MD WAMC/School List Thinning 524/3.99

[dijfu]

Please don’t quote! Thank you
cGPA: 3.99
sGPA: 3.99
MCAT: 524
State of residence: AZ
Ethnicity: ORM
Undergrad: T20
Clinical experience volunteer:
-Mental health clinic volunteer, ~110 hours
Clinical experience non-volunteer:
-Medical assistant, 100 hours
Research experience and productivity:
-3 school years + 2 summers in a lab. 1 poster.
-A few months of clinical research (unrelated to above), manuscript will be submitted in ~2 months.
Shadowing:
-50 hours across 4 specialties
Non-clinical volunteering:
-Run a club helping kids with special needs, 100 hours
-Church hotline volunteer where I also deliver groceries/clothes/financial assistance directly to people, 75 hours
-School’s Parkinson’s awareness club, 40 hours. Not listing on app.
Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc):
-TA for bio lab 2 semesters
-Significantly involved in student government & associated organizations (~1800 hrs over 4 years)
-Need advice on my gap year: continue research in my current lab full-time and probably have 2-3 publications submitted by next summer, or full-time work as dermatology MA back home (1.5x research pay, no need to pay for housing, but 40 min commute each way)?

School list:
Baylor
Case Western
Columbia
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Mayo Clinic
Michigan
Mt. Sinai
Northwestern
NYU Grossman
Ohio State
Penn
Pitt
Stanford
UA Phoenix
UA Tucson
UChicago
UCSF
UTSA
UTSW
Vanderbilt
WashU
Yale
Albany
Boston University
Cincinnati
Colorado
Dartmouth
Einstein
EVMS
George Washington
Georgetown
Hackensack
Hofstra
Iowa
Kaiser
MC Wisconsin
Miami
NYMC
Penn State
Quinnipiac
Rochester
Saint Louis U
Tufts
UCF
UCLA
UCSD
USC
USF Morsani
USUHS
UVA
VCU
Vermont
Wayne State
Western Michigan
Temple

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[Mr.Smile12]

You should be fine, and yes, your list is way too long. You can be pickier than this, lest you get yield protected.

For example: tell me why you have listed any school outside of the Southwest (Western Michigan? Vermont? USUHS? Tufts? NYMC? Quinnipiac? Hackensack? the Texas schools?

Secondly, what is your argument to compel me to interview you? What is your purpose as a physician? Your listed clinical experience feels light... how long/hours have you spent in clinical research to date (not projected)?

 

[Faha]

Some of the schools on your list will "yield protect" with your stats. With your stats you do not need to apply to more than 30 schools.
I suggest these schools from your list:
Baylor
Case Western
Columbia
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Mayo Clinic
Michigan
Mt. Sinai
Northwestern
NYU Grossman
Ohio State
Penn
Pitt
Stanford
UCSF
UTSA
UTSW
Vanderbilt
WashU
Yale
Boston University
Cincinnati
Dartmouth
Einstein
Georgetown
Hofstra
Kaiser
Miami
Rochester
Tufts
UCLA
UCSD
USC
USF Morsani
UVA

 

[dijfu]

You should be fine, and yes, your list is way too long. You can be pickier than this, lest you get yield protected.

For example: tell me why you have listed any school outside of the Southwest (Western Michigan? Vermont? USUHS? Tufts? NYMC? Quinnipiac? Hackensack? the Texas schools?

Secondly, what is your argument to compel me to interview you? What is your purpose as a physician? Your listed clinical experience feels light... how long/hours have you spent in clinical research to date (not projected)?

I was under the impression Vermont, NYMC, Quinnipiac, Hackensack were out of state friendly. USUHS is free and I heard Western Michigan likes good stats. Also, should I take the gap year position in the lab I could claim Texas residency for potential re-app.

"Clinical" research is currently just a one-off data-analysis-heavy project (~50 hrs) but the lab position could give me connections for more similar projects over the next year.

