Am I aiming too high?

[DoctorC]

I plan to applying to all the CA schoold and the Ivy Leagues, and that is it. My stats are:

3.5 overall
3.4 Science

and 15 good activites along with 4 AMAZING LORs. I am an URM, black male, and will be taking the August MCAT and hope to score no lower than a 30. I plan to eat and sleep the MCAT. My GPA would be alot higher accept for a quarter where my dad tried coming into my life and ended messing it up. SHOULD I BE SAFE WITH THESE SCHOOLS?

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[SitraAchra]

Barring an MCAT disaster, it sounds like you're a strong applicant, especially since you can explain some of your slipups with the GPA.

 

[KiKat37]

Never take anything for granted. Apply to some "safety" schools.

 

[stinkycheese]

Yes. Being a black male doesn't really make enough of a difference to overcome the mediocre GPA. If you only apply to tip-top schools, you are asking for trouble, no matter WHAT the stats.

 

[DoctorC]

Well, I wasn't hoping that being black would overcome my GPA but the reason it went to down. W/o that quarter my GPA is around a 3.7.

 

[2tall]

I wouldn't apply to ivy leagues schools just because their ivy. Apply to schools that have curriculums/philosophies that line up with your needs, goals, and wants. If some of these happen to be ivy...so be it.

I'm assuming that you're applying for the entering class '06. You're taking the August MCAT...that delays your application. Diversify your school list with schools like Wake Forest, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Pritzker, Boston U, etc. Do your homework!

 

[2tall]

Oh and as for aiming high...ALWAYS AIM HIGH! Your experiences seem on point. Your late app would be a disadvantage.

My suggestion is just that you to aim at a larger target.

 

[Medikit]

Any particular reason why you are only applying to UC's and Ivy leagues?

Do you have good EC's?

 

[45408]

A few things:

You don't have an MCAT score yet. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. No, you're not aiming too high, but you would be foolish not to include some back-up schools.

Lastly - how could you have fifteen GOOD activities? I've got 5-6 "good" activities, and the rest of the things are more like honors and minor things I've done here and there.

 

[DoctorC]

I figured I would have had to explain more of my activities, while some are good and some are great, others are just MEH. I should have mentioned that I thought about applyiing to Boston U, Vanderbilt, OHSU, and Case as my other schools. I wanna apply to all the CA schools b/c that is where I am from.

SOME ACTIVITIES:

1) Preceptorship at Stanford University
2) SMEP at Columbia University
3) Summer Institute in Math and Science at UCSB
4) Community Service Officer
5) Mentor for MCDB 26: Nutrition Class
6) Research Assistant three times : Toxoplasmosis, Bower Birds, and Alcohol.
7) Reader/ Grader for: Biology of Cancer, DANCE 35, and DANCE 45
8) National Health Alliance (President)
9) Legislative Action Coalition
10) Program for Determined Students
11) SUMMA Conference at Stanford U.
12) Intramural Basketball

 

[SD Skunk]

hey doctorc,

i would apply to a handful of safety schools, hands down. if there is anything i've learned from this mess, this whole admissions game can take you completely by surprise. happened to most of my friends with stellar stats and activities. happened to me at many schools, too. you definitely want to cover your bases. good luck.

 

[DoctorC]

Thanks to everyone for all the input. I am still kinda nervous as my app. wont be complete until my MCAT scores come in.

 

[Sparky Man]

Hey, aiming high is great, but I'd definitely apply to more schools. The application process is scary enough, why make it worse??

 

[criminallyinane]

I figured I would have had to explain more of my activities, while some are good and some are great, others are just MEH. I should have mentioned that I thought about applyiing to Boston U, Vanderbilt, OHSU, and Case as my other schools. I wanna apply to all the CA schools b/c that is where I am from.

Those aren't safeties. You need to get some lower-tiered schools on your list. You are setting yourself up to be rejected everywhere. Your stats aren't hot enough to apply just to top 50 schools. Someone on this board with near-perfect (literally) stats has gotten rejected everywhere this year. Be more careful when choosing your final list of schools.

 

[Childe]

Those aren't safeties. You need to get some lower-tiered schools on your list. You are setting yourself up to be rejected everywhere. Your stats aren't hot enough to apply just to top 50 schools. Someone on this board with near-perfect (literally) stats has gotten rejected everywhere this year. Be more careful when choosing your final list of schools.

I dont think anyone's stats jusify applying only to top 50 schools. Unless they apply to like 25 of them perhaps.
Play it safe.

 

[criminallyinane]

I dont think anyone's stats jusify applying only to top 50 schools. Unless they apply to like 25 of them perhaps.
Play it safe.

