Dr. Taylor Lindgren is one of the newer advisors with MedSchoolCoach and joins Dr. Marinelli in this episode. Dr. Lindgren brings a lot of experience from Texas med schools and is here to talk about the nuances of applying to these compared to ones in the rest of the United States.
[1:27] Dr. Lindgren’s process of applying to Texas schools and getting a place at Texas Tech.Dr. Lindgren was interested in Texas Tech because they have an MD/MBA program. She took business classes in undergrad and wanted to continue that education. Applying to all Texas medical schools requires one flat rate, so it makes sense to apply to them all.
[4:23] The match process in Texas.After interviewing at a school, some may give you a pre-match offer. It’s like an early acceptance offer, but the main difference is that you can accept as many as you’d like.
Non-residents can still be offered acceptances, but only Texas residents go through the match process.
[7:42] What happened to the schools Dr. Lindgren ranked below her first choice.If she matched to one school, she would lose all other offers from lower-ranked schools. Even after losing these, she would still be eligible for an acceptance when the schools go through their regular admissions process.
Just because you don’t have a pre-match offer doesn’t mean you’re not ranked high at a school that you interviewed at.
[11:52] Ranking schools.Even though the TMDSAS algorithm can be difficult to understand, it really works in your benefit. It prioritizes applicant preferences over school preferences.
Dr. Lindgren says that students often overthink their list and rank based on where they think they’ll match instead of where they want to go. It’s important to rank schools honestly.