Whatup SDNERs, hope you all could comment on my choices of schools as I am starting to think I will get in nowhere and should look into linkage, masters or PhD programs. My list of schools needs to be narrowed down so if any one has any suggestions for which ones to remove. I also welcome suggestions for schools that I should be applying to.

UPENN undergrad
PA resident
Mainland Puertorican ethnicity (I think this is URM right?)
3.22 BCPM, 3.33 overall GPA
34R MCAT

Clinical experience: EMT for a private ambulance company for a year, Volunteer in local ER

Research experience: 1 summer research in a behavioral neuroscience laboratory, 1 summer microbiology research, 1 yr clinical sleep research, independent study for 2 semesters course credit (no publications though).

University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
University of Rochester
Tufts University
Yeshiva University
Pennsylvania State University
University of Vermont
Georgetown University
Temple University
Drexel University
Jefferson Medical College
Rosalind Franklin University
Albany Medical College
Loyola University Chicago
Virginia Commonwealth University
New York Medical College
George Washington University
Tulane University
West Virginia University
Howard University
Florida International University College of Medicine

Well, I'm not really in a position to comment, since I'm in the same boat (except no MCAT yet) but I saw this up yesterday and wanted to leave some love since no one else has yet.

Hi. I'm on Accepted.com's email list and they are having a telethon today at 5:00 PM, where you can call in and ask questions about your chances at schools and other application questions to their medical school editors.

I needed to register in order to get the phone number.

Will let you know if I get good advice but good luck for narrowing down your school choice.

I would take FIU SOM off of your list; they're going to heavily favor in-state, especially since its their first year. UPenn seems like a reach; if you had some publications from all that research, it'd be a different story, and their median MCAT score is around a 35. But why not though; if you went there for undergrad, and made some connections, I would go for it. I would also add some other mid-level schools competitive-wise, like SLU, Creighton, and Loyola. Since you are research-oriented, it wouldn't hurt to take a look at Cleveland Clinic, but I don't know much of their program.

Good luck.

So, the telethon was really good. The admissions consultant had some good insight into the different schools. She also gave advice on how to approach a weakness in the application, which is a really low MCAT score.

I don't know if Accepted.com is going to have any more telethons, but if they are, you should register because it's free. They also had this free email course on writing the AMCAS essay which is good.