We moved from CA to NC 12 years ago for some of the very reasons OP has stated. In-state tuition rates here for undergrad are some of the cheapest. Although one child did attend UNM for undergrad with a very generous scholie. Younger son is an MS4 at an in-state med school also attending with a full tuition+ scholarship. Our move to NC from CA proved to be extremely beneficial is so many ways. So I know it can be done, I did it with 5 kiddos, all high school age at the time! It can work.
Kat
I do not know why and how, but CA kids were majority in D’s Medical School class, specifically Berkeley was the top in UG graduates. D’s school was not cheap, it was private.
@MiamiDAP ^^^
Many, if not most, Calif med school applicants who get accepted, end up in OOS schools simply because Calif has (I think) 4 Calif resident applicants for every seat it has instate. I hope I remember that correctly. Plus, Calif has more applicants than any other state.
Since it’s harder for an applicant to get into an OOS public, it’s more likely that those Calif students are ending up at privates.
Some throw cost to the wind and are just happy to go anywhere. Some really want the lower cost for a UC SOM, which is why (I think) the competition there is more intense.
<<<
I just looked at the PDF for applicants to med school and whether they matriculated IS, OOS or nowhere, and that nowhere number is running 50% to 60%. Ouch!
So what happens to the nowheres?
[/QUOTE]
“Nowheres” reapply. Nowheres move onto Plan B. Nowheres apply to DO schools, which is totally ok. Nowheres apply to Caribbean schools which is risky.
There are some people who seem to apply to MD med schools (which those stats are showing), when they clearly don’t have much of a chance. Spend some time on SDN and you’ll see people with modest MCATs applying.
One thing that often confuses applicants is when they look at raw numbers and think they “fit,” when they really don’t. An unhooked student with a MCAT 28 and a 3.4 GPA isn’t likely getting into a MD school. A hooked student has a much better chance. The devil is in the details.
When my son was an undergrad, I knew a mom whose DD was also premed. Her GPA was a low 3. Her MCAT was very modest. The DD had gone to a weak CC first before transferring to a univ. The mom and DD seemed absolutely oblivious that her chances were extremely slim. Not only were they “certain” that she’d get in, but they were certain she’d get into a top OOS SOM! I lost touch, so I don’t know what happened after her first failed cycle.
Right now, I am trying to convince another parent and her DD that just because her DD can “graduate in 2 years” due to AP and DE (from her local CC), that that would be a bad plan. She’s a freshman (but junior by credits)! They want her to start med school in 2017! It hadn’t even dawned on them that if they were to do this, she’d have to take the MCAT within the next 5-8 months!
I am often shocked when I see the “SOM app lists” of applicants. Often loaded with a bunch of OOS publics where the student has no ties. The applicants get stars in their eyes…looking at rankings…or looking at the lowish OOS Tx costs…without realizing percentage-wise, how few those publics are accepting OOS (non MD/XXX).
So, it’s missteps, poor assumptions, and inadequate stats that often lead to failed app cycles. (However, in Calif, it’s often just bad luck! )
And if more than half of US applicants don't get admitted to any SOM at all, how are there so many schools saying that 70%, 80%, 90% or more of their applicants get into med school? I mean, I know they can manipulate the numbers by not giving letters / not letting unlikely candidates apply, but the data in the PDF say that more than half of all US SOM applicants don't get in anywhere. <<<
[/QUOTE]
there probably aren’t “so many” schools boasting that. You’re probably seeing those claims from the top 150 univs in the country. In the big scheme of things, there are many, many, many colleges that aren’t those top 150…and their rates may be quite low.
The top 150 or so schools in the country are loaded with premeds who likely had SAT/ACTs in the top 90th percentile. Should we be surprised that the premeds who “stuck with it,” and got the grades, then scored well on the MCAT and got into at least ONE med school?
While med schools may not care where you go to undergrad, you do have to have the stats and resume. If you went to a directional univ because you weren’t that strong of a student, then doing premed there isn’t going to magically make you med school material. However, a strong student with worthy stats can get in to med school from a directional.
Also…those big % claims often do not include the many non-trad applicants. I don’t know the success rate of those.
I hate to see high school students look at an undergrads’ claims. They see numbers like: 85% acceptance rate and they think that means that THEY have an 85% chance of getting into med school.
http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/threads/how-many-of-the-50k-applicants-a-year-are-just-flat-out-delusional.1144131/
Goro post # 8: I’d say 50% of applicants have no business setting foot on a med school campus, except as a standardized patient. The wise gyngyn has written about having to read apps from people who have single digit MCAT scores. Not just in a single category…the entire exam!..
