<p>Wouldn't midwest be the middle of the western part of the US? </p>
<p>This thread has completly dropped the topic, but I enjoy fighting for the recognition of the black hole in the middle of the US.</p>
<p>hmmmmmmmmm</p>
<p>Penn State is in Central Pennsylvania, a long ways away from the Atlantic, and the people there are more like Midwesterners than East Coasters. I would say the Big 10 schools are all fine, and with the exception of NU, the OP should get into all of them. The only issue is that they are all rolling (except NU) so apps should have been sent by now and need to be out by Nov 1 for scholarship consideration at many of these schools.</p>
<p>Middle West </p>
<p>the region of the United States bounded on the W by the Rocky Mountains, on the S by the Ohio River and the S extremities of Missouri and Kansas, and on the E, variously, by the Allegheny Mountains, the E border of Ohio, or the E border of Illinois. </p>
<p>Does this help? dictionary.com lol.</p>
<p>I'm from Kansas City, and I think that we're actually a little too jealous of St.Louis.</p>
<p>If med school is your goal, maybe you want to go to the place where you'll do relatively the best. And maybe that will be where your "competition", fellow students in-state, are stupidest.</p>
<p>In the targeted area, those states would be 1) Nebraska and 2) Oklahoma.</p>
<p>I say that because cutoffs for National Merit semi-finalists, constituting the top 1-3/4% of tested students in the state IIRC, were lowest in those two states in recent years, averaging 207-208. As compared to around 216 in Illinois, or Texas. That difference translates to about 80 points on the SAT, which is quite a lot IMO. If it's true that med schools favor in-state applicants, then ultimately your competition will be partly from applicants from these respective pools.</p>
<p>And if you want to play that angle to its logical extreme, the range for Arkansas has been 201-206.</p>
<p>The historical cutoffs for individual states are posted elsewhere on CC.</p>
<p>Arkansas... </p>
<p>Even Kansans make fun of Arkansas. </p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas.</p>
<p>Holy Smokes, what all those polls say about high schoolers' (and Americans in general) knowlege of history and geography is true. Collectively, we don't know Jack! LOL.</p>
<p>To wit...
Saint Louis used to be the western frontier.
Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota is "old Northwest."
The headwaters of the Mississippi River are in Minnesota.
Lewis and Clark searched for "the northwest passage."</p>
<p>Please deposit 25 cents for the brief history lesson.</p>
<p>The benefit of being in-state for medical school admissions to public medical schools is limited to legal residents of the state. Given the difficulty for students to obtain legal residence, monydad, I have to say that your idea is a poor one.</p>
<p>The Big Ten states all consider themselves part of the Mid-West.</p>
<p>^^ except pennsylvania</p>
<p>"The benefit of being in-state for medical school admissions to public medical schools is limited to legal residents of the state. Given the difficulty for students to obtain legal residence, monydad, I have to say that your idea is a poor one."</p>
<p>It may be a poor one. I don't know. Do you know? Specifically, may I ask:</p>
<p>How familiar are you with med school admissions preference given to non-resident students of a given state's flagship U? In each of the states under discussion.</p>
<p>I have never had cause to research this, but suggest interested parties do so if it's of interest. My recollection is that residency requirements vary among states. "in-state" enough for Med school admissions boosts, no clue.</p>
<p>Though I have no firsthand basis to judge, there is a CC poster who has given a great deal of credence to this general proposition, with regard to one of the states in question. If you have issues with the accuracy of his post, the interpretation of which is unambiguous and which I relied on in formulating my prospective strategy, I suggest you take it up with him.</p>
<p>Here is the quote which, for this one state at least, contradicts you. From an insider who should know, and says he does:</p>
<p>"..the University of Nebraska College of Medicine is very well thought of (#11 in USNWR Primary Care rankings), and does seem to give an advantage to students who are not Nebraska residents but have Nebraska ties (just by looking at the composition of my own med school class). Plus the College of Medicine gives a certain number of out-of-state tuition waivers to students who are not Nebraska residents, so you end up only paying in-state tuition to medical school which saves you about $100k. "</p>
<p>His words, not mine:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=3074627%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=3074627</a></p>
<p>Actually, now that I think about it this guy is actually a poster-boy for the effectiveness of this strategy. He pulled off the identical strategy that I'm suggesting, starting out with lower admissions stats than the OP, IIRC. And is now in med school in the non-resident state.</p>
<p>Even if the idea indeed offers no advantage as far as in-state tuition (which I don't claim), or in-state admissions advantage, it still might help with getting relatively better grades, seems to me, which itself might help with admissions. Weaker competition. YMMV.</p>
<p>Most states with good state schools make it difficult to gain residence while a student.</p>
<p>Monydad...thanks for using my own post in an argument against me?!?</p>
<p>I'm not sure if you were trying to be ironic or not, but thanks for citing me.</p>
