MD 3.98 cGPA, 4.0 sGPA, 515 MCAT, 305 clinical/non-clinical volunteering, no research

[FaulterHund]

Most of it is in the title.

I go to the University of Texas at Austin, so I'll be applying in Texas. I am majoring in Biology and German. I have a 3.98 cGPA, a 4.0 sGPA. I get my score for the MCAT back on the 21st, so a lot depends on that, but on AAMC practice exams I got a 514 and a 519, so I am assuming somewhere around maybe a 515. Fingers crossed. I have 60 hours shadowing an orthopedic surgeon, 24 hours shadowing a podiatrist, 140 hours volunteering at a freestanding ER, and 80 hours doing non-clinical volunteer work at a food pantry. I have an additional 200+ hours doing clinical volunteer work during high school, but I have not included that in my resume, as I don't think medical schools typically care. For one year I've worked as a UGTA in biostatistics. I don't have research, but on the other hand, my second major has required a huge time commitment, as I have spent thousands of hours improving my German throughout college so far. I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference, but for the first two years of college, I was convinced I didn't want to be a doctor anymore, and I wrote about that in my personal statement. Some misc. info is that I studied abroad the summer following my freshman year, and I am a member of phi beta kappa honor society. I also have 5 semesters of university honors, and am a distinguished college scholar for being in the top 4% of the undergraduate class.

Here is my tentative list of schools I'll be applying to this summer:

Baylor College of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Creighton University School of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center
Medical College of Wisconsin
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Ohio State University College of Medicine
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine (El Paso)
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine (Lubbock)
The University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School
Wake Forest School of Medicine
and maybe UNT's DO school

What do you guys think? Any suggestions of things to do to help me improve my resume? Any schools I should add or drop from my list?

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[FaulterHund]

By the way, I would be a legacy applicant at Creighton

EDIT:

Whoops, didn't know there wasn't automerge on this forum. Sorry

 

[Goro]

IF you're a TX resident, then forget about MD schools outside of TX.

If you continued your clinical volunteering from HS into college, definitely put that on your app, as such continuity is looked well upon.

Get in some more service to others less fortunate than yourself (off campus) and you'll be fine.

Most of it is in the title.

I go to the University of Texas at Austin, so I'll be applying in Texas. I am majoring in Biology and German. I have a 3.98 cGPA, a 4.0 sGPA. I get my score for the MCAT back on the 21st, so a lot depends on that, but on AAMC practice exams I got a 514 and a 519, so I am assuming somewhere around maybe a 515. Fingers crossed. I have 60 hours shadowing an orthopedic surgeon, 24 hours shadowing a podiatrist, 140 hours volunteering at a freestanding ER, and 80 hours doing non-clinical volunteer work at a food pantry. I have an additional 200+ hours doing clinical volunteer work during high school, but I have not included that in my resume, as I don't think medical schools typically care. For one year I've worked as a UGTA in biostatistics. I don't have research, but on the other hand, my second major has required a huge time commitment, as I have spent thousands of hours improving my German throughout college so far. I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference, but for the first two years of college, I was convinced I didn't want to be a doctor anymore, and I wrote about that in my personal statement. Some misc. info is that I studied abroad the summer following my freshman year, and I am a member of phi beta kappa honor society. I also have 5 semesters of university honors, and am a distinguished college scholar for being in the top 4% of the undergraduate class.

Here is my tentative list of schools I'll be applying to this summer:

Baylor College of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Creighton University School of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center
Medical College of Wisconsin
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Ohio State University College of Medicine
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine (El Paso)
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine (Lubbock)
The University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School
Wake Forest School of Medicine
and maybe UNT's DO school

What do you guys think? Any suggestions of things to do to help me improve my resume? Any schools I should add or drop from my list?

 

[FaulterHund]

IF you're a TX resident, then forget about MD schools outside of TX.

If you continued your clinical volunteering from HS into college, definitely put that on your app, as such continuity is looked well upon.

