3.95 science GPA and 35 MCAT

[DOCthms4]

So I currently go to UCSD and I am applying to med schools right now as a junior. Just wanted to know what some of you guys thought of my chances.

3.95 Science GPA, 3.85 Overall
35 on MCAT

I am a little concerned about my extracurriculars as I currently only have 8 of them including one for honors and recognitions.
~400 hours of cumulative research (I did around 200 hours for two labs on campus) but 0 publications
~200 hours hospital volunteering, was recently promoted to leadership of around 37 interns for 2 hospital wards which I will start sometime in June so i'll have already sent in my application before I actually start doing the leadership
~400 hours of playing bass/guitar/cajon/singing for my own home church + serving as the Tech leader (led 3-4 people in setting up all the speakers / monitors / instruments and would run sound checks)
~200 hours of playing bass for other 4 other churches in my community
~40 hours did a photography for charity thing where I took family christmas photos for donations over one winter and raised 1000$ by myself for an orphanage in India
~12 hours of physician shadowing, (I just started about a month ago and am planning to do this for as long as I can, but since I have such few hours I'm planning to not include this on my application)

Schools I am planning on applying to:
UCSF – MCAT 35 GPA 3.80
UCLA – MCAT 34 GPA 3.78
UCSD – MCAT 35 GPA 3.85
UC Davis – MCAT 33 GPA 3.71
USC – MCAT 34 GPA 3.74
UCI – MCAT 33 GPA 3.77
University of Colorado – MCAT 33 GPA 3.77
Oregon Health & Science University – MCAT 32 GPA 3.77
University of Utah – MCAT 32 GPA 3.74
University of Wisconsin – MCAT 32 GPA 3.82
Tufts Medical College – MCAT 33 GPA 3.65
Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine MCAT 34.44 GPA 3.79
Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine MCAT 27 GPA 3.68
University of North Dakota School of Medicine MCAT 28 GPA 3.75
West Virginia School of Medicine MCAT 29 GPA 3.76

The bold choices are the ones I felt would qualify as my safety net schools. Let me know what you guys I think / if i'm applying too high.

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[DOCthms4]

Oh and I forgot to add that I've had "Provost Honors" (equivalent to Dean's list) for 6 of my 9 quarters, was in the UCSD ERC honors program for my sophomore year where I was basically just doing research for credits, and literally 5 minutes ago accepted UCSD's Phi Beta Kappa chapter's invitation.

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

i think i would definitely put shadowing on your app. If it's not there at all that's more worrisome than only a few hours IMO. Also, you mention you are continuing in it. Maybe mention it's an ongoing activity and you plan to have X more hours.

Adcoms need to see you have experience shadowing and know what it's like to be a doc

 

[DOCthms4]

Thanks for the input! I'll double check with others before I finalize it into my application, but with shadowing included do you think I am applying too high?

 

[ttothemac]

Any reason you're only applying to one East Coast school (Tufts)? Why not Harvard, BU, and NYC schools?

 

[el_duderino]

I think not including your shadowing experience would be a huge mistake. It's better for them to think you have 12 hours than to think you have none at all.

 

[Goro]

Nothing wrong with aiming high. But skip ORHSUI and add Wash U. You'd better have a damned good reason for WVU because they'll think "safety school" and won't want to waste their resources when you'r eunlikley to come there. Do you match UCI's mission? If not, why not add Stanford?

And do your homework please. UND is highly in-state and neighbor state biased. MSAR Online is your friend.
Suggest adding any of the Ivies, Vandy, Pitt, Duke, JHU, Baylor, U NV, U AZ, Loyola, U Chicago, Northwestern, BU, Mt Sinai, and Emory.

If you really want a safety, Western and TUCOM-CA will cut off body parts to get you.

