- Today I'm going to talk about
how to develop your medical school list.
If you're getting ready to apply to medical school,
you've probably stressed over questions like
which medical schools should I apply to?
And how many medical schools should I apply to?
These are important questions, after all,
only 40% of the applicants matriculate into medical school
in any given year, which gives us a sense of just
how challenging it can be to be accepted anywhere.
Though it's easy to focus on things that
most obviously affect
your chances of getting into med school
like earning top grades, scoring high in MCAT,
conducting research, shadowing doctors and so forth,
picking the right med schools to apply to
is one of the most underrated part
of the admissions process.
(upbeat music)
I'm Dr.Pranjal Gupta, medical school admissions expert
from Shemmassian Academic Consulting.
In this video, I'll go over what you should consider
in choosing which medical schools to apply to.
Then I'll discuss the ideal number of med schools
to have on your list.
I'll also talk about how to evaluate
your chances of admission to any given school
so that your list contains a healthy mix
of reach, target, and undershoot medical schools
in order to maximize your odds of getting in
and relieving you of the burden of reapplying next year.
Let's get started.
Because med school is a competitive process,
it can be hard to know
how why to cast the net when applying.
Medical school applicants apply to on average
16 different schools.
But is that the ideal number?
There are pros and cons
to applying to more for your schools,
applying to more medical schools
increases your overall chances of gaining an acceptance.
However, the more schools you apply to,
the less attention and effort you'll be able to put
into each school's secondary application,
which may compromise the quality of your essays.
Another potential con of applying to many schools
is that it can be both exhausting and costly
if you have to travel around the country for interviews.
On the other hand, by applying to fewer schools,
you probably write better secondary essays.
Consequently, you'll also reduce
your overall odds of admission.
You also might not be able to strike the right balance
of reach, target and undershoot or safety schools,
which I'll talk about more in just a bit.
So what's the right number of medical schools to apply to?
We recommend that you begin
by carefully selecting 15 to 25 schools
and putting in as much effort as you can
to knock those applications out of the park.
Then if you still have the time, energy and money
to keep going, you could choose
an additional five to 15 schools
and recycle your essays for those applications.
And for the best chances of admission, we suggest applying
to no fewer than 15 schools.
On the other end, applying to more than 40
will significantly compromise the quality
of your secondary essays
and by extension your overall admissions odds.
One factor in determining
exactly how big your list should be
is how good your GPA and MCAT scores are.
If you're mostly interested in schools
that will be reaches for you,
you probably want to expand your list
by adding some less competitive schools.
If your list is less ambitious relative to your stats,
you can apply to fewer schools.
Let's take a look at a couple examples.
Eric has a 3.6 GPA and a 513 MCAT and wants to apply
to 15 medical schools that are ranked in the top 25.
Because most, if not all
of those schools will be reaches for him,
Eric should make his list larger by adding target
and undershoot schools to balance things out.
Crystal has a 3.9 GPA and a 519 MCAT,
and is interested in those same 15 medical schools.
Because most of those schools
can be considered target schools
for someone with her stats, she can keep her list as is.
Here's a useful rule of thumb,
the higher your grades and MCAT scores,
the fewer schools you need to apply to.
The lower your grades and MCAT scores,
the more schools you should apply to.
Now you're probably wondering how to determine
if a school is a reach, target or undershoot.
There are two methods that I recommend
using to figure that out.
The WedgeDawg system and the general rule of thumb.
The WedgeDawg applicant rating system,
often abbreviated as WARS is a popular system
on student-doctor network.
WARS has you rate yourself
on a number of factors like your academic stats,
research experience, and undergraduate institution.
Then it uses a formula to determine
what level applicant you are
and how many schools you should apply to
within different tiers of competitiveness.
Because calculating the formula yourself
can get complicated,
I recommend using the online WARS calculator
which I'll link below.
How good is WARS?
While no system is perfect,
WARS tends to give better results
than the other systems out there.
That said, it does have some considerations
you should keep in mind.
It groups DO schools as one category,
though competitiveness of DO schools can vary significantly.
It doesn't work well for MD-PhD programs
because they tend to weight research experiences
far more heavily than traditional MD programs.
It doesn't handle disparate GPA as well.
For example, if you had a low undergrad GPA
but a high grad GPA or vice versa.
It doesn't account for soft factors
like the strength of your application essays
or your recommendation letters.
Nevertheless, WARS is a great way to filter medical schools
when you're first getting started on your list.
After you use WARS, you can better understand your chances
of getting in by researching each school individually.
Another simpler way
of evaluating your chances of admission to a school
is by using the rule of thumb
that we've developed here at Shemmassian.
You'll need your GPA and MCAT score plus the average stats
for entering students at your schools of interest.
First up, GPAs.
If your GPA is 0.2 or more points higher
than the school's average GPA,
consider that school an undershoot in the GPA category.
If your GPA is 0.2 or more points lower than the average,
consider that school a reach.
