MD 3.99/518 Help me narrow down my school list

[Dumplingz]

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Hi! I have 32 schools on my list at the moment but I'd like to narrow it down a bit, preferably without making it super top-heavy.

Here's the breakdown of my app:

1. cGPA: 3.99, sGPA: 4.00
2. MCAT: 518 (129/130/128/131)
3. State of residency: NJ
4. Ethnicity/race: ORM
5. Undergraduate institution: T50 private uni
6. Clinical experience:
   1. Patient Care Technician (1000 hours)
   2. Hospital Volunteer (300 hours)
7. Research experience:
   1. Undergraduate researcher in a lab (800 hours), no pubs yet
   2. Gap year research (100 hours)
   3. Paid employment: Research (1000 hours)
   4. 4 poster presentations, 1st place award
8. Shadowing experience:
   1. 100 hours total
9. Non-clinical volunteering:
   1. Volunteer work in South America (200 hours)
   2. Soup kitchen volunteering (500 hours)
10. Other extracurricular activities:
    1. Founder and president of a club to work with the communities in South America (600 hours)
    2. President of my uni's pre-medical student association (500 hours)
    3. Paid Employment: Undergraduate jobs (100 hours total)
11. Relevant honors/awards:
    1. Received award given to the top 0.2% students at my uni
    2. Research grant award

School List (fair warning, I'm still not really sure how to differentiate between reaches and targets since there are a ton of "target" schools that are actually reaches but just have lower median stats for whatever reason):

Reaches

Johns Hopkins

Mayo Clinic

Harvard

Northwestern

Washington University-St. Louis School of Medicine

Vanderbilt

Yale

NYU

Columbia

University of Pennsylvania

University of Chicago

University of Virginia

Weill Cornell

Duke

University of Michigan

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

UCSF

Stanford

University of Pittsburgh

Targets

Case Western Reserve

Boston University

University of Rochester

Emory

Stony Brook

UCLA

UMass

Dartmouth

Albert Einstein

Brown

Other Schools

Tufts

University of Miami

Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Far too top heavy. Add all schools in NJ (ie copper rowan, NJMS, hackensack), plus schools in the PA area (temple, Jeff, drexel)

 

[Dumplingz]

Far too top heavy. Add all schools in NJ (ie copper rowan, NJMS, hackensack), plus schools in the PA area (temple, Jeff, drexel)

Thanks for your input! I made a post back in October I think and you said apply to T30 and you'd wager at least one acceptance. I'm just a bit confused because the schools you're now listing seem, for the most part, a bit below my target range. I know I shouldn't make my school list based on MCAT/GPA, but wouldn't applying to schools 6 points below my MCAT just be a waste of money due to yield protection?

 

[DOcSto]

Thanks for your input! I made a post back in October I think and you said apply to T30 and you'd wager at least one acceptance. I'm just a bit confused because the schools you're now listing seem, for the most part, a bit below my target range. I know I shouldn't make my school list based on MCAT/GPA, but wouldn't applying to schools 6 points below my MCAT just be a waste of money due to yield protection?

Better to play it safe than put all of your eggs in the T30 basket and come up empty. The cycle is brutal.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Things are getting more competitive each year. 518 is kinda low for the following schools without amazing ECs (varsity athlete, nonprofit founder, Fulbright scholar, etc.). Also a 3.99 from an Ivy would probably get a bite from one of the below, but don’t think this applies.

Johns Hopkins

Harvard

Northwestern

Washington University-St. Louis School of Medicine

Vanderbilt

Yale

NYU

Columbia

University of Pennsylvania

University of Chicago

Weill Cornell

Duke

University of Michigan

UCSF

Stanford

 

[Dumplingz]

Things are getting more competitive each year. 518 is kinda low for the following schools without amazing ECs (varsity athlete, nonprofit founder, Fulbright scholar, etc.). Also a 3.99 from an Ivy would probably get a bite from one of the below, but don’t think this applies.

Johns Hopkins

Harvard

Northwestern

Washington University-St. Louis School of Medicine

Vanderbilt

Yale

NYU

Columbia

University of Pennsylvania

University of Chicago

Weill Cornell

Duke

University of Michigan

UCSF

Stanford

Did I forget to mention that I'm a varsity e-sports athlete 😎

 

[chilly_md]

Low number of non-clinical volunteering in the US could hinder you. Likely best to leave off UCSF, UCLA, Chicago and Boston (they have one of the largest safety net hospitals).

Apply to schools that vox suggested as well as:

USF
Dartmouth
Hofstra
Iowa

 

[Dumplingz]

Low number of non-clinical volunteering in the US could hinder you. Likely best to leave off UCSF, UCLA, Chicago and Boston (they have one of the largest safety net hospitals).

Apply to schools that vox suggested as well as:

USF
Dartmouth
Hofstra
Iowa

Is 500 hours low for non-clinical volunteering? Or are you talking about the number of non-clinical volunteering activities?

 

[chilly_md]

Is 500 hours low for non-clinical volunteering? Or are you talking about the number of non-clinical volunteering activities?

Your original post had much less hours for that activity before if I remember right. If it is 500 hours completed (not projected), then it is good.

 

[Dumplingz]

Your original post had much less hours for that activity before if I remember right. If it is 500 hours completed (not projected), then it is good.

Yeah, the hours I originally posted were really rough estimates. I went back later and adjusted after going back to get a more accurate number for each activity.

 

[chilly_md]

Yeah, the hours I originally posted were really rough estimates. I went back later and adjusted after going back to get a more accurate number for each activity.

I suggest:

All NJ MD schools
Temple
Jefferson
UCSF
Chicago
Northwestern
Boston
USF
Dartmouth
Hofstra
Iowa
Duke
Michigan
Mayo
Sinai
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Case
Emory
Tufts
Miami
Rochester
Einstein
Stony Brook