Dear JK,
I'm a soon-to-be first year at Cornell. I got in last year, but took off this year 'cause I got a grant to do volunteering in Nepal and Tibet at the last minute.
I also teach and lecture for Kaplan, so in terms of what students are getting on MCATs I have current info, since I teach the class.
OK, so here goes on the advice (just wanted to give you that intro to increase credibility first, ya know?) Apply Early!
The deal with applications, according to a friend of mine who's been on the committees is that the first ones you see, you think, "Wow, these are great!" As you get to see more and more, however, you see more and more variety. Maybe you start to see some from Rhodes scholars or the like, so your standards begin to go further and further up. That and the whole rolling admissions thing means its important to get everything, AMCAS, secondaries, everything, in early. Having said that, however, don't worry if you dont get them in as early as possible. I took my MCATs in August, and schools didn't get my scores until October, and I did just fine, so Im sure its not too big a deal if you can't get it in ASAP.
As for the numbers, they help, but they're not all. I had performed a lot of research when I applied, and had just finished my honors thesis in neurobio. But I also had a lot of volunteer work in both medicine- and non-medicine-related settings. Both of those are very important, as well.
Finally, think about sending letters to your first-choice school. Spell it out for them that you want to go there. Schools like a sure "taker" because it means that their acceptance ratio will go up, and that means their ranking might go up too.
As for Einstein and Sinai, I have no info on either. But, just as a thought, wasn't it a Ob-Gyn at Sinai who carved his initials "Zorro-style" on the belly of one of his C-sectioned patients?
