MD 523 MCAT 3.5 sGPA. Need Your Help with School List PLEASE

[manofsteel9]

Hello SDN,

I am an Asian male attending a top-10 university and will be applying to medical schools this coming cycle after graduation. My GPA is not too hot, but I did do pretty well on the MCAT. I am having a hard time creating a list of schools to apply to due to the large discrepancy between my GPA and MCAT. The following is my application information:

1. cGPA and sGPA: Both are ~3.5
2. MCAT score: 523 (130, 131, 131, 131)
3. State of residence: NC
4. Ethnicity: Asian-American
5. Undergraduate institution: Top-10
6. Clinical experience: 200 hours of clinical volunteering in the university's hospital and 50 hours of shadowing experience
7. Research experience: Almost 4 years of research experience; I have done a couple of poster presentation, and we are currently working on a manuscript that will be sent to high-quality journals (I will be working on this throughout my gap year as a full-time research technician).
8. Non-clinical volunteering: Unfortunately, not a significant number of hours; I have around 40 hours of volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.
9. Other extracurricular activities: 4 years of club sports (involved in exec for three years and I am currently the president), 2 years of involvement in the undergraduate research society's exec board (served as president this year), spent the first 2 summers in the lab I have been working for, and the previous summer in a lab that is very well-known and respected.
10. Relevant honors or awards: Several medals for club sports, graduation with distinction (honors thesis), and Summer research fellowship.
11. Anything else not listed you think might be important: My GPA has a strong upward trend 3.3-->3.8. My recs will be a mix of exceptional and just solid letters, and I will be putting in a lot of work in my personal statement and secondary applications.

This is a list of schools that I have created with my pre-med advisor, but I just wanted SDN's expertise. Please feel free to critique, comment, or provide any advice on the list and my application. Thank you very much in advance!

Albert Einstein
Boston University
Case Western
Columbia
Drexel
Duke
Emory
GWU
Georgetown
Mount Sinai
USC Keck
Temple
Loyola
NYU
Northwestern
Penn State
Thomas Jefferson
Tufts
U of Miami
UNC
University of Pittsburgh
UVA
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest

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[gyngyn]

Delete the OOS schools where your MCAT is above the 90th percentile unless there is some strong reason to believe that you would attend instead of UNC.

 

[efle]

Tbh strikes me as aiming a little low for a 39 MCAT, strong research background and you said the GPA has a big upward trend. I'd be ditching a handful of the lower end of this list for more of the high MCAT loving research powerhouses (approx "top 20")

 

[manofsteel9]

@gyngyn Thank you very much for your insight. Are there any schools I should add in replacement?

 

[gyngyn]

@gyngyn Are there any schools I should add in replacement?

OOS privates you might prefer to UNC.

 

[manofsteel9]

@efle Thank you for your comment. I was quite hesitant to focus on top 20 schools due to my GPA. I know that an upward trend is favorable, but a 3.5 just doesn't seem to cut it at top 20 schools. Also, do you think the lack of non-clinical volunteering will be a red flag in my application?

 

[WedgeDawg]

Apply to all schools in NC (UNC, ECU, Wake Forest, Duke) + all the top 20s outside UCSD/UCLA/UWash/Texas Schools + throw in UVA and a couple of mid tiers. You will likely be interviewed and accepted at UNC so you should focus the rest of your efforts on top tier schools with a small but well-chosen mid tier base. You will be wasting money applying to schools like Loyola and Penn State.

 

[Goro]

I suggest the following:

Harvard OR Yale
U Chicago OR U Penn OR Wash U
Stanford OR Cornell
U AZ
U VM
Jefferson
UCSF
Miami
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Emory
Tufts
Brown
BU
JHU
Mayo
Pitt OR Northwestern
NYU OR Sinai
Vanderbilt OR Columbia
Duke
Case
Hofstra
Your state schools

Hello SDN,

 

[manofsteel9]

Bump!

 

[manofsteel9]

bump #2 I will be applying for the 2019 cycle.

 

[Trollest]

bump #2 I will be applying for the 2019 cycle.

Why didnt you apply this year?

 

[MarineMDHopeful]

Definitely add more T20 schools. I wouldn't try Stanford but Yale, Pitt, NW, Mayo, Harvard, and Wash U would all be decent odds.

 

[Trollest]

When your white classmates mistreat you and you try to defend yourself, administration will punish you. When you call out racist powerpoint slides in lecture, they will dismiss it and say you are a whiner. When you try your best in clinicals, they will fail you, and not try to help you. You will get mistreated by white administration, classmates, and doctors. I can give you more specifics but you'd have to message offline.

I want those specific as well. But you should be surprised though, as in most countries; the majority usually get their way.

 

[Goro]

Can I ask you why you say this? I am planning on applying to Tufts and this is the first I am hearing of this.

Read this:
2017-2018 Tufts University Application

 

[manofsteel9]

Why didnt you apply this year?

There are a couple reasons why I took an extra gap-year. I wanted to focus on getting the manuscript accepted before applying to medical school and rack up more non-clinical volunteering hours (I'm now tutoring disadvantaged students). Also, an extra year was going to help me establish my residency in NC. Unfortunately, the manuscript is still under the review process, so I can only hope that it would be out during the application process.

Please let me know if anyone has suggestions on the following updated school list:
Columbia
Duke
NYU
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Cornell
Mt. Sinai
Emory
UNC
Case Western
UVA
Boston University
USC
Albert Einstein
U of Miami
Wake Forest
Thomas Jefferson
Tufts(?)
Hofstra
ECU
NYMC

Thank you so much and good luck to everyone applying!!

 

[7331poas]

Hello NC applicant. Do not count 100% on unc accepting you. They seem to be very picky, as evidenced by their disproportionately low median stats.

 

[manofsteel9]

Hello NC applicant. Do not count 100% on unc accepting you. They seem to be very picky, as evidenced by their disproportionately low median stats.

Thank you for the response. I am not counting 100% on UNC accepting me, hence applying to many more schools-- in fact, I would be very delighted if I were accepted in UNC. What do you mean by "picky"? I speculate that their stats are lower than other schools because more than 80% of their class is NC residents, and they try to have a good representation of every NC county in their class.

 

[7331poas]

Thank you for the response. I am not counting 100% on UNC accepting me, hence applying to many more schools-- in fact, I would be very delighted if I were accepted in UNC. What do you mean by "picky"? I speculate that their stats are lower than other schools because more than 80% of their class is NC residents, and they try to have a good representation of every NC county in their class.

Perhaps. But UVA has a 519, and only half their class OOS. I think UNC is much more mission based than the eye test would initially yield.

 

[efle]

Hard to predict admits since the interview can play a big role. But considering UNC interviews the majority of in-state applicants, I think 99.9% chance of interview invite.