3.69/520 Chances/School List

[oddwhile]

1. cGPA 3.69 (strong upward trend)
2. sGPA 3.77
3. MCAT: 520
4. Residence: MA
5. Race/Gender: white male
6. School: HYPSM (physics major)
7. Clinical experience: 200 hours clinical volunteering
8. About 1500 hours of physics research spread across three different projects. Theoretical high energy physics, so not medically related (not sure how much this weakens the experience)
9. Shadowing experience: 50 hours primary care, 35 hours orthopedic surgery
10. Non-clinical volunteering: 200 hours in a variety of contexts (tutoring kids, working in soup kitchens, etc.)
11. Other extracurricular activities: highly ranked D1 college athlete. Played professionally for 4+ years after graduation and retired due to an injury. My experience having multiple surgeries is really what motivated me to pursue a career in medicine. My personal statement will largely be based around this experience, and I think it’s a fairly compelling story. I completed my remaining pre-med coursework as a post-bacc while recovering from the injury.

My background is a little unusual, so I’m having some trouble figuring out where I’ll be competitive. Obviously my GPA is low for the top schools, but do I have enough to balance it out?

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[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats and history
UMass
Tufts
Boston University
Dartmouth
Brown
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Rochester
Pittsburgh
Case Western
Miami
Tulane
Duke
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Northwestern
USC
Ohio State
U Michigan
UVA

 

[Walter Raleigh]

@Faha: why not Harvard and Yale? OP's a former professional athlete with decent research and Harvard-level stats. @Goro would call this individual a rock star and break out his rockstar list.

 

[Toutie]

@Faha: why not Harvard and Yale? OP's a former professional athlete with decent research and Harvard-level stats. @Goro would call this individual a rock star and break out his rockstar list.

Walter! Stop with the rockstar and other worldly ECs! Why do you have such an obsession with this? It's getting really old, really fast! You have no experience in Med School admissions, not even as an applicant...why do you keep trying to give advice and question the adcoms about their advice? Spend more time working on YOUR application and less worrying about everyone else's!

 

[Walter Raleigh]

I applied to medical school this cycle. Four interviews, three rejections, haven't heard back from the last one. Guy looks like a rockstar to me and I'd bet cash money that if Goro replies to this thread and gives a list of schools he'll bust out the rockstar list.

 

[Goro]

1. cGPA 3.69 (strong upward trend)
2. sGPA 3.77
3. MCAT: 520
4. Residence: MA
5. Race/Gender: white male
6. School: HYPSM (physics major)
7. Clinical experience: 200 hours clinical volunteering
8. About 1500 hours of physics research spread across three different projects. Theoretical high energy physics, so not medically related (not sure how much this weakens the experience)
9. Shadowing experience: 50 hours primary care, 35 hours orthopedic surgery
10. Non-clinical volunteering: 200 hours in a variety of contexts (tutoring kids, working in soup kitchens, etc.)
11. Other extracurricular activities: highly ranked D1 college athlete. Played professionally for 4+ years after graduation and retired due to an injury. My experience having multiple surgeries is really what motivated me to pursue a career in medicine. My personal statement will largely be based around this experience, and I think it’s a fairly compelling story. I completed my remaining pre-med coursework as a post-bacc while recovering from the injury.

My background is a little unusual, so I’m having some trouble figuring out where I’ll be competitive. Obviously my GPA is low for the top schools, but do I have enough to balance it out?

Believe me, I sure can understand Toutie's frustration and exasperation! But the OP is a golden candidate, and should aim high, particularly in that Admissions Deans are fond of athlete-scholars.

I suggest:
NYU
Vanderbilt
WashU
Yale
JHU
Northwestern
U Chicago
U Penn
Columbia
Duke
Harvard
Sinai
Cornell
Stanford
U MI
U VA
BU
Case
Mayo
Pitt
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
Hofstra
Ohio State
U Cincy
USC/Keck
USF Morsani
Albert Einstein
Dartmouth
Emory
Rochester
Jefferson
Miami
U IA
U VM
U MA
Kaiser IF you're interested in Primary Care

 

[oddwhile]

@Goro @Faha Thank you both for the lists.

Do you think my relatively low volunteering hours will hold me back at all? Or are AdComs understanding of the fact that I've basically been dealing with a 100+ hour/week time commitment for the last few years (that is, my sport)? I don't want that to come off as an excuse for not volunteering more, but there are only so many hours in the day.

 

[Goro]

@Goro @Faha Thank you both for the lists.

Do you think my relatively low volunteering hours will hold me back at all? Or are AdComs understanding of the fact that I've basically been dealing with a 100+ hour/week time commitment for the last few years (that is, my sport)? I don't want that to come off as an excuse for not volunteering more, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Those are NOT low hours of volunteering!

 

[oddwhile]

Those are NOT low hours of volunteering!

OK, good to know--maybe I'm being overly neurotic about it. Put a different way, is there anything I can do in the next few months before applying to give myself a better shot at the top schools? I have some time and am flexible.

 

[Goro]

OK, good to know--maybe I'm being overly neurotic about it. Put a different way, is there anything I can do in the next few months before applying to give myself a better shot at the top schools? I have some time and am flexible.

Service to others less fortunate than yourself is always a winner.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Believe me, I sure can understand Toutie's frustration and exasperation! But the OP is a golden candidate, and should aim high, particularly in that Admissions Deans are fond of athlete-scholars.

I suggest:
NYU
Vanderbilt
WashU
Yale
JHU
Northwestern
U Chicago
U Penn
Columbia
Duke
Harvard
Sinai
Cornell
Stanford
U MI
U VA
BU
Case
Mayo
Pitt
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
Hofstra
Ohio State
U Cincy
USC/Keck
USF Morsani
Albert Einstein
Dartmouth
Emory
Rochester
Jefferson
Miami
U IA
U VM
U MA
Kaiser IF you're interested in Primary Care

And that's the rockstar list.