Get in some more service to others less fortunate than yourself (off campus) and you'll be fine.

Why shouldn't I apply outside of Texas? What if I don't get into anywhere in Texas? Wouldn't I have a decent chance to get into Craighton as a legacy applicant?

Also, I should note, my volunteering and shadowing from HS was neither at the same hospitals nor with the same doctors as my college volunteering and shadowing

 

[Goro]

Very few Texans actually go to med school outside of TX, and the OOS MD schools know this.

Why shouldn't I apply outside of Texas? What if I don't get into anywhere in Texas? Wouldn't I have a decent chance to get into Craighton as a legacy applicant?

Also, I should note, my volunteering and shadowing from HS was neither at the same hospitals nor with the same doctors as my college volunteering and shadowing

 

[FaulterHund]

Very few Texans actually go to med school outside of TX, and the OOS MD schools know this.

I have friends who graduated who got interviews and acceptances out of state. Some of them are URMs though. I was really hoping to go someplace out of state.

 

[Goro]

URMs are a wholly different category.

Texans who go out of state tend to be superstars.

I have friends who graduated who got interviews and acceptances out of state. Some of them are URMs though. I was really hoping to go someplace out of state.

 

[FaulterHund]

URMs are a wholly different category.

Texans who go out of state tend to be superstars.

Well, I am suddenly more worried about getting in now that I know I can't apply as broadly

 

[Goro]

You have have a stellar app for all TX schools, even Baylor

Well, I am suddenly more worried about getting in now that I know I can't apply as broadly

 

[FaulterHund]

So, I got my MCAT score back and it was a 517 (129/128/130/130). Does that make any difference? Should I still only apply in state?

 

[libertyyne]

Remove brown, if you want to waste some money apply outside of TX, you have a solid chance inside tx. Most logical adcoms would question your decision making if you accepted oos or private tuition at a medical shcool @50K x4 v=200 vs 20K x 4 = 80 K for instate tx.

 

[FaulterHund]

Remove brown, if you want to waste some money apply outside of TX, you have a solid chance inside tx. Most logical adcoms would question your decision making if you accepted oos or private tuition at a medical shcool @50K x4 v=200 vs 20K x 4 = 80 K for instate tx.

You don't think adcoms realize that the environment you spend some of the hardest years of your life in can make a big difference, and that shelling out some extra money might be worthwhile for that reason?

 

[libertyyne]

You don't think adcoms realize that the environment you spend some of the hardest years of your life in can make a big difference, and that shelling out some extra money might be worthwhile for that reason?

Not many sane people would shell out 120 K extra for an "environment".

 

[FaulterHund]

Not many sane people would shell out 120 K extra for an "environment".

Speak for yourself

 

[sammiesings]

Speak for yourself

You don't think adcoms realize that the environment you spend some of the hardest years of your life in can make a big difference, and that shelling out some extra money might be worthwhile for that reason?

Geez. You're pretty hostile for someone asking for help.

 

[FaulterHund]

Geez. You're pretty hostile for someone asking for help.

I apologize if it comes across that way, as it was not meant to sound hostile. I do appreciate all of the responses. I'm just explaining my reasoning. I don't think it's at all illogical, nor do I think it demonstrates poor decision making if I value applying OOS, especially to reaches. I will spend four years of my life in medical school, and they will be among the hardest of my life. I highly, highly value the environment that I will be in when I undergo such a trial. I don't understand the point of marginalizing the impact that environment has on success and well-being (mental and otherwise) in medical school. There are more important things in life than cost and money. Furthermore, after residency, all specialties make six figure salaries, and many of them exceed 200-300k. I highly doubt that there will be a large difference in the difficulty of paying off 80k in student loan debt versus paying off 200k. Finally, I didn't create this thread to be told that adcoms would question my decision-making (if that is even true) or to discuss the costs of attending OOS schools. I just wanted to know if I had a shot at being accepted. Again, I apologize for any perception of hostility, but having my sanity and my capacity to make good decisions questioned are not really germane to the topic of this thread regardless.

