cGPA 3.82 / MCAT 519 / School List Feedback

[rat333]

PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE

First off, thank you to anyone who is willing to provide me with a little feedback! At this point, I am looking for some thoughts on my school list and whether I should include more schools which I would have a better chance of getting into. I am applying through our school’s committee so I do not want to have to apply a second time.

Here is my rough information:

EDIT: Majors in Neuroscience and Sociology

1. cGPA = 3.82; sGPA = 3.74; required science GPA = 3.81

2. MCAT score = 519: 98th percentile: 130 BS, 130 PS, 132 Behavioral, 127 CARS

3. PA state resident, White, just graduated from a large public (research) university

4. About 40 hours of shadowing psychiatrists and internalists; about 100 hours of working as a healthcare associate with patients with disabilities; about 250 hands-on clinical volunteer hours

5. Behavioral research for 7 semesters and 2 summers; completed independent (unpublished) projects and wrote a thesis; completed two research fellowships

6. Built one (health-related) service organization on campus with now over 70 members (President); ran all programming for a fraternity of 100 members (Vice-President); served on Student Government (large list of responsibilities); Teaching assistant for 2 (health-related) science courses; serve in a few other smaller roles working with the university

7. Very active in the community, working with different start-up non-profits and will be spending my gap year continuing this work

8. Traveled abroad to study human rights one summer as part of another fellowship


I know that this list is lite on details, but it gives the overall picture of my application. Essentially I work a lot with students and the community while also pursuing my love of science in the classroom and my lab.

Here is the current list of schools which I am applying to:

Johns Hopkins

Harvard

University of Chicago

Vanderbilt

Northwestern

University of Pittsburgh

Duke

Case Western

Emory

Ohio State

Georgetown

Possible additions: University of Massachusetts and University of Maryland


I would love to get your thoughts, specifically on my school choice, as I’ve mostly talked to advisors so far. Again, thank you for any feedback!

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[WedgeDawg]

Your school list indicates you need to purchase the MSAR and look carefully at 10th-90th percentile stat ranges and IS vs. OOS acceptance profiles.

Georgetown is unlikely to accept you due to its high volume of applications and your stats being at the far extremes of its range. Remove.

UMass only accepts residents of Massachusetts. Remove.

UMD is heavily biased towards Marylanders, but it might be open to Pennsylvanians to, though I wouldn't bank on it. Keep or remove, up to you.

90% of your list is reach schools. You need to augment with a solid mid-tier base.

Consider adding Penn, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Sinai, Michigan, and Yale.

Add Rochester, Einstein, Hofstra, USC-Keck (if you're okay with going to California), and possibly UVA and Wake Forest.

Add Jefferson and take a look at the MSAR for Penn State, Temple, and Drexel - if it looks like they have some preference for PA residents, include them, otherwise leave them out.

Add your home institution if it's not already on there.

 

[rat333]

Thank you for the feedback, and especially so quickly! I have purchased the MSAR and am using it but haven't had enough guidance so far. I also actually have Columbia and Cornell on my list but forgot to add them here. I'll definitely take this all into consideration!

 

[Faha]

You can apply to any and all the reach schools that you wish but it would be a good idea to apply to several "safety" schools and since you are a PA resident definitely apply to Penn State, Commonwealth, Drexel ,Temple and Jefferson.

 

[rat333]

Thank you!

 

[LuluLovesMe]

Your school list indicates you need to purchase the MSAR and look carefully at 10th-90th percentile stat ranges and IS vs. OOS acceptance profiles.

Georgetown is unlikely to accept you due to its high volume of applications and your stats being at the far extremes of its range. Remove.

UMass only accepts residents of Massachusetts. Remove.

UMD is heavily biased towards Marylanders, but it might be open to Pennsylvanians to, though I wouldn't bank on it. Keep or remove, up to you.

90% of your list is reach schools. You need to augment with a solid mid-tier base.

Consider adding Penn, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Sinai, Michigan, and Yale.

Add Rochester, Einstein, Hofstra, USC-Keck (if you're okay with going to California), and possibly UVA and Wake Forest.

Add Jefferson and take a look at the MSAR for Penn State, Temple, and Drexel - if it looks like they have some preference for PA residents, include them, otherwise leave them out.

Add your home institution if it's not already on there.

Just a minor correction but UMass accepted 12 OOS applicants for MD only this year. Next year it will expand to 25 seats for OOS. In state seats will remain at 125.

 

[GrapesofRath]

PA can be a bit tricky of a case for high stat applicants. All the lower tier PA schools have significant IS bias(the % of IS applicants offered an II for schools like Temple, Drexel etc is higher than many state schools in other regions) but from what Ive seen it's hard to really find any consistency in how they handle high stat applicants. These are largely private schools and Temple/Penn State get little state funding so there isnt the same obligation to take on low yield high stat applicants like their might be with state schools.

Having said that, apply to every school in your state, some of the lower tiers will probably bite.

Rest of your list is fine. Your goal should be to have roughly 10-12+ schools you can call "targets" and go in saying you have a reasonable shot at getting a II at. The PA lower tiers are hard to say so collectively those 5 schools let's hypothetically arbitrarily consider as "2" towards this number. I see 6-7 others on this list. Probably a good idea to add a few more. I like Einstein, Cincinnati and UVA as a few more potential "target" options.