Hello, I'm sure some of you have familiarized yourself with an annoying gunner (aka me) who plans to do extremely well at his state school and get into and attend a top tier medical school. I may annoy you or I may just seem like a fool to be pitied. But please, don't pity this foo'. In high school, I've always focused on my numbers. I've always thought that there is a certain combination of objective statistics that will elicit admission into any academic institution. However, I've realized through the multiple rejections I've received from top colleges along with the generous scholarship I've received at Indiana University that numbers will never alone get you into top colleges, and can only get merit scholarships at state schools. As a kid of immigrants, I've always been taught that studying 24/7 is the right thing to do. While I have been instilled with a passion to learn, my interests are very wide. Through high school, I've become very interested in volunteering in any way possible, making a positive impact in as many people's lives as possible, researching in areas that interest me deeply and that I've developed a profound interest in, politics, basketball, table tennis, following sports, history, and learning about other cultures and religions. However, I've learned to hate other pursuits such as playing the piano, intense studying without any other activity, and having to be a student of random classes that I absolutely hate. So, I am sure I will be able to get very good grades in a tough academic curriculum with a unique double major (chemistry & economics), do very well on the MCAT (99th percentile), find a small set of EC's I'm truly passionate about and can gain leadership roles in, find a research role for a couple years and try to get a paper published, be able to volunteer not only in the local community around my college but also overseas in the country where my parents are from to help alleviate the extreme poverty and widespread infectious disease that was rampant when I went there about a decade ago. I also hope to have cool summer experiences in internships like Mayo and AMGEN while spending a few weeks volunteering overseas. I understand that rec's, essays, and a personal statement play a huge role in differentiating between applicants with similar objective stats. Therefore, I will try my best to build strong relationships with my professors and research supervisors so that I can get awesome recommendations and also have some amazing things to say when I write my essay and personal statement. What I'm worried about is just like high school, not getting in anywhere special after 4 years of college. Before someone goes off on a tangent along the lines off, be happy with any MD acceptance, I will say I will be but would really like to attend a top-tier med school. By that, I mean one of the top 10 research schools in the US. I'm interested in Harvard, JHU, Penn, Stanford, Columbia, and WashU. Those 6 are my dream med schools. What in addition to having an awesome GPA/MCAT, excellent grades in a chem/econ major (bio minor), solid research experience with a couple published papers, a multitude of volunteering experience at the local hospital, my local religious center, and overseas for a couple weeks each summer, a variety of EC's including some intramural sports and choir, spectacular recs and essays, and three summers of competitive internships can I do to gain admission into one or more of the six medical schools I mentioned above after four years at Indiana University. I understand a hook (URM, Division I athlete, or multiple first authorship papers) will get you in, but considering I'm and ORM, not an official athlete, and will try my best to research, what can I do to get in? I'd really prefer to go directly into med school after college, and would like to avoid avenues such as Teach for America, the Peace Corps, and the Army that are great but require 2-3 years after college. Are they my only shot?
