MD School list help – 3.8, 37, CA resident

[TheRhymenocerous]

Hi all,

I'm trying to finalize my school list and am having trouble coming up with some solid match schools. I went to a top ten school, have a 3.8 and a 37 MCAT, and a fairly interesting academic background and list of extracurriculars. I have a solid list of about 15 schools that I'm excited about where my stats are around/above the median, but I'm looking for some advice on choosing schools with slightly lower stats.

Top criteria:
- I want to be able to do my residency in CA. Would like to stay for med school as well, but if that's not possible I'd like to go to the best school I can to maximize my chances at a residency here.
- Very interested in public health and working with underserved populations. Urban setting and affiliation with public hospitals a major plus.

Some contenders:
Jefferson
Temple
Wisconsin
Brown
BU
Emory
Rush
Tufts
Tulane
Drexel
GW
Vermont
Cincinnati
Einstein

I'd like to choose 5-ish from this list, but I'm fairly lost as to how to choose. I guess I could apply to more than 20, but I'm trying to keep application costs within reason. Any advice?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[TheRhymenocerous]

Edited with a new query...any and all input is appreciated!

 

[Vain Brother]

looking good

emory, Einstein, Vermont, BU, tufts. forget brown unless you're a non-trad

 

[TheRhymenocerous]

looking good

emory, Einstein, Vermont, BU, tufts. forget brown unless you're a non-trad

Many thanks! I'll be two years out of undergrad, but with a very atypical background. Do you think that qualifies as non-trad? I like Brown's humanities emphasis, but won't bother if I don't have a chance.

 

[Goro]

Swap out Brown for something else. They favor their own students.

I suggest the following. Your stats are golden, nothing wrong with aiming high!

Any of the UCs (skip UCR if you're not from the Inland Empire)
U AZ (both)
U Colorado
U VM
U Cincy
U Toledo
Miami
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
Loyola
USF Morsani
Emory
BU
USC
Baylor
JHU
Mayo
Pitt
Northwestern
NYU OR Sinai
Vanderbilt
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
Case
Harvard OR Yale OR WashU OR Stanford

 

[TheRhymenocerous]

UCSF
Stanford
Penn
UChicago
Columbia
Johns Hopkins
Mt Sinai
Northwestern
Michigan
Pitt
Vanderbilt
Case Western
UCLA
UCSD
USC
UCI
UCD
Jefferson
Temple
Wisconsin
BU
Tufts

That's 22. Too top heavy?

 

[breakintheroof]

UCSF
Stanford
Penn
UChicago
Columbia
Johns Hopkins
Mt Sinai
Northwestern
Michigan
Pitt
Vanderbilt
Case Western
UCLA
UCSD
USC
UCI
UCD
Jefferson
Temple
Wisconsin
BU
Tufts

Regarding your original question about these five--I would pick them differently.

You want schools that you'd be OK going to, but just as important, ones that you are more likely to get into than the other 17. These don't fulfill that criterion. First, check out Wisconsin's OOS acceptance rate. Then notice that the other four are in desirable cities and have high application volume and low acceptance rates as a result, particularly BU.

Jefferson and Temple might be OK, just make sure you take a closer look. While they perhaps have higher stats than the others, I'd think about bringing back Emory or Einstein. And find one or a handful more that you like that has/have a reasonable acceptance rate (and/or you can find evidence that they appreciate a high-stat Californian like yourself on school-specific threads or MDApps).

I also think the rest of your list is probably too top-heavy. For each school, think: Would you choose it over any California school? If not, try and swap it out with one that you would choose, or one that is easier to get into (since it would be functionally fairly equivalent in your decision-making).

Edit: You can see that VB, below, tells you pretty much the same thing, though we differ slightly on which high-volume schools are best. Up to you.

 

[Vain Brother]

it's top-heavy, but you're a top-shelf applicant.

i'd swap out Jefferson/temple (each gets 13k+ applicants a year and you're way above their medians anyway) for...dartmouth (loves non-trads with good stats) and vermont (great school and imo the best-kept secret med school in the country)

wisconsin's a bit of a random choice, unless you have some ties to there. they have a pretty good IS bias

obviously do your own research on these as well but your list is solid to start

 

[TheRhymenocerous]

Thanks @breakintheroof and @Vain Brother. That's really helpful. I have Philly ties and like Wisconsin's public health focus, which is why I chose those three (unless ties to a particular city don't mean anything...do they?), but I have no particular interest in Boston so I'll swap out BU and Tufts for sure.

 

[breakintheroof]

Thanks @breakintheroof and @Vain Brother. That's really helpful. I have Philly ties and like Wisconsin's public health focus, which is why I chose those three (unless ties to a particular city don't mean anything...do they?), but I have no particular interest in Boston so I'll swap out BU and Tufts for sure.

I am not sure about ties with the Philly schools specifically. Perhaps it could help, depending on how you communicate that to them if they give you a chance to do so. But definitely drop Wisconsin, the chance there is just too low to be worth it.

BU and Tufts are good to drop. They're fine schools, just tough to get into, and expensive anyway.

 

[TheRhymenocerous]

I always appreciated when people updated these posts at the end of the cycle, so in the off-chance that this helps anyone down the line, here was my final list/outcome:

Accepted:
UC Irvine
UC Davis
UCSD
Penn
UChicago
Mt. Sinai
Vanderbilt
WashU

Waitlisted:
Columbia
NYU
Pitt
Johns Hopkins
Yale

Invited to Interview & Declined:
BU
Case Western
USC

Rejected Pre-Interview:
UCSF
UCLA
Stanford
Harvard