<p>apologies in advance if someone has already asked this, but i'm starting to freak out about how to figure out which med schools to apply to...i spoke with my school's pre-med advisor, and he said there aren't any search engines like with college selection...</p>
<p>he suggested picking up a book w/all the med schools and just flipping through the entire thing to see which is appealing, but i was wondering if anyone knows of any websites, books, etc that group schools with similar qualities so that if something particular about one school appeals to you, you can find other schools with that particular characteristic...</p>
<p>also, since so many applicants are getting rejected from everywhere they apply, what's the best way to pick safety schools, other than your state schools? </p>
<p>all help is greatly appreciated...thanks so much! :)</p>
<p>No groupings, readily available, that I know of. The good thing is there are only 125 schools to sort through, and many of those you'll be able to ignore because you won't fit their applicant criteria (like being in-state) or you won't want to go there in the first place...for whatever reason (location usually being a fairly typical one...or you don't want to fill out the separate application for the Texas schools or whatever)</p>
<p>First, get the idea that there are things like safeties out of your mind. There are none in med school admissions.</p>
<p>Second, you do need to pick up the MSAR. Your advisor probably has a copy, but you can always buy your own from the AAMC website.</p>
<p>Third, using the info in there and from other sources like USNWR, you can find the GPA and MCAT of the average matriculant at each school which you can then use to decide if that's a place where you'll be competitive. </p>
<p>Fourth, depending on how many you feel competitive at, begin doing more research to further narrow your list. You should probably plan on applying to between 12-17 schools...doesn't have to be that many, but that seems to be pretty typical.</p>
<p>The MSAR is definately the primary tool you need (though for GPA and MCAT purposes it's kinda depressing, as it uses medians that tend to be a bit higher than the means published by USNews). Being in the process of finishing up the last of my secondarys at the moment, I can also say it's definately advisable to pick your list well in advance and do a fair amount to research; the single most common secondary essay question I've encountered is 'why do you want to go to (insert name of school).'</p>
<p>Actually, NCG pointed out that the MSAR's numbers are the medians among admitted students -- not the eventual student body. So naturally they're quite inflated. I was shocked to hear this, but I've been convinced.</p>
<p>Your only other option would be US News, whose data is a little outdated (from 2005 I believe). </p>
<p>MSAR data is inflated but only for certain schools. 3.8, 35 for the top top schools is still accurate. 3.8, 35 for mid-tiers schools like NYU or Northwestern is inflated. According to NU's secondary, I think their average is b/w 32 and 33. Same with NYU.</p>