Well, I just wanted to point out in my previous post that " a better UG to med school pipeline than CA" just does not exist. Anybody’s pipeline at ANY UG is their college GPA, MCAT score, medical ECs. The exceptions are the ones with the preferences for their own state UGs and some Med. Schools are more regional than others. The persons who fit the best into the specific Med. School program will be determined thru the interview process and sometime it is not the higher stats applicant. Every program is looking for certain type of personalities. But many (most?) Med. Schools have a certain threshold and the applicant will be cut automatically if his stats fall below this “cut” line. I do not believe that there is such thing as a list of colleges that they would not accept, with the exception of the Med. schools that have preferences for their own state UGs and some being more regional than others. There are plenty of Med. Schools that would accept from any state / region and apparently my D’s Med. School was such a place.
Oops, forgot to mention, that if one wants a “pipeline to med. school”, then the goal is to get accepted to combined bs/md or ba/md program(s). This is the only real pipeline outside of applicant’s stats that I am aware of.
General update: Grades and interest are holding steady. Kid is still saying med school (with the caveat that he’s only 16 and all of this could change) and is cherry picking classes from his HS health academy where the choices seem appropriate, e.g. medical biology, medical terminology. The med bio class is his favorite of all time, and is the first class to actually challenge him. He’s got a solid A, but he has to work for it, and that’s cool to see.
Our local CC offers EMT certification, and he’s interested enough to arrange the rest of his HS schedule to allow time for the EMT class as a 2nd semester senior.
He’s doing most of his gen ed / IGETC classes at the CC, with the exception of math and science classes, which are all honors / AP at the HS. He knows he has to get straight As at the CC, and he knows that if he uses an AP or CC class to fulfill a pre-med requirement, he’ll have to take something more advanced to replace it.
He’s cool with all of that.
Our college list is still in flux, but here the top three at the moment:
For all of these, he would try for in-state residency during undergrad (we know that’s not a sure thing). Other options are UAB, one to three UCs, and maybe Rice and Pomona as his Hail Marys.
DH’s company tanked and laid everyone off, but it’s a blessing in disguise. The job hunt is going very well, and it looks like there’s going to be a significant pay raise - which is mixed news for college.
No more Blue & Gold. No more 5k EFC. Instead we’ll be one of those middle class doughnut hole families where schools think we can pay $20k - $30k and it’s totally unrealistic. If we’d had the good income for the last 10 years, yeah, sure, but getting it now socks us with a high EFC and very little time to save. Don’t get me wrong, we’re delighted about the higher income. It just makes paying for college more complicated instead of less.
It’s weird, but the NMF / autostats offers are even more important now because the change in our EFC means Ivies, LACs, etc. will be completely unaffordable for us, and even the local UC will only work if he lives at home.
Strange world, this college thing. 
RE: Texas. On the TDMAS Texas med school app (completely different from AMCAS), they want to know if you graduated from a Texas high school and, if so, which one. Not that this is critical, but it helps them pinpoint the “real” Texas residents. . .
The most students in D’s medical school class were in fact from CA and Berkeley graduates were the most represented out of all colleges, including the one at the Medical school university. I do not know why and how it happened. D. graduated from CWRU medical school and it also “costs big money”. However, when applying to medical schools, one cannot pick and choose in most of the cases, they attend where they have are accepted. D. actually had a choice of 4 medical schools on her plate and was ready to choose the cheapest option. We told her that price is not the major factor when choosing medical school and pushed her to choose the one that she liked the most. She had great choices and it took her awhile to decide. At the end, she turned down Northwestern and decided on Case. It worked for her very well as she was able to match to her first choice of residency in very selective specialty.
Please, do not take it as an advice. I simply shared the information
In regard to the college choices, my advice is to choose the cheapest option, but the one that your kid still likes. This one is actually an advice.
Just as reminder, UNM SOM has a very strong in-state bias in admissions. Unless your son graduates from a NM high school, he won’t be considered a state resident for med school admissions purposes. (This is true even if his parents do relocate to NM while he’s in college.)
The only non-residents considered for admission at UNM SOM are registered members of Native American tribes and residents of WICHE states that do not have a state med school (Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana).
Thanks, @WayOutWestMom. That’s disappointing, but very important to know.
Approx 97-98% of UNM SOM matriculants are NM state residents. (The rest are IIM and WICHE.)
Your son could establish NM state residency by living for 1 year as an independent (fully self-supporting and filing NM state income taxes) after graduation.
Alternatively, UNM SOM selects for individuals who are willing to remain in-state and practice here, particularly as primary care providers in rural areas. (Anywhere but ABQ, Santa Fe and Las Cruces) This is true even for state residents. Should your son attend UNM and become involved with medically underserved Hispanic or Native American communities & is able to demonstrate his commitment to work in these locations after med school graduation, he may be able to plead his case with UNM SOM admissions for special consideration. I know this has happened occasionally in the past.
Also good to know. Thank you.
Thanks again to everyone who responded - @MiamiDAP , @makennacompton, WOWM and anyone I missed.