3.76 GPA, 528 MCAT - School List Help

[BillDugRomans]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi it's my first time posting and I was wondering if I could get some insight on my school list. I used the WARS to generate my initial list, but I'm worried that it is a bit top heavy. I'm going to be an NIH IRTA during my gap year, and will also continue to volunteer and shadow. Please let me know if you need anything else from me!

• Year in school: Just graduated from state school
  
  
• State of residence: Ohio
  
  
• Schools to which I'm thinking of applying: CCLCU, Harvard, JHU, WashU, Penn, Duke, NYU, Mich, Vandy, Pitt, Northwestern, Mayo, Case, Cornell, Dartmouth, OSU, UIC, WVU, Indiana, Wayne State, UW, WF, Maryland, Rush, PSU, Drexel, Wright State, Mt. Sinai, Cinci, Toledo, NEOMED
  
  
• cGPA: 3.76 (bad freshman year, upward trend FWIW)
  
  
• sGPA: 3.67 (same as above)
  
  
• MCAT: 528
  
  
• Research: ~3 years split between 2 labs (a lot of hours, probably ~1000), multiple posters, graduate with thesis, author on paper (priority not assigned)
  
  
• Volunteering (clinical): 1y at campus hospital (2hrs/week), then 2y at local hospital reading to children (1hr/week, ongoing)
  
  
• Shadowing: about 60hrs, but mostly pediatricians
  
  
• Non-clinical volunteering: 1y teaching science at local elementary school (2hrs/week), then 1.5y w/ Big Brothers Big Sisters (1hr/week, ongoing)
  
  
• Extracurricular activities: Peer Mentor for incoming freshman (2y, ongoing), founded a club that worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters to facilitate mentoring (2y, ongoing), Power-lifting Club, BioSci Honorary, Leadership progran
  
  
• Employment history: Personal Trainer (1.5y, 2-5hrs/week)
  
  
• Family in medicine: no
  

 

[altblue]

MCAT: 528

What was your section breakdown?

 

[Faha]

Since you are applying to all your instate schools your list is not top heavy and you should receive several interviews.

 

[BillDugRomans]

Since you are applying to all your instate schools your list is not top heavy and you should receive several interviews.

Oh I hope you're right. Do you think I'm applying to too many top tier schools, though? I want to trim down my school list a bit for both financial reasons and number of secondary essays, so I was wondering if I should cut from the "top" or "bottom" of the list. I don't want to waste any time or money on schools that may look unfavorably on me for a relatively low GPA, or on others that may yield-protect.

 

[Faha]

You could remove schools such as Penn State, Rush, Drexel, Wake Forest since they will yield protect. You also do not need the OOS public state schools since you already have your own state public schools so you could remove any of Maryland, UW, Indiana, Wayne State and UIC. The only reason to keep any of those schools is if one has an appeal to you for some reason. Remember you have 5 schools in Ohio that have a strong instate preference.

 

[WedgeDawg]

good:
CCLCU, Harvard, JHU, WashU, Penn, Duke, NYU, Mich, Vandy, Pitt, Northwestern, Mayo, Case, Cornell, OSU, Cinci, Toledo, NEOMED, Mt. Sinai

bad:
Dartmouth, UIC, WVU, Indiana, Wayne State, UW, WF, Maryland, Rush, PSU, Drexel, Wright State

add:
Columbia, Stanford, UCSF, Emory, Yale, Pritzker

basically you should be applying to top 20 + all your state schools, and leave it at that

 

[MJToThePreMed]

Just pick the schools you most want to attend that also fit in your budget. You have a phenomenal app, best of luck!

 

[CyrusHabs7695]

I bet youll be able to pull a full COA scholarship out of one of your state schools, hopefully OSU

 

[BillDugRomans]

You could remove schools such as Penn State, Rush, Drexel, Wake Forest since they will yield protect. You also do not need the OOS public state schools since you already have your own state public schools so you could remove any of Maryland, UW, Indiana, Wayne State and UIC. The only reason to keep any of those schools is if one has an appeal to you for some reason. Remember you have 5 schools in Ohio that have a strong instate preference.

Okay that makes sense, thank you!

good:
CCLCU, Harvard, JHU, WashU, Penn, Duke, NYU, Mich, Vandy, Pitt, Northwestern, Mayo, Case, Cornell, OSU, Cinci, Toledo, NEOMED, Mt. Sinai

bad:
Dartmouth, UIC, WVU, Indiana, Wayne State, UW, WF, Maryland, Rush, PSU, Drexel, Wright State

add:
Columbia, Stanford, UCSF, Emory, Yale, Pritzker

basically you should be applying to top 20 + all your state schools, and leave it at that

Oh ok, there seems to be somewhat of a consensus with this. I was just worried about my GPA being a tad low to not apply to a couple mid-tiers.

Just pick the schools you most want to attend that also fit in your budget. You have a phenomenal app, best of luck!

Thank you for the kind words!

I bet youll be able to pull a full COA scholarship out of one of your state schools, hopefully OSU

That would be great! Honestly my dream school is the Cleveland Clinic LCM, which I know is tuition-free. Although that's not the major reason I want to go there, it sure helps. Thank you for the vote of confidence though!