{"id":658,"date":"2024-08-27T20:18:48","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T20:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/?page_id=658"},"modified":"2024-10-24T16:29:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T16:29:45","slug":"choosing-where-to-apply","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/for-students\/choosing-where-to-apply\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Where to Apply"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- Inserted by Dropdownizer plugin. Forces video embeds contained in dropdowns to have a size --><style>.dropdownizer__dropdown iframe { width: 100% !important; height: 100% !important; }<\/style>\n<p>As you complete your applications, one of the significant tasks is deciding where to apply. This may take longer than you expect, so it is important to get started early so that you can do the research necessary for making good choices. There are a variety of resources available to help you find appropriates schools - but ultimately it is important to visit each school's website, look at their missions, look at any special programs they have - and if it is a state school, how many out of state students they accept. The best ways to find much of this information is the <a href=\"https:\/\/students-residents.aamc.org\/medical-school-admission-requirements\/medical-school-admission-requirements-msar-applicants\">MSAR<\/a> for MD programs; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aacom.org\/become-a-doctor\">ChooseDO<\/a> for DO programs; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adea.org\/officialguide\/\">ADEA Guide to Dental Programs<\/a> for dental programs; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmdsas.com\/\">TMDSAS<\/a> for dental, medical, podiatry and veterinary schools in Texas; and <a href=\"https:\/\/paeaonline.org\/our-programs\">PAEA<\/a> for PA programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Factors in Decision Making<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Compare numbers. Look at the most recent data available for accepted students - what was the average GPA, average MCAT\/DAT\/GRE score, what percent of accepted students had research experience, healthcare experience, and volunteer hours. <ul><li><strong><em>For PA School applicants - look for the average number patient care hours for the applicants who were accepted<\/em><\/strong> - this is important because a school may only require 200 hours, but if the average accepted applicant had 2500, even 500 is not competitive).<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Explore each school's mission, make sure it aligns with your personal and professional goals.<\/li><li>Explore location - is it urban, rural, suburban? What is the climate like? Does it matter if it is close are far from family?<\/li><li>Do you meet all of their admissions requirements? This is REALLY important.<\/li><li>What is their style of curriculum and grading policies?<\/li><li>Do they have any special programming or extracurricular activities?<\/li><li>Look at the cost and any options for financial aid.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use this <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1O-4ElT4FoFe9radDuJ3Z3wM_Dfz0L-NN\/edit?usp=drive_link&amp;ouid=113879475045590109970&amp;rtpof=true&amp;sd=true\">Health Professions School Organizer<\/a>. It is important to take good notes because when you complete secondary questions and have interviews, these notes will be helpful for answering questions like \"Why do you want to come to this school?\" and \"Why would you be a good fit for this school?\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Many Schools?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a difficult question to answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The most recent statistics show that on average MD applicants apply to 16 MD schools (and many also apply to DO schools). Depending on how many of the schools on your list are extremely selective (Johns Hopkins, Yale, tuition free schools) or are in places like the East Coast, California, Chicago, etc., where people really want to live, you may need to apply to over 20. <ul><li>One primary consideration is cost. The more schools to which you apply, the higher the cost for AMCAS and\/or AACOMAS (the primary MD and DO applications respectively). Additionally, each school will charge you for their secondary application.<\/li><li>The next consideration is time. Secondary applications tend to be multiple essay questions, and you want to get these completed and returned to the schools within about 2 weeks. It is hard to do that if you receive 30 secondary applications within a day or two of each other.<\/li><li>You should choose schools that are a good fit for what you have to offer, and for what they have to offer you, and then make sure you have quality responses to their secondaries. Having to rush secondaries, or sending them off slowly, will offset the statistical gain of applying to many schools.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Typically, dental school applicants nationally apply to about 10 schools. As with those applying to medical school, consider the cost and time associated with the number of schools to which you choose to apply.<\/li><li>There is no published average number of veterinary schools applied to by each applicant. It appears to be anywhere between 4 and 10. Just like medical and dental school, consider the costs, how prestigious the schools are, if they are public state schools, and how you compare to any published data for their accepted students.<\/li><li>For those applying to PA school, most apply to between 10 and 15 schools. PA school is very competitive (at 25-30% acceptance, the acceptance rate is significantly lower than applying to medical school). Consequently, choosing which schools are a good fit is very important. It is important to be sure to be competitive, especially with regard to patient care hours and GPA.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you complete your applications, one of the significant tasks is deciding where to apply. This may take longer than you expect, so it is important to get started early so that you can do the research necessary for making good choices. There are a variety of resources available to help you find appropriates schools [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"parent":416,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-658","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/658\/revisions\/710"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/pre-health-advising\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}