Medical School Applications: How do you decide how many applications to send?

<p>Remember, you’ll start to get asked for interviews and you need to keep it to a manageable number; how many schools can you logistically see and finance? If possible, pick many schools close to home, preferably within driving distance. A few flights are in order, but don’t drive yourself crazy.</p>

<p>^I support that. D. has applied only within driving range (her limit was 4.5 hours). You do not have to limit yourselft that much, but it resulted in pretty high acceptance rate (4 out of 8), we thought that their is a higher chance to get accepted regionally.</p>

<p>RBGG–your strategy ONLY works if you live somewhere (Cali, NE, some parts of the upper MidWest) where there actually are multiple med schools within driving distance. In the West/Southwest, this idea just doesn’t work because even the state med school may be 3+ hours away and the next nearest med school will be another 7-8 hours.</p>

<p>^7-8 hours is a driving range. Flying this distance might actually take longer. However, it is a personal preference to drive or fly. My D. does not mind driving, others might prefer flying.</p>

<p>Hindsight is definitely 20/20. I realize now that my D applied to WAY to many schools. The travel logistics are turning out to be a nightmare. In the last 48 hours, to visit 2 schools my daughter has been on a bus, plane, shuttle van, host car, subway, Amtrak train, another host car and this afternoon another bus. She has another trip in a few weeks that will make this one look like a cake walk. :eek:</p>

<p>Aahh. Piece of cake. Now that she’s got the whole shoes thing figured out…it’ll be a lot easier. ;)</p>

<p>GA2012MOM, BDM once told us that, after the magic number 10 (10 interviews) is reached, as a rule of thumb, an applicant could start to prune down the number of interviews without increasing much risk. Hopefully, she could reach that number soon. Alternatively if she could have the good luck of having good news (acceptance!) on the first magic date, October 15, she could start to do the same also.</p>

<p>GA2012MOM, 6 interviews all within driving distance and 2 acceptances on Oct. 15 worked very well for mine (she got accepted to 2 more later). Even with that few, she still had hard time deciding and had to attend Second look events. Second look events were crucial, her preference has changed. So, there is possiblility of second round of trips for decision making. Hopefully, your D. will be able to cancel some interviews after Oct. 15. That might eliminate confusion and more trips later on.</p>