Where to Apply for Med School?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I'll be going into my second semester of junior year and I will be applying to med schools this coming summer. I've compiled a list of med schools I'm thinking about applying to, but I'd like some other opinions as to which schools I should get rid of and which schools I should add.</p>

<p>I guess the only major thing is that I haven't taken my MCAT's yet (taking it in May), so obviously that would be a major factor with the "top" med schools.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.985
Science GPA: 3.973</p>

<p>Volunteer: About 150 hours in the ER of a hospital. I also went on a medical brigade to Honduras over the summer. I've also done some (and plan to do more) environmental restoration projects.</p>

<p>Shadowing: Total of about 40-50 hours with a couple of doctors in different fields.</p>

<p>Research: I've been doing research for 2 years regarding the immune response of fruit flies and fruit fly larvae in response to infection by trypanosomes. However, I have not published anything yet (but hopefully soon!).</p>

<p>I also worked a job summer after freshman year, but it's not relevant to the medical field so I don't think it would be a huge deal. </p>

<p>I am also a Florida resident.</p>

<p>My list so far is:</p>

<p>Miami (in Florida)
Florida
UCF
FAU
Wake Forest
Emory
UNC Chapel Hill
Tufts
Georgetown
Maryland
and possibly Penn or Columbia.</p>

<p>I've heard that the average applicant applies to around 12-15 med schools, so I'd probably have room for a few more on this list. I would prefer to stay closer to the east coast and, if possible, the south, although I wouldn't be opposed to the northeast either. </p>

<p>Any other med schools you guys would recommend applying to? Also, would you say there is a certain MCAT cutoff for some of the schools where if I get below I shouldn't bother applying (for example, if I get below a 34 I was going to not apply to Penn/Columbia). </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Tough to develop a list until you have a MCAT score because until you do you won’t know if your scores are within the typical range for any particular school.</p>

<p>Other than ALL your in-state publics, you probably ought to hold off developing your list.</p>

<p>(BTW, Georgetown, despite the moderate stats of its applicants, has among the lowest acceptance rate in the US – <4%.)</p>

<p>[10</a> Medical Schools With the Lowest Acceptance Rates - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/the-short-list-grad-school/articles/2012/08/14/10-medical-schools-with-the-lowest-acceptance-rates]10”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/the-short-list-grad-school/articles/2012/08/14/10-medical-schools-with-the-lowest-acceptance-rates)</p>

<p>You also need to either consult the MSAR or the US New subscription site to see how the IS vs. OOS number stack up for any state med school. (Maryland, for example, draws over 80% of its incoming class from in-state; UNC is close to 87% in-state.)</p>

3

<p>Yeah, I know it’s pretty tough to develop a list without an MCAT score. My only concern is that since I’m taking the MCAT in May (May 30th to be exact), I probably won’t get my scores back until the beginning of July, which I feel would put me a little bit behind in terms of sending out applications to where I want to apply, or even looking into what med schools would be within my target range. </p>

<p>I’m trying to develop a preliminary list that would contain all of the potential med schools I’d be interested in and, depending on my MCAT score, eliminate schools that would be too much of a reach. </p>

<p>Oh, I also forgot to mention that my major is biology and economics and I go to Emory.</p>

4

<p>OK, approach it this way:</p>

<p>–program orientation (research/clinical care)</p>

<p>–geographic region preferences (Midwest, Northeast, South, West)</p>

<p>–location preferences (major population center, mid-sized town, suburb)</p>

<p>–program type (traditional 2 + 2/early clinical)</p>

<p>–teaching approach (lecture/small group PBL)</p>

<p>–program size (>200, ~150, <120)</p>

<p>–anything else important to you (religious schools, yea or nay?)</p>

<p>Once you’ve answered those questions, then consider if you have any “ties” to other states. (Immediate family members living outside Florida. Where you went to high school.) A tie may helpful when being considered for admission to a public in that state.</p>

<p>Then look at IS vs OOS acceptance numbers of percentages for any public on your list. Consider if there are better options for any public that accepts less than 15% OOS (unless you have a tie to the state, stats in the top 15% for an unhooked applicant or for some other reason “fit” well in with the school’s mission.)</p>

5

<p>Being a Florida resident will definitely help as they have a real high IS acceptance rate but until you have an MCAT score you can’t really compile a list other than your in state schools.</p>

6

<p>Also note that you don’t have to have a complete list of schools to apply to when you submit your AMCAS. All you have to do is designate one school in order for you to submit it; after you submit, your app is in a virtual “line” to be verified, and after it’s verified by AMCAS, it’s transmitted to schools. After submitting it, you can add schools at any time without changing our position in the virtual “line,” and you can continue adding schools even after you’ve been verified. So, there’s really no rush in compiling your list in that it won’t determine anything about your application except where it goes (ie, taking more time to research schools and put together your list won’t necessarily delay your application). </p>

