3.62 sGPA, 3.73 cGPA, 35 MCAT, please critique my school list

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Bisonman80

Bisonman80

MD Applicant
10+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2011
Messages
69
Reaction score
39
Ethnicity: I checked White and a registered/card-carrying Potawatomi Native American

State Residency:
California Resident. Grew up in northern california and went to college in LA. No family history of doctors. Parents are slightly above average income earners in our area.

Schools:
Santa Monica City College (3.75 cGPA) (1 LOR from Ochem teacher)
UCLA (transferred as a Junior) (3.66 cGPA), graduated Psychobiology B.S.
( 1 LOR from psychobio (BIOLOGY) prof , 1 LOR from Research methods (MATH) professor)

Gap year: Took Spanish and Vietnamese at Evergreen Valley City College, A's in both. ( LOR from Spanish teacher (NONSCIENCE)) (I've made a commitment to learn conversational spanish by the time I matriculate)


Combined GPA's:
BCPM GPA: 3.62
Other GPA: 3.90
Cumulative GPA: 3.73

MCAT
August 2011, 35 - 12PS,11VR,12BS, P-writing

Schools This is where I could use some advice.


THIS LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED. SEE POST BELOW
In-state:

UCLA David Geffen
UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program
University of California San Diego
Keck Sch. of Med. USC
University of California San Francisco
University of California, Davis School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine- College/Medicine
University of California-Riverside School of Medicine


Out-of-state:


Albany Medical College
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
George Washington University
Georgetown University School of Medicine
New York Medical College
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Temple University School of Medicine
The University of Vermont College of Medicine
Jefferson Medical Coll. of Thomas Jefferson Univ
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

E/C's:

WORK
Held part-time 15-30 hours/wk jobs throughout all 5 years in college.
1 yr at Starbucks
2 years bartender/server at restaurant
2 years MCAT Instructor for Kaplan Inc. (applied immediately after receiving my 35 MCAT score, I have good/excellent feedback from students and faculty managers) LOR from Manager

Clinical Shadowing/Volunteering
Shadowed/internship @ Orthopedic Surgeon's practice for 6 months after graduating UCLA. 3 times a week for 8 hours at his practice. Observed 10 surgeries. LOR from physician

Shadowed a pediatrician for a day.

Volunteer at non-profit hospital: twice a week working directly with patients and hospital staff in the orthopedic department. I began in Apr 2013 and have committed to a year of service. LOR from Nurse Manager in my department

Research assistant/volunteer at local Indian Health Clinic Community-Based Participatory Research Diabetes Prevention Program, started June 1st. I'm designing their new database (they never really had one before! spreadsheet hell) and I've been helping with all kinds of other stuff, like designing the driver diagram and deciding on performance measures for a 20 million dollar grant application.LOR from supervisor http://www.caldiabetes.org/profiles_display.cfm?ProfilesID=360&Categori esID=0



Hobbies:
Web Design (designed a physician's website)
Computer repair and assembly for over a decade.

Awards/scholarships:
Made deans list 4 semesters at my JC
Made deans list, got straight As, for last 2 quarters at UCLA
Earned a merit-based Native American scholarship throughout all of college.


Thank you for any and all advice.
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If you look at Brown's website or the MSAR you'll see that most of the students are from Brown's BS/MD program, so they don't actually end up admitting that many applicants that don't come from that program.

If you're trying to eliminate schools you could cut down on the mid-tier schools that get truckloads of applications like Georgetown and GW. Did you consider Rush?
 
pkmzeta said:
If you look at Brown's website or the MSAR you'll see that most of the students are from Brown's BS/MD program, so they don't actually end up admitting that many applicants that don't come from that program.

If you're trying to eliminate schools you could cut down on the mid-tier schools that get truckloads of applications like Georgetown and GW. Did you consider Rush?
Click to expand...

+1

But good job making your list
 
pkmzeta said:
If you look at Brown's website or the MSAR you'll see that most of the students are from Brown's BS/MD program, so they don't actually end up admitting that many applicants that don't come from that program.

If you're trying to eliminate schools you could cut down on the mid-tier schools that get truckloads of applications like Georgetown and GW. Did you consider Rush?
Click to expand...
Wow, I hadn't even realized. This is exactly why I posted here, thank you so much. Do you have any recommendations? I was thinking about tufts... My cGPA is competitive but my sGPA isn't exactly competitive at this out of state northeast coast schools for me... I've mainly been making my choices based on how I compare to their average GPA/MCAT stats from MSAR and how many OOS students they take.
 
Bisonman80 said:
Wow, I hadn't even realized. This is exactly why I posted here, thank you so much. Do you have any recommendations? I was thinking about tufts... My cGPA is competitive but my sGPA isn't exactly competitive at this out of state northeast coast schools for me... I've mainly been making my choices based on how I compare to their average GPA/MCAT stats from MSAR and how many OOS students they take.
Click to expand...

