Cast Your Net Wide: Med School Applications

Your  health team advisors have this to say (in unison):  Apply to many schools.  Not 40, unless you are really looking forward to filling out secondaries.  Not even necessarily 30 schools...but please, please, please...apply to more than 15.  Take our word for it, no matter how much you want to live in California, New York, or any other geographical location, do not discount other good schools (which take out-of-state applicants) just because they aren't in places to which you are automatically drawn.  A good range to aim for is 21-25.  No matter what your scores and grades look like, no matter how varied and interesting your activities, there is no guarantee that any one school will love you enough to grant you a sought after position; sometimes the schools you have little love for are the ones who will embrace you wholeheartedly; and all of these schools will make you a doc.  If you don't want to find yourself taking on "reapplicant" status just because you were being too choosy, then broaden your scope and cast that net widely, pre-meds!