Well, I do think there are some people who would be safe with only top 50's, especially if their state school is in that mix, but I agree with you that it is a very small number of people!! Bewilderingly to me, many people with hot stats only apply to the top 10 or 20... and then find that they get kicked in the ass by the end of the admissions process. Nobody's stats are good enough to guarantee acceptance to a top 10 since you never know what they're looking for!!

I myself am going to a "top 20" but got rejected from unranked schools, top 50 schools, etc. I also got accepted from all of those categories. But despite getting rejected from tons and tons of places, I happened to get into the highest ranking school I applied to. This process is totally weird -- don't count on anything except suprises.

 

[sockandmittens]

NO. I have a male friend who is an urm and he has higher scores and did not get into many of those schools. he got waitlisted at cornell and pittsburgh (very high) so hopefully he will get into pittsburgh, but it's just plain naive to not apply to safety schools.

 

[linds]

DoctorC-
I agree with most other posters in that you should apply to some lower tiered schools just in case. But the fact is that you will never get accepted to schools you don't apply for, so apply where you want to go and good luck!

 

[efex101]

Never EVER assume! regardless of stats, ec/lor/urm/etc never underestimate the "other candidates" potential! or this will bite you in the arse! there are MANY excellent (yes better than you) candidates with even greater numbers/lors/ec's/etc so apply to a VARIETY of schools *not* only top twenty and your state schools...you never know.

 

[waterlily]

SOME ACTIVITIES:

1) Preceptorship at Stanford University
2) SMEP at Columbia University
3) Summer Institute in Math and Science at UCSB
4) Community Service Officer
5) Mentor for MCDB 26: Nutrition Class
6) Research Assistant three times : Toxoplasmosis, Bower Birds, and Alcohol.
7) Reader/ Grader for: Biology of Cancer, DANCE 35, and DANCE 45
8) National Health Alliance (President)
9) Legislative Action Coalition
10) Program for Determined Students
11) SUMMA Conference at Stanford U.
12) Intramural Basketball

I went to SUMMA too, but I didn't consider listing it as an activity, because it was only a one day conference. Can we even list that as an individual activity on AAMC app altogether?

 

[NorCalGirl]

I went to SUMMA too, but I didn't consider listing it as an activity, because it was only a one day conference. Can we even list that as an individual activity on AAMC app altogether?

Maybe if you were involved with putting it together and was part of all that, but I wouldn't put that as one of my activities.

 

[superdavykinz]

It would seem that any school an applicant applies to is a "safety" school since it's kinda random.

 

[Crete]

ALWAYS apply to safeties. This is a fickle process!

 

[45408]

I went to SUMMA too, but I didn't consider listing it as an activity, because it was only a one day conference. Can we even list that as an individual activity on AAMC app altogether?

if it wasn't very significant in your undergrad, if it was only one day, then no, I wouldn't list it.

 

[jllander]

Let me give you a picture of my experience. I am un undergrad at UCSD. I have a much higher GPA than you do (no offense) and I got rejected from every UC med school. Like so many people on this board has said, it's fickle and incredibly random. You are competing against tens of thousands of Californians. It's a really tough game. I am actually going to a great school which is in the top 30 next year. Yeah, it's private, on the east coast, and I'm paying way more than I would have at a UC but it's still going to be amazing. It was quite a shock to be rejected from all my home schools but I applied to enough back up schools that I actually came out on top. Apply to all three types of schools: your "long-shots," the ones you are pretty confident about getting into, and the back-ups. It may cost you more to apply, but you will be thankful you did it in the end. Good luck to you and keep up the confidence you have in yourself. That will definitely come through when these schools talk to you.

 

[Crete]

if it wasn't very significant in your undergrad, if it was only one day, then no, I wouldn't list it.

Depends on how much you put into the conference and what you got out of it. If it was significant, list it.

 

[DoctorC]

Great replies... I will include some backup schools for sure. I will apply to DREXEL, and whatever other schools I can lookup.

 

[riceman04]

I plan to applying to all the CA schoold and the Ivy Leagues, and that is it. My stats are:

3.5 overall
3.4 Science

and 15 good activites along with 4 AMAZING LORs. I am an URM, black male, and will be taking the August MCAT and hope to score no lower than a 30. I plan to eat and sleep the MCAT. My GPA would be alot higher accept for a quarter where my dad tried coming into my life and ended messing it up. SHOULD I BE SAFE WITH THESE SCHOOLS?

I am a successful black male too! We are a hot comodity (hope I did not mispell that) at these schools.

Congrats on your success and all your experience!!!!!! You will be fine! Just continue to believe in yourself. That's how you have gotten this far.
However, medschool for everyone is unpredictable, so I would definitely apply to more than just cali (which you might as well call private-like b/c it is extremely tough for residents like me to get in) and Ivy league med schools.
Like other people have said, you should mix it up a little with schools that are recognized as being in different tiers.

Good luck!