WAMC/school list: aiming too high? 3.94 / 520 / URM

[Gafronie]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to get some last minute input on my school list before I submit my primary in a couple weeks. I got some great advice from Faha a while ago but I'm worried my final list is a little top heavy? Here's my stats:

AMCAS: cGPA 3.94, sGPA 3.90

MCAT: 520 (129/130/129/132)

State of residence or country of citizenship: WA

Ethnicity and/or race: URM (Black & Native), first gen

Undergraduate institution or category: Generic liberal arts for science B.S., graduated a few years ago

Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 150 hours as COVID patient tester at K-12 schools. 350 hours COVID vaccine administrator at mobile clinics. 285 hours as volunteer patient screener at pediatric urgent care

Research experience and productivity: 450 hours at pharmacology lab with 1 pub mid author and 1 poster presentation. 100 hours in my university lab. 530 hours in my current physiology lab. Projected to add another 1100+ hours by submission

Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 8 hrs Cardiothoracic surgery, 4 hrs Psych, 43 hrs EM. Unfortunately no primary care shadowing

Non-clinical volunteering: 250 hours at 2 food banks working with homeless and immigrant clients. 80 hours as volunteer tutor & science ambassador to children in my old school district. Projected to add 200 more hours in food bank by matriculation

Other extracurricular activities: Vocational discussion fellowship at university (150 hrs), motorcycle restoration and riding (500 hrs)

Relevant honors or awards: Multiple scholarships, ACS award, Deans list every semester

Anything else not listed you think might be important: LORs should be strong from both of my PI's, chem prof, humanities prof & volunteer coordinator. I was unable to get a clinical LOR, not sure how that will affect me. Also have some leadership experience as a volunteer trainer but overall it's a weakness in my app.

Immediate family members in medicine? (y/n): No

Specialty of interest: Psychiatry

Interest in rural health (y/n): No

School List:
UW
Yale
Harvard
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Duke
NYU
Johns Hopkins
WashU
UPitt
UChicago
UVA
Brown
Dartmouth
UVermont
ICahn
Einstein
Miami
Case Western
Cincinnati
Indiana
Jefferson
Rochester
WSU
Howard
Hofstra

Thanks in advance!

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[chilly_md]

School list is good, you should indeed aim high.

You could add these if they are of interest to you:

Emory
Kaiser
SLU
USF
UCSF
UCLA/Drew
Ohio State

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Not too high. Competitive for any school

 

[Gafronie]

School list is good, you should indeed aim high.

You could add these if they are of interest to you:

Emory
Kaiser
SLU
USF
UCSF
UCLA/Drew
Ohio State

Great, thank you for these suggestions! One other question I have is if applying to ~25 or so schools is a reasonable amount? I feel like that is around the limit I could handle for secondaries while working, but not sure if I should add a few more.

 

[chilly_md]

Great, thank you for these suggestions! One other question I have is if applying to ~25 or so schools is a reasonable amount? I feel like that is around the limit I could handle for secondaries while working, but not sure if I should add a few more.

Yes that number should be fine. Applying to some of the California schools might be worth it over similarly renowned schools such as Northwestern, University of Chicago if you prefer being closer to your home in WA vs the opposite coast. Drew over Howard might be also a good swap as they still have a similar mission while being more in line with your high stats.

 

[Gafronie]

Yes that number should be fine. Applying to some of the California schools might be worth it over similarly renowned schools such as Northwestern, University of Chicago if you prefer being closer to your home in WA vs the opposite coast. Drew over Howard might be also a good swap as they still have a similar mission while being more in line with your high stats.

Ok! Yeah I'd like to stay closer to home if possible so I'll think about adding a few California schools. Drew is quite interesting, I hadn't heard of that program before. I appreciate your suggestions!

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Aim high, you're a rock star and competitive, maybe even a strong applicant, anywhere.