3.96 GPA, 37 MCAT, weak ECs. Would love to hear your thoughts!

[plzdontexposeme]

Hey guys, just a bit of background:

21 year old Asian male, NC resident. Submitted my primaries on July 26, 2014 (a bit late I think)
GPA and sGPA: About 3.96 for both
MCAT: 37 total. 14 PS, 11 VR, 12 BR. Taken within the past 3 months.
Business major, no minors.

Tutoring:
200 hours working as an SAT tutor

Community service:
200 hours through Alpha Phi Omega
40 hours at local eldercare center

Volunteer Medical:
100 hours of minority health advocacy in a different country. One time participation over summer.
250 hours as a hospital volunteer.

Paid Employment - Not Medical:
500 hours working for the school, helping students on campus with IT issues

Leadership:
50 hours leading group of business students on consulting project with the school

Shadowing:
80 hours total in family med, internal med, pediatrics

Research:
100 hours. I didn't really do much research myself, but I helped conduct a flu study with a lab.

LOR: 2 nonscience, 1 science. They should be solid letters.

I'm looking into MD/MBA programs, so schools with that type of program get a few bonus points. I would love to stay close to my home state. This is a preliminary list of schools that I'm looking at. Honestly, I'm not sure how strong of an applicant I am. I know I have good scores, but my EC's aren't too heavily med focused compared to a lot of other people. Hope to hear your opinions!

Johns Hopkins
UC San Francisco
Pennsylvania
Yale
Duke
Columbia
Chicago-Pritzker
UCLA-Geffen
Michigan
Cornell-Weill
Vanderbilt
Pittsburgh
Northwestern-Feinberg
Mount Sinai
New York University
Baylor
University of North Carolina
Case Western
Emory
Mayo
Virginia
Iowa-Carver
Dartmouth
Rochester
Einstein
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Miami-Miller
Wake Forest
Temple
Jefferson
Rush
St Louis
South Florida
Drexel
Central Florida
Tulane
East Carolina-Brody

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Lamel]

Are you serious? Your ECs are great/well balanced, and your numbers are fantastic. You do need to work on your self esteem though.

Maybe the only weak link would be the 100 hours of research and lack of substantial leadership; it will be fine for most schools, but the top research schools may consider it light. They usually look for more longevity and creative control in research. Regardless, I wouldn't let that deter you from applying.


Your list is way too long for someone with your application. Narrow it down to a balanced list of ~15-20 schools you actually want to go to and start pre-writing your secondaries.

 

[plzdontexposeme]

Are you serious? Your ECs are great/well balanced, and your numbers are fantastic. You do need to work on your self esteem though.

Maybe the only weak link would be the 100 hours of research and lack of substantial leadership; it will be fine for most schools, but the top research schools may consider it light. They usually look for more longevity and creative control in research. Regardless, I wouldn't let that deter you from applying.


Your list is way too long for someone with your application. Narrow it down to a balanced list of ~15-20 schools you actually want to go to and start pre-writing your secondaries.

First of all, thank you for the complement! I'm cautious of getting too confident just because of my numbers--I made the mistake of doing that for undergrad, and without meaningful ECs I only got into one school (although I love it here now).

I'm scared of my lack of research. All the "top" med schools are based off of research rankings are they not?
I do agree with your view that my diverse/balanced activities is a good thing...hopefully they will take me being a non-science major into some consideration.

Do you think I should cut out some of the higher ranked schools or the lower ranked ones?

 

[Lamel]

I think you need to cut across the board, you have far too many schools.

If I were you I would construct my list with 3-5 safeties (state schools, private OOS), ~5-7 mid-targets (Einstein, Rochester, Miami, BU and schools around that range), ~5+ high targets (Emory, Case, NYU etc.), and then ~5+ reaches (Yale, UCSF etc.; how many is really up to you, all that it takes away is money and time).

These are just suggestions of course, and you should pick schools you actually want to attend, but I think this makes for a balanced list.

So cut down; ask yourself if you would go to a certain school if it was your only choice. Here is how I would personally qualify your schools.


