3.9, 524, NJ, School List Help

[med12443i]

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Hi, I am planning on applying to 40 schools this cycle. I am hoping for suggestions on how to cut down my school list.


cGPA: 3.93, sGPA: 3.93
MCAT: 524 (130 BB, 132 CARS, 130 CP, 132 PS)
State of residence: NJ
Ethnicity and/or race: ORM Asian
Undergraduate: T50


Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)

• volunteer EMT (400 hours)
• medical assistant or scribe (800 hours)
  • I will be graduating early, so I will be working full time from Jan onwards

Research Experience:

• Neuroscience research since freshman year (2700 hours)
• Very involved, led an independent project since sophomore year
• 2 posters at big international conference, 1 poster at smaller conference, 1 department talk (all first-author)
• First author pre-print on bioxriv

Shadowing experience and specialties represented

• 50 hours shadowing primary care physician/geriatrician

Non-clinical volunteering

• Big Brother Big Sister (100 hours)
• Hospice companionship volunteer (100 hours)
• Tutored inmates studying for their GED (50 hours)
• Mentored fellow college students with autism (weekly meetings) for 3 sems (40 hours)

Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc):

• Intro to computer science TA (50 hours)

Relevant honors or awards:

• 2 college merit scholarships
• Summer research fellowship
• Competitive travel award for international conference

Prelim School List

NYU

Columbia

UPenn

Vanderbilt

Yale

Mayo

Harvard

Johns Hopkins

Northwestern

WashU

UChicago

Duke

Stanford

UVA

Icahn

Boston U

Cornell

U Rochester

Case Western

Albert Einstein

U Michigan

NYMC

U Pittsburgh

Brown

Dartmouth

Emory

Tufts

Georgetown

Ohio State

GW

Thomas Jefferson​

Temple

U Vermont

Eastern Virginia

Virginia Tech

West Virginia

Drexel

Quinnipiac

TCU

Albany

Wake Forest

Wayne State

Oakland

Penn State

NJMS

RWJMS

Hackensack

Rowan

Hofstra

 

[Faha]

Remove Penn State, Oakland, Albany, Wake Forest, Drexel, Quinnipiac, Temple and Eastern Virginia since they will "yield protect" with your stats. You should receive several interviews from the other schools on your list.

 

[Goro]

40 schools are overkill, and you'll burn yourself out in writing app.

Pick 25-35.
Consider UCSF and USF/Morsani

 

[Mr.Smile12]

With your stats, you don't need 40 schools. You need a well-matched list of 25-35, and the fewer but more matched the better. At least pick places where you want to live and practice as a resident.

You need to build up your non-clinical service orientation activities to stay on par with other high-metrics applicants. Get BBBS closer to 250 total hours (+150 if you can). More work with incarcerated people too (maybe bring it up to 100 hours).

 

[med12443i]

Thanks for the help! I will try to cut down my list. Other than Faha's recommendations, do you have any advice on how to choose schools to eliminate?

With regards to my non-clinical service activities, there is unfortunately not much time to pick up more hours before I submit my application. That being said, the hours I do have were incredibly meaningful and I think I will be able to convey that in my writing. How much will this hurt my application? Thanks again!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for the help! I will try to cut down my list. Other than Faha's recommendations, do you have any advice on how to choose schools to eliminate?

With regards to my non-clinical service activities, there is unfortunately not much time to pick up more hours before I submit my application. That being said, the hours I do have were incredibly meaningful and I think I will be able to convey that in my writing. How much will this hurt my application? Thanks again!

Understand your competition will have more hours than you and may be able to convey more depth and insight because they have more exposure and time to reflect. Just because you can bake a cake from the recipe on the box doesn't mean you know how to bake a cake.