Chances? 3.84 GPA, 3.64 sGPA, 520 MCAT

[winterjelly]

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[WedgeDawg]

I think your app looks great other than the low number of US clinical volunteering hours. If you can start volunteering at your school's hospital or a local hospital now and continue it through the summer/app cycle, you can write your projected number of hours on your AMCAS app in June. It's great that you have experience in Asia as well, but adcoms are going to want to make sure that you are familiar with the US healthcare system as well. You don't need too much more, but if you can do like 2-3 hours/week, you will easily break 100 hours by app time and then if you continue through the summer, you can get to ~150 or more and that should be plenty.

Your app is strong enough to apply to any school, but you should definitely tailor it to your interests. Based on what you've said here, this is what I suggest:

You want to end up in CA, but you're an IL resident. That means you have to target the CA schools that take high numbers of OOS students. Stanford and UCSF are musts, as well as USC-Keck. UCSD isn't super OOS friendly, so I would avoid it. You could probably apply to UCLA (PRIME if you're interested in policy and leadership) too. Davis and Riverside are definitely not good choices for an OOS applicant. If you absolutely have to include another CA school, I would make it a toss-up between UCI and UCSD (though check MSAR for numbers of OOS interviewed at each, I could be remembering wrong), but neither are really good choices.

Your undergrad's medical school for sure.

Now, you have a strong app, so you should target top schools.

Pick 10-12 out of the following list:

Harvard, Hopkins, Penn, WashU, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Michigan, Chicago, Northwestern, Pitt, NYU, Vanderbilt, Sinai, Cornell. Bolded are the ones I recommend the most (your sGPA is I think right outside Harvard and Hopkins' 10th percentile).

Some mid tier schools. Pick 4-5 of the following:

Rochester, Einstein, Hofstra, UVA, Emory

Your state schools:

All schools in IL that don't have negative (for you) regional preference.

So, the list I recommend for you is:

Stanford
UCSF
UCLA
WashU
Yale
Columbia
Duke
Michigan
Chicago
Northwestern
NYU
Vanderbilt
Sinai
Cornell
Rochester
Einstein
Hofstra
USC-Keck
Emory
Your undergrad's med school (if not listed here already)
All IL schools

And that should do it!

Don't worry about your <1 year commitment for things. The only thing I consistently did for more than a couple months was research, and the strength of my app was pretty similar to yours.

 

[winterjelly]

Thank you so much for the detailed response! I will look into the schools that you recommended
And I totally agree with the issue about the lack of US clinical volunteering hrs- I actually just applied to volunteer at my school's hospital last week haha

 

[WedgeDawg]

I sent you a PM with further information

 

[GrapesofRath]

How many reaches you want to apply to is dependent on how many applications you want to fill out. Apply to U of Illinois no matter what. I'd give all the programs in your state except Southern Illinois a shot actually.

For CA schools I think Keck and Stanford are worth a shot. Look into the mission statements of UC schools to see how you fit them and if you fit them at all. What for example in your app makes you a good fit for UCSF's mission statement? Answer these questions when looking at California schools; how you fit with their mission will play a major role in deciding your chances there.

Since your state only has one official "State" program its worthwhile to cover your non top 20 school bases properly. Look at your UG school's data to see if there are schools in particular they seem to fair well with in admission. Pick a handful of "medium" tier type schools with 33-35 MCAT medians. I think U of Iowa, Medical College of Wisconsin and U of Wisconsin might be worth a look on top of that.

You really should have your state programs and about a half dozen "medium" tier types to cover your bases. After that load up on the reaches you desire.

 

[winterjelly]

@GrapesofRath Thank you for your advice!
I looked at my undergrad's data and picked schools based on my sGPA but I will check again with MCAT scores.
...I'm not the biggest fan of my state but I guess I really shouldn't be too picky about region. Will look into IL schools ASAP.

 

[Goro]

You're golden; aim higher. Delete U WA, and suggest skipping Gtown, Drexel and Albany because they'll probably engage in resource protection.

Suggest adding UCSF, USC, UCSD, UCLA, U ILL, UI, U MI, U IA, U Chicago, Wash U, Vandy, Baylor, the Manhattan Titans, Einstein, Hofstra, U Miami, Emory, BU, Harvard, Yale, Case, Mayo, Dartmouth, U VT, U VA, U AZ, SUNY SB, OH State, and maybe Rochester.

Hello!

This is my first time posting on SDN (longtime lurker) and I'm looking for help in generating a school list for the upcoming application cycle.


Tentative School List: (would prefer not to go DO)
all the UC schools (would really love to end up in California)
Stanford (too much of a reach maybe?)
UPenn (another super reach)
Emory
Georgetown
Boston
NYU
University of washington
Albany
Drexel
Rush

 

[winterjelly]

@Goro Thank you! I will look into those schools as well