Am I applying too top-heavy? (also WAMC)

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jesie

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Your list looks good to me. Congrats and the strong academic performance and MCAT!
 
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Based on your stats you're fit to apply anywhere, really. MSTP admissions is more stats/resume-driven than undergrad admissions, so you should be good barring any red flags in your rec letters and essays.
 
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From my developing understanding you would be competitive nearly anywhere. I think your list is great! I am curious why you are not applying to UofM (@Ann Arbor)? It seems like you listed most other schools of similar caliber.
 
I see you have a fair bit of recent epi/biostats experience. Are you interested in public health/epi/biostats for your PhD, or are you thinking more of a traditional science? If the former, I would consider adding UNC, Pitt, and Columbia, as they all have strong epi / biostats programs.
 
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How do you go about figuring out what each school is "best for"?

I'm partial to seeking out PIs as opposed to programs, per se. This could be a bias due to my chemistry background, because in chemistry a lot of the onus falls on your academic genealogy as opposed to the brand name of the school (although that does play a small role). Take a few of the top papers in your field and start scoping out who the 1st authors and PIs were. Follow them to their respective institutions and there's your list of programs.

Example: This recent study in Nature made quite a splash in the antibiotic space. Myers' group at Harvard created a new methodology for the synthesis of macrolide compounds and the first author was Ian Seiple, now at UCSF. Taking this a step further, Seiple studied under Baran at Scripps, so include UCSD (not that Phil Baran isn't famous already, the guy's a beast). Boom - three programs right off the bat.
 
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I'm partial to seeking out PIs as opposed to programs, per se. This could be a bias due to my chemistry background, because in chemistry a lot of the onus falls on your academic genealogy as opposed to the brand name of the school (although that does play a small role). Take a few of the top papers in your field and start scoping out who the 1st authors and PIs were. Follow them to their respective institutions and there's your list of programs.

Example: This recent study in Nature made quite a splash in the antibiotic space. Myers' group at Harvard created a new methodology for the synthesis of macrolide compounds and the first author was Ian Seiple, now at UCSF. Taking this a step further, Seiple studied under Baran at Scripps, so include UCSD (not that Phil Baran isn't famous already, the guy's a beast). Boom - three programs right off the bat.

This is definitely the best methodology I have been told so far and, now that you say it, it feels crushingly obvious.
Thank you!!
 
Hello! I am in a similar situation. Not sure if I'm applying to too many top tier schools and will end up not getting in anywhere. I also read the advice to not apply anywhere I wouldn't go to, so that limited me to consider only applying to 16 schools. Not TX resident, so not applying to schools in TX.

Pretty similar stats:
Academics: GPA: 3.91 with science GPA: 3.95, MCAT 524 also! at an Ivy League
Research: 1 summer Parkinson's research at home institution, 1 year at home institution working with MD/PhD neurosurgeon sorting through clinical data, 1 summer at NYU doing cancer research, last semester and currently through rest of next year working with same neurosurgeon on testing surgical technique on mice
EC: lots of leadership, 50 hrs of clinical shadowing but spent lots of time with patients for project with neurosurgeon even if it's not "shadowing", 50 hrs of volunteering, 2 publications from the research projects (no first author)

I'm thinking of either going into neurology or neurosurgery, so I tried to pick schools that are top in those fields. Any suggestions of other good schools for neuro (or schools I should drop from my list) would be much appreciated!

List of schools:

Columbia
Cornell Tri-I
Duke
Harvard-MIT
Johns Hopkins
NYU
Stanford
UChicago
UCLA-Caltech
UCSD
UCSF
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (?)
University of Washington (?)
UPenn
WashU St. Louis
Yale

Why do you feel your list is too top heavy? Your stats seem in order.
 
Why do you feel your list is too top heavy? Your stats seem in order.
I wanted to check with some people with experience (you all) before I submit just to make sure I wasn't applying with my head in the clouds only to end up not getting in anywhere. Would also appreciate some insight on which schools are good for neuro!
It just feels like I took the top schools from the USA News Report to make my list and I'm afraid that I missed applying to some great school because it wasn't at the top of the list.
 
I wanted to check with some people with experience (you all) before I submit just to make sure I wasn't applying with my head in the clouds only to end up not getting in anywhere. Would also appreciate some insight on which schools are good for neuro!
It just feels like I took the top schools from the USA News Report to make my list and I'm afraid that I missed applying to some great school because it wasn't at the top of the list.

Relax a bit - you've done the hard work of prepping for med school. You should also add Northwestern, Emory, BCM, and UW-Madison. I applied to mostly top research schools w/ similar stats (no publications at the time of applying though) and had no real issues.
 
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