3.9 GPA 36 MCATs. Need help with school list

[chemist_acs]

My stats:

GPA 3.9
SGPA 3.94
MCATs 36

Attending a top 30 private university, NJ resident, white male
Honors: Phi Beta Kappa, chemistry award
2.5 years research in school (~2700 hours) Will continue through senior year. Considering doing honors thesis
150 clinical volunteering in dr office
60 hour hospital volunteering. Will continue next year
Shadowing: 24 hours specialty 1, 90 hours specialty 2. Will continue next year
Jobs: 180 hours research in major NY hospital. Hoping to continue this summer.
Chemistry tutor in my undergrad for the past year

This is my preliminary school list. I would prefer to stay in NY tri state area but will ofcourse apply broadly.

All 3 NJ state schools
Albert Einstein
BU
Case Western
Columbia
Drexel
Quinnipiac
GW
Harvard ?
Hofstra
Mount Sinai
Johns Hopkins
New York medical college
NYU
Penn state
UPenn
Brown
Tufts
Uconn
Umiami
URochester
UVermont
Cornell
Yale

I know this is too many schools and very top heavy. So I need help trimming it down and maybe adding more middle tier schools.

Thanks everyone for your help.

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[WedgeDawg]

You're a very average candidate for top schools.

Remove BU, Drexel, GW, Brown, UConn, Miami, and Vermont.

Consider adding some of Emory, UVA, Stony Brook, and the SUNYs. You could also add Northwestern, Duke, etc as a couple more reaches if you want to.

 

[Alejandro]

Numbers look great, would like to see a little more volunteerism or demonstration of your interest in medicine, but otherwise, its fine.

As wedge said, average for top schools. Itd be nicer to have something about you that "stands out," but oh well.

 

[chemist_acs]

Forgot to mention one thing. Ive played club sport for my school for the past 3 years and will continue to do so next year. And I'm planning to volunteer at my local shelter this summer.

 

[chemist_acs]

I will be volunteering in the nursing home this upcoming summer.
Would appreciate any advice on what else I can do to strengthen my application.
WedgeDog, why remove those particular schools?
I'm not necessary shooting for top schools. I will be happy with any med school I can get into. Do I have a shot this
Cycle? Any more comments on my school list will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Doudline]

Leadership, non-clinical ECs (shelter is good) are lacking.
Right now you look like a bland research/good grades applicant (your clinical is good, but everyone has that).

Can't comment on specific schools -except for Harvard/Yale and co, which you're not getting in right now- but you are definitely getting interviews somewhere with your current app. Just aim wide and not too high.

 

[Goro]

I suggest:


I put some in the "OR" category so as to not make the list so top heavy.


All 3 NJ state schools (ONLY if you live in NJ)
Albert Einstein
BU
Case Western
Columbia OR Cornell
Jefferson
Temple
Quinnipiac
Harvard OR Yale
Hofstra
Johns Hopkins OR UPenn
Uconn (maybe)
Umiami
URochester
UVermont
NYU or Mt Sinai
Albany
Va Tech
U WV
All four SUNYs
Duke
Emory

 

[WedgeDawg]

I think you have two potential ways of going about this.

One is you can create a balanced list of top, mid, and low tier schools and have a 95% chance of acceptance, which is what @Goro is suggesting. This is the more conservative route to take but will maximize your chances of getting into a medical school.

The alternative is to apply to almost all of the top 20-25 school along with your state schools and a couple mid tiers and go for gold (the shotgun approach). This is the route I took and we look like very similar applicants on paper. You will have a lower chance of acceptance overall, but a higher chance at top tier schools, and you certainly are competitive at any of them; as I said earlier, you're an average top tier applicant.

Both routes are viable, so it is up to you to decide which path to take.

 

[Goro]

Listen to the Dawg!!

I think you have two potential ways of going about this.

One is you can create a balanced list of top, mid, and low tier schools and have a 95% chance of acceptance, which is what @Goro is suggesting. This is the more conservative route to take but will maximize your chances of getting into a medical school.

The alternative is to apply to almost all of the top 20-25 school along with your state schools and a couple mid tiers and go for gold (the shotgun approach). This is the route I took and we look like very similar applicants on paper. You will have a lower chance of acceptance overall, but a higher chance at top tier schools, and you certainly are competitive at any of them; as I said earlier, you're an average top tier applicant.