UCSF – MCAT 35 GPA 3.80
UCLA – MCAT 34 GPA 3.78
UCSD – MCAT 35 GPA 3.85
UC Davis – MCAT 33 GPA 3.71
USC – MCAT 34 GPA 3.74
UCI – MCAT 33 GPA 3.77
University of Colorado – MCAT 33 GPA 3.77
Oregon Health & Science University – MCAT 32 GPA 3.77
University of Utah – MCAT 32 GPA 3.74
University of Wisconsin – MCAT 32 GPA 3.82
Tufts Medical College – MCAT 33 GPA 3.65
Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine MCAT 34.44 GPA 3.79
Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine MCAT 27 GPA 3.68
University of North Dakota School of Medicine MCAT 28 GPA 3.75
West Virginia School of Medicine MCAT 29 GPA 3.76

The bold choices are the ones I felt would qualify as my safety net schools. Let me know what you guys I think / if i'm applying too high.[/QUOTE]

 

[Buckeye222]

Maybe this isn't constructive for you, but your grades are actually pretty competitive in schools like Stanford and even Harvard. It's your EC's that might slack a little, but if in any way you could go all Nazi in the next 6-12 months and start a student organization and get some more volunteer time you may actually have a chance. Another thing, email/talk to as many doctors as you can to see if you can shadow...like get that number up to like 50. Also, make sure you don't appear as though you are scraping the bottom of the barrel for EC's. Its important to list anything relevant, but the worship music leader and photography thing seems a bit of a stretch to me (I'm not meaning to be rude, just my opinion). Make sure they know you play several instruments, it always looks good, but they don't want to see you are out of EC options....if anything you might mention them as an afterthought i.e. "....I also have forty hours doing charity work as a photographer and raised a thousand dollars for an orphanage in India" at like the end of your EC's. Just my input. I have very similar grades to yours but a lot more EC's and am planning on at least trying for Stanford, thought you might like the insight.

 

[DOCthms4]

@ttothemac : I wasn't too sure about living in the East Coast for 4 years, every time I've been to Boston / NY I could never picture myself living there, one of my friends helping me out with the application said to apply to at least one east coast school in case I end up loving the area, so I chose Tufts because it seemed a bit easier to get into than BU, and Harvard seems like way too much of a reach to me, but i'll definitely keep it in mind

@Goro : Thanks for the criticism on the backup schools, I definitely want to get an M.D. so osteopathic isn't really something i'm looking for. And while I do have some research experience, I'm not looking at mainly research schools, which is why Stanford never really appealed to me, although i'm applying to UCSD because of how cheap it is, so take that with a grain of salt. Also did you suggest switching Oregon with Wash U because of the lack of shadowing hours?

@Buckeye222 : All the advice I can get is appreciated. Ideally I want to go straight from UCSD into med school, and if things dont work out for me this cycle i'll just end up applying next year when i'll have alot more shadowing hours / leadership as I recently got promoted in my hospital volunteering program to management. I've actually had to commute the last 3 years to UCSD on a one hour commute (one-way) that has pretty much prevented me from any big club involvements on campus due to the bus schedule (last bus leaves campus at 7:15 PM, and most club meetings start 7-8) which i'm not sure counts as significant enough to list as a disadvantage thoughts? And I was told by a couple of friends to leave all the bass performing / photography in the application as they consist of the more unique things that other applicants probably aren't going to have similar experiences to compete with

 

[Buckeye222]

Ok that makes sense! I just thought I would mention that unless you have some conflict with the school, Stanford's avg. matriculant GPA is 3.76 and median MCAT score is 35 and considering you are in state, you have a bit of a leg up on quite a number of those 7,000 applicants, so you might at least get an interview! As you probably know, Stanford is one of the best (albeit most expensive), and would be hard to turn down personally.

 

[gyngyn]

Ok that makes sense! I just thought I would mention that unless you have some conflict with the school, Stanford's avg. matriculant GPA is 3.76 and median MCAT score is 35 and considering you are in state, you have a bit of a leg up on quite a number of those 7,000 applicants, so you might at least get an interview! As you probably know, Stanford is one of the best (albeit most expensive), and would be hard to turn down personally.

Stanford has no preference for CA applicants.

 

[Buckeye222]

Stanford has no preference for CA applicants.

Ah, I think I knew that, thanks for the correction. I was mainly emphasizing the fact they the OP is above average on GPA and at median for MCAT. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[gyngyn]

Ah, I think I knew that, thanks for the correction. I was mainly emphasizing the fact they the OP is above average on GPA and at median for MCAT. Thanks for the clarification.

Stanford is usually looking for researchers (with few exceptions). OP is a decent fit for most of the other CA schools (except for UCR).