Optimal number of schools applied to

[Guest Lactic Folly]

If you apply to only one school, chance plays a role even if you are a strong candidate. However, applying to all thirteen schools would very likely be a waste of effort. I realize that everyone's situation will vary, but if you are able to apply widely and have a decent chance of making cutoffs, how many applications would strike a balance between finding a school that's looking for someone like you, versus spreading your time and energy thin preparing for too many schools?

 

I was reading through the Canadian medical education statistics once, and if I remember correctly, the proportion of people receiving at least one offer of admission plateaus at about 4 or 5 applications.. sound about right? Thoughts?

 

(if this was posted before.. I couldn't find it, sorry )

[Guest thelaze]

I went to a Brett Ferdinand seminar on med school in first year and I remember he put up a chart showing the probability of acceptance as related to number of schools applied to. At the one end were people who applied to one school - they had a 20% or 25% chance, I think. The probability of acceptance went up as people applied to more and more schools. At five schools, it was about a 40% shot. Past five schools, however, there stop being a large difference in probability (seven schools, for example, was something like 42%). So the conclusion was that five was the ideal number to apply to to maximize one's chances without going nuts (and broke!) applying everywhere in the country.

 

Hope that helps!

[Guest Jerika81]

When I was deciding how many schools to apply to last year I looked at how much money it was costing me to apply, and how likely I was to get in.

In the end, it wasn't worth applying to any out of Alberta school (I'm an Alberta resident) other than some of the ones in Ontario that have no quotas.

Eg. It wasn't worth paying $200 to apply to UBC when they only accept about 5 people out of province.

I also didn't apply to Mac because it didn't seem worth the effort of writting 15 essays.

So in the end I applied to U of A, U of C, U of T, U of O, Queens, and Western. It turns out Ottawa did have a bunch of quotas that weren't very clear at the time I applied.

So I would recommend that you apply to which ever med schools are in your province, and a few in Ontario if you think you'll meet their quotas, and if there's one out of province school that you'd really love to go to then give that a shot too. These are just my thoughts though, good luck.

[Guest doctorfunk]

Very good advice concerning the quotas. Those play a large role in diminishing your chances if you are an out of province applicant for certain schools.

Do not underestimate the time required to complete an application to each school. If you are not going to put forth a strong and dedicated effort when you apply, then it will just be a waste of money. Money becomes an issue not only in the initial application fees, but also the costs associated with the interview (train,bus,or plane, and hotel, etc...). Finally, do some research on the school and the city - if the curriculum or the location isn't somewhere you can see yourself prospering, why apply there?

[Guest peachy]

I totally agree about only applying to schools you really want to attend, and considering quotas that may apply to you.

 

I'm curious, has anybody out there made the GPA and MCAT cutoffs for all three of Queen's, Western and Toronto and not gotten any acceptances? It seems to me that for almost everybody, if your GPA and MCATs are good enough then applying to those three schools is enough for Ontario applicants.

[Guest Lactic Folly]

Thanks everyone. I'm from Alberta, so I'll be applying to U of A and U of C. Although I'd be OOP, Saskatchewan and Manitoba's criteria seem better suited for my application, so I'm applying there as well.. UWO and U of T's programs look interesting too, but at this point the money and effort really start adding up (as well as the amount of work for referees), so I'm not sure how many Ontario schools I want to apply to. I'd be happy to attend any of the schools I apply to (any Canadian medical school, really)

[Guest Lakers4life]

I applied to 3 in Ontario [uofT/Western/Queens] b.c those were really the only schools that I wanted to go to. I didn't want to leave Ontario [quotas made it hard] so I decided on these three.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

How ironic. . . I applied to the exact same three schools.

 

I think the optimum number of schools to apply to depends on the applicant, and how much of an issue is airfare. Obviously, each school adds at least a teeny bit more chance some school will put up with you for three or four years;) . But realistically, you have a much greater chance of getting some schools over other so it can be worthwhile to be strategic. And do you really want to end up somewhere you'll hate for four years?