 

[dijfu]

Some of the schools on your list will "yield protect" with your stats. With your stats you do not need to apply to more than 30 schools.
I suggest these schools from your list:
Baylor
Case Western
Columbia
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Mayo Clinic
Michigan
Mt. Sinai
Northwestern
NYU Grossman
Ohio State
Penn
Pitt
Stanford
UCSF
UTSA
UTSW
Vanderbilt
WashU
Yale
Boston University
Cincinnati
Dartmouth
Einstein
Georgetown
Hofstra
Kaiser
Miami
Rochester
Tufts
UCLA
UCSD
USC
USF Morsani
UVA

Thank you for your advice. May I ask why no UChicago or my 2 public IS schools (Phoenix & Tucson)? Among the schools you suggest removing are Albany, EVMS, MC Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn State, UCF, VCU, which I initially included because supposedly out of state friendly. Do you think I have enough in this category without these schools?

 

[Faha]

Thank you for your advice. May I ask why no UChicago or my 2 public IS schools (Phoenix & Tucson)? Among the schools you suggest removing are Albany, EVMS, MC Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn State, UCF, VCU, which I initially included because supposedly out of state friendly. Do you think I have enough in this category without these schools?

You can include your Arizona schools (I have been seeing so many CA applicant posts I mistakenly assumed you were from CA !). U Chicago is a service oriented school and your clinical and non clinical hours are just at the cutoff (150 hours each) for screening. There are other top tier schools that also may not offer your an interview because your clinical and non clinical hours are low in their very competitive applicant pool (some applicants have many hundreds or thousands of hours). Many of the schools I excluded will "yield protect" with your stats. That means that they know from years of past experience when interviewing applicants with a GPA of 3.9+ and a MCAT of 522+ that the applicant will attend elsewhere (usually a top 20 school).

 

[dijfu]

You can include your Arizona schools (I have been seeing so many CA applicant posts I mistakenly assumed you were from CA !). U Chicago is a service oriented school and your clinical and non clinical hours are just at the cutoff (150 hours each) for screening. There are other top tier schools that also may not offer your an interview because your clinical and non clinical hours are low in their very competitive applicant pool (some applicants have many hundreds or thousands of hours). Many of the schools I excluded will "yield protect" with your stats. That means that they know from years of past experience when interviewing applicants with a GPA of 3.9+ and a MCAT of 522+ that the applicant will attend elsewhere (usually a top 20 school).

Understood. Do you have advice on my gap year options? Would the clinical hours via the MA role acquired only post-application make an impact, or would continuing research (and finally getting publications) be better?

 

[Faha]

Understood. Do you have advice on my gap year options? Would the clinical hours via the MA role acquired only post-application make an impact, or would continuing research (and finally getting publications) be better?

Difficult to say. Research is valued at many top schools. However, when you have interviews a MA role would be good since you could talk about your clinical experience and those schools would be aware that you are actually accumulating more clinical experience.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Point by point...

I was under the impression Vermont, NYMC, Quinnipiac, Hackensack were out of state friendly.

They are OOS friendly, but they also would likely yield-protect you unless you showed a strong mission fit.

USUHS is free

USUHS is the medical school for our military and comes with a military service commitment (exactly like HPSP). You should be looking at HPSP if military medicine is part of your purpose as a physician. You can't just pick because it's free.

and I heard Western Michigan likes good stats.

All schools will like good stats. But do you like Kalamazoo?

Also, should I take the gap year position in the lab I could claim Texas residency for potential re-app.

Your metrics as an OOS applicant should grab attention from the top TMDSAS schools if you show a strong desire to live in Texas and align with their mission fit. Focus on your Casper test and maybe PREview. If you don't get an interview, it's not because they haven't looked at your application.

 

[dijfu]

If you don't get an interview, it's not because they haven't looked at your application.

Thanks for the response. What areas beyond clinical hours should I work on?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for the response. What areas beyond clinical hours should I work on?

Networking with schools before applying. Of course if you are about to apply... keep networking.

 

[TonysJourney]

If your aiming for T20s I'd probably stick with research and get your productivity up (ask to go to some conferences and present and grind for pubs). That said, you should 100% try to also get your clinical and (maybe) nonclinical up. See if you can scribe (or whatever else) part time near your research position so you can do both. With even just 10 hours a week you'll have an extra 500 hours by next year which will be more than enough. Would also try to find a lower-commitment volunteer position you enjoy and do that whenever possible