curmudgeon

But her kid doesn't go to UAB. He goes to the University of Alabama. A different school. In Tus-ca-loos-a, Al-a-bam-a.

MiamiDAP

"Miami...lol....his criteria for choosing will be an acceptance. "

-This is very broad. My D. was much more specific, but she could afford, I suppose.
Well, in this case, it is not that hard. Just match your stats to stats of accepted applicants and apply to all that match, if criteria is so broad. My D. met one girl who applied 127 Med. Schools. I had only one question, why not all? But seriously, there is no reason to apply where stats are much higher and no reason where stats are much lower as he does not have specific criteria for potential Merit scholarship.
So, he does not even care where he will be living for 4 years? Most people have preferences, including more specific ones, like having a car, certain student body,.....etc.

mom2collegekids

Kristin....

My son goes to Alabama....he doesn't go to UAB. Alabama is the flagship in Tuscaloosa. UAB is part of the UA system, but it's not the same school. It's like UCI, UCLA, UCSB, and UCSD...same UC system, different schools.

I know it's confusing because it's called The University of Alabama School of Medicine, but it's on UABs campus.

katwkittens

When does he get his score?

I am so very bad at waiting........

Kat

mom2collegekids

-This is very broad. My D. was much more specific, but she could afford, I suppose.

I was joking...what I meant was that at this point, we don't know if he'll have a choice to make. We'll be thrilled with one acceptance. He's open to applying to any schools where he'd have the best chance (even tho all chances are slim.)

I know that your D had a distance req't and that's completely understandable. I could see that my son might *want* to be within a few hours drive from home, but with admissions such an unknown and only a tiny number within a few hours drive, that may not be an option.

UAB and Vandy are about 1-2 hours away.
Emory is about 4 hours away
Tulane and USA are about 6-7 hours away

The other ones that are within that distance are OOS publics that don't take any/many OOS students.

MiamiDAP

^Your S. should have a list of his own personal criteria which will definitely help to sort schools out. Then, once you have your stats (GPA, MCAT, EC's,...etc.) he would have an idea where his stats match, so it will be very clear. Nobody expects to be accepted to all schools applied, but if he has a reasonable list based on above, he should expect few choices. And if he has doubts at the end, I strongly recommend to visit again during Second Look event. I just described the steps that my D. went thru, I do not know any other way. However, she had her own criteria pretty much cut in stone, she would not deviate even on recommendations from her pre-med advisor, let alone anybody else, and many in her place would have made a very different choice, she did not care a bit. There was no input from us at all, although I had to convince her to forget about price tag, erase from consideration.

mcat2

I learned something new from CC today. This particular med school was in DS's (and several of his friends's) radar screen last year. He said it is a very good med school.

BTW, I always thought that a med school is in a good position if it is on the campus of an UG college. The college is where there are more buzzing activities (and possibly where you have easier access to more varieties of food -- You do not want to eat "hospital food" as long as you can -- hopefully not until the residency!)

I heard that TAMU and Texas Tech are on the campus of its affiliated university. If the campus is in a "nice" city, an extra bonus point. (The towns where these two campus are at are too small.)

In nTexas at least, if a city gets the flagship state university, it will not get a medical school. I guess it is fair, because a city should not get all the "goodies."

mom2collegekids

When does he get his score?

I am so very bad at waiting........

Kat


Me too!!

The end of this month! He just tested on Saturday. He felt really good during the exam. Fingers crossed!


I learned something new from CC today. This particular med school was in DS's (and several of his friends's) radar screen last year. He said it is a very good med school.

MCAT...Yes...the SOM is very good.

I think the med school may have originally been in Tuscaloosa but was moved to Birmingham a long time ago....probably because it's a much larger city, int'l airport super close by, etc. There is a SOM building on UAlabama's campus, but it's for the family practice and rural med rotation I believe.

The UA system Chancellor does want more med students on the Tuscaloosa campus so I don't know if more specialty rotations will be there at some point or not.

katwkittens

^^^^^^^^^ This played a factor in son's decision last year as well!! (med school being on undergrad campus)
Son's med school is at the state flagship and is known to be "somewhat" of a sports school UG, guess that's why they call it chapel THRILL!

Basketball tix are by lottery but he "won" for every game he wanted to attend, and had a blast (med students get priority!). Tailgating for football was fun, it was a wonder he had time to attend class!

Temps are in the high 80s today so he is out by the pool "reviewing" his lecture on his laptop, with his buddy corona, after he went for a run and had greek on franklin street. Rough, real rough. Slow week he says. He is enjoying med school waaaayyyyy too much.

Kat

GA2012MOM

I know this may sound silly, but if you go on Facebook and put in "xxx school of medicine class of 2016" you can then see what UG's the students went to. Obviously it is very unscientific, but you would be surprised at the trends you will see at the various schools.

mom2collegekids

^^^

Interesting.

I'm also hearing that while some publics do take OOS students, they generally limit those acceptances to students that have some kind of link to the state....which maybe suggests that the student will practice there. Frankly, I'm wondering if where one does his/her residency is a greater influence for setting up practice??

kristin5792

That OOS acceptance idea is definitely true at my school. OOS applicants actually have to petition the school for an application! I'd guess out of my class of 100 there are around 10 OOS students.

No idea re residency and practice, but that seems intuitively true. It would be interesting to see how many students from state med schools stay in the state for residency--I know at least here, quite a few students stay in state for residency. I'm not sure if those students were originally from here or not though.

WayOutWestMom

Well, I know D1 is angling to do her residency in-state because she wants to practice here.

mrpenguin

I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject as I won't be applying for another year or two, but I believe the University of Michigan is fairly balanced in terms of in-state and out-of-state students. Might be too far up north, though.

WayOutWestMom

Yes, but the average MCAT for an admitted UM applicant is 35.4.