Today, we are talking about building your school list. The school list is where you are going to place all of your odds, and in this episode, we will be discussing U.S. Allopathic schools.
[1:45] 1. How many schools should you apply to?There is no magic number on how many schools you should apply to in order to see success. It is a function of how competitive you are as an applicant.
For more competitive applicants, you could apply to around 25 schools. For the applicants with average scores, you want to increase the number of schools you are going to apply to. 30-40 schools would be the number for average applicants.
The reason you shouldn’t apply to 70-80 schools is that it is expensive. Almost every school will send you a secondary application where you will have to pay an additional fee, and it becomes time-consuming.
[4:35] 2. Where?Most schools highly favor in-state applicants, so apply to all of the in-state schools first. These schools want to produce doctors that will stay in the same state.
[6:15] 3. MCAT and GPA range.All of the MCAT and GPA medians are available on the MSAR. Apply to schools that accept applicants with your median MCAT and GPA scores.
[9:40] 4. How many schools to apply to in different tiers?The higher tier schools are more competitive than the lower tier schools. If you are very competitive, you want to apply to some top-tier schools and sprinkle your applications into the middle and lower-tier schools as well.
Average applications should apply to middle-tier and lower-tier schools.
[11:20] 5. Out-of-state residents.Colorado residents only have one public in-state school to choose from. The majority of their applications will be out out-of-state. Find out how many out-of-state residents the school accepts to decide if you should apply there or not.
There are other factors that go into determining which schools to apply for. One great tool we have is a Medical School Chance Predictor here at www.ProspectiveDoctor.com. For those of you wanting expertise and advice, please visit us at www.MedSchoolCoach.com.
