Chances at Top 15 schools (3.7 cGPA, 3.5sGPA, 34 MCAT)

[johnnydoesdat]

Hey everyone,

I have a 3.7 cGPA, 3.5 sGPA (with upward trend), and a 34 MCAT (12PS-11V-11BS Writing: P).

1 year of research experience but I'm submitting papers to JCI and Nature in the next two months (will be 2nd or 3rd author on both).

Have solid ECs (good shadowing and I've been involved in many clubs) and good LORs.

Just wanted to know if anyone has experience with submitting papers and/or getting published to top journals around the time of application and how that influenced their app. I feel like that would help a lot, but I don't really know who to ask.

Thanks in advance.

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[CriticalLimit]

I don't know about top 15 schools, but a doctor is a doctor at the end of the day. If you can approach a 3.8 cumulative, and a 3.65 science, I think that'll strengthen your case. Your MCAT is really high though, and that'll help you a ton. I think you can still try with your stats now and it'll be a viable case. Answer my question, please? Thanks!

 

[phunky]

I'm in a similar situation to you. I have no doubt about getting into medical school with my CV (which is similar to yours), but I'm really interested in research, so I'd like to attend a school that places an emphasis on it (ie. top 20). Interested to see how people respond here. Second author in Nature as an undergraduate though? That's pretty awesome.

 

[johnnydoesdat]

I'm in a similar situation to you. I have no doubt about getting into medical school with my CV (which is similar to yours), but I'm really interested in research, so I'd like to attend a school that places an emphasis on it (ie. top 20). Interested to see how people respond here. Second author in Nature as an undergraduate though? That's pretty awesome.

It's a really interesting spot to be in isn't it? Not the worst stress because we'll get in somewhere, but where we end up is still very important. I also want to continue research as a med student, so I'm really hoping this is a huge boost to the app. As far as the potential nature paper is concerned, all I'll say is that I got lucky, but hopefully I'll get luckier and it'll get accepted.

 

[darkjedi]

It'll be a reach, but surely not impossible.

Publications potentially have the ability to add a decent amount of weight to an already impressive application, but will not save your application by any means.

 

[mimelim]

Hey everyone,

I have a 3.7 cGPA, 3.5 sGPA (with upward trend), and a 34 MCAT (12PS-11V-11BS Writing: P).

1 year of research experience but I'm submitting papers to JCI and Nature in the next two months (will be 2nd or 3rd author on both).

Have solid ECs (good shadowing and I've been involved in many clubs) and good LORs.

Just wanted to know if anyone has experience with submitting papers and/or getting published to top journals around the time of application and how that influenced their app. I feel like that would help a lot, but I don't really know who to ask.

Thanks in advance.

You need to quantify "solid ECs" and "good LOR". Everyone says this and invariably have no idea what quantifies top notch, application affecting ECs and LOR vs. 'good' non-factor EC/LOR. It is important for everyone, but for people with low GPAs the effect is magnified and critical.

I had third author in a paper in Nature, second in PNAS and 3 other papers, two of which I was first author when I applied to medical school. It was certainly noteworthy that our work got published in Nature, but the work/skills seemed to dominate interview conversations more than the actual paper itself. Second/third/beyond authorship is an unknown quantity in research. It is very difficult to figure out how much that meant to you individually or how much work you put into the project without talking to you. Schools were more interested in me building a Beowulf cluster from the ground up or programming a genome annotating program and coordinating 20+ people to work on the project.

I had a good MCAT score and a 3.4 GPA and interviewed wherever I wanted (HMS, Hopkins, Wash U, Yale etc.) thanks in large part to ECs, LOR and my research.

 

[Goobs]

Just as an FYI a 3.7 and 34 puts you under the median or just at the median of most of the top 15 schools so definitely apply to others as well! It's always a shame to see strong applicants become reapplicants because they applied too top heavy.

For example, the USNWR #15 for research is U Pitt, which has ~3.85 and ~36 as a median.