You can only analyze it so much. Given your strong MCAT and unique heritage I'd say you have good chances at a range of schools. It doesn't look like you have much research, so schools like UCSD might feel like you're not a good fit for them, but it's good you've noted that as a weak point and will be starting a research-oriented job. Schools that have a heavy emphasis on primary care and community outreach might be a better bet.

I can't really remember what Tuft's deal was, but yeah I'd definitely consider them. Average GPA and MCAT are just that -- averages, so it won't kill ya if your GPA is a bit below while your MCAT is above.

Only thing I noticed were that there are almost no pubic OOS schools on your list. Yes, many of them give in state preference, but they're also not going to only admit 4.0 GPA 42 MCAT OOS students because it is unlikely those students would matriculate. So you might want to consider applying to some OOS schools you're interested in, maybe OHSU or UColo?
 
Ok that makes sense. So OHSU looks good. Is it worth it to even apply to Stanford?
 
Here's my current list:

In-state
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA REACH
UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program
Keck Sch. of Med.University of Southern California
Stanford University School of Medicine - REMOVED
University of California San Diego REACH
University of California San Francisco - REACH
University of California, Davis School of Medicine (my personal favorite)
University of California, Irvine- College/Medicine
University of California-Riverside School of Medicine

Out-of-state
Albany Medical College
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Jefferson Medical Coll. of Thomas Jefferson Univ.
New York Medical College
Oregon Health and Science University
Rush Medical College
Saint Louis University School of Medicine - REMOVEDThe University of Vermont College of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix
University of Colorado School of Medicine
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
The University of Miami School of Medicine
 
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My only caution is to be wary of the geography of where you're applying. I see that your OOS school list is all over the place. Don't just apply to them for safeties, make sure you'd be happy spending four years in those areas of the country. If I could do it all over again, that's one thing I'd tell myself.
 
FijiGNR89 said:
My only caution is to be wary of the geography of where you're applying. I see that your OOS school list is all over the place. Don't just apply to them for safeties, make sure you'd be happy spending four years in those areas of the country. If I could do it all over again, that's one thing I'd tell myself.
Click to expand...

I appreciate this advice. I decided to remove St. Louis, but honestly all of the other schools I've picked seem like great places for me. I'm a very flexible person and throughout my life my happiness is mostly self-originating. I would have to be living in a complete ****-hole to be actually having a bad time. I imagine that I will get sucked into the atmosphere and duties of being a medical student and thoroughly enjoy the challenges and rewards that come with that, no matter where I will reside.


Question for anybody: Based on my stats, how many OOS schools should I be applying to? Is my current list pretty good right now? I match pretty well with virtually all the OOS schools I've selected, and all of them accept at least a big chunk of OOS students.
 
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You have good IS/OOS mix. You're fortunate enough to be a California state resident, which more so opens the door for you at the UC schools, which are nationally recognized as some of the best. As a side note, and I may be wrong, but I sense some anxiety about making sure the list is good and that may come from worrying about not getting in. If I'm right about that, I just want to say that you shouldn't preoccupy yourself with such ideas. Your application is VERY strong. While I can't speak in absolutes like "you're going to get in," I can say that your chances are extremely high. Relax. Your list is great and I'm optimistic about the response you'll get this application cycle.
 
Bisonman80 said:
I appreciate this advice. I decided to remove St. Louis, but honestly all of the other schools I've picked seem like great places for me. I'm a very flexible person and throughout my life my happiness is mostly self-originating. I would have to be living in a complete ****-hole to be actually having a bad time. I imagine that I will get sucked into the atmosphere and duties of being a medical student and thoroughly enjoy the challenges and rewards that come with that, no matter where I will reside.


Question for anybody: Based on my stats, how many OOS schools should I be applying to? Is my current list pretty good right now? I match pretty well with virtually all the OOS schools I've selected, and all of them accept at least a big chunk of OOS students.
Click to expand...

I think your list looks pretty good:) based on statsci would even tell you to aim a bit higher but you are just starting most of your unique ecs which a lot of the more top tier schools look for.

Good luck!
 
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FijiGNR89 said:
...Relax. Your list is great and I'm optimistic about the response you'll get this application cycle.
Click to expand...

Thank you guys for the wonderful responses. I'm getting more and more excited about this process.
 
Bisonman80 said:
Here's my current list:

In-state
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA REACH
UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program
Keck Sch. of Med.University of Southern California
Stanford University School of Medicine - REMOVED
University of California San Diego REACH
University of California San Francisco - REACH
University of California, Davis School of Medicine (my personal favorite)
University of California, Irvine- College/Medicine
University of California-Riverside School of Medicine

Out-of-state
Albany Medical College
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Jefferson Medical Coll. of Thomas Jefferson Univ.
New York Medical College
Oregon Health and Science University
Rush Medical College
Saint Louis University School of Medicine - REMOVEDThe University of Vermont College of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix
University of Colorado School of Medicine
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
The University of Miami School of Medicine
Click to expand...

Keep Stanford.
 
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