MD 37 mcat, 3.8 GPA, IL resident, school list help?

[MostIndecisiveGirl]

I'm a junior in college (from IL) and I intend on applying this cycle. So I have a 37 MCAT (13 PS, 13 VR, 11 BS) and a 3.88 cGPA, 3.85 sGPA.

My list:
Einstein
UChicago
Northwestern
Columbia
Dartmouth
Harvard
Hopkins
Mayo
UPenn
Vandy
Cornell
Yale
Stanford
WashU
Tufts
UC Davis (X)
UCLA
UC San Diego
UC San Fran
UIC
Michigan
UNC
UVA
University of Washington (X)
University of Wisconsin
Rush
USC
Mount Sinai
BU
Georgetown (X)
**Rosalind Franklin (forgot this one)

I need help paring it down, who should I cut and which schools, if any should I add?

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[gyngyn]

DC UCD, GT and U of W. Mayo has such a small class!

 

[Stagg737]

U Wash is very 'in-state'/northwest oriented. While your stats are certainly great, it's extremely difficult to even get an interview there unless you have decent connections to the area.

 

[MostIndecisiveGirl]

This is super helpful, thanks for the advice! Okay, if I nix those 3 I'll have a list of 28 schools (if i ditch Mayo too 🙁 its 27 I guess). Is that still a little overboard and is my list too top heavy?

 

[NavyDoc23]

I think you have a realistic shot at all of them. I don't think I would apply to that many schools, though. Save yourself some money!

 

[TheRhymenocerous]

I have basically the same stats as you and have been trying to categorize all the schools on my list as either mega-reach (medians = my stats or higher), normal reach (medians = slightly lower than mine), or match (medians = a fair bit lower) and trying to have equal numbers in each category. I counted 7 out of 28 on your list that I'd put into "match," which is probably okay. I don't think it matters how many reach schools you apply to as long as the rest of your list is sufficiently broad. I definitely wouldn't want to be writing 28 applications, though, so I'd do some more research on the top-ranked schools to see which ones sound most appealing to you, rather than just applying to all of them.

 

[Goro]

Beef up the volunteering and you'll be golden. Nothing wrong with aiming high, either.

I suggest:

Einstein
UChicago
Northwestern
Columbia
Harvard
Hopkins
Pitt
UPenn
Vandy
Cornell
Yale
Stanford
WashU
BU
UCLA
UC San Diego
UIC
Michigan
UVA
University of Wisconsin
Rush
USC
Mount Sinai
BU
Loyola
Tulane
U Miami
SIU IF you're from southern IL
IU
U IA