I recently spoke with a prehealth adviser that came highly recommended. They suggested that I apply to schools outside my city and state. I am bound to only a few schools since I cannot leave my city, but the adviser told me that it would look better to the adcoms if I did. What if I received no acceptances to the schools I can attend, but accepted to those I cannot? The response was that if the out of state schools accepted me, then the locals would, too. I did not know this info was revealed to each individual school! Honestly, I cannot afford to apply to more than the few schools here. I would like to know what you all think about this.
Still waiting to hit “Submit”!
Individual schools do not know the other schools to which you applied (unless they ask you and you tell them or they speak to each other which is unlikely). I think most people would agree that you should not apply to any school that you don't plan on attending. It is a waste of your (and the school's) time and money.
Actually, it doesn't require any human conversation. Any school using the AMCAS service can look up the schools to which you have applied, as well as your current status at those schools. (Status is defined as one of a few pre-determined options - nothing unique to the specific school - but it does include accepted or waitlist.)
However, there is no official electronic data sharing between AMCAS and AACOMAS. I do not know whether the schools using AACOMAS can look up a candidate's status at other schools.
In regards to your original post, you are correct to be concerned about possible acceptances at schools you cannot attend. According to my contact on one admissions committee here in Chicago, his school does obtain/retain a candidate's previous AMCAS admission status information, and has some difficulty with applicants that do not accept a previous offer.
Susan - Chicago/Minneapolis
I was under the impression tht schools do not know what other schools you are applying to. I read this on the AMCAS application under the menu. Please someone clarify this?
According to the AMCAS application, the schools do not know where you have applied until after April 15. Only then can they check your status at other schools. At least that is what the application says but perhaps they are lying to us. I will ask the admissions people at my school to see what they say.
There is no way I would apply to a school that I could not attend. I was in the same boat. I promised my husband that I would not move the family, and his job is not portable. So, I only applied to the three schools in my area. I'm lucky there are three so close! Everyone told me I didn't apply to enough schools, but it would have been pointless to apply to others.
Don't do it. It won't help you at all as far as I can tell. It's just a waste of your time and theirs. Not to mention money…
Also, in Texas it CAN hurt you if you are accepted to a school you don't want to attend. But, Texas is a special case.
And, if you did get accepted to only schools you're not interested in, and none that you could actually attend, you would have to turn down the acceptance. That would really hurt your chances if you had to re-apply.
Best of luck.
Thanks MPP, not that I care but it is still good to know.
Thanks to everyone for the insight. Like Spacecadet's situation, there are only a handful of schools I can apply to. SPN–do you mind sharing which school in Chicago you made a reference to?
Your request is a valid one, Minawill; you understand why I simply state it is an allopathic school here in Chicago. Anecdotal evidence suggests many schools do this, but I have only one first-hand report.
I am certain your school selections and status are viewable by other schools at some point in the application process, but MPP could be correct in his statement that the data are not available until after April 15. I haven't reviewed statements on the AMCAS web site. I just assumed every school could see everything and acted/answered accordingly.
BTW, Mary Renard could only attend schools around Washington DC. Applying to a few schools may not be statistically optimal, but it's not an insurmountable obstacle, either. You can always add more schools later, if you change your mind.
Good luck!
Susan - Chicago/Minneapolis
| QUOTE (minawill @ Jun 27 2003, 04:31 PM) |
| I recently spoke with a prehealth adviser that came highly recommended. They suggested that I apply to schools outside my city and state. I am bound to only a few schools since I cannot leave my city, but the adviser told me that it would look better to the adcoms if I did. What if I received no acceptances to the schools I can attend, but accepted to those I cannot? The response was that if the out of state schools accepted me, then the locals would, too. I did not know this info was revealed to each individual school! Honestly, I cannot afford to apply to more than the few schools here. I would like to know what you all think about this. Still waiting to hit "Submit"! |
Hi there,
Whether or not you gain acceptance to other schools is NOT a selection factor for admission by medical schools. With the competition being very steep this year (applications have gone through the roof both traditional and non-traditional), it helps your chances to apply to as many schools as you can afford but if you cannot attend a specific school because of location, you should not apply there. If you are limited by geography or family obligations, you have to take your chances with the schools that you can attend if offered admission. Applying to more schools statistically improves your chances of getting in somewhere. If you are a less competitive candidate: Undergraduate GPA less than 3.5 or MCAT less than 28, you are even more limited. Unfortunatley one of the distinct disadvantages of being non-traditional is that you have obligations that may limit your options.
