MD School list help: 3.99 sGPA and cGPA, 34 MCAT (14p,9v,11b)

[championrebirth]

Thanks to all who helped out!

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[breakintheroof]

Hey @championrebirth, welcome. Your stats are good to apply to any school and your ECs look good to my inexpert eye.

As one would expect from how you constructed your list, it's rather scattered. I recommend purchasing the MSAR and spending some time looking at GPA, MCAT, and (for public schools) out of state friendliness. And think about where in the country you want to be, and what you want to do, especially whether you want to make research a part of your med school experience.

There are a few things that aren't obvious from the MSAR and I'll throw out a few tips. Brown and Dartmouth are low yield, especially for traditional students as they have older student bodies with few seats available. UCR looks for those who have a validated commitment to serving the Inland Empire.

If you're very lucky, @WedgeDawg will have time to come by and run his strategy algorithm.

Let us know what you come up with!

 

[championrebirth]

Hey @championrebirth, welcome. Your stats are good to apply to any school and your ECs look good to my inexpert eye.

As one would expect from how you constructed your list, it's rather scattered. I recommend purchasing the MSAR and spending some time looking at GPA, MCAT, and (for public schools) out of state friendliness. And think about where in the country you want to be, and what you want to do, especially whether you want to make research a part of your med school experience.

There are a few things that aren't obvious from the MSAR and I'll throw out a few tips. Brown and Dartmouth are low yield, especially for traditional students as they have older student bodies with few seats available. UCR looks for those who have a validated commitment to serving the Inland Empire.

If you're very lucky, @WedgeDawg will have time to come by and run his strategy algorithm.

Let us know what you come up with!

Thank you so much for your help. I just purchased the MSAR and will be refining the list soon. I am very flexible location-wise just because I lived in a lot of different places when I was growing up. With regards to research, I understand other schools require some number of quarters for each medical student and I don't mind it; but it won't be my focus. I'm more interested in public health/health administration along with MD so schools with MPH or MHA programs are more appealing to me.

For UCR, I used to live in the Inland Empire (~4 years) but I am not living there at the moment. I did start a special education program in one of the churches there and understand why the need for physicians there. I don't know how to let UCR know about that; possibly in the PS? supplementaries? yea...

But yes, thank you! Is there any school in mind you'd say I should add to my list?

 

[Goro]

I suggest the following. Nothing wrong with aiming high; the ones I have in bold are schools where your MCAT score is 2-3 points below their avg, and your GPA is better than the school avg. Thus, proceed with caution on these, but I feel you're in striking distance for some.

U AZ (both)
U Colorado
U VM
U Cincy
U Toledo
Miami
St. Louis
Albany
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
EVMS
Wake Forest
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
Dartmouth
Loyola
USF Morsani
Emory
BU
USC
Baylor
JHU
Mayo
Pitt
Northwestern
NYU
Vanderbilt
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
Case
Any new MD school, especially Hofstra. Skip Central MI though.
Your state school(s).

 

[breakintheroof]

Thank you so much for your help. I just purchased the MSAR and will be refining the list soon. I am very flexible location-wise just because I lived in a lot of different places when I was growing up. With regards to research, I understand other schools require some number of quarters for each medical student and I don't mind it; but it won't be my focus. I'm more interested in public health/health administration along with MD so schools with MPH or MHA programs are more appealing to me.

For UCR, I used to live in the Inland Empire (~4 years) but I am not living there at the moment. I did start a special education program in one of the churches there and understand why the need for physicians there. I don't know how to let UCR know about that; possibly in the PS? supplementaries? yea...

But yes, thank you! Is there any school in mind you'd say I should add to my list?

I'm not sure about how UCR's secondary works, see if you can find information on this year's school-specific thread or in the document in my signature. I wouldn't put anything school-specific in the PS unless it has to be there anyway.

As for school suggestions, Goro's got some nice ones. There are a lot of great med schools out there, and with your application I think you can include some of the most sought-after among them (as part of a balanced list). Let us know what you find interesting. Good luck.

 

[championrebirth]

I suggest the following. Nothing wrong with aiming high; the ones I have in bold are schools where your MCAT score is 2-3 points below their avg, and your GPA is better than the school avg. Thus, proceed with caution on these, but I feel you're in striking distance for some.

