Most student apply to 20-25 medical schools on average during regular application cycle, not including DO schools.
then why Vanderbilt students apply to 144? Is it bad school to apply to?
College of Engineering tried to recruit for UG (did not apply to COE) at CWRU.
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This correct. 2 of my close contacts have applied to 20-25 medical schools. One from East Coast and one from West Coast. I think thatâs a manageable number, donât know if anyone can squeeze in their time to apply more.
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The data showed that UGs from Vanderbilt applied from top medical schools to low ranked schools, to increase their chances of getting into at least ONE medical school. From AAMC data, only 42% applicants get into at least ONE medical school via regular route admission.
https://global.discourse-cdn.com/collegeconfidentialstaging/uploads/default/original/3X/b/8/b8edfc9ead2d536f18d59c35d394347483c9c3ba.png
The above figure shows UG GPA-MCAT score grid of regular route MD with probability of at least ONE medical school acceptance.
Vanderbilt is a T20 school. Undergrads from Vanderbilt apply to medical colleges at at their own discretion. Like how HS Seniors organize their college list - safe, reach, target schools - medical college applicants may be organizing their college list the same way (knowing there is no safe medical school as such to my knowledge). So eventually some unranked or low ranked medical schools might get added up to the applicants medical school to apply. One canât judge a undergrad school is either bad or good, just by looking at the applicants medical school list. It largely falls on the applicant him/herself, but not the school.
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IMO, UG school may not matter much if one can get into higher part of UGA-MCAT ( GPA >3.8 and MCAT score >=518) grid. Of course, one needs to have other required goods like medical ECs, LORs, research and essays.
My professor ( actually he is Dean at VCU now) friends son from Vandy ChE went to JHU med school and just started Stanford Residency in ER (did not know much about Vandy prior to talking to him few months ago). His other son went to a JHU ChemBE- He did not care about medicine etc. so working with investment firm after graduating 2-3 years ago. Dean VCU was classmate at UT-Austin ChE.
Actually all the people I talked or met seem to have gone to top UG schools followed by top medical school ( know Penn to Penn, Penn to HMS, Duke to Baylor, Cornell to Cornell, Vandy to JHU and so onâŠ)
Unfortunately do not have Columbia or JHU data but few days ago at graduation, Columbia UG was heading to Harvard and few others had top schools.
So bottomline depends on you.
It is not 1 student.
Vandy students as a group matriculated to 144 medical colleges - which effectively means they applied to practically all medical schools in the US - from top ranked to unranked.
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DS decided to matriculate to UPenn Perelman school of medicine with scholarship instead of UCSF with scholarship. He felt itâs better fit for him.
With this I am retiring from BSMD threads but will post in BSMD experience thread whenever there is an important milestone to share with the community.
Happy decision making to all of you who are still on fence. Feel free to PM if you want last minute input from me.
Good luck to all the students who chose the long path to become a doctor and serve the society and best wishes to all the families.
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Congrats to your son and proud family. Well deserved traditional path journey.
Now it is Gangam style in medical school⊠
@LogicalJoyner TAMU if TX resident.
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While I love Rice, TAMU is a good program.
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Congratulations!!!
He had great choices and Penn is lucky to have him.
Wishing him all the very best!
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Hey man- Good luck with journey- You were good sports and made me spice the serious BSMD group. Who knows I will also come back to help smart kids who definately are smarter than me!
My D tells me everyday - Dad you dont know anything!!!
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Since he gave up instate, I assume he must have gotten at least instate match at UPenn. By simple math that would cost him <200K over all in medical school with free UG tuition. He will make ~300K savings over BS/MD route w/o gap year. That is an Ivy league MD and T20 UG, lethal combination.
@srk2017 - Congratulations to your S and the proud family. Wish your S the very best at UPenn and beyond 
Congratulations to your son and your family. Hope you DS enjoys Philly for next 4 years.
Congrats to your son and family- that is fantastic! 
Congratulations @srk2017 .
Is there a way to reach out to you directly? I had some questions that I would like your input on. Thanks.