply to many more because he is concerned about taking time off to interview. I am not sure how many interviews he'd get from the schools to which he is planning to apply, and have asked him to consider adding a few more schools to his list. He would like them to be places where he would be a good candidate and could interview without a logistical nightmare in terms of travel and time. Ideally, he'd be able to drive there from Columbus and miss only a day of classes. Any thoughts or suggestions</p>
<p>In the pre-med section subjects like this come up now and then. I don’t think applying to only 6 schools is enough. Your son may only get 1-2 interviews and only 1 acceptance (or worse, no interviews!!) . </p>
<p>SOM interview and acceptance rates can be brutal…especially for non-URM male with no hooks. </p>
<p>Your son’s stats are fine, and with a well-thought out list of about 10 schools, he should get at least one acceptance. But, the trick is identifying those 10 appropriate schools.</p>
<p>What is the pre-med advisor saying?</p>
<p>Does his school write Committee Letters? If not, he may need to apply to 12-15 schools.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, his school does not have a pre-med committee and pre-med advising is not not a strong suit in his particular college.</p>
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<p>Believe me, this is a good thing. And I agree, 6 schools is not enough.</p>
<p>Any comments on these schools:</p>
<p>U of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
West Virginia University School of Medicine
School of Medicine at Marshall University
U of Kentucky College of Medicine
U of Louisville School of Medicine
Indiana U School of Medicine</p>
<p>They are all within driving distance of him but not sure if any would want someone like him. He’s just a well-rounded guy with no special hooks. Which might be the hardest for him to get into?</p>
<p>Some state med school take zero or almost zero out of state students, ie ECU takes no OOS students. Univ of Washington takes a few OOS and only those that fall within certain parameters. Check to see if ther above schools are one of those.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Pitt is notorius for waitlisting. It is said that they admit the top 15%, deny the bottom 15% and WL everybody else. I agree with the others that 6 is not enough. As far as him worrying about missing classes, my daughter became a pro at juggling her interview schedule this past semester. She ended up going on 13 interviews yet ended up with her best academic semester GPA wise. She had more than enough free time to study in airports and on planes and buses. If he can schedule his interviews for Mondays or Fridays, he can minimize the time away from campus, using Sundays or late Thursday for travel to the interviews.</p>
<p>Agree with GA mom about scheduling on Fridays/Mondays…son flew to michigan on a thursday night for a friday morning interview at univ/michigan, got back on the plane friday night and flew to Boston for his HMS interview Monday morning, flew home Monday evening. Also combined NYC and Philly interviews back to back, took the SEPTA and trains back and forth, flew out of Philly back home (cheaper than Newark, LGA and JFK). </p>
<p>When he made his class schedules he took his labs on T-W-TH, in order to keep M/Fs open. His instructors for lab where more than willing to slide his labs as well, but it ended up not needing to miss much with the M/F interview schedule. One of the benefits of applying early and interviewing early is access to the M/Fs.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Good advice. I hope he can compact his schedule. However, his school is switching from quarters to semesters imminently so we aren’t too sure what scheduling will look like in the fall. In the meantime, I guess I just have to keep researching his options.</p>
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<p>Bummer - quarters are way better 
That looks like a good list to start with if he likes those schools and areas (i.e. don’t just apply because they’re within driving distance). For med school, you need to look outside your home region. I’m creating my list of residencies to apply to (admittedly, an entirely different ballgame from the med school app world) and I’m finding awesome programs in areas I never thought I would consider.</p>
<p>My first thought was U Cincinnati. Your S’s gpa is well above the average from last year and his MCAT is right on target.
[University</a> of Cincinnati - College of Medicine](<a href=“http://med.uc.edu/StudentServices/MedicalStudentAdmissions/ClassProfiles.aspx]University”>http://med.uc.edu/StudentServices/MedicalStudentAdmissions/ClassProfiles.aspx)</p>
<p>Case Western? Ohio State?</p>
<p>So far, he will apply to CWRU, OSU, Toledo, Cincinnati, NEOMED, Wright State. I am looking into U of Louisville and WVU also. There are some reach schools that he could add but realistically I don’t want him to burn himself out over a slim chance. I guess I am wondering how many interviews he might expect if he only applies (promptly) to schools where he seems to match the profile of the average accepted applicant.</p>
<p>Who gets interviews and who doesn’t isn’t something easily discerned. In fact, often it’s something of a mystery. It’s part of the reason why applicants are strongly advised to apply widely.</p>
<p>But for OOS public schools, applicants who can demonstrate some affiliation with the state (past residency, relatives who live there) will often gain some advantage in getting an interview.</p>
<p>Louisville’s enrollment is ~80% in-state. Last year, it had 2243 OOS applicants, interviewed 141 and accepted 78. </p>
<p>WVU’s enrollment is ~65% in-state. Last year it had 2383 OOS applicants, interviewed 262 and accepted 93.</p>
<p>(Data source US News)</p>
<p>Thanks WOWmom. I hope there’s some in state advantage at our state schools. Any thoughts on SOM at Marshall U?</p>
<p>Marshall has no data reported to USN. And I don’t have a current MSAR to see if any is reported there. (D1 is a MS1; D2 will apply next summer for admission in 2014.)</p>
<p>Marshall isn’t a “traditional” medical school.</p>
<p>From Wikipedia:
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<p>Sounds like students there will be doing a lot of traveling.</p>
<p>Marshall is unranked both in research and primary care.</p>
<p>Are allopathic schools easier to get into than the typical medical school? If not, 6 doesn’t seem like enough…</p>
<p>Allopathic means MD-granting medical schools.</p>
<p>Maybe you mean osteopathic? (DO-granting medical schools?) And Osteopathic schools are somewhat easier to gain admission to. At least in terms of GPA +MCAT. And there are slightly fewer applicants for each available DO seat nationally than for a MD seat. But the competition is still fierce.</p>
<p>I think the problem is that his stats are good enough for IS schools but he doesn’t have enough of a boost to make him a good candidate OOS where often fewer than 10% of the OOS applicants get interviews. So here I am trying to find some OOS schools where it would not be a waste of resources to apply.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Marshall info but I’m not sure it’d be a good fit. Seems like a reasonable number of OOS kids with his stats can get into Commonwealth Medical College in PA or U Rochester. Anyone know anything about these schools? </p>
<p>Would it be dumb for him to just apply to IS schools this year, and if he doesn’t get in, reapply more expansively the next year? At least he could travel more freely after he graduates and he should have accomplished more by then.</p>
<p>How about a free-standing/private school— the other school in my home state, the Medical College of Wisconsin, used to be Marquette Medical School. They have a number of slots for OOS kids, I think; a lot of California kids go there because the Cali schools are so full. A good school and unique because the county hospital is (unusually) located out in the burbs where it’s gorgeous and so not inner-city Milwaukee, though there are plenty of rotations there, too.</p>
<p>Medical College of Wisconsin might be a possibility. It does not seem unfriendly to OOS kids and he is a decent match as far as grades/MCAT. Thanks.</p>