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You could add these schools:
USF Morsani
Miami
Tulane
Cincinnati
Jefferson
Hofstra
 
Check your costs of attendance, as a low-income applicant. All your in-state schools should be in play, so it's a question of how you match to mission. Some schools may be a bit more forgiving and weigh your more recent GPA's more (drop the first two years of courses). If money is a real consideration, there's not really a good reason to include long-distance schools such as Stanford or Harvard if you want to be closer to home in Washington state. Just because you have a chance to get invited doesn't mean you should rack up the credit card debt (if interviews require travel) before spending your tuition money.
 
SleepingPillow said:
I'm interested in a few of those! Do you recommend I replace any on my current list with some of these schools? Trying to keep my list 25-30
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Baylor has a pretty heavy IS bias, and iirc so does emory (someone please correct me if I am wrong). You may want to replace those two with some that a are a bit more OOS forgiving. I believe Jefferson, Hofstra, and Cinci are?
 
Mr.Smile12 said:
Check your costs of attendance, as a low-income applicant. All your in-state schools should be in play, so it's a question of how you match to mission. Some schools may be a bit more forgiving and weigh your more recent GPA's more (drop the first two years of courses). If money is a real consideration, there's not really a good reason to include long-distance schools such as Stanford or Harvard if you want to be closer to home in Washington state. Just because you have a chance to get invited doesn't mean you should rack up the credit card debt (if interviews require travel) before spending your tuition money.
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For schools like stanford and harvard (and most top schools on my list) they actually provide very good need based aid so if I somehow get into them it wouldnt be more expensive than my state schools. Thats one of the main reasons I'm applying to these schools. I have enough saved up for interviews, especially since FAP covers a lot of the initial fees.
 
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I'm going to disagree on the research impact point. Unless you're the first author of a Cell/Nature/Science paper, it's not going to have much of an effect. If anything to me, it just reflects that you had access to some great research resources and have been part of a great research team. But it doesn't mean anything about one's performance or preparation for medical school or being successful in medical research. A lot of C/N/S papers are impactful because they involve large teams and a lot of internal vetting. Sure it's not common to have an authorship on a C/N/S paper, and you should be proud to have been involved on such a team, but in the end, a patient you may be caring for isn't going to read the paper or care. You should mention any publications, but be humble about its significance to your preparation for medicine or health care.
 
You've had a rocky first year but done well afterwards, and you might have faced some disadvantages on the road to college. That being said, your ECs are good but not stellar by top 20 standards. I'd shoot high, but have just as many mid-tiers as top schools on the list. Good luck!
 
SleepingPillow said:
I had a preliminary list from SDN, but after talking with my undergrad advisor I am unsure if I am overestimating my app. She suggested that I apply mostly to schools where my sGPA is at the median, but due to my freshman year literally no school on my current list has a median of 3.6. I am wondering if I should restructure my current list. I did take off Yale and Vandy based on matriculation GPA from my undergrad.

Current list:
Harvard
Stanford
NYU
WashU
Mayo
Northwestern
Columbia
Duke
Cornell
Mt Sinai
Baylor
UCLA
UMichigan
Emory
BU
Dartmouth
Einstein
Pitt
USC
Case
Rochester
Tufts
SLU
Wake
Stony Brook
OHSU
UW
WSU

  1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.71c and 3.6s (projected)
    1. cGPA Trend: 3.07 -> 3.7+ -> 3.9+ -> 4.0 (3.87+ last 3 years)
    2. sGPA Trend: ~2.75-> 3.82 last 3 years
  2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown
    1. 519 (129/128/132/130)
  3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
    1. WA
  4. Ethnicity and/or race
    1. Asian (low-income FAP applicant)
  5. Undergraduate institution or category
    1. T20
  6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
    1. Volunteer (projected by time of app)
      1. Hospital volunteering (front desk, NICU): 150 hrs over 2 years
      2. Music therapy for patients: 120 hrs over 2.5 years
  7. Research experience and productivity
    1. 2 years in the same neuro lab
      1. Nature mid-author publication
      2. 600-700 hours
  8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
    1. ED- 40 hours
    2. Anesthesiology- 10 hours
    3. Planned to get more PCP but that's not possible now
  9. Non-clinical volunteering
    1. Tutoring low income elementary kids- 160 hours over 2.5 years
    2. Elder companion- 25 hours
  10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Exec board of a significant cultural organization 4 years
      1. President for 1 year
      2. ~800 hrs
    2. Dance group 3 years
      1. Choreographer for 1 year
      2. 600 hrs
    3. Freshman mentor job 1 year
      1. 200-300 hrs
    4. Another fun dance thing
      1. 100 hrs
    5. manual labor job one summer
      1. 400 hrs
    6. Service job
      1. 50 hours
    7. MCAT tutor job
      1. 20 hours (ongoing)
    8. GAP YEAR
      1. Unclear at this point
  11. LORs from 2 science, 2 non-science, 1 research, committee letter
    1. All should be decently strong
  12. Relevant honors or awards
    1. nothing significant

Should I lean more on low tiers rather than what I currently have? None of them have median sGPAs anywhere near 3.6 (not even my state schools). I could swap schools like Baylor, NYU, Duke for schools like Albany, Loyola, Drexel, etc but their GPA isn't that low either. My hope in the beginning was that my strong trend could convince schools I am capable, but I realize they have many perfect applicants to choose from anyways.

Thank you for your input!
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Had similar stats when I applied a few years ago. Same thing with one pub, upward but still low-ish GPA trend, 519 MCAT, T5 undergrad.

I got interviews from 3x T10 schools (WL/R at all lmao), 3 other T40 schools (currently attending one), and 5 or so II from lower ranked/unranked schools. If I could redo it, I would keep my list narrow to a few in-state, OOS, or privates I had a good shot at or would really consider going and some dreamshots in the T20. I would strongly consider location and cost with respect to current schools on your list. But I think your list is good as it is now. USF Morsani, Cincinnati, Hofstra, Miami, Jefferson, Mayo, Pritzker could all be added.
 
You do not need to apply to 32 schools but if you want to remove some remove some of the top tier schools that you are less interested in.
 
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