<p>So since you've quoted me as a source, I guess I am a reliable source. I can tell you that the OP and I have been in communication through PM and actually went to the same HS. As I stated in the thread you quote, I am a med student at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, and was accepted to the University of Kansas School of Medicine as well. Given the number of friends I have at both schools, I do think I have a fair knowledge of med school admissions, especially at the schools in question. </p>
<p>While Nebraska does seem to recognize in-state ties, there is no written policy specifically stating as such, and as such could only be an artifact of my one class out of many. But the point is that trying to gain an advantage by being "in-state" is not a strategy that can be relied upon with any certainty given the difficulty of garnering legal residence while a student. Further, choosing an undergrad school based solely upon the perceived benefit in getting accepted to medical school is one of the worst possible ideas ever. It ignores everything that really matters when choosing a college (ie FIT).</p>
<p>by the way, the acceptance rate for in-state residents at both Nebraska and Kansas was an identical 35%. And based off other data from the AAMC for 2005, it appears Nebraska legal residents are better at college than Kansas residents.</p>
<p>Applicant data:
Kansas<br>
MCAT Verbal score: 9.1
MCAT Physical Sciences: 8.6
MCAT Biological Sciences: 9.1</p>
<p>Science GPA: 3.44
Non-Science GPA: 3.67
Total GPA: 3.56
Total number of applicants: 436</p>
<p>Nebraska
VR: 8.9
PS: 8.8
BS: 9.2
Science GPA:3.48<br>
Non-Science GPA: 3.70
Total GPA: 3.59
Applicants: 303</p>
<p>Matriculant Data:</p>
<p>Kansas:
VR: 9.8
PS: 9.7
BS: 10.1
Science GPA: 3.64
Non-Science GPA: 3.77
Total GPA: 3.70
Total Matriculants: 196</p>
<p>Nebraska:
VR: 9.7
PS: 9.6
BS: 10.1
Science GPA: 3.70
Non-Science GPA: 3.83
Total GPA: 3.77
Total Matriculants: 139</p>
<p>MCAT scores are essentially identical, but GPA's do seem significantly different.</p>
<p>For those not wanting to do the math to calculate overall acceptance rates: Kansas 45% overall, Nebraska 46%. The only surprise about this, is that KU takes a class of 175, while Nebraska takes a class of 125 (total new matriculants was 117 b/c of people repeating the year at Nebraska). KU's class for 2005 Data was 81.1% Kansans, Nebraska's was 84.6% Nebraskans.</p>
<p>perhaps issues of fit should be asked & discussed then. To be honest, to me the schools being discussed seem to be similar schools with similar kids. Except maybe for certain programs being stronger or weaker I don't perceive a big difference with these particular choices where fit would be an issue. But while I lived in the area and worked with mnay grads I did not attend these schools.</p>
<p>"...OP and I have been in communication through PM and actually went to the same HS. "</p>
<p>That's actually quite a coincidence, isn't it ? There are over 90 high schools in Kansas. The more highly populated areas within close striking distance of Lawrence (KC suburbs + Topeka)have about 12 high schools .</p>
<p>What are you talking about? </p>
<p>I'm so confused by this whole thread...first I get cited as a legit argument against myself, then you say that all midwest schools are essentially the same simply because you don't perceive a difference (ignoring the fact that the individuals in question might find things like distance, honors programs, scholarships, Greek systems, surrounding town, etc important), and then finally you pick on the coincidence of me and the OP going to the same HS by trying to say that there aren't that many HS in KS...I just don't get what your point is in all of this. Are you just upset that I disagreed with you? </p>
<p>for the record the KC suburbs, just the Kansas side have more than 12 HS...There are 29 schools by my count in just 2 counties (Johnson and Wyandotte) that would be considered KC suburbs. 23 of those schools are in either the largest or second largest Classification as defined by the Kansas State HS Activities Association (<a href="http://www.kshsaa.org/Classifications.pdf)%5B/url%5D">http://www.kshsaa.org/Classifications.pdf)</a>. If you want to include Topeka and Lawrence that's another 7 schools in the largest 2 classes.</p>
<p>Seriously though, what point are you trying to make?</p>
<p>To clarify, I was trying to make 3 points:</p>
<p>1) IF fit is the big issue, OP should examine the differences between the schools in this regard.
2) The cultural/fit issues between these particular state U's in the same region did not immediately jump out at me, based on who I've seen/worked with/recruited going in and coming out; however there indeed may be some fit differences that OP should attempt to investigate, now that you've brought this point up;
3) It seemed to me to be quite a coincidence that the two of you attended the same high school.</p>
<p>As for the exact count of high schools, forgive me but I am not a Kansas expert and, per #3 above, OP said he was about 40 minutes from KU. I thought that Wyandotte county and half of Johnson County were further from KU than 40 minutes, and Lawrence was obviously too close to be counted. So I counted only Blue Valley, Some of Shawnee Mission, and Topeka. I could have counted these wrong too. and I could be wrong about travel times. I've driven from Overland Park to Lawrence, but not all these other places. You're right, I should have included all the schools in the metro, not just where OP is, since you might have been from any of them, or really anyplace in Kansas. But the count was only relevant in quantifying how big a coincidence it really is.</p>
<p>Hopefully this is clearer now; sorry if I confused.</p>
<p>It's funny though, with all these schools in Kansas, a hugely disproportionate number of the people from Kansas that I worked with when I was in the area seemed to have attended one of the same 4 schools in Eastern Johnson County. Curious coincidence.</p>