<p>Obviously it’s a good idea to know where you’ll apply as soon as you’ve put together a list you’re comfortable with. But I just wanted to let you know that you don’t need to delay submitting AMCAS in order to develop a list (I was unaware you could submit and then add more schools later; I wish I had known!).</p>

7

<p>Thanks for all the comments! They’ve been very helpful!</p>

<p>I do have one more question: aside from looking at the US News rankings to find slight differences, are there any schools that are known to be better research med schools vs. “clinical” med schools and vice versa?</p>

8

<p>Buy the MSAR (med school admissions requirement) book. Look at the percentage of students doing research stat. In general, the higher that is the more research oriented the school. To get a better idea of how cutting edge that research is, search for info on NIH dollars awarded. Make sure to consider total, per capita, and per incestigator.</p>

9

<p>You can look in the MSAR and see if a school requires or recommends a research thesis from its students.</p>

10

<p>IWBB–I assume more NIH dollars = more cutting edge research, but I was wondering, is there a cutoff? In other words, if you see X amt per investigator, you would know that was a pretty cutting edge place? I don’t know how to evaluate that data and would like to.</p>

<p>To the OP, you could also look for mission statements and press releases etc from the school. For example, my school is very primary-care focused, and this is included in our mission statement. If you look at recent press releases (“news” section), you’ll see that almost all of them are about new clinical sites, training in rural areas, and research about improving interdisciplinary teams and medical education. We recently received a sizable ($13M) grant for improving patient care and making it more affordable; on the flip side, we also recently received one of the biggest grants in school history for basic sciences research, and it was “only” a few million; contrast that with another school in my state, known for research, that routinely gets huge grants for basic sciences (and also pays its summer research interns nearly 5x as much!).</p>

<p>Another thing to look at is student organizations and summer opportunities. Are there a lot of research-based things, or more clinic-based things? My school recently formed a new research student organization, bringing our total to two or three. On the other hand, we have probably 25+ organizations for clinic-related stuff, including multiple for primary care. As far as summer opportunities go, my school sponsors a few–one research and a handful of clinical externships. I’d estimate that the research one has the most participants, but when you take all the clinical ones together, it has more. </p>

<p>Another, perhaps more esoteric, element is to see what kind of national leaders are on faculty (ie, teaching med students)–ours fall into the realms of family medicine and peds and quality improvement, for example. If a school is attracting or producing leaders in a particular field, I think it’s safe to assume they’re pretty strong in that area. Do those strengths generally align with what you want to do? For example, I’d like to be a clinician in my state, so going to my state’s school that emphasizes training compassionate clinicians makes sense.</p>

<p>The whole idea here is to figure out if the school has a preference about what kind of docs it’s training. If there’s a preference, it shouldn’t be hard to find. If it’s hard to find this kind of info, then I imagine it’s probably pretty even. I researched this info for the schools I was most interested in…but then again, I think it’s way more fun to get lost on a website reading about recent news than reading a bunch of data tables.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>(PS: I think evaluating match lists is quite challenging because there’s so much variation in programs and in specialties, so I would avoid looking at that if I were in your shoes.)</p>

11

<p>kristin,</p>

<p>there is no cutoff, it would just give you relative rankings. No one can say how many dollars it takes to do cutting edge research but if you find two schools you like because they do PBL and one of them has 10x the NIH research dollars per capita it’s probably safe to say that’s a better research institution. Ranking institutions is a very inexact thing so I can’t tell you or anyone exactly how to use that info but if you’re concerned about. For example Kristin, my school has about 7 or 8x the NIH funding yours does.</p>

<p>I’d be wary about looking at the specialties of the school leadership to guide you. My school is VERY research focused but most of our school leadership is primary care specialties without major research backgrounds because those are the people who have the time to hold those positions. Yes, the dean of the medical school has a substantial research career but like I said, essentially everyone right below him doesn’t.</p>

<p>I do agree with the press release idea. Hadn’t thought about that.</p>

12

<p>Awesome, thanks for the thoughts. And I didn’t necessarily mean the specialties of the deans; more if there’s anyone on faculty who’s recognized in their field. Eg: one of our fam med docs recently got some awesome award from the AAFP, and she’s quite involved with med students. Doesn’t surprise me that she’s at my school, and I think it’s just one more little piece to support our obsession (?) with primary care.</p>

13

<p>Thanks for your help guys!!</p>