Chances of MD Schools? Maybe even a Top 20 MD School?

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NJLions

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top 20 unlikely unless you crush your MCAT 35+ balanced
to be frank and honest, your EC's are average at best so it kinda rides on your MCAT (as do most applications)
your "bad" semester won't hurt you.
 
Okay I appreciate the honesty. Just out of curiosity, can you give me some examples of EC's that would put me above the "average at best" category?

I'm just wondering because I was told by my school's med advisory board to look at schools like Duke, UNC, UPenn, and Yale based on my current ECs and GPA. And I have no idea why they would tell me to look at schools like that if my ECs were just average ya know? And obviously I'm applying to all the NJ schools, it's not like I would just look at those schools I mentioned above.

You don't seem to have any non-medical volunteering with the underserved. Do that and some other stuff and you'll have some good ECs. Also more clinical experience with shadowing. Honestly it will be hard to produce anything really quality in just a year so aim for quantity and then talk them up when u do your app. Pub would be a big boost for top 20. Try and get a 35+. Be careful with kaplan, their practice tests are known for being alot easier than the real thing.
 
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Okay I'll try to get involved in some more volunteering. I'm continuing my shadowing experience at the ER over the break and ill be doing it in the summer as well so hopefully that helps.

I've heard that Kaplan tests are harder than the real thing? I was poking around on the Kaplan forum and everyone was saying the Kap tests are harder. What makes you say they're easier?

Were your clinical experiences were mainly shadowing? Or more volunteering? I ask this because if it's the former, that is considered more passive clinical experience. I recommend getting some active clinical exposure in.

For the top tiers you're really going to have to knock that MCAT out of the park, I would try my best if I were you to get a 36+ to make yourself competitive at these places. Also original research which will culminate in a thesis or pub would be highly desired.

Kaplan by far was the easiest out of all the test prep material. I would go onto the AAMC website and take CBT 3 that is offered for free to really gauge where you are at.
 
kaplan verbal is horrible, they say it's easier only because their scale is easier but the material is harder, especially their physics. Use EK verbal. Kaplan is good for their bio tests though.
 
My clinical experience has been all shadowing. Sorry for the confusion.

I'm hoping to get a publication by fall of senior year.

Oh okay wow that's surprising considering I heard the exact opposite. But thank you for letting me know this!

Shadowing is good, but you're going to want some actual volunteer experience. It would also benefit you to have non-medical volunteer experience, as this is something that more schools are looking for nowadays.

If you're applying in the upcoming cycle, then unfortunately your anticipated publications will not be out by the time you submit AMCAS in the summer. You've also only been working in the lab for several months, whereas some other applicants to top tier schools will have years of research experience. Just keep that in mind. If you do manage to publish in the fall (though don't underestimate the amount of time it takes for a pub to push through the review process), then you can always update schools with that news and it will be taken favorably.

Top 20 is not out of the question, but right now you seem like a very average applicant. Find something that makes you stand out - it doesn't have to be medical. Also, you'll need to score well on your MCAT (35+ would make you competitive for many top tier schools, but UPenn/WashU might look for 37+).
 
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Okay I'll try to get involved in some more volunteering. I'm continuing my shadowing experience at the ER over the break and ill be doing it in the summer as well so hopefully that helps.

I've heard that Kaplan tests are harder than the real thing? I was poking around on the Kaplan forum and everyone was saying the Kap tests are harder. What makes you say they're easier?

I didn't realize that your clincal stuff was all shadowing. Get some clinical volunteering too!

About the Kaplan stuff, that's just what I heard from people who took it. I looked at a kaplan test back in the day and thought it looked pretty easy. I might be misled though. Just be careful of score inflation, it would be a shame to think you are doing well based on your practice tests and then get owned on the real thing.
 
top 20 unlikely unless you crush your MCAT 35+ balanced
to be frank and honest, your EC's are average at best so it kinda rides on your MCAT (as do most applications)
your "bad" semester won't hurt you.

This pretty much takes care of your questions.

With quite limited research and little volunteering top 20 will be tough unless you destroy the MCAT, in which case it will still be tough but not outside the realm of possibility.

I think it's awesome that you've gotten so much out of your ambassador program and I agree that it will give you something to talk about in interviews, but in the environment of top 20 competition (people with 1st authorship in top journals, TFA/peace corps, very serious outreach/international work, etc etc) it won't leap off the page or make up for weaknesses elsewhere.
 
Okay yeah I gotcha. I appreciate the input. Do you think I should be looking at DO schools instead of MD schools then? Where would I need to score on my MCAT to be competitive for MD schools? Like maybe Robert Wood Johnson or NJMS since I'm from Jersey?

It's hard to pick schools before you get your MCAT score. Break a 30 and you'll be competitive for NJMS/RWJ/Cooper (you might even be able to get away with less since NJ schools have a high in-state bias, but aim >30).

The student ambassador gig is nice, but I'm not sure how much weight it will carry in admissions. Many colleges have this type of program. It's nice to show that yes, you are personable, but we can also find that out when we interview you (usually). ;) Also, do you tell every prospective student that your college is the #1 public school in the NE? That might be a slight misrepresentation as USN&WR has separate lists for public national vs regional universities. Notice how PSU, Pitt, and Rutgers main campuses don't show up on the regional lists but are very highly ranked public schools in the NE. Just something to ponder.
 
Okay yeah I definitely want above a 30, but I'm honestly just looking to do as best as I possibly can--so we'll see where I end up.

We say we are the #1 regional school. I go to The College of New Jersey in case you were wondering. We also like to talk about how we have the highest retention rate out of any state school in the country. We have a 95% retention rate, and the national average for a state school is 67%.

It wasn't hard to figure out that you were from TCNJ. ;) It seems like a nice place. I considered going there for college but ended up elsewhere. I have some friends that went there though, and there's at least one person from TCNJ in my med school class.

When you take your MCAT PM me and I can try to help you flesh out a list of schools. Until then, study hard.

Also, you might want to consider moving your test date to May so that you can submit your primary in June with your MCAT score in hand. It won't kill you to have your score back in July, but earlier is always better.
 
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