Reaches:

Johns Hopkins
UC San Francisco
Pennsylvania
Yale
Duke
Columbia
Chicago-Pritzker
UCLA-Geffen
Michigan
Cornell-Weill
Vanderbilt
Pittsburgh

High Targets:

Northwestern-Feinberg
Mount Sinai
New York University
Baylor
Case Western
Emory
Virginia

Mid-Targets:

University of North Carolina
Iowa-Carver
Dartmouth
Rochester
Einstein
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Miami-Miller
Tulane

Safeties:

Wake Forest
Temple
Jefferson
Rush
St Louis
South Florida
Drexel
Central Florida
East Carolina-Brody

 

[Goro]

Nothing wrong with aiming high. You need to work on the self-esteem..the ECs are really nice. Goro suggests:

Johns Hopkins
Pennsylvania
Yale
Duke
Columbia
Pitt
UCLA-Geffen
UCSD
USC
Michigan
Mt Sinai
Cornell-Weill
Vanderbilt
Pittsburgh
Northwestern-Feinberg
Mount Sinai
New York University
Baylor
University of North Carolina
Case Western
Emory
Mayo
Virginia
U CO
U VT
U AZ (maybe)
Dartmouth
Rochester
Einstein
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Miami-Miller
Wake Forest
Temple
Jefferson
St Louis
South Florida
Wash U
Loyola
Dartmouth
Tulane
East Carolina-Brody

 

[plzdontexposeme]

Thanks Lamel and Goro for the lists! I am going to try and apply to 20-30 schools, and I'll probably end up applying to 5 reaches at most.

 

[Lamel]

I do advise that you keep it closer to 20. Secondary burnout is real; I applied to 25 and at around 18 secondaries I started to get really tired of it. You need to start pre-writing them so you are complete ASAP.

Also cut the Florida schools, very in-state biased.

 

[Utenation]

I do advise that you keep it closer to 20. Secondary burnout is real; I applied to 25 and at around 18 secondaries I started to get really tired of it. You need to start pre-writing them so you are complete ASAP.

Also cut the Florida schools, very in-state biased.

Florida schools aren't too in-state based. South florida accepts about 45-50 OOS per year. Not too shabby for a $30 secondary fee. UCF accepts somewhere around 20% OOS. Again only a $30 secondary fee. Good work so far and good luck!

 

[Ace-Co-A]

Research experience may be a little light for the research power houses, otherwise I agree that your application is competitive wherever you apply.

Good luck!

 

[Lamel]

Florida schools aren't too in-state based. South florida accepts about 45-50 OOS per year. Not too shabby for a $30 secondary fee. UCF accepts somewhere around 20% OOS. Again only a $30 secondary fee. Good work so far and good luck!

I suppose if he really wants some Florida schools he does have a chance, but I kind of thought he only had them on there as "safeties". I was just offering areas to cut because currently his list is way too long for someone with his credentials.

 

[Utenation]

I suppose if he really wants some Florida schools he does have a chance, but I kind of thought he only had them on there as "safeties". I was just offering areas to cut because currently his list is way too long for someone with his credentials.

Yeah that's cool man. I was just politely disagreeing with you by saying the Florida schools OP had on their list are not "very in-state based".

 

[Lamel]

Yeah that's cool man. I was just politely disagreeing with you by saying the Florida schools OP had on their list are not "very in-state based".

Yeah checking MSAR again you are correct, they are decent (I did not mean Miami of course, that's private).

Though for UCF, they only interview like 86 OOS candidates out of 1800+ apps. End up matriculating a decent amount of those 86 though, which is surprising.

 

[plzdontexposeme]

I suppose if he really wants some Florida schools he does have a chance, but I kind of thought he only had them on there as "safeties". I was just offering areas to cut because currently his list is way too long for someone with his credentials.

You're right, more likely than not I won't be applying to South Florida. Central Florida on the other hand has a great value for tuition, AND it's someplace warm =D
Admittedly, I'm not too familiar with their specific programs since it's not in my state, and isn't one of my top choices.

 

[plzdontexposeme]

Here's my updated school list with 18 schools. I put a star by the ones whose MD/MBA programs are probably top 20

Pennsylvania*
Yale*
Duke*
Michigan*
Vanderbilt*
Northwestern-Feinberg*
New York University*
Baylor
North Carolina*
Emory*
Virginia*
Dartmouth*
Ohio State*
Cincinnati
Miami-Miller
Wake Forest
Central Florida
East Carolina-Brody

 

[plzdontexposeme]

Bump!

 

[johnlee2014]

Is your undergraduate school on this list?

Pennsylvania*
Yale*
Duke*
Michigan*
Vanderbilt*
Northwestern-Feinberg*
New York University*
Baylor

Does undergraduate university affect how adcoms view GPA? Yes