And if your GPA is within 0.1 points
of either direction in the school's average,
consider that school a target school.
Next we'll talk about MCATs.
If your MCAT score is three or more points higher
than the school's average MCAT score,
you can consider that school an MCAT undershoot.
If your MCAT score is three points or more
lower than the average, consider them a reach school.
And if your MCAT is within two points
in either direction of the school's average,
consider that school a target.
Now that you've classified the school by GPA and MCAT,
you can put them together.
If your GPA and MCAT score fall into the same category,
then you know exactly where you stand
relative to that school.
If they're different, their results will be the average
or the lower of the two.
For example, if you have a reach GPA
but in undershoot MCAT,
overall the school would be a target for you.
Or if you have a target GPA and a reach MCAT
it would be an overall reach.
Here's one exception if either your GPA or MCAT score
are lower than the 10th percentile of the school's average.
No matter how high your other score is,
you should consider that school a reach.
Also keep in mind that though our rule of thumb
will help you assess how a school
is likely to categorize you academically,
you shouldn't be totally discouraged
from applying to a reach
just because averages are just that, averages.
For example, a school with an average entering GPA of 3.7
probably admitted students with both a 3.9 and a 3.5.
And even if your scores are below a school's averages,
other elements of your application
like your essays and letters of rec
can still help you demonstrate an excellent fit.
So how many schools should you apply to in each category?
Here is my suggested breakdown, three to five reaches,
seven to 10 targets and five to seven undershoots.
And if you want to add bonus applications,
three to five far undershoots or very safe schools.
Overall, around three quarters of your applications
should be to schools that are either targets or undershoots.
I also recommend applying to some of your in-state
or regional schools
if your stats are around or better than their averages
since where you applied does affect admissions.
You might be surprised to learn
that a medical school's location
can impact your chances of admission
in a few different ways.
First up is the fact that medical schools
and popular destinations like California and New York
tend to receive the most applications.
So if you only apply
to schools in the most desirable locations,
you'll probably decrease your odds of acceptance.
On the other hand, you can often increase those odds
by applying to in-state or regional med schools.
That's because many schools like to accept students
who they think will be more likely to stick around
and serve their area's healthcare needs.
This is especially true at public universities
which generally have higher acceptance rates
for in-state or in-region applicants,
but it applies to some private medical schools too.
For example, Baylor, a private top medical school in Texas
accepts approximately 1% of out-of-state applicants,
but around 13% of in-state applicants,
making it a great choice for Texans.
On the flip side, if you know
that a medical school tends to prefer
in-state or in-region applicants,
you should think very carefully
about whether it's worth applying there
if you're not from the area.
For instance, in 2019, the University of Washington
accepted around 17% of applicants from Northwestern States
as opposed to less than 1% of applicants
from outside the region.
And most of those applicants were MD-PhD candidates.
Given these odds for an out-of-region applicant,
location should factor into developing your list.
While people's opinions
about what makes a good place to live will vary,
most people will agree that quality of life matters
when getting through the grind of med school.
So in creating your school list,
you should think about criteria like,
do you want to live in a rural area or a big city?
Are you okay with living in a place with cold winters
or do you prefer warm weather all year?
How near to your family and friends do you want to be?
While your personal preferences regarding location
shouldn't be the most important consideration
when deciding where to apply, you should spend time
thinking about where you'll be happiest
and weighing it as one of several factors.
Another important consideration
when deciding which schools to apply to
is the cost of attendance.
While a medical school is expensive in general,
there can be huge differences between the cost of public
versus private schools or in-state or out-of-state tuition
at a public school.
To illustrate this point, let's take a look
at current tuition and fees
for two great Los Angeles medical schools, UCLA and USC.
Right now, four years of in-state
UCLA medical school tuition runs $178,919.
For out-of-state students, it costs $227,899,
a difference of almost $49,000.
And at USC, which is private,
MD students will face a four year tuition of $264,600.
So if you're a California resident,
you can save close to $86,000
by attending UCLA over USC, which is significant.
However, that example doesn't take into consideration
the cost of living expenses like rent or food,
which are high in a city like LA
or interest on your loans,
which can add tens of thousands of dollars
to how much you ultimately repay.
That's why, when deciding where to apply
you need to look at the whole financial picture,
taking into account tuition, cost of living,
and opportunities for scholarships and other financial aid.
Choosing the right medical schools to apply to
can mean the difference between getting in
and having to reapply next year.
Plus where you apply can have a significant
financial and personal impact.
By using the data-driven approach that we discussed today
to develop your school list,
you'll be on your way to achieving admission success.
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And if you'd like to learn more
about medical school admissions,
you can also click the link in the description below
to get a free copy of our guide,
how to get into medical school
which contains all the strategies we use
to help students get into top medical schools
like Johns Hopkins, Mayo and UCLA.
All right, thanks so much for watching
and see you next time.