A Guide to Making a School List
May 30, 2018 - Abdi
Having a well put together school list can be the difference between a successful cycle or a fruitless one. With so many medical schools to decide between, it can be hard to narrow down your list of schools. Hopefully, this article will provide you with a bit of insight on how to construct a school list that will maximize your chances of having a successful cycle.
We’ll expand below, but for those of you short on time this is what to consider when making a school list:
Purchase the MSAR in order to make a realistic list of schools you’re competitive at
Your list should be composed mostly of target schools, with reach and safety schools sprinkled in (these different categories are defined below)
Consider your fit with that institution’s mission and values; how well do your extracurriculars reflect that school’s institutional character?
Beware of public medical schools not friendly to out-of-state students
Location, curriculum, and grading can help you further narrow down your school list
STEP 1: BUY THE MSAR
The MSAR is the AAMC’s official online database that allows you to easily browse through information about all US MD programs. This includes information such as average MCAT, GPA, admission requirements, admissions statistics for the previous year, number of in-state versus out-of-state applicants interviewed, etc. It is a $28 purchase that might be the most important financial investment you make during your application cycle.
STEP 2: DECIDING HOW MANY SCHOOLS TO APPLY TO
The average medical school applicant applied to 16 schools for the 2017-2018 application cycle. The number of schools that you should apply to varies considerably depending on the strength of your application. If you have a borderline application, applying to more schools may be an effective way of increasing your chances. Additionally, having a mismatched GPA/MCAT combination (low GPA/high MCAT or high GPA/low MCAT) might require that you apply to a broader range of schools. One more consideration to make when deciding how many schools to apply to is your state of residence; California’s public schools are very competitive, for instance, so California applicants on average apply to more medical schools.
Remember, applying to more schools is not necessarily always a good thing for your chances! At some point, you will get diminishing returns due to burnout. If you apply to 40 schools, that means that you may be on the hook for 40 secondary applications as well. Such a high volume alongside the quick turnaround for secondaries might negatively impact the quality of the work you submit.
STEP 3: USING THE MSAR
Okay, you’ve just made the very wise decision to purchase your MSAR; congratulations, you won’t regret it! Now, you’ll want to start utilizing the MSAR to create a list of schools that you would be reasonably competitive at. One of the biggest mistakes medical school applicants make is applying far too top heavy; if your list is comprised almost entirely of reach schools, you are taking the risk of having an unsuccessful cycle.
You can regard schools where you are near the median GPA and MCAT as “target” schools. Schools where you are significantly above the median GPA and MCAT can be regarded as “safety” schools, while schools where you are under the median GPA and MCAT are referred to as “reach” schools. It is important to note that statistics alone do not dictate the competitiveness of your application; a school where you are significantly above the average matriculant GPA/MCAT may decline to interview you, while you may receive an acceptance at a school where you are significantly below the average matriculant statistics. Your statistics alone don’t guarantee you an acceptance anywhere.
It is important, however, to be aware of your statistics in comparison to the average statistics for that particular institution. If you are below the median for the majority of the schools you applied to, it will be less likely that you’ll have a successful cycle. Likewise, applying to too many schools far below your statistics might lead to you being ‘yield protected’ (schools electing not to interview you due to their belief that you will not matriculate there).
In general, the majority of your list should consist of ‘target’ schools, with a few ‘safeties’ and a few ‘reach’ schools.
A FEW NOTES ON FIRST NARROWING DOWN THE LIST OF SCHOOLS BASED ON METRICS:
For the top twenty and particularly the top ten schools, it is much harder to identity whether the school is a reach or target school. Even having statistics above the medians for these schools does not imply that you will be guaranteed an interview. The majority of the applicants these schools seriously consider have good statistics. As such, these institutions tend to focus on fit and extracurriculars with research experience being an important consideration (research is not required for admission but the top 20 schools are almost all research powerhouses). So without strong extracurricular experiences, it’s not a safe bet to apply to only top 20 schools regardless of your academic metrics.
For applicants with an unbalanced GPA/MCAT, it is a bit more difficult to create a school list based on competitiveness. For instance, your MCAT might be at the median for the top 10 schools while your GPA is below their 10th percentile. In such cases, I would recommend applying broadly with a greater range of low, mid, and top tier institutions.
Remember that statistics alone don’t determine your competitiveness. They are simply a useful way to narrow down the list of schools you should apply to.
Out-of-State vs. In-State statistics: This one is important! Some public medical schools take almost exclusively in-state applicants. Make sure that you check the MSAR to see how many OOS applicants were interviewed and accepted the prior application cycle or else you could be wasting an application.
STEP 4: FURTHER NARROWING DOWN YOUR LIST
After you are done creating a general list of the schools you are competitive at, you’ll want to further narrow the list down to the number of schools you’ll be applying to. Some factors to consider at this point are:
Fit → Does that medical school’s mission focus on things that you are passionate about or interested in? For instance, a school that focuses heavily on working with underserved communities will like your application if you have experiences related to that. A school that heavily focuses on research, on the other hand, is less likely to interview an applicant that has no research experience.
Location → Is being near family, friends, or a significant other important to you? Weather, perhaps? Keep in mind that you’ll be living at that location for the next four years, so you should be sure that it’ll be somewhere you’ll be happy.
Educational Style → Does the curriculum fit your needs? Medical school curriculums vary significantly, with some medical schools having grades while others are entirely pass/no pass. Some medical school curriculums are still two year pre-clinical programs, while other schools are moving towards 1.5 year preclinical programs designed to get you in your clinical rotations sooner.
Making a good school list takes a lot of effort and time. The impact it can have on the success of your application cycle, however, makes taking the time to craft a good school list more than worth it. Best of luck in putting your lists together, and start looking over that MSAR!