 

[shopsteward]

Please rewrite your personal statement to remove all the parts about how you didn't want to be a doctor. Including them would be just weird in an application to become a doctor. I for one would autoreject you on this alone - adcoms anywhere can afford to be fussy in who they interview and accept.

You are grossly underestimating the malign effects of having an unnecessary $120k of debt (plus interest, probably at 6.8%). Listen to your elders about this. Even if you don't think this is a problem, adcoms outside Texas (older and wiser than you) know that it is an issue and will protect you from it if they can.

If you still want to apply to schools outside Texas, you had better put in your application a better reason than "environment". Find a convincing reason why that particular school appeals to you. "It's not in Texas" won't cut it.

Keep up the volunteering.

 

[FaulterHund]

Please rewrite your personal statement to remove all the parts about how you didn't want to be a doctor. Including them would be just weird in an application to become a doctor. I for one would autoreject you on this alone - adcoms anywhere can afford to be fussy in who they interview and accept.

You are grossly underestimating the malign effects of having an unnecessary $120k of debt (plus interest, probably at 6.8%). Listen to your elders about this. Even if you don't think this is a problem, adcoms outside Texas (older and wiser than you) know that it is an issue and will protect you from it if they can.

If you still want to apply to schools outside Texas, you had better put in your application a better reason than "environment". Find a convincing reason why that particular school appeals to you. "It's not in Texas" won't cut it.

Keep up the volunteering.

I really appreciate the advice, but I still don't understand why so little consideration is put into environment. When I was visiting colleges while I was still in high school, I wound up choosing UT over A&M entirely on the basis of environment. The atmosphere at A&M was just flatter and more negative, and the campus as a whole seemed depressing. I am really failing to see how putting priority on that aspect of a school is a bad thing. I think that kind of thing can make a massive difference. Furthermore, I don't have a better reason than environment - that's my actual reason, and I'm not going to be dishonest. If a school prefers not to accept me given that reasoning, that's okay, but I would prefer to have the integrity to give an honest answer.

I have a tendency to defer to the judgment of everybody in this thread since you all are more knowledgeable than me, but at the same time, I don't see why so little consideration is put into the environment one lives and works and studies in. Especially for four very difficult years

 

[FaulterHund]

At the risk of stating the obvious here, I hope you all realize that by environment I don't simply mean climate, I mean everything - the atmosphere of the campus, the quality of city, the way the campus looks, the attitudes of the people in it. These all seem like very important factors to me, and it is honestly very surprising to me that you all value the cost of a school so much more than the actual experience of being there. It seems to me like the latter should really take precedence.

Also, again, apologies if I have come across as hostile in explaining this.

 

[wysdoc]

Very few Texans actually go to med school outside of TX, and the OOS MD schools know this.

@FaulterHund As you know, Texas is a huge state and each of its medical schools has its own vibe and its own personality. When attending interviews you will be able to get a glimpse at the differences. Keep an open mind about the opportunities you have in Texas. Of course you can also apply out of state, and in the secondary essays for those schools you can state your reasons for wanting to attend there.
The stats from last year's application cycle were quoted by one of SDN's faculty moderators, gyngyn "It's not cynicism, it's stats. Only 215 Texans matriculated OOS, 1,411 stayed home. I'll bet many of them had financial inducements. Compare this to CA where only 910 got to stay home and 1,528 had to leave.
We don't interview applicants from TX unless we have a strong reason to believe they will turn down their always cheaper and often better state schools."

 

[sammiesings]

You can apply wherever you want just don't get your hopes up about getting out of TX because stats indicate oos schools don't like to interview TX students because they don't think they'll net them. You don't need to convince us that"environment" is so important to you. Use your secondaries to do so and hope for the best.

If you have msar though, you should check out the schools a little more in depth. Schools like case are in love with research and you have little chance without any.