3.8/3.7 517 MCAT

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platypig

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I would appreciate any help with my school list! Looking to apply to around 25 schools.
  1. 3.8 cGPA / 3.7 sGPA
  2. 517 (128/132/129/128)
  3. Clinical Volunteering: 250 total from college
  4. Chemistry Research: 800 hrs
    1. Listed on oral presentation at national conference (my partner presented instead because it was a week before my MCAT)
    2. First author paper (but in a rather low tier journal)
  5. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
    1. Internal medicine: 40 hrs
    2. Rehab: 15 hrs (have another 100 from high school, but with a different physician, so I guess I should abstain from listing it)
  6. Non-clinical volunteering: 330 total from college
  7. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Biology TA: 75 hrs
    2. Honors program mentor: 100 hrs

List so Far:
1. Albany Medical College
2. Einstein
3. Columbia
4. Hofstra
5. Sinai
6. Buffalo
7. SUNY Downstate
8. Stony Brook
9. SUNY Upstate
10. Rochester
11. Cornell
12. Yale
13. Mayo
14. Drexel
15. Temple
16. Tufts
17. Penn state
18. Sidney kimmel
19. NYMC

I would prefer to stay on the east coast and would be so grateful for any suggestions!
 
Last edited:
You should receive several interviews from your list. You could add these schools:
Boston University
Brown
Quinnipiac
George Washington
Georgetown
Seton Hall
 
Faha said:
You should receive several interviews from your list. You could add these schools:
Boston University
Brown
Quinnipiac
George Washington
Georgetown
Seton Hall
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for these schools!
 
@Goro Your past advice has helped me tremendously, would you have time to take a look and see if I would be competitive for these schools? Thank you!
 
platypig said:
I would appreciate any help with my school list! Looking to apply to around 25 schools.
  1. 3.8 cGPA / 3.7 sGPA
  2. 517 (128/132/129/128)
  3. Clinical Volunteering: 250 total from college
    1. Nursing Home Volunteer: 150 hrs from college with 150 from high school (100 more projected)
    2. Hospital Geriatric Unit Volunteer: 100 hrs (100 more projected) This experience is extremely meaningful to me because I was able to have a lot of personal interactions with the patients. I would have had more, but unfortunately I had a cold for two months and thus missed out on volunteering
  4. Research experience and productivity
    1. Chemistry Research: 800 hrs
      1. Listed on oral presentation at national conference (my partner presented instead because it was a week before my MCAT)
      2. First author paper (but in a rather low tier journal)
  5. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
    1. Internal medicine: 40 hrs
    2. Rehab: 15 hrs (have another 100 from high school, but with a different physician, so I guess I should abstain from listing it)
  6. Non-clinical volunteering: 330 total from college
    1. Food Pantry: 125 hrs (100 more projected)
    2. Art Volunteer at middle school: 80 hrs from college and 300 from the 5-6 years prior to college
      • I would help paint gifts with the kids for teachers and and would also help them put on plays
    3. Art donations: 125 hrs
      • Organized a group to create and donate artwork for the nursing home and hospital I volunteer at. I wanted to give the patients some more professional looking artwork because I personally just enjoy looking at beautiful things and would be so glad knowing someone put additional time into it.
  7. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Biology TA: 75 hrs
    2. Honors program mentor: 100 hrs
    3. Employed muralist: 180 hrs painting mural as part of art activist organization to raise awareness for certain issues women of color face (I am an ORM though)

List so Far:
1. Dartmouth
2. Einstein
3. Columbia
4. Hofstra
5. Sinai
6. Buffalo
7. SUNY Downstate
8. Stony Brook
9. SUNY Upstate
10. Rochester
11. Cornell
12. Yale
13. Columbia
14. Harvard
15. NYU
16. Tufts
17. Sinai
18. Sidney kimmel
19. NYMC
20. UVA
21. JHU
22. BU
23. HOFSTRA
24. U VM
Click to expand...
MY LIST ABOVE
 
Harvard, Goro? Harvard gets combat veterans, concert pianists, individuals with sixty first-author publications, better than most full tenured Harvard professors, rocket scientists, professional athletes, and nonprofit founders. OP's got decent stats and decent ECs, but nothing truly spectacular.
 
Walter Raleigh said:
Harvard, Goro? Harvard gets combat veterans, concert pianists, individuals with sixty first-author publications, better than most full tenured Harvard professors, rocket scientists, professional athletes, and nonprofit founders. OP's got decent stats and decent ECs, but nothing truly spectacular.
Click to expand...
I can't tell whether you are making these comments sarcastically or if you are being serious...
 
I did hear right here on SDN from a Harvard Med student that there were two students in that guy's class that had 60 first-author publications each - a better publication record than most full professors, probably even most full professors at Harvard.
 
Walter Raleigh said:
I did hear right here on SDN from a Harvard Med student that there were two students in that guy's class that had 60 first-author publications each - a better publication record than most full professors, probably even most full professors at Harvard.
Click to expand...
Man, please, stop coming to every single WAMC thread and speculating about OP's chances of getting into Harvard. It is nice that you are curious and want to help, but please, just stop.
 
spb1703 said:
Man, please, stop coming to every single WAMC thread and speculating about OP's chances of getting into Harvard. It is nice that you are curious and want to help, but please, just stop.
Click to expand...
I think he just wants to help and doesn’t want OP to spend money on a donation. Would be just better to answer his concerns so he doesn’t spam this same question on these types of posts in the future...
 
@Walter Raleigh

You also neglect the part in that post where he mentions that those students make up a minority of the class and another large portion of it is made up of well-rounded students with strong academic experiences that got in through (partially) luck of the draw.

I get your desire to help, but in your post you come across as someone who
1. Undervalues someone else's experience and application
2. Seem to lack an understanding that the knowledge and insights gained from those experiences are as important as the experiences themselves.
3. Doesn't get that ADCOM's are diverse people themselves and will have differing perspectives on an applicant from some "expected" standard
 
MemeLord said:
One can purchase an annual subscription to the NEJM for $50. This is what I did. Did not have a research based class until the quarter I was taking the MCAT, but I was already scientifically literate by then for a low low price
Click to expand...
red_pepper12 said:
so the "stat ****" schools

maybe something like this:

1. Dartmouth
2. Einstein
4. Hofstra
5. Sinai
6. Buffalo
7. SUNY Downstate
8. Stony Brook
9. SUNY Upstate
10. Rochester
16. Tufts
17. Sinai
18. Sidney kimmel
19. NYMC
20. UVA
22. BU
24. U VM
ADD: Netter, Drexel, Temple, Duke, Pitt

This all seems a bit weird to me. Does a 3.90 sGPA and cGPA which is .2 and .1 higher than the OP, respectively, not compensate for a 2 point lower MCAT (all 2 points from CARS)
Click to expand...
My mods above



red_pepper12 said:
I see. I just thought that a difference of two points may not be considered huge, especially with a higher GPA. @Goro would you recommend the revised list if the OP had 3.9 w/ 515
Click to expand...
People may think "oh, it's only two points in the MCAT differences". But a 515 is < the 10th %iles for the Really Top Schools, and so that's not competitive for them, given how hard they are to get into. The higher up the pole you want to climb, the more slipperier it gets.
 
Goro said:
My mods above




People may think "oh, it's only two points in the MCAT differences". But a 515 is < the 10th %iles for the Really Top Schools, and so that's not competitive for them, given how hard they are to get into. The higher up the pole you want to climb, the more slipperier it gets.
Click to expand...
Where are you quoting memelord from? I have some questions about the site.
 
Walter Raleigh said:
Harvard, Goro? Harvard gets combat veterans, concert pianists, individuals with sixty first-author publications, better than most full tenured Harvard professors, rocket scientists, professional athletes, and nonprofit founders. OP's got decent stats and decent ECs, but nothing truly spectacular.
Click to expand...

You can't be serious. I scribe at a medical hospital affiliated with a T3 med school (use your imagination, not that hard to figure out which one). Not one of the med students that I've met has even 1 of these things.

Most of the things you mentioned are things that are found in the very elite applicants who get multiple T10 acceptances. There aren't a lot of those kids. I do know a guy who worked for the UN and received a Marshall scholarship who now goes to a top 3 med school. I also know a guy who worked for a nonprofit, was a genuinely nice guy with a well-rounded app and a high MCAT score who goes to Harvard. Both exist, but I'd wager that many top matriculants lean toward the latter, rather than the former.

People on this site have an obsession with the very top. Which I understand to an extent. But to dissuade people with competitive stats and good EC's from not applying because they don't have one thing that's exceptional, or elite is crazy. You'd be surprised how many top med students are "human" like the rest of us. And that's not even counting how good his/her personal statement is/how they tie together their experiences in a meaningful way.

60 publications my ***.
 
red_pepper12 said:
@Goro

You mentioned earlier that 515 is <10%iles for many schools like Columbia, Cornell, Harvard etc. but looking at this year's MSAR, even accounting for matriculated, in-state, and out-of-state statistics, 515 falls in at least 10-25th percentile range for ALL of these schools. For Stanford, the 25th percentile MCAT for in-state applicant accepted was 515. When considering all applicants, 25th percentile was 516 and 10th percentile was 513. Wouldn't you consider 10-25th percentile as "striking distance," especially when GPA is right around the median? Just wondering if maybe we are looking at different numbers or something.
Click to expand...
The higher up the pole you want to climb, the slipperier it gets. Thus, I am less sanguine about a 515 score because it's some five basis points lower than the NYU/WashU and Harvard/Stanford class medians. So for them, no, it's not striking distance.

It is when the school is, say, Jefferson or Western MI and the score is say, 510.
 
Gotta love it when you come on these forums and see people debating with those with tons of adcom experience about their evaluations in the realm of +/- 1-3 points, either GPA or MCAT. There's no formula for schools sending II's. It's a rough estimation of where your stats fit into their general acceptance, seeing how much your experiences fit into their missions/what they're looking for in applications, and a lot of luck. No amount of debating is going to change that reality. Just do your research with multiple sources to see how you fit and roll the dice already.
 
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