3.82cgpa; 3.73sgpa; 33MCAT

[Omrianh]

Local Hospital Volunteer - February 2008 - present (50+ hrs: ED)
Local Rescue Squad Volunteer - June 2008 - October 2008 (Not an EMT; just observer) (may continue this fall)
Local Hospice Volunteer - July 2008 - present
Uninsured Health Clinic Volunteer - June 2009 - present

Shadowed: Otolaryngologist (16 hrs); Pediatrician (~7 hrs); Family Doctor (~10 hrs); Psychiatrist (~4 hrs); ER Attending (~4hrs); Heme/Onc (~4hrs); Internist (~4 hrs)

Neuroanatomy research - Fall 2007 - May 2009 (Summer employed)
Summer research internship at UMD Cancer center - (Summer 2009)

Aikido Club Founder and President - December 2007 - September 2008
Asian Studies Secretary/VP - September 2008 - present
NAMI on campus Treasurer - January 2008 - May 2008
Fencing Team - Fall 2006 - present
Otakon Staff - August 2008; July 2009

Church musician - September 2008 - present
SafeRide! - September 2007 - Fall 2008
Music Department intern - Fall 2006 - Fall 2009

I do lots of music (Music minor: piano). Play in bunch of ensembles. Went to music study tour in Italy. Learning Argentine Tango and ukulele for fun this summer.

My list of schools are:
Maryland
Georgetown
GWU
Temple
UVM
VCU
Case Western

Any specific schools you think I should look at? I appreciate your input!

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[Mobius1985]

Your post from last July was way more detailed. You've done a nice job of improving your clinical experience since then.

I'd say you should add five more schools (and some would say 10). You have very nice numbers and have only 1 reach school and a number of safeties. With a LizzyM score of 71, you could be a bit more bold. Some more mid-selectivity schools and 1-2 more reaches could be considered. There is an extract from the MSAR called School Selection spreadsheet stickied to the top of this forum. Take a look. As I'm a frugal (cheap) person who only applied to five schools, I won't nag you, but I'd hate to see you not get accepted anywhere because you didn't apply widely enough.

 

[camaras2480]

Your post from last July was way more detailed. You've done a nice job of improving your clinical experience since then.

I'd say you should add five more schools (and some would say 10). You have very nice numbers and have only 1 reach school and a number of safeties. With a LizzyM score of 71, you could be a bit more bold. Some more mid-selectivity schools and 1-2 more reaches could be considered. There is an extract from the MSAR called School Selection spreadsheet stickied to the top of this forum. Take a look. As I'm a frugal (cheap) person who only applied to five schools, I won't nag you, but I'd hate to see you not get accepted anywhere because you didn't apply widely enough.

Add schools. Look at NY, PA, and Chicago. Pick at least 5 schools to add. Some 'low' tier, some 'mid tier.'

Everything else looks fine - good luck!

 

[Omrianh]

So, I took both of your advice, I'm thinking of adding these schools as well:
Mayo
Einstein

And will look more into these:
Loyola
Albany
NYMC
Rosalind Franklin
Northeastern or Toledo

I am a little worried, though. I've been basing my thoughts on the old school selector spreadsheet. In the new one, it says I have a low VR in a few of my top schools (I'm a Maryland resident and I have a 9VR. Maryland and Temple are flagged). Yet, it does say high chance. Should this low VR flag be considered more seriously?

It's very nice to see you comment, Mobius. I tried my best to take your advice to heart last time

I'll go to my local library again to visit the MSAR one last time as well as research the school websites.

Thanks for the input thus far!

 

[camaras2480]

So, I took both of your advice, I'm thinking of adding these schools as well:
Mayo
Einstein

And will look more into these:
Loyola
Albany
NYMC
Rosalind Franklin
Northeastern or Toledo

I am a little worried, though. I've been basing my thoughts on the old school selector spreadsheet. In the new one, it says I have a low VR in a few of my top schools (I'm a Maryland resident and I have a 9VR. Maryland and Temple are flagged). Yet, it does say high chance. Should this low VR flag be considered more seriously?

It's very nice to see you comment, Mobius. I tried my best to take your advice to heart last time

I'll go to my local library again to visit the MSAR one last time as well as research the school websites.

Thanks for the input thus far!

A 9VR is fine, especially for Maryland and Temple. I don't think you have a shot at Mayo, but at this point, whats 1 more school I guess.

Everything else looks good (Go Toledo, not Northeastern).

 

[Omrianh]

Ok, so this is my list so far looking mostly at the MSAR info in the school selection sheet as well as the spreadsheet itself:

Case Western, Einstein, Ohio state, GWU, drexel, VCU, NYMC, Maryland, GT, Jefferson, Temple, and UVM

I haven't looked into all of the schools in depth. I was wondering if I should add more mid-tier schools, take out some upper/lower-tier schools. Any specific school suggestions would be great.

In particular, I'm interested in primary care.

Thoughts?

 

[camaras2480]

Ok, so this is my list so far looking mostly at the MSAR info in the school selection sheet as well as the spreadsheet itself:

Case Western, Einstein, Ohio state, GWU, drexel, VCU, NYMC, Maryland, GT, Jefferson, Temple, and UVM

I haven't looked into all of the schools in depth. I was wondering if I should add more mid-tier schools, take out some upper/lower-tier schools. Any specific school suggestions would be great.

In particular, I'm interested in primary care.

Thoughts?

I like it, pretty good balance. You may just want to add a few more mid tier schools from New York and Chicago.

 

[Omrianh]

I'm thinking about taking out Case or Ohio state for OHSU. It's number 3 in USN's primary rankings, but apparently they base most of their acceptances on interview/essays.

However, Case and Ohio are essentially my only high-tier schools. would OHSU be considered mid-tier?

 

[Stratego]

would OHSU be considered mid-tier?

Yes. But don't they give preference to nearby states without med schools? Do research before applying there.

 

[Omrianh]

Okay. One last foreseeable question. For a reach school, I was thinking Brown or Dartmouth. I really like Brown, but it seems especially harder to get in considering half of its seats are for BS/MD students. You think I should still go for Brown? I haven't really looked into Dartmouth that much, though.

 

[camaras2480]

Dartmouth.

 

[Omrianh]

Just applied to brown yesterday w/o checking . Care to explain why dartmouth?

 

[camaras2480]

Just applied to brown yesterday w/o checking . Care to explain why dartmouth?

Exactly what you said lol - there are not very many seats due to their internal program. Yeah, the median GPAs and MCATs are low for Brown, but that is only because the internal candidates don't have to do very well to maintain their candidacy in that program.

But its okay, why not give it a try - you like it, and that's a good reason to pick between two schools, especially when you don't know much about the other.

 

[Omrianh]

So most of my secondaries are in now. However, my committee letter has yet to be sent in. I have e-mailed the person writing the letter, but what more can I do? Is this something I should be worried about? I know I'm essentially losing any edge applying this early is giving me by not having that letter in.

 

[mrmilad]

Your app looks very very similar to mine, I applied very broadly, but so far I've gotten interviews from Vanderbilt, Casewestern, and Georgetown. I'd add those if you havent so far.