Both routes are viable, so it is up to you to decide which path to take.

 

[chemist_acs]

@WedgeDawg
@Goro
@Alejandro

Just as a clarification. I omitted that I spent a month in Asia over the summer on a school research grant with my research team. The project we work on is extremely public health related, which is the reason I joined it in the first place (this 2700 hours of research mentioned above). Also, I did not incorporate the month spent in asia into these 2700 hours.

Additionally, a paper i wrote and am the second author for is being being submitted for publishing. This paper is separate from this research and concerns a medical field.

Does this make me a more interesting applicant?

Also, here is my med school list as of now:
Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Penn, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Sinai, NYU, U Mich, Cornell, Pitt, Einstein, Emory, Dartmouth, Rochester, UVA, Albany, Quinnipiac, Hofstra, NYMC, Stony Brook, Tufts, all 3 NJ state schools

 

[WedgeDawg]

It's interesting, but everyone is interesting.

Your list looks good.

 

[chemist_acs]

@Catalystik

Could you elaborate on your suggestion?

 

[Catalystik]

Tell me what hours you will have completed on the day you submit.

150 hours of the summer experience I asked about before.
64 hours hospital volunteering
135 hours of shadowing. Different specialty. Predominately neurosurgery. Watched a lot of surgeries. Was actually in operating room being mentored by the dr performing the surgery.
12 hours of nursing home

I have a question concerning volunteering. I was volunteering during summer at one of the NY hospitals under a PI. The PI's focus is on Lupus and so during my time there I was both creating databases as well as developing surveys to allow for accurate patient self assessment. Although all this work was done without patient contact, while I was at this volunteering position, I also occasionally shadowed the PI and sometimes went through the surveys with patients directly.

You might want to re-categorize some of those 150 summer hours where you interacted face-to-face with patients as clinical, maybe splitting it away from the rest.

During how many of those 150 hours did you have face-to-face interaction with a patient while going over the survey?

 

[Lamel]

Also, here is my med school list as of now:
Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Penn, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Sinai, NYU, U Mich, Cornell, Pitt, Einstein, Emory, Dartmouth, Rochester, UVA, Albany, Quinnipiac, Hofstra, NYMC, Stony Brook, Tufts, all 3 NJ state schools

This is a good list. Look into Case Western as well.

You and I are similar applicants, and I applied to similar schools; you can see how my cycle went in my MDapps.

 

[chemist_acs]

#lamel congratulation on a great application cycle! Which school did you end up choosing? I was trying to find your chance thread from last year just to look at your ECs, but can't find it. Can you post link to it please

 

[chemist_acs]

#Catalystik, I honestly don't remember. Unfortunately didn't keep detailed notes aside from my hours. I'm meeting with the doctor I was working with next week Hopefully she can help with that. But if I was able to break down those 150 hours to my advantage what do you recommend? Medical/ clinical or non medical/clinical. I understand what you were saying before about my volunteer hours. But at this point it is what it is and I just have to put up the best possible application to give me a best shot. Thanks for your help

 

[Catalystik]

#Catalystik, I honestly don't remember. Unfortunately didn't keep detailed notes aside from my hours. I'm meeting with the doctor I was working with next week Hopefully she can help with that. But if I was able to break down those 150 hours to my advantage what do you recommend? Medical/ clinical or non medical/clinical. I understand what you were saying before about my volunteer hours. But at this point it is what it is and I just have to put up the best possible application to give me a best shot. Thanks for your help

It appears that you'd have completed 64 (hospital) + 12 (nursing home) = 76 hours of (active) clinical experience, which is one the sparse side, so anything you can add to that before submission would be helpful to your chances. Your 135 (passive) shadowing hours is well above average, but if all of it is surgical observation, you will be disadvantaged at interviews for not having observed doctor-(awake) patient interaction. If any of it required you to be helpful to the patient in some way, you might reassign its category to active clinical experience.

Since the doctor you're working for currently would likely be your Contact for some of this, it's a good idea for you to meet and agree on how things should be broken down from that 150 summer hours.