Is my school list realistic enough?

[mdpls!]

Hi guys! Thanks in advance for your help. I'm wondering if I could get feedback on my current list and any suggestions/edits you think I should have

Demographics: Senior at Washington University, white male from NJ
cGPA: 3.92
BCPM: 3.90
MCAT: 519 (one attempt)
LizzyM score: 76.2; WARS score: 87

Research: Worked in a lab for 2.5 years, ~800 hours overall. No publications or anything like that, but my gap year job is going to be clinical research which will give about 2000 more hours

Clinical volunteering: Volunteer EMT since high school (~2000 hours), Summer volunteering in an oncology ward (~120 hours)

Physician shadowing – include hours/specialties: Ophthalmology (~225 hours), emergency medicine (~60 hours)

Non-clinical volunteering: President of a large university service organization in a disenfranchised community where I have volunteered as a tutor in local high school (~320 hours), Helped form and now lead a program that teaches CPR to students at underfunded public high schools for free for which I received a grant (~50 hours)

Other activities: VP for pre-professional fraternity, TA for my school's human anatomy course

Schools on my list:

• Harvard
• UPenn
• WashU
• Yale
• Columbia
• Duke
• Chicago
• Johns Hopkins
• Michigan
• NYU
• Vanderbilt
• Pitt
• Cornell
• Northwestern
• Emory
• Mt. Sinai
• GW
• UVA
• University of Maryland
• Rutgers (NJMS and RWJ)

Update: Based on many of your guys' suggestions (thanks again for your help), I've adjusted my list a bit, I've removed Stanford and UCSF (On reflection I don't think I really want to be on the West Coast) and I added:

• Stony Brook
• Georgetown
• VCU
• Temple

Please let me know if you have further comments or suggestions, I really appreciate them! Thanks again!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[juliannewman]

You’re gonna need a lot more than just the top 20

 

[TheDataKing]

I'd add both Rutgers - NJMS & RWJMS, Seton Hall, Cooper, Temple, Jefferson, Wake Forest, VCU, Georgetown, EVMS, Miami, and maybe a few other mid-tiers/lower tiers to cover your bases. You are competitive but don't assume you're a shoe-in for the T20s

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hi guys! Thanks in advance for your help. I'm wondering if I could get feedback on my current list and any suggestions/edits you think I should have

Demographics: Senior at Washington University, white male from NJ
cGPA: 3.92
BCPM: 3.90
MCAT: 519 (one attempt)
LizzyM score: 76.2; WARS score: 87

Research: Worked in a lab for 2.5 years, ~800 hours overall. No publications or anything like that, but my gap year job is going to be clinical research which will give about 2000 more hours

Clinical volunteering: Volunteer EMT since high school (~2000 hours), Summer volunteering in an oncology ward (~120 hours)

Physician shadowing – include hours/specialties: Ophthalmology (~225 hours), emergency medicine (~60 hours)

Non-clinical volunteering: President of a large university service organization in a disenfranchised community where I have volunteered as a tutor in local high school (~320 hours), Helped form and now lead a program that teaches CPR to students at underfunded public high schools for free for which I received a grant (~50 hours)

Other activities: VP for pre-professional fraternity, TA for my school's human anatomy course

Schools on my list:

• Harvard
• Stanford
• UPenn
• WashU
• Yale
• Columbia
• Duke
• Chicago
• Johns Hopkins
• UCSF
• Michigan
• NYU
• Vanderbilt
• Pitt
• Cornell
• Northwestern
• Emory
• Mt. Sinai
• GW
• UVA
• University of Maryland
• Rutgers

If you made up this list by only running down the USNWR rankings, there's no guarantee you'd be a candidate of interest. What does your prehealth advisor/committee think (because you do have a committee letter expected as a WashU student applicant)? Have you done any networking with students and admissions staff at the programs of high interest to you?

 

[mdpls!]

If you made up this list by only running down the USNWR rankings, there's no guarantee you'd be a candidate of interest. What does your prehealth advisor/committee think (because you do have a committee letter expected as a WashU student applicant)? Have you done any networking with students and admissions staff at the programs of high interest to you?

I used my WARS score and went through those recommended schools from the list by reviewing the information on their MSAR page and by doing some research into their programs. Is there anything in addition you would advise doing to improve my list?

 

[mdpls!]

You’re gonna need a lot more than just the top 20

Just been going by what WARS and LizzyM suggest

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

If you've got MSAR, then look for high yield schools as backups but not too low that you'd get yield-protected out of the pool.

 

[Grapesurgery]

Nothing wrong with aiming high. But, like others have expressed, add some more mid-tiers. There are many reach schools. Additionally, strongly consider the location/size/mission of the schools you already have listed. I have doubts that you can truly see yourself at all of the above, since it is truly a mish-mash spanning from the east to west coat, and the process is expensive and secondaries can really burn out even the best of them.
If you can, a possible suggestion is to try more volunteering for the less fortunate. It is impressive that you helped found the program you did, yet 50 hours seems quite short for this task! Have you not continued it?
Also, wow, you really killed it on the optho shadowing!

 

[marcosma]

do you have a compelling "story" that connects your EC's with your background? I think if you can find this story (you have to look for it sometimes!) and add a few midtier schools, like everyone is suggesting, you'll be good. Also, just realized no UCLA or UCSD, which are two that you could throw your app at, too.

 

[Deecee2DO]

Top heavy list. Youre a boss applicant dont get me wrong but you need backups. Add more avg schools

 

[mdpls!]

Top heavy list. Youre a boss applicant dont get me wrong but you need backups. Add more avg schools

Thanks for your comments! I added Georgetown, Stony Brook, Wake Forest, and Miami to my list while taking off UCSF and Stanford.

Nothing wrong with aiming high. But, like others have expressed, add some more mid-tiers. There are many reach schools. Additionally, strongly consider the location/size/mission of the schools you already have listed. I have doubts that you can truly see yourself at all of the above, since it is truly a mish-mash spanning from the east to west coat, and the process is expensive and secondaries can really burn out even the best of them.
If you can, a possible suggestion is to try more volunteering for the less fortunate. It is impressive that you helped found the program you did, yet 50 hours seems quite short for this task! Have you not continued it?
Also, wow, you really killed it on the optho shadowing!

I added a few more mid-tiers (update above), do you have any more suggestions? Also, thanks for your comments, almost all of my volunteering has been with the less fortunate, but I didn't want to get too in depth in my post here (I will go further into it on my activities list and secondaries of course). The CPR program I led has continued but it is not a full-time commitment, so I am still working on how to calculate my hours. It's almost certainly more.

Thanks!

 

[juliannewman]

Do you have ties to any other states? If so apply to those state schools

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Thanks for your comments! I added Georgetown, Stony Brook, Wake Forest, and Miami to my list while taking off UCSF and Stanford.

On the surface those look like good safety/mid/low tiers but going deeper I wouldn't suggest them for the same reason I'm a (now successful) re-applicant. Those are mostly low-yield schools. Georgetown has one of the worst app:seat ratios of any med school out there! Its not a reliable back-up if your chances of getting a spot are ~400:15,000!

Go onto the MSAR and look at (seats x 1.5 or 2) : Applicants. Adjust for oos/Is depending. Wake isn't that good either. Miami is good in this respect but their stats are high enough it might not be a reliable safety. Especially if you're not from the area. Find schools like EVMS, Einstein, Buffalo, Vermont, Albany that aren't too high stat relative to you, OOS friendly and most importantly, not low yield.