U AZ (both)
U Colorado
U VM
U Cincy
U Toledo
Miami
St. Louis
Albany
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
EVMS
Wake Forest
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
Dartmouth
Loyola
USF Morsani
Emory
BU
USC
Baylor
JHU
Mayo
Pitt
Northwestern
NYU
Vanderbilt
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
Case
Any new MD school, especially Hofstra. Skip Central MI though.
Your state school(s).

Thank you for the list and for the information. I'll make sure to compare with MSAR and narrow it down from there.

Would you happen to happen to have insight about schools looking at scores from individual sections of the MCAT? I have heard that many place weight on VR and unfortunately, it's my weakest, which I am quite concerned about. Likewise, I am also concerned that the heaviest of my clinical experience is as a pharmacy tech at an in-patient pharmacy. I do get to see patients and interact with physicians but it is unlike many of the other experiences other pre-meds do. And between the physicians I have shadowed and the pharmacists I worked with, the stronger clinical LOR would come from my pharmacist and I might not even ask one from a physician because they don't really know me too well. I guess, do you think this is something that might count against me? I am really curious about other people's insight about this matter.

 

[championrebirth]

I'm not sure about how UCR's secondary works, see if you can find information on this year's school-specific thread or in the document in my signature. I wouldn't put anything school-specific in the PS unless it has to be there anyway.

As for school suggestions, Goro's got some nice ones. There are a lot of great med schools out there, and with your application I think you can include some of the most sought-after among them (as part of a balanced list). Let us know what you find interesting. Good luck.

Whoa! Definitely an informative document. Much appreciated!

 

[Vain Brother]

i would only get a letter from a pharmacist if s/he's a clinical pharmacist working with medical teams (i'm a pharmacist btw). otherwise stick with your science professors. you have a very strong application otherwise. start with goro's list and narrow down based on stats and in-state/OOS interview rates

 

[championrebirth]

i would only get a letter from a pharmacist if s/he's a clinical pharmacist working with medical teams (i'm a pharmacist btw). otherwise stick with your science professors. you have a very strong application otherwise. start with goro's list and narrow down based on stats and in-state/OOS interview rates

The pharmacists I work with are clinical pharmacists and I have had more solid patient interactions as a tech than as a mentee through a shadowing program and even more hands-on caring for patients working as a caregiver. I don't really have someone to write me a letter as a caregiver and I'm strongly leaning towards a letter from a pharmacist and a letter from a science professor.

I know some schools require max 3 letters; 2 from science and 1 non-science. From the 2 science, would you suggest a clinical + research LOR or clinical +science professor LOR? I never took a class with my research professor, but she knows me better than any of my science profs do.

Thank you for the input.

 

[Vain Brother]

you'll have to look into the specifics. generally the "science" letters are hard science, i.e. professors, not doctors or other clinicians.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Hey @championrebirth, welcome. Your stats are good to apply to any school and your ECs look good to my inexpert eye.

As one would expect from how you constructed your list, it's rather scattered. I recommend purchasing the MSAR and spending some time looking at GPA, MCAT, and (for public schools) out of state friendliness. And think about where in the country you want to be, and what you want to do, especially whether you want to make research a part of your med school experience.

There are a few things that aren't obvious from the MSAR and I'll throw out a few tips. Brown and Dartmouth are low yield, especially for traditional students as they have older student bodies with few seats available. UCR looks for those who have a validated commitment to serving the Inland Empire.

If you're very lucky, @WedgeDawg will have time to come by and run his strategy algorithm.

Let us know what you come up with!

I don't have to be the one to run it anymore since the Excel file is publicly available!

But since I am here...

Your Applicant Rating System Score is
80
A Level
Apply to 25 schools
Apply to:
30% Category 1 schools
30% Category 2 schools
25% Category 3 schools
15% Category 4/5 schools
Do not apply to Category 6 schools
Do not apply to Category 7 schools

Check my signature link for a list of schools in each category.

 

[championrebirth]

I truly appreciate this @WedgeDawg

And in general, thank you to all who has replied. I was very hesitant on doing something like this at first but now, I am glad that I did.

 

[Alejandro]

To be honest, you have a good gpa, and your mcat isn't going to restrict you much. I agree with the lists that have been generated--I think its just important to apply to a fair number of schools, do all of the secondaries, and then once you get enough interviews, drop the ones you don't want to go through with. You have good numbers that I think you'll get into a place you'd behappy to attend, however the risk of not getting in because you apply to too few, is too bad. I'd say apply to around 20-25, and cut back once you get interviews and people have already screened you.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

Our stats are similar (both have a verbal at 9 and MCAT a bit unbalanced). I looked at Case, and they don't like Verbal less than 10. I kicked it off my list (my brother all applied to Case with similar stats, and didn't get an interview there, but did at Vandy and Mayo).

 

[championrebirth]

Hello, here is an updated list. There's 36 now but looking to cut out 6-10. Any suggestions are welcomed! Thank you!

Howard
UCR
Rosy Franklin
University of Washington
George Washington
Pitt
Creighton
Oakland
USF Morsani
NYMC
Albany
UCD
EVMS
Wake Forest
Medical College of Wisconsin
Tulane
Michigan State
Loyola
Jefferson
Miami
Albert Einstein
UCI
UCLA
Mayo
Emory
BU
Duke
USC
UCSD
UCSF
Case
JHU
Baylor
Columbia
Cornell
Northwestern

 

[Scribblers]

Good job getting to this point. As others have said, your stats won't really be a problem anywhere. I think you could even swap a few schools on the low end for schools at the high end depending on your interests.

It doesn't look like you have any ties to the WWAMI region that the University of Washington pulls from, so that is essentially a guaranteed rejection. I would take them off your list.

Howard, being affiliated with an HBCU, is a mission-focused school. I would make sure that your interests align with that.

George Washington gets an astonishingly high number of applicants, which may make it a lower yield place to apply than other schools.

Your list features a lot of urban and/or more southern schools. Mayo stands out a little bit here, so consider that the school is in a fairly small city in a state where the average high is below freezing 3-4 months out of the year and regularly fails to rise above zero during those months.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

Hello, here is an updated list. There's 36 now but looking to cut out 6-10. Any suggestions are welcomed! Thank you!

Howard
UCR
Rosy Franklin
University of Washington
George Washington
Pitt
Creighton
Oakland
USF Morsani
NYMC
Albany
UCD
EVMS
Wake Forest
Medical College of Wisconsin
Tulane
Michigan State
Loyola
Jefferson
Miami
Albert Einstein
UCI
UCLA
Mayo
Emory
BU
Duke
USC
UCSD
UCSF
Case
JHU
Baylor
Columbia
Cornell
Northwestern

I would kick off Michigan STate, the tuition for OOS is wicked with no chance of becoming IS, and the school heavily favors IS (my alma mater too!).
Kick off Case (doesn't like Verbal less than 10).
Washington only takes folks with ties or in the NW. California doesn't count.
Howard is HBC, and you would need a strong history of serving the underserved communities
GW and BU gets like over 10K apps, low yield.

 

[Vain Brother]

delete: howard (mission), UCR (if not from inland empire), MSU, oakland, EVMS, USF

 

[championrebirth]

Good job getting to this point. As others have said, your stats won't really be a problem anywhere. I think you could even swap a few schools on the low end for schools at the high end depending on your interests.

Your list features a lot of urban and/or more southern schools. Mayo stands out a little bit here, so consider that the school is in a fairly small city in a state where the average high is below freezing 3-4 months out of the year and regularly fails to rise above zero during those months.

What are some schools at the higher end you would suggest. With regards to interest, a school that would allow me to do some research but does not overshadow its clinical aspects is what I am shooting for (One where research complements my studies rather than it being a super strong focus). About featuring urban/southern schools, I think it just so happens to be that way; I didn't deliberately aim to have schools in these areas. I really love the northeast; I have some family ties there, too. So, if you have schools you suggest I check out from there, I'd love that!

George Washington gets an astonishingly high number of applicants, which may make it a lower yield place to apply than other schools.

Is there a reason why they get high number of applicants? Just out of curiosity

Your help is much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[SmurfingReviews]

What are some schools at the higher end you would suggest. With regards to interest, a school that would allow me to do some research but does not overshadow its clinical aspects is what I am shooting for (One where research complements my studies rather than it being a super strong focus). About featuring urban/southern schools, I think it just so happens to be that way; I didn't deliberately aim to have schools in these areas. I really love the northeast; I have some family ties there, too. So, if you have schools you suggest I check out from there, I'd love that!



Is there a reason why they get high number of applicants? Just out of curiosity

Your help is much appreciated. Thank you!

1. DC School typically get a lot of attraction since DC is hub for a lot of different venues, demographics, culture, and also opportunities for medical students
2. GW accepts mostly out of state residents, which make sense since there are not many schools/people that are in DC
3. GW stats are on lower/average range of pool for candidates getting accepted

I'm sure there are more reasons, but those are few that pops into my head right away.