MD Chances for Top-20 School? (High GPA, Okay MCAT)

[UniversalHealthcare69]

Hey SDN, would really appreciate some feedback!

Currently a 3rd year at UCLA, immigrated from Burma, and applying this cycle. I know medical school admissions are highly unpredictable for the most part, but I've been really concerned about my MCAT score as the weakest part of my application and how it may affect my chances at getting interviewed at top-tier schools. A lot of my extracurricular activities are based on helping underserved communities

Major: Political Science (have completed all major science pre-reqs)

cGPA: 3.990
sGPA: 3.987

MCAT:
513 (127 Bio, 129 Cars, 130 Phys, 127 Soc)

ECs:

• Providing basic health screenings and services + insurance help to underserved API communities ~ 300 hours
• Volunteered abroad in Burma for an international NGO and recruited American-trained Burmese doctors on medical trip back to Burma providing mainly reproductive health services to high-risk groups (e.g. prostitutes) in Myanmar. ~ 300 hours
• Quality Improvement Initiatives and Clinical Research at Ronald Reagan Medical Center and Hospital Clinical Experience ~ 250 hours
• Worked at a group home with kids who have suffered from trauma and presented on health issues and personal empowerment. ~150 hours
• One of the founders of a public health organization at UCLA ~ 100 hours
  
• Shadowed a cardiologist ~ 400 hours
• Intramural basketball ~ 50 hours
  
• Research Assistant in a Cancer Biomarker/Early Diagnostics Lab ~ 500 hours
• + Other Community Health Volunteering Orgs.

I have a good amount of leadership positions in many of the ECs listed and have had many valuable and interesting experiences with them that I wrote about in my Activities/Personal Statement on AMCAS

PERSONAL STATEMENT:

Checked by many who thought it was unique and a really good statement overall.

Letters of Recommendation:

-1 really good non-science letter
1 really good science letter
1 decent science letter
1 really good clinical supervisor letter
1 really good lab letter

Current School List

Albert Einstein College of Med
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University
Case Western
Dartmouth Geisel
Drexel University College of Medicine
Hofstra U.
Stanford
Rush Medical College
Keck School of Medicine USC
Pritzker U of Chicago
Brown Alpert Med.
Columbia University
Icahn Mt. Sinai
Cornell University
Loyola University Chicago Stritch
Medical College of Wisconsin
University of California Riverside
University of California Los Angeles
University of California Irvine
University of California San Diego
University of California Davis
University of California San Francisco
Yale
Harvard
Michigan State University
Penn State
Perelman (U Penn.)
Rutgers
University of Arizona College of Medicine
University of Illinois
SUNY Downstate
SUNY Stony Brook
NYU
Lewis Katz at Temple U
Mayo Medical School
New York Medical College
Thomas Jefferson University, Sidney Kimmel
Oregon University
University of Washington


I know numbers matter a lot of admissions, and the MCAT is really worrying me. Any input would be greatly valued as I try to comprise my school list, thanks guys!

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[MaxPlancker]

It doesn't seem like your ECs are going to make up for the MCAT. Your MCAT resides around the 10th percentile or lower of most top 20 schools. Based on your activities thus far, it also appears that you do not need to be at a top 20 school to have access to the resources you'd need to continue pursuing your passions such as working with underserved populations. Your list includes many tip top schools that are difficult for people with 99th percentile MCATs and stellar ECs. Unless you have no financial worries, it would be wise to reduce the number of schools such as Yale, Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, Sinai, etc. The process is quite unpredictable and there is a certain element of luck/randomness so you should definitely apply to some dream schools but don't bank on getting much love there. As a CA applicant, you may have difficulty staying in CA with your profile so apply broadly and smartly using the MSAR. Lastly, remove low-yield schools like Brown. Best of luck!

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Whats your state of residence? U-wash accepts virtually no OOS students due to WWAMI. Also brown is insanely low yield (the take the vast majority of students from brown undergrad and combined degree programs).

Max has good advice. Apply to some top schools, but the meat of your app should focus on places where your MCAT more closely aligns with their median.

Off the top of my head, Wake Forest may be a good place to add.

 

[UniversalHealthcare69]

Thanks a lot guys! I will definitely take you guys up on that advice. I'll start browsing MSAR for schools with medians closer to my MCAT and remove Brown/U Wash as well. I am a California resident. Do you guys have any suggestions on about how many schools in total I should apply to if finances aren't an issue?

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Thanks a lot guys! I will definitely take you guys up on that advice. I'll start browsing MSAR for schools with medians closer to my MCAT and remove Brown/U Wash as well. I am a California resident. Do you guys have any suggestions on about how many schools in total I should apply to if finances aren't an issue?

If finances aren't an issue apply to as many as you can without sacrificing the quality of your writing. I applied to 35, and felt like that was about as many as I could do and still write cohesively.

 

[GrapesofRath]

Are you a US citizen? That's a far more important question to consider

 

[Goro]

I recommend that you get some patient contact experience here. Unless the first on your list is actually interacting with patients. It's not clear.

I suggest the following:

U VM
USF Morsani (maybe)
Duke (maybe)
Case (maybe)
Mayo (maybe)
Miami
St. Louis
Albany
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Rush (note: very service/experience oriented with a 150hr service requirement. Avg student has 800 hours of community service, and >1800 hours of health care exposure.)
Rosy Franklin
BU
MCW
Hofstra
NYMC
VCU
EVMS
Wake Forest
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
George Washington
Emory
USC/Keck
Tulane
Dartmouth
Loyola
Any new MD school. Skip Central MI and the three new FL schools. I can't recommend CNU.
UCD
UCI
UCR IF you're from the Inland Empire
Any DO program, starting with Touro-CA and Western

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

If applying to USF apply to Select program...no OOS bias

 

[UniversalHealthcare69]

Are you a US citizen? That's a far more important question to consider

Yes I am a current US citizen, sorry I should have made that clear in the post.

 

[UniversalHealthcare69]

Thanks Goro for the school recommendation list, it looks great! I actually do have extensive patient contact experience, both in the hospital and out in the community. I left my ECs really vague, apologize for that as well.