Natalie
ONLY APPLY TO SCHOOLS YOU WOULD ATTEND!
I’ll say it again: Only apply to schools you would attend.
That prehealth advisor is giving one-size-fits-all advice that does NOT help you in your particular situation. Sure, for your average pre-med who is able to apply to schools all over the U.S., applying to lots of schools is a good idea. But for YOU, in YOUR situation, it is not a good idea and you should not do it.
Let me illustrate why, in a real practical way that I hope will show what a terrible suggestion it is for you to apply to schools despite their lack of appeal to you. IF you apply to a school you aren’t interested in, and you are invited for an interview, one of the questions you WILL be asked is, “Why are you interested in our school?” What are you going to say? Even a relatively inexperienced interviewer will notice if you hem and haw. If at some point in the conversation you’ve said something about locality being important, you may be asked to explain the apparent discrepancy between your desire for your home locale vs. that medical school’s location.
As Pam (spacecadet) mentioned, I too was limited by geography. It just wasn’t an option for me to move my husband, kids and other family ties. Yes, it made me very nervous to only apply to two schools when lots of people I knew were applying to fifteen or twenty. (On the other hand, I only had to write two secondary applications and I worked REALLY hard on those suckers so that they were really good!)
There is a way to turn this situation on its head: schools want to be wanted. If you go to an interview and stress your community ties and your strong desire to attend school locally, that will be noted positively by many interviewers. Don’t be apologetic for your situation, state it as a strength - “I love this area so much, it’s so good for my family, I want to stay here and I am so pleased that X medical school is here because it would be great to get a fantastic medical education right here in my home town.” BE STRONG and POSITIVE about why you are doing this.
As Natalie says, applying to fewer schools does hurt you from a competitive point of view. Well - shrug - what are you going to do? I couldn’t leave my family, you’ve got your reasons for doing what you’re doing. When it came down to it, as much as I wanted to become a physician, I was not going to see my 25+ years investment in my marriage and family sacrificed for that goal. It was going to have to happen on my family’s terms. So I determined that I would bust my butt to make my application as competitive as I could - so that they’d have to squirm at least a little if they turned me down! (I guess it worked, here’s hoping a similar strategy will get me through the residency Match next spring!)
Good luck to you!
Maybe this is a naive question. But if you are not seriously limited by location and apply to alot of schools to maximize your chances and get accepted somewhere early on that was not one of your favorites can you still wait to decide until you are sure you will not get into one of your preferred choices (for whatever reason, including location, costs, school characteristics, family friendliness). For me it is kind of the combination of factors that matters. (Sorry for the seriously run on sentence! It`s late for me and I have jet lag 
)
Yes, you can hold onto as many acceptances as you wish until May 15. Then, you can hold onto only one at a time, meaning you can still be on waitlists of schools you prefer.
Thanks, MPP, I was starting to get confused by the other posts.
Yes, you can hold on to as many acceptances as you wish, but you most likely will have to make a substantial nonrefundable deposit in order to do so. I know here at WVSOM, I was accepted in September, and my mid-December they had to have my $2000 deposit to hold my slot. If I had decided to go elsewhere after paying the deposit, it would have been forfeited.
For me that wasn't a problem, as I was perfectly content to come to WVSOM. But there are a great number of people who will pay the fee, then get accepted elsewhere, and end up forfeiting their deposit.
My understanding is that the hefty non-refundable deposit is more likely something you'll encounter at D.O. schools for some reason. I don't know why that would be, but I haven't encountered nearly as many anecdotes about allopathic schools and I've heard a LOT of these stories about osteopathic schools.
(my own anecdote: even though my acceptance was in May off the waitlist, I had only a $100 deposit to hold my place, with the remaining $2900 due a month later. THAT was non-refundable, but I would expect that to be the case in late June.)
Schools know that many students will need to hold multiple acceptances (if they are so fortunate) until they've received their financial aid packages from each school - so that they can make a financially-based decision about which school to attend. Thus holding onto multiple acceptances is well understood as the norm. Again, if you're so lucky as to HAVE multiple acceptances!
Thanks for the info - on the remote chance that I will have this wonderful problem / hence the reason for applying to so many. But in any case 2000 seems like alot to hold a place so early in the interview season…