MD Texas Resident 3.95 cGPA 3.98 sGPA 38 MCAT

[Sage_Growth]

Hi all, first post and thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm a Texas resident, and an undergraduate biochem major at a USWR top 20 school looking to apply for the 2016 cycle. Stats/ECs as follows:

-GPA: 3.95 cGPA 3.98 sGPA

-MCAT: 38 (14PS 10VR 14BS)

-Clinical volunteer activities: not much here, but beginning in a couple weeks will begin volunteering in a cancer hospital with direct patient contact.

-Physician shadowing ~24 hrs in cardiothoracic surgery (ongoing). I shadowed a decent amount in high school (~50 hrs).

-Research: ~2 years in basic science research, 3 abstracts and 2 conference posters (1 regional and 1 undergraduate symposium). Hopefully a 1st author paper submitted this year, but not counting on it.

-Employment: 1 year as swim team manager, ~20 hrs a week. Tutor, half a year (current)~ 1 hr a week


So numbers wise I think there's not too much to comment on. My ECs outside of research are more bare-bones than I'd like, so hopefully getting some more volunteering and clinical shadowing in before applications go out would be great. Anything else I could do to enhance my application?

I kind of just went through the MSAR picking schools I thought I liked the sound of. I'd be very grateful to hear about feedback on this list, and what schools I should add/or drop. Right now it's a mix of what I think are reach/fit/safeties. Trimming this list down would be really great for application costs...

Also of note, I'm still on the fence about MD/PhD programs. I enjoy basic science research, but I feel more inclined towards clinical research. Not sure if the PhD is worth the time invested.

Thanks for looking.

Safety (?)
Texas A&M
Texas TechEl Paso
Texas Tech Lubbock
UT San Antonio
UT Medical Branch (Galveston)

Fit (?)
Baylor
Case Western
Geisel (Dartmouth)
Pittsburgh
UTHSC
UTSW
Vanderbilt
Weill (Cornell)

Reach (?)
Harvard
Johns hopkins
stanford
UCSF
Pritzker (UChic)
WashU
Yale

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[WedgeDawg]

Numbers are obviously fine, and your ECs are pretty solid, as long as you follow through with your clinical volunteering. You might want to shadow one more doctor in a different (maybe primary care?) speciality to balance out the surgical subspecialty (+shadowing is fun!), but depending on your other shadowing experiences, it might not be necessary. I think your list looks pretty solid, though it's hard to classify Pitt, Cornell, and Vandy as anything other than reaches just due to their ridiculous selectivity, no matter how strong your numbers are. Other schools to consider might be:

Reach: Columbia, UCSF, Mt. Sinai, NYU, Penn, UMich, Northwestern

Match: UVA (fairly OOS friendly), USC, BU. You could possibly consider removing Dartmouth, but that's up to you.

Your "safeties" look fairly solid, particularly given Texas residency. You could probably remove 2-3 of them and still be perfectly fine.

Some things to consider when looking at schools are location, style of preclinical curriculum (p/f, 1 vs 1.5 vs 2, ranked vs unranked, lecture vs pbl, etc), how much clinical exposure you get and where, other things medical students are involved in while at school, cost, primary care vs specialties, etc. You won't be limited by your numbers or your experiences, so figure out what you're looking for and pick schools based on that, then trim down.

Finally, in terms of MD vs MD/PhD, unless you're set on a career in the basic sciences, it's not going to be worth it to go MD/PhD. Even if you only have an MD, you can still do basic science research (as long as you do a research fellowship training period).

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

 

[Sage_Growth]

Hi, thanks for the quick response!

I'll be looking more into the schools you mentioned. Is there any reliable compilation of information on the style of preclinical curriculum for each school, or will I have to look into the websites of each?

Thanks for the MD/PhD advice.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Hi, thanks for the quick response!

I'll be looking more into the schools you mentioned. Is there any reliable compilation of information on the style of preclinical curriculum for each school, or will I have to look into the websites of each?

Thanks for the MD/PhD advice.

You'll probably have to look at either MSAR or at the individual websites for each school. Based on my personal experience, I can tell you the following styles starting Fall 2015:

Pitt: P/F ranked
Penn: HP/P/F ranked (but if everyone in the class gets a 90%, everyone gets a High Pass)
Yale: no preclinical grades, completely unranked (no AOA), 1.5 preclinical
Columbia: P/F unranked, 1.5 preclinical
Duke: P/F unranked, 1 year preclinical
Geisel: P/F unranked, 2 year preclinical
UVA: P/F unranked, 1.5 preclinical
NYU: P/F ranked, 1.5 preclinical
USC: P/F unranked, 2 year preclinical

Not sure about the others

 

[Goro]

If you can bone up on the ECs, you'll be golden.

If want to stay in TX, Baylor or UTSW are for you.

Otherwise, the sky's the limit.

Hi all, first post and thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm a Texas resident, and an undergraduate biochem major at a USWR top 20 school looking to apply for the 2016 cycle. Stats/ECs as follows:

-GPA: 3.95 cGPA 3.98 sGPA

-MCAT: 38 (14PS 10VR 14BS)

-Clinical volunteer activities: not much here, but beginning in a couple weeks will begin volunteering in a cancer hospital with direct patient contact.

-Physician shadowing ~24 hrs in cardiothoracic surgery (ongoing). I shadowed a decent amount in high school (~50 hrs).

-Research: ~2 years in basic science research, 3 abstracts and 2 conference posters (1 regional and 1 undergraduate symposium). Hopefully a 1st author paper submitted this year, but not counting on it.

-Employment: 1 year as swim team manager, ~20 hrs a week. Tutor, half a year (current)~ 1 hr a week


So numbers wise I think there's not too much to comment on. My ECs outside of research are more bare-bones than I'd like, so hopefully getting some more volunteering and clinical shadowing in before applications go out would be great. Anything else I could do to enhance my application?

I kind of just went through the MSAR picking schools I thought I liked the sound of. I'd be very grateful to hear about feedback on this list, and what schools I should add/or drop. Right now it's a mix of what I think are reach/fit/safeties. Trimming this list down would be really great for application costs...

Also of note, I'm still on the fence about MD/PhD programs. I enjoy basic science research, but I feel more inclined towards clinical research. Not sure if the PhD is worth the time invested.

Thanks for looking.

Safety (?)
Texas A&M
Texas TechEl Paso
Texas Tech Lubbock
UT San Antonio
UT Medical Branch (Galveston)

Fit (?)
Baylor
Case Western
Geisel (Dartmouth)
Pittsburgh
UTHSC
UTSW
Vanderbilt
Weill (Cornell)

Reach (?)
Harvard
Johns hopkins
stanford
UCSF
Pritzker (UChic)
WashU
Yale