MD 3.86 | 522 School List Help

[TheMcQuitter]

Hello everyone!

With the 2018 AMCAS application opening soon, I’m in the process of finalizing my list of medical schools. I would greatly appreciate any guidance you might be able to provide about target schools and list balance (top tier vs. mid tier).

Thank you!!


School: Honors Program at a small liberal arts school in PA.

Major: Neuroscience major, Religion Studies minor.

GPA: 3.86c, 3.78s with strong upward trend (4.0 last 3 semesters). One W in freshman year.

MCAT: 522 | 131 | 128 | 131 | 132

Residence + Demographics: New York State resident (US Citizen), Caucasian (non-URM)

Clinical Experience:

• 750+ hours volunteering during my gap year for a Federally Qualified Health Center, helping to implement a Medicaid reform project in NYS. Both clinical and non-clinical work performed. Lots of experience with refugee and disadvantaged patients. They have since hired me full time to perform population health informatics work until I go to medical school.
• 80 hours in a structured hospital shadowing program. Observed in surgery, emergency medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and OBGYN
• 40 hours volunteering for a nursing home in college

Non-Clinical Volunteering:

• 30 hours tutoring a refugee elementary school student in algebra during my gap year
• 100 hours as editor in chief for a profile of graduating students in my honors program
• 15 hours serving as an appeals board member for my college’s student judicial system

Research:

• 650+ hours in a bumblebee olfaction research lab. Several college presentations, 1 national conference poster presentation.
• 100 hours conducting an independent study of terminal life care in brain-damaged and comatose patients. 1 national conference poster presentation, 1 3rd-author publication.
• 100 hours in a breast cancer research lab. Bench work. No posters or publications.

Other Activities:

• 300+ hours as an MCAT Instructor for Kaplan during my gap year
• 1500+ hours as Reservations Manager and de-facto daily operations manager for a local not-for-profit operating educational cruises on the Erie Canal (summers)
• 250 hours as an aerial acrobatics performer for the circus at my college. Performances at several colleges, arts festivals, and casinos
• 300+ hours as a peer tutor at my college in neuroscience, physics, and chemistry
• 200 hours as President of a neuroscience journal club I founded at my college

Awards and Honors:

• Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Society
• Theta Alpha Kappa Religion Studies Honors Society

School List: (this is where I really need some help; trying to find the right balance between top and mid-tier schools)

1. Boston University
2. Brown
3. Case (Lerner and University)
4. Cornell
5. Dartmouth
6. Duke
7. Emory
8. Harvard
9. Hopkins
10. Jefferson
11. Mayo
12. Pitt
13. Rochester
14. SUNY Upstate
15. Temple
16. Tufts
17. UB
18. UCSF
19. UMichigan
20. UPenn

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[Faha]

You have a good list but you could add Downstate and Stony Brook.

 

[TheMcQuitter]

You have a good list but you could add Downstate and Stony Brook.

Both good suggestions, thanks! You don't think my list is too top-heavy?

 

[Faha]

Both good suggestions, thanks! You don't think my list is too top-heavy?

No, not with your stats.

 

[TheMcQuitter]

@Goro @gyngyn @WedgeDawg @LizzyM Any of you able to weigh in? Thanks in advance!

 

[Goro]

You're golden. Aim high.

I suggest:
Harvard

Wash U

Yale

Stanford

U Chicago

U Penn

U VA (maybe)

U MI (maybe)

U AZ
U Colorado
U VM

U WI
Ohio State

Jefferson
U IA
UCSF

UCLA, UCSD, UCI, UCR (IF you’re from the Inland Empire)
U Cincy
Miami
Albert Einstein
Tulane
Loyola
Emory
BU
USC/Keck
JHU
Mayo
Pitt
Northwestern
NYU
Vanderbilt
Columbia
Sinai
Cornell
Duke
Case
Hofstra

Your state school

Hello everyone!

With the 2018 AMCAS application opening soon, I’m in the process of finalizing my list of medical schools. I would greatly appreciate any guidance you might be able to provide about target schools and list balance (top tier vs. mid tier).

Thank you!!


School: Honors Program at a small liberal arts school in PA.

Major: Neuroscience major, Religion Studies minor.

GPA: 3.86c, 3.78s with strong upward trend (4.0 last 3 semesters). One W in freshman year.

MCAT: 522 | 131 | 128 | 131 | 132

Residence + Demographics: New York State resident (US Citizen), Caucasian (non-URM)

Clinical Experience:

• 750+ hours volunteering during my gap year for a Federally Qualified Health Center, helping to implement a Medicaid reform project in NYS. Both clinical and non-clinical work performed. They have since hired me full time to continue this work while I apply to medical school.
• 80 hours in a structured hospital shadowing program. Observed in surgery, emergency medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and OBGYN
• 40 hours volunteering for a nursing home in college

Non-Clinical Volunteering:

• 30 hours tutoring a refugee elementary school student in algebra during my gap year
• 100 hours as editor in chief for a profile of graduating students in my honors program
• 15 hours serving as an appeals board member for my college’s student judicial system

Research:

• 650+ hours in a bumblebee olfaction research lab. Several college presentations, 1 national conference poster presentation.
• 100 hours conducting an independent study of terminal life care in brain-damaged and comatose patients. 1 national conference poster presentation, 1 3rd-author publication.
• 100 hours in a breast cancer research lab. Bench work. No posters or publications.

Other Activities:

• 300+ hours as an MCAT Instructor for Kaplan during my gap year
• 1500+ hours as Reservations Manager and de-facto daily operations manager for a local not-for-profit operating educational cruises on the Erie Canal (summers)
• 250 hours as an aerial acrobatics performer for the circus at my college. Performances at several colleges, arts festivals, and casinos
• 300+ hours as a peer tutor at my college in neuroscience, physics, and chemistry
• 200 hours as President of a neuroscience journal club I founded at my college

Awards and Honors:

• Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Society
• Theta Alpha Kappa Religion Studies Honors Society

School List: (this is where I really need some help; trying to find the right balance between top and mid-tier schools)

1. Boston University
2. Brown
3. Case (Lerner and University)
4. Cornell
5. Dartmouth
6. Duke
7. Emory
8. Harvard
9. Hopkins
10. Jefferson
11. Mayo
12. Pitt
13. Rochester
14. SUNY Upstate
15. Temple
16. Tufts
17. UB
18. UCSF
19